The Book of Memory Open Before Yahweh
16Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those who feared Yahweh, and who honored his name. 17They shall be mine,” says Yahweh of Armies, “my own possession in the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him. 18Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.
Even after the prophet Malachi rebuked them, Israel went on complaining. God himself reproved their sin, yet far from repenting, they mocked and scorned both God and his prophet. Had they known that one day they would have to answer for their words and deeds, they would not have behaved this way.
Adam did not grasp this. He defied the word of his Creator, and the price was a heavy punishment: all his descendants are born sinners. The sin that began with Adam’s disobedience will probably go on until the day Christ returns. God had warned of judgment, yet Israel, caught up in wicked thinking, spoke and acted wickedly without the least hesitation. To claim that the wicked are blessed and prosper, and that they never come to harm however much they sin, is to deny that God exists; it is a sin that eagerly serves Satan. Satan may look powerful to us, but God is the Almighty who rules over him, so God’s people have nothing to fear. And we must not forget that God the Creator is writing down every word and deed of the wicked and the righteous alike. He keeps this record of human lives so that he can use it later, when he judges and rewards. Since our lives are the ground on which he will judge and reward us, we must act with care at every moment.
Malachi 3:16
16Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those who feared Yahweh, and who honored his name.
The people were now despising and mocking God and going on in sin, yet among them there were also many righteous people who feared Yahweh. The righteous did not choose the broad, easy road; they walked the narrow way of faith in order to live by the word. They brought the whole tithe and the offerings into God’s storehouse, humbled themselves, and gave their lives to prayer for the saving of souls. One of the wicked said that it is vain to serve God, that there is no profit in keeping his commands, and that the proud are happy and prosper. To prove the point, this person even sinned on purpose and put God to the test, then claimed that no judgment had come. Hearing this, the righteous answered that sin will certainly be judged and that the sin of testing God will never be forgiven. God heard their dispute, and for the righteous who feared Yahweh and honored his name he had the whole exchange written in a book of memory. So the book of memory holds the words and deeds of those who feared God their King and spoke and acted for his Kingdom, together with the resolve and the confessions of those who struggled to live by faith. One day God will settle judgment and reward by that book.
This is how God keeps a record of every sin and every act of faith. That is why we must fear sin and, whatever persecution comes, trust and lean on God alone.
Which of your good deeds do you think have been written in the book of memory? What have you done so far to honor God’s name? When persecution and temptation came, what did you resolve to do? What have you shared with the poor and the weak?
God will have written in the book of memory the good you resolved on and carried out at every moment. The evil choices of the wicked, and all that came of them, are likely written there as well.
Just as we remember the days we want to mark and keep special things with care, God treasures his people who live for righteousness. If your name and your good life are written in the book of memory and you are under God’s special protection, you need not fear the attacks of this world or of Satan. The God who remembers our efforts to live as his people should is our Father, and that is the greatest of all blessings.
Peter said that we are God’s chosen race, and that, because through Christ’s redemption we have become a royal priesthood, we will reign over the nations with Christ and live forever in the place of serving God. To become such a holy people of God, we must live in obedience to the word now.
Daniel 7:10
10A fiery stream issued and came out from before him. Thousands of thousands ministered to him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The judgment was set. The books were opened.
In a vision Daniel saw a multitude of angels standing before the throne, ready to carry out orders, and the books of judgment lying open. The open books bear witness that the book of memory Malachi spoke of, where people’s good deeds are written, is real. What Daniel saw is the angels preparing, at Christ’s command, to separate the wheat from the weeds.
The world today lives for whatever gain it can get right now and has forgotten that there is a judgment. But one day, whether at the end of their own life or at the end of the world, every person will stand before the judgment seat.
The disciple John also reported seeing Christ judge. The dead were standing before the throne, and many books lay open before it: the book of life, and the books by which the dead were judged according to their works, as written in them. [Revelation 20:12] This scene is the judgment that comes after those who took part in the first resurrection have reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:4-5 records that the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and of those who did not worship the beast or his image and did not receive his mark on their forehead and on their hand, came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. This is the first resurrection; the rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years were finished.
