The prophet Malachi was the last prophet before the New Testament.  The last words spoken to the Jewish people from the Living God before 400 years of silence.  These are the final Words given to them after He reprimanded them for lack of love, lack of leadership, lack of holiness, lack of obedience in giving, and then finally speaking this…

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of armies, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branches. But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and frolic like calves from the stall. And you will crush the wicked underfoot, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I am preparing,” says the Lord of armies.

“Remember the Law of Moses My servant, the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with complete destruction.” Malachi 4.

And then silence.  No other words.  Nothing else said.  Silence.

For 400 years.

In the study of numbers in scripture four hundred means “divinely perfect”.  This leads us to believe this was a perfectly orchestrated period of time.  

400 years.

For 4,800 months.

For 20,857 weeks.

For 146,000 days.

For 3,504,000 hours. 

For 210,240,000 minutes.

For 12,614,400,000 seconds.

No Words from God.

Take a moment to think about how life would be without any Words from God.  No vision, no comfort, no direction, no leading and guiding – nothing.

And then we have Zacharias having an “ambush” moment while offering in the holy of holies.  The angel of the Lord said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John.  You will have joy and gladness and will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.  And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God.  It is he who will go as the forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the Fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.  Zechariah said to the angel, “How will I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in her years.”  The angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.  And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.” Luke 1:13-20.

And then Zacharias was silent.

And soon the silence stopped.  And the One True God came to earth for such at time as this, perfectly placed and perfectly planned.