“Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”” Malachi 4:5-6 CSB https://bible.com/bible/1713/mal.4.5-6.CSB

Most see the great and terrible day described by God as the day He finally judges all humanity by sending those unreconciled to Him through Christ to hell and those reconciled to Him through Christ to live with Him forever on the new earth under the new heavens. Yet the description is of John the Baptist, who came to announce the ministry of Jesus, God the Savior. The ministry of Jesus was ultimately about God Himself living a perfect life as a human being so that He could be sacrificed as a perfect offering to God in exchange for condemning humanity. Jesus lived the life we were to live, then died the death we should suffer to pardon our sins and restore us to God so that we can live forever with Him in the Kingdom to come. So what if the terrible day, the worst day of all created history, isn’t the final day of life on this earth but the final day of God in the flesh on this earth? We interpret everything by its impact on humanity. No doubt God interprets everything by its impact on Him. Which is worse, the Creator dying for the sins of man or man dying for their sins? Which is worse, a perfectly holy God being made a sacrifice for an unholy rebellious people or a rebellious unholy people receiving their just reward for their insubordination against God? No doubt, the worst day of all time is the day Jesus was crucified, a day we strangely call Good Friday. We are certainly prone to focus upon ourselves, further indicating our need for a Savior since we were created to focus first and foremost on God, our Creator, and now our Savior if we have been reconciled to Him through Jesus the Lord.