The Coming Activity of God (Malachi 3:1-6)
The question, ‘Where is the God of Justice?' (Malachi 2:17) was obviously a two-edged one, but it is questionable whether the people of Judah wanted God to be too just, except in terms of their viewpoint. Their expectations and requirements were all one way. What they wanted was for God to fulfil His promises towards them. What they did not want was for God to be just by expecting the fulfilment of His covenant from them. They felt, rather foolishly, that they were in fact doing enough.
But Malachi now assures them that the God of Justice will indeed act, and then they had better beware.
‘Behold, I send my messenger,
And he will prepare the way before me,
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to his temple;
And the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire,
Behold, he comes, says YHWH of hosts.'
He assures them that God is indeed coming in justice and will in fact send His messenger who will prepare His way before Him. Such a preparation of the way for the coming of YHWH had already been declared as necessary in Isaiah 40:3-5 by ‘the voice of one who cries'. And in Malachi 4:5-6 Malachi reveals that it will be by another Elijah, and that his purpose will be to ‘turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers'. Here therefore we have another indication of the disunity that there was in the community, something which must certainly be sorted out before YHWH comes in accordance with His promises. Thus does he make clear that before YHWH fulfils His promises there must be a great sorting out and a great reconciliation and revival among the people.
And then the Sovereign Lord Himself (adonai), ‘Whom they are seeking' when they ask where the God of Justice is, will suddenly come to His Temple, even He Who is ‘the Messenger (Angel) of the covenant', ‘Whom they are desiring'. The idea behind the messenger of the covenant' is probably the Angel of YHWH Who is regularly involved when God's deliverance is in question. When YHWH acts invisibly He ‘sends His Angel before Him' (Exodus 3:2; Exodus 14:19; Exodus 23:20; Exodus 23:23; Exodus 33:2; Numbers 20:16; Judges 2:1; Judges 5:23; Judges 6:11-22; Judges 13:3-21; 2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:36; Isaiah 63:9; Zechariah 1:12), and in Zechariah 3:1; Zechariah 3:5 He is closely involved in the assessing of and cleansing of God's people in the person of their High Priest.
‘Behold, he comes, says YHWