Faithless Fault-finders, Faithful Fearers, and a Righteous Rememberer

There's a moment in every believer's life when faith meets difficulty head-on. When the bills pile up, when the diagnosis comes back unfavorable, when relationships crumble, when prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling—these are the moments that reveal what we truly believe about God.

History offers us a powerful illustration of this dynamic. At the Battle of Little Round Top during Gettysburg, Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and his Union soldiers found themselves in an impossible situation. Low on ammunition, taking heavy casualties, they faced two stark choices: retreat and lose the battle, or charge forward with nothing but bayonets against an advancing Confederate army. Chamberlain chose the unthinkable—he ordered the charge. That bold move, born from desperate faith in the possibility of victory, turned the tide of battle.

The ancient prophet Malachi presents us with a similar scenario, though the stakes are infinitely higher. Writing to a community that had returned from exile but still faced overwhelming challenges, Malachi reveals two groups of people responding to hardship in radically different ways. Their responses offer us a mirror for our own souls.

The Faithless Fault-Finders
The first group had grown bitter. Despite rebuilding the temple and resuming worship, life remained difficult. Enemies threatened from without, corruption festered within, and a pagan empire still ruled over them. In their frustration, they began to grumble—not just about their circumstances, but about God himself.

God confronts them directly: "Your words have been hard against me." The same word used to describe Pharaoh's hardened heart now describes their attitude toward the Almighty. When they deny it, God presents the evidence: "You have said it is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge?"

Their complaint reveals a transactional view of faith. They had performed religious duties, offered sacrifices, attended ceremonies—and yet they still suffered while evildoers seemed to prosper. In their minds, God had failed to hold up his end of the bargain. Service to him appeared pointless, meaningless, unprofitable.

The accusation cuts deeper: they charge God with injustice, claiming he lets the wicked escape while allowing his people to suffer. As if God himself were not worthy of worship for his own sake. As if he were not the fountain of living waters, glorious enough to be enjoyed regardless of circumstance.

This response flows from hearts steeped in unbelief. These people never learned the lesson their exile was meant to teach—that their calamities came precisely because of their unfaithfulness to God. Now, as God administers discipline, they have the audacity to find fault with him.

How often do we mirror this response? When life gets tough, we quickly lose faith. We begin to question God's goodness, his justice, his wisdom. We conclude that following him isn't worth it, that we'd be better off living for ourselves. We use suffering as an excuse to throw off his service rather than as an opportunity to draw near.

The Faithful Fearers
But there's another group in Malachi's narrative—those who respond to the same difficult circumstances in a remarkably different way.

"Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another." While we're not told exactly what they said, we can imagine these believers encouraging each other to hold fast. They likely reminded one another of God's promises—his covenant faithfulness, his past deliverances, his sworn commitment to raise up a king from David's line who would reign forever.

Perhaps they recalled Isaiah's words about waiting on the Lord. Maybe they rehearsed the story of the exodus, remembering how God bore them up on eagles' wings, revealed himself at Sinai, fed them in the wilderness, and gave them the promised land. They pointed each other back to God's character and his track record.

This is what it means to fear the Lord—to have such delightful reverence for who he is that even when circumstances scream otherwise, you continue to cling to him in faith. The fear of the Lord, as Proverbs declares, is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One.

These faithful fearers didn't allow present difficulties to cause them to fall away. They didn't retreat into sin and idolatry. Instead, they pressed forward, leaning into God, grabbing hold of him in genuine faith, echoing Job's declaration: "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him."

The God Who Remembers
Malachi concludes his prophecy by addressing both groups, answering the charge of divine injustice. The faithless had accused God of malpractice as judge, claiming he allowed the righteous to suffer while the wicked prospered.

But notice what happens with the faithful: "The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name."

God pays attention. He hears. He records every good deed, every act of obedience, every faithful effort of his people in a royal record. This isn't merely intellectual knowledge—it's remembering that entails action.

"For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble." On that coming day of the Lord, God will administer both perfect justice and perfect mercy. The wicked will be reduced to ash, while for those who fear his name, "the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings."

Though it may not seem like it now, justice will be served. God will make everything wrong right. The faithful will experience final victory over all enemies—the world, the flesh, the devil, even death itself.

What We Do While We Wait
Malachi leaves us with two practical exhortations as we await that great day.

• First, remember the law of the covenant. Hold fast to God's Word. Don't grow weary of doing good. Evidence your faith through lives of obedience, not to earn salvation, but as those already redeemed.
• Second, remember the promise of the covenant. Malachi promises that God will send a messenger like Elijah to prepare the way before the Lord himself comes. This promise was fulfilled in John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus Christ—the Lord of hosts himself, the sun of righteousness who rose with healing in his wings.

The Choice Before Us
When trials come, when life gets hard, when God seems distant and the wicked seem to prosper, we face the same two choices presented in Malachi: retreat into unbelief or press forward in faith.

Will we be faithless fault-finders, using difficulty as an excuse to abandon God? Or will we be faithful fearers, clinging to him regardless of circumstances, trusting that he will mercifully remember us for good?

The choice is ours. But the grace to choose rightly comes from him alone.