The Book of Remembrance

A few friends sit together in a courtyard after dark, talking quietly about God. Nobody important is listening. Nobody is taking notes. Or so they think.

We are in Judah, in the days of the prophet Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets. The people have rebuilt the temple, but life is hard and faith has grown thin. In the book of Malachi, God speaks, and the people keep answering back with questions. Some are honest questions. Some are complaints dressed up as questions. In this part of the book, God says: your words have been stout against me. Harsh. Hard. And the people reply, as they always do: “What have we spoken so much against thee?”

God tells them exactly what they have been saying. “Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?” What is the point? We've done the right things. We've said sorry. We've kept the rules. And what did it get us? Then they look around at the arrogant, the people who do whatever they like. “And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.” The cheaters are winning. The bullies are doing fine. Why bother being good?

But not everyone was talking like that. Malachi tells us about another group. “Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another.” People who loved and honoured God found each other. They met. They talked. Maybe they reminded one another of what God had done. Maybe they shared their worries honestly, and prayed. And here is the wonderful part. “And the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.” God was listening. To ordinary conversations between friends. And he made sure they would never be forgotten.

Then God makes a promise about those people. “And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.” His treasured possession. His own special jewels. “And I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” Like a loving father with a child who has stood by him. And on that day, God says, you will see the difference after all. You will be able to tell the righteous from the wicked, the one who serves God from the one who does not. Being faithful was never pointless. God had been writing it all down.

The people of Judah lived inside the Persian Empire, and Persian kings were famous for keeping written records. The book of Esther tells how a plot against King Ahasuerus, exposed by Mordecai, was written in the book of the chronicles in the king's presence. Later, on a sleepless night, the king had those records read to him, discovered Mordecai had never been rewarded, and honoured him. Malachi's listeners would have understood: what is written in the king's book is not forgotten. Sooner or later, it is read, and the faithful are honoured.

The book of remembrance. You'll find it in the book of Malachi, chapter three, verses thirteen to eighteen. Some people said faith was a waste of time. Others kept talking together about God, and God leaned in and listened. So here is a question to carry with you. Who are the friends you talk with about God, and how could you encourage one of them this week?