Malachi torches corrupt priests and faithless husbands; Jesus stares down Herod’s fake-glory temple and says, “Not one stone will be left.” God keeps a calendar—August 9—and it’s stained with six reckonings: temples burned, revolts crushed, Jews expelled, cities nuked. The same verdict now hovers over New York’s mayor-elect who dared claim, “Government is God.” Arrogance becomes stubble. Yet for the remnant who fear His name, the Sun of Righteousness rises. The call: see the glory, speak the truth, endure the betrayal—because the stones are coming down, and the end will not be at once.
Proper 28
Psalm 98; Malachi 4:1-2a; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19
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I.
The brief reading from Malachi this morning foretells that a day is coming, “burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble” (Malachi 4:1).
Malachi is writing to the Jewish remnant of his day, between the years 450 and 400 B.C. A remnant of Jews had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon and rebuilt the temple. Malachi is writing about 100 years after the return of these exiles. However, from the first three chapters of Malachi, we learn that things are not going well for the returned exiles.
The priests are corrupt. They refuse to teach what the Bible says. (Does that sound familiar?) Addressing the priests in Malachi 2:8, the prophet says, “you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction.”
They also do not hold marriage in esteem. (That also should sound familiar.) Addressing married men a few verses later, Malachi writes, “the Lord was witness to the covenant between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless.”
Finally, the remnant Jews are plagued by spiritual exhaustion. A cynicism has set in. They continue to go through the motions of being religious, but they doubt it has any real effect.
It is to the corrupt priests, the faithless husbands, the ungodly children, and the religious cynics that Malachi’s warning is addressed: “For behold, the day comes, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”
Yet these words of judgment are also words of mercy spoken to the remnant of the remnant: “But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.”
II.
Today’s gospel reading from Luke is also a prophecy, this time from Jesus’ own lips. Jesus foretells the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, the same temple Malachi’s exiles rebuilt.
This episode in Luke 21:5-19 comes toward the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, after He has silenced all His rhetorical foes.
Last week, we heard Him silence the Sadducees by quoting Moses to prove the fact of the resurrection. Luke tells us after that, “they no longer dared to ask him any question” (Luke 20:40).
In this morning’s reading Jesus overhears some people praising the temple and how beautiful it is. Luke writes: “Some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings.” However, when the temple was rebuilt by the returning exiles, it was nothing compared to the former temple.
Haggai 2:3 records the fact that some men in that exile generation lived long enough to see and compare both temples.
He writes, “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?”
Clearly something changed, because now people are telling Jesus the very opposite: “Look how grand it is! Look how rich it has become from all of the offerings people give!”
During the nearly 600 years the second temple stood it indeed grew more opulent. The temple that Jesus saw had just been enlarged and improved, the result of Herod’s ambitious forty-year building plan. But it was never truly the temple it had once been.
It was obvious to anyone who looked that there was no visible presence of the Shekinah, the glory of God.
So, when some in the crowd that day speak to Jesus about the temple being “adorned with noble stones and offerings” they are referring to a glory that’s entirely man-made, and, therefore, a glory of which God wants no part.
This is what Jesus means when He says, “As for these things which you see, the days will come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
The Prophet Isaiah tells us that God does not share His glory with any other (Isaiah 42:8, 48:11).
Some members of the crowd then ask Jesus, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign when this is about to take place?” Jesus then describes in some detail what it will be like in the “end times” of Jerusalem.
These details parallel what Paul wrote less than twenty years later to the Thessalonian Christians that I preached on last week.
Like Paul, Jesus speaks of timing, deception, and the man of lawlessness.
He says, “Take heed that you are not led astray.” This is a warning about the coming “strong delusion” Paul talked about in 2 Thessalonians 2:11. It is a warning not to be deceived by the strong delusion.
Jesus continues: “For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’” This is a warning about Antichrist, the man (or, in this case, the many men) of lawlessness.
Finally, Jesus addresses timing in verse 9, “And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified; for this must first take place, but the end will not be at once.”
“The end will not be at once.” In other words, the prophetic timeline is extended, the horizon upon which these events play out is an indefinite period of time, even into our own day.
For 600 years the remnant of Israel had been denied the visible presence of God. Their temple was a memorial to past glory, to a people who once were, but were no more.
God wants no part of this and what God wants no part of, He judges and destroys. “The day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch” (Malachi 4:1b).
Creation will be reset, paradise restored, and the tree by which man spoiled himself torn up, root and branch.
In the meantime, while we wait for the coming reset, we are given a job to do. Jesus says, “This will be a time for you to bear testimony” (Luke 21:13).
III.
Two objections to this application must now be dealt with.
The first objection is made by those who say that all this has already taken place. Both Malachi and Jesus prophesied the destruction of the new temple and that temple, along with the entire city of Jerusalem, was destroyed by the Roman armies in A.D. 70.
Therefore, they say, preachers must exposit this passage as something that has already taken place, as a prophecy fulfilled. This is sometimes called the preterist view, from the grammatical term preterite, which means “something that happened in the past.”
Therefore, these preterists insist that preachers must expound this passage as an example of the completed work of Christ: that, after Christ made atonement for sin on the cross, He was resurrected and ascended into heaven where He now sits at the right hand of the Father, and that among the first acts of His kingly rule was to execute justice on the city and people who rejected Him and put Him to death.
Next week, we will celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, which in our liturgical calendar makes exactly this point: that a human king, the God-man, Jesus Christ, now sits on the throne of the universe where He rules and governs His creation.
Well, I think that view is largely correct. Certainly, after His ascension, Christ rules as king. Certainly all the judgments that befall the peoples of the earth in their various cities and towns, nations and families, proceed from His divine decree of justice.
But what I take issue with is that there is no prophetic word left for us. “The end will not be at once,” and just because the end came for Jerusalem, does not mean that the end can’t also come for us. As the end draws near, it will be a time for us to bear testimony.
There is still a great deal that needs to be burned up, and quite a few arrogant evildoers who need to be reduced to stubble. God will have no part of them — or with us if we do not come out from among them (2 Corinthians 6:17-18). He will not share His glory with another.
The second objection comes from those who have no idea what this glory is in the first place, who have never seen it first hand, or otherwise experienced it.
Because they have not seen God’s glory, they must embellish their own, adorning their temples to man’s glory in every time and place.
This is one more reason why this prophecy cannot be taken as completely fulfilled. Clearly, it is a word of judgment, not just against Jerusalem, but against every city of man. God wants no part of them either, and will not share His glory.
St. Peter says, “the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17).
If Christ began His kingly rule by passing sentence on and executing judgment against the house of God in Jerusalem, then He will not stop until He topples the temples in every city.
“The days will come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
Those who have not seen the glory have no business trying to bear witness to it.
IV.
The glory departed from Israel many centuries before Christ. Malachi and Jesus are clear, if blunt: neither the returning exiles nor the Jews of Jesus’ day had any business trying to bear witness to God’s glory.
In fact, the glory departed from Israel many times during its history. When the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, Phinehas’s wife, the daughter-in-law of the inept priest Eli, died in childbirth. With her dying breath, she named her son Ichabod saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” (1 Samuel 4:21).
The prophet Ezekiel describes the exact moment when he saw in a vision God’s glory departing Jerusalem for the last time. Ezekiel was among the exiles, far away from Jerusalem, yet by prophetic sight he saw the Babylonians lay siege to Jerusalem and destroy the first temple. He wrote in Ezekiel 11:23, “And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.”
Now, two things about this are worth noting.
First, in today’s gospel reading Jesus is teaching daily at the temple, but He refuses to spend the night in Jerusalem. Think about that. He refuses to dwell there.
Where does He choose to dwell instead? Skip ahead to the end of Luke 21 and you’ll find out. He chooses to spend the night in the exact spot where Ezekiel last saw the glory of God, on the Mount of Olives.
Luke tells us, “And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet” (Luke 21:37).
In just a few weeks’ time, on the first Sunday after Christmas, the first chapter of John’s gospel is appointed to be read. What does John 1:14 tell us? It says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” The glory has returned to Israel! (That is the true meaning of Christmas.)
Sadly, John also tells us, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”
But there is still hope, for John tells us that “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The second thing that’s worth noting is the date on which both temples were destroyed. Both the first temple and the second temple were destroyed by besieging armies on the same day. They were both destroyed on the ninth day of August, the Jewish month of Av.
The first temple was destroyed on August 9, in the year 586 B.C. and 656 years later the second temple was destroyed on August 9, in the year A.D. 70.
August 9th is a loaded day for other reasons. 65 years later on August 9, 135, the Jewish stronghold of Betar fell, and the last stronghold of the Bar Kokhba revolt was crushed by the Romans.
On August 9, 1290, the Jews were expelled from England. On August 9, 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain, and on August 9, 1945 the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
Let no one say that the Book of God’s Providence is not exactly worded and that nothing escapes it. Not one sparrow falls to the ground unless God wills it, not one hair upon your head goes uncounted (Matthew 10:29-30).
Nothing is so great that God’s Providence cannot order and govern, no concern too small for God not to care.
V.
Only those whose eyes have seen the glory can bear testimony.
How many of you can say that you have seen the glory? We will close our worship today by singing just that, but will it be just another chance to sing a favorite hymn for you?
Here’s the thing. You don’t see the glory now with the human eye. Only the apostolic generation had that privilege.
The glory has ascended into heaven where He reigns as king. For now, we see His glory by faith. We see His glory in the coming day that burns like an oven. You can be part of the coming of that day.
That day draws ever closer by the hand of God, so make sure your testimony is ready, make sure it is pure from the Word of God. This is not time to be deceived by lies, yet lies are told all around us.
The mayor-elect of New York City told a lie in his victory speech two weeks ago. He said: “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.”
He equated government with God, specifically with God’s Providence. That is a lie. Government cannot preserve and govern all things. It is also arrogant — the kind of arrogance God will reduce to stubble and burn when the great day comes.
The mayor-elect’s words also prove that we still live in prophetic times. Malachi’s prophecy is for us: “for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall.”
The words of Jesus’ prophecy are also for us. If our testimony is sure, then there will be no doubt where we stand.
One of the great things to come out of 2020 and COVID is the calling out of God’s elect. Many of us have separated from former associations, former social ties, former churches, former employers, former friends, former family members.
We have learned what it means to be “delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends.”
It is clear Jesus meant those words for His followers in every age, not just for those who awaited the execution of His judgment on Old Jerusalem.
Some of us will be brought before kings and governors for His name’s sake. When the hour comes we know that Jesus will give us words and wisdom, which none of our adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.
Some of us will go voluntarily to give our testimony, others may be compelled. I am under no illusion that the coming months and years will be easy. But remember, the end will not be at once.
God does not share His glory with another. The false temples men build in every age are being cast down. They are being cast down in New York. They are being cast down in Washington. They are being cast down in Hartford.
What happened centuries ago in Jerusalem was just the beginning. The end will not be all at once, but one by one, by God, He will make an end of evil and arrogance so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
Preached on November 16, 2025, at the First Congregational Church, Woodbury, Connecticut (https://www.firstchurchwoodbury.org).