Those who take part in the first resurrection are the souls of those beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and the word of God, the faithful saints who did not worship the beast or his image and did not receive his mark on their foreheads and hands. Though they suffered beheading, they were given eternal life and received the immense grace of reigning with Christ for a thousand years. We cannot even begin to imagine how much they must have suffered for their faith. Having overcome persecution by their death, they reign with Christ, and so the second death has no power over them. For they stood against Satan and the wicked to keep the word, and boldly overcame their greed and lust for the world. Those who do not fully know the truth will fall away for fear of persecution; but those who suffer after coming to understand the truth can instead rejoice and give thanks that they share in the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
In Daniel 12, Daniel writes of the terrible persecution of the great tribulation that will take place in the latter three and a half years of the seven. Seeing in a vision the saints who keep their faith even as the Antichrist and his followers persecute them, he says this: “At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people; and there will be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.”
This is a prophecy that there will be a great tribulation such as there has never been since there was a nation. Once the Antichrist has gained power, the persecution he inflicts on the saints will turn into scenes of martyrdom beyond anything people can imagine. So the way we can overcome Satan’s persecution is to nail to the cross our flesh, which longs so desperately for the world. The saints who overcome Satan’s persecution and lift high the name of Christ will share in the wedding feast when Jesus returns; but those who yield to the world’s temptations and Satan’s persecution will suffer the shame of eternal punishment.
You must become people who overcome sin by obeying the Holy Spirit. If you shine like the brightness of the sky and show good works that turn many to righteousness, you will receive the reward of living with God forever, just as the book of memory records. What remains for us now is to believe that the book of memory lies open before God, and that Christ is the Judge. Our sinful nature will keep us from being free of sin, but we must believe that God holds Satan under his control.
Seeing in a vision the great tribulation that people dread most, Daniel asked when this suffering would come to an end. Then the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it will surely be for a time, times, and a half, and that when the power of the holy people has been completely broken, all these things will be finished. [Daniel 12:7] No one knows the end of the world that God has set. Not even Jesus or the angels know it; only God does. That is why it matters that you live by faith today.
To wait three and a half years until the power of the holy people is completely broken means that God waits until his people look defeated, as some fall away and others are martyred under the Antichrist’s persecution. Satan will use every means he can to make the saints betray their faith, and he will hunt down and try to kill those who stand firm to the end. This hour of tribulation, when those whose religion was only outward turn traitor and those who held fast are put to death, is what it looks like when the power of the holy people seems broken.
God told Daniel that he would wait until that time. Do you see how far God’s people must endure? Just when Satan, watching the saints die as martyrs, is rejoicing as though he had won and celebrating his victory, Christ will return. You must persevere and keep your faith until Jesus returns. I hope you will not forget that unless you hold to your faith all the more now, while life is comfortable, and store up the word as food, we too could fall away.
Matthew 25:31-33
31“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
God will separate people to the right and to the left by the book of memory, the book of life, and the many books that lie open. Those who endured so as not to be deceived by the world’s temptations and lusts, who acknowledged God’s sovereignty and humbled themselves, he will set on his right. And those who defiled God’s name for the sake of the world, mocked Christ, and persecuted the faithful, he will set on his left.
Wheat and weeds, sheep and goats, right and left, heaven and hell: what divides them is the books that record the conduct of God’s people. Once Jesus returns, or once our own life comes to its end, there will be no room left to repent however bitterly we regret it. So we must believe in Christ and live by the word of truth now, while the opportunity is ours. We are living in the last days, when only those ready for martyrdom can keep the faith. The last days we have so often spoken of out of habit are the very days we are living in. Evil powers are not absent just because we cannot see them, and holding fast is not easy just because we are not persecuted, for we live surrounded by countless evil spirits and evil people. Even so, the Holy Spirit has come to us so that God’s covenant will not depart from our mouths or the mouths of our descendants. We are a people set apart, kept in this way by the Spirit of God.
