They Shall Be Mine!! Malachi

Malachi 3:16-18 (ESV Strong's)
The Book of Remembrance

Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. 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. “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

THEY SHALL BE MINE!!!

The prophet Malachi is bring both a message of gloom and a message of glory to the remnant that had returned to the land, after captivity.   Even after all their captivity and hardship they had begun to steal from God and failed to honor and revere God.   God was going to punish them, once again, for this unfaithfulness.  But, there was a remnant that was still desirous to obey God.   This is the group to whom Malachi is writing to in the above passage.  It is both to them (the remnant) and to those who would eventually come to trust in God through faith in Christ.  Note what the jest of the passage says:

THEY SHALL BE MINE!!   God knows those who are His.  God is claiming them and it is NOT based upon their performance, it is simply their faith in a risen God.   God claims us as His children.  Note what Christ will soon say, some 400 years after Malachi’s words:

John 1:12 (ESV Strong's)
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Jesus dies to make us children of God and have our names written and recorded.  God will NEVER depart from us after He writes our name in His book.  He writes it in the book because we have faith in Him.

Revelation 20:11-15 (ESV Strong's)
Judgment Before the Great White Throne
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.