See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:1)

The librettist for the Messiah, Charles Jennens, was a wealthy man of exquisite taste and eccentric behavior. He also worked with Handel on Saul, Belshazzar, and parts of L'Allegro.

For the Messiah Jennens drew heavily on the Old Testament and especially the prophets. He scoured the writings for phrases pointing to the coming of Jesus.

Writing recently in the New York Review of Books Harold Bloom notes, "The Old Testament is a captive work dragged along in the triumphal wake of Christianity. Tanakh, the Jewish Bible, is the Original Testament; the New Testament actually is the Belated Testament."

Jennens was the not the first - nor last - to use scripture for his own purposes, rather than its own. Malachi, Haggai, and Isaiah have much to say beyond the coming of the Messiah.

We most often hear what we want to hear. No matter how rich, complicated, and even confusing the context, we are inclined to dismiss what is not to our present purposes.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come. (Lyrics based on Haggai 2:6-7)

The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. (Lyrics based on Malachi above)

But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire. (Lyrics based on Malachi 3:2)

You may listen to the Messiah performed by the Peabody Institute Symphony and Chorus. This recording includes the bass recitative and soprano aria using the lyrics immediately above.