Through faith in Christ we have already received our reward, so now we must work not for a reward but to save more souls in these last days. Then God will protect the people you love, the things you own, and the faith you must guard. Because God knows everything we need and everything we must guard, if we trust and lean on him, he will keep it all so that it is not taken from us.
The prophet Amos told the people to seek good so that they might live. Yahweh of Armies would be with them, he said, so they were to hate evil, love good, and establish justice. The prophets, the disciples, and the fathers of faith all proclaim one and the same message: we must hold fast to our faith. For those who hold fast to it gain life and can overcome Satan’s attacks.
Our life lasts eighty years if we are strong, but the world we will live in after death is eternal. So we must not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul; we must fear Christ, who casts both body and soul into hell. The apostle James said that faith without works is dead in itself. That does not mean works come before faith; but faith works together with deeds, and by them it is made complete. Anyone who claims to have faith but does not act on it has, in the end, no faith at all.
Whoever says they love God yet does not put the church first, says they love people yet wounds them, or will not give themselves to their brothers and sisters in the faith and to the church, has a false faith. Where there is faith, putting the work of the church first comes naturally, and it shows itself in prayer, in praise, and in the effort to know the word. As James said, faith without deeds is false; and anyone who tries to deceive God has become Satan’s partner and has no choice but to repent.
Genesis 22:12
12He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
People want to be blessed by God as Abraham was. It was his remarkable resolve to obey the word, and his act of offering Isaac, that won God’s approval of Abraham’s faith. To give God a son born when he was a hundred years old was by no means easy. If God told you to offer your son as a sacrifice, would you obey? What made it possible for Abraham to offer Isaac to God was that he put his faith into action.
He could do it because he believed that God is the Creator, was certain there is an eternal kingdom, and believed in the almighty power of God who raises the dead. Abraham did not mean merely to go through the motions of sacrificing Isaac. Of course Yahweh had already provided a ram to take Isaac’s place, but even so he waited to see how far Abraham would obey. In the same way, when we obey even to death, we can receive the blessing of new life through the cross of Jesus that God prepared.
Isaac lived a blessed life all his days because of his father’s obedience. That shows how much deeds of faith matter. This faith of Abraham’s, and what he did, is exactly what was written in the book of memory.
I hope many of your good deeds will be written in the book of memory. For that to happen, you must first cast off the righteousness of the world and of man, and only when you gladly take up your own cross will that goodness be recorded. The prophet Malachi says that the sins of the wicked and the good deeds of the righteous drive this world like two wheels rolling together.
Which side do you want to stand on? The two wheels that seemed to roll together will part when Christ returns: one into Christ’s embrace, the other down into hell. Faced with this fearful truth, we must resolve each day to live by faith. Now, while the Holy Spirit walks with us and gives us opportunity, we must make the most of our time, pray with all our hearts, raise our children in the word, and put away deceitful ways.
This is the heartfelt cry of the prophet Malachi. Do not drift wherever the world drifts; you must check every day whether you are on the right path to fulfill the calling God has given you. If the world, money, sexual sin, or power tries to drag you into darkness, I hope you will keep firmly in mind that you can live only by cutting it off without hesitation and holding on to Jesus Christ.
Today sermons overflow in every church, and we can read the Bible whenever we need to, so we do not treasure any of this. But before long a time will come when the truth can neither be proclaimed nor heard. A time is certain to come when we cannot worship in church, when reading the Bible is a crime, and when the faithful cannot gather to intercede together; we must remember this and be diligent in our walk with God now. On the day when the sea, Death, and Hades give up the dead, people will be judged according to their works. May you live honestly in the truth now, while there is still opportunity, so that you do not suffer the second death, the lake of fire into which even Death and Hades are thrown.
If you have sinned, be sure to repent, and if you fight against sin to the point of shedding blood to keep away from it, God will count even that struggle as faith.
Friends, heaven is not absent just because we cannot see it, and judgment is not absent just because we are not suffering now. We must be all the more thankful when life is easy, and repent while we are given time. Then, as God has promised, eternal blessing will be given to you.