Wildwood Pastor's New Book Brings 2,500-Year-Old Story Into Today

Pastor Jerry Marshall at in Wildwood said current people have so much to learn from the Israelites of the prophet Malachi’s day, he recently wrote a book about those communiques. “They have a lesson to teach us, a lesson that has been waiting 2,500 years for people to hear it,” he said in a press release about the book.

Marshall has been in full-time ministry since 1976, and served at New Community Church since 1989. He is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and Trinity College.

Titled "The Oracle of Malachi," Marshall's book is offered by Dunrobin Publishing. The release indicated the novel takes information from that particular Biblical book into the present age with relevant, practical applications of Biblical truth.

Set at the end of the Old Testament, the revelation of God to the prophet Malachi was followed by more than 400 years of silence — a silence ended by the arrival of John the Baptist, according to the release. "This 'last word of God' in the Old Testament is a message most Christians are not aware of," said Mark Sutherland, president of Dunrobin Publishing. "But it’s a message most need to hear."

“We have a lot to learn from Israel’s mistakes,” Marshall said. “The Israelites paid a severe price for their failures. Will we learn from their errors, or will we repeat them?”

“There isn’t another book out there that does what this book does,” Sutherland stated in the release. “This is an incredible book that takes the entire book of Malachi in context, and applies it to our lives today.”

The actual book of Malachi reflects him as a messenger directing people of that time to give serious attention to their spiritual problems, such as corruption of priests, neglect of God's Temple, divorce and personal sins at home.

The paperback version of “The Oracle of Malachi” is available via Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and some local bookstores. The eBook version is available via Amazon.com’s Kindle, B&N’s NOOK and Apple’s iBookstore. For details about the book, click here.

Editor's Note: Patch located a blog entry about this book from "Glynn Young," who writes about "faith, fiction, poetry and occasionally work."

Until l I read The Oracle of Malachi: The Danger of Being Disappointed with God by Jerry Marshall, I was not very familiar with the message of this particular prophet. I read the Old Testament book as I read Marshall’s meditations on it and discussion about it. It’s one of the shorter books in the Bible – a total of four chapters – but those four chapters are packed a powerful message about Israel’s need for renewal and revival, and a promise if they happen.

Marshall has not written an official commentary. Instead, it is an extended discussion of the book overall and the key sections and passages, written for people exactly like me – the non-academic, non-expert layperson.

Three things about the work stand out.

First, The Oracle of Malachi is approachable. It’s highly readable, with simple and straightforward language.

Second, it synthesizes scripture, using passages from other books in the Old Testament and the New Testament as commentary on Malachi. Marshall connects the message of Malachi to that of Genesis and John the Baptist and Jesus. The reader comes to understand that this book of the Bible isn’t just the last book that comes chronologically in the Old Testament but is itself a bridge between the testaments.

Third, the book focuses on the practical. It is written in the present tense, and that gives the message of Malachi and immediacy and currency not usually found in more formal commentaries.