Well, this is a short and sudden ending. My Bible notes tell me that English Bibles have this as chapter 4, while the Hebrew scriptures list this as 3:19-24. I have no idea about the Latin or the Septuagint Greek (or Spanish or Chinese for that matter).
Also, here the "messenger that comes before me" is Elijah - while Luke and Matthew decided it was John the Baptist. The Gospel writers certainly helped to reinterpret the Hebrew Scriptures to explain why the Messiah was so different from what was expected...but I'm left with the feeling that they went too far...that they took these prophets' works completely out of context and used them for their own purposes.
There are cetainly those in our culture who do the same thing - and I bristle at their words -using the words of Leviticus selectively to preach against homosexuality, for example. Why is it okay for the Matthew and Luke to use the words of Micah and twist them to turn Micah's righteous and feared Messiah into a Christ who seems a little too soft?
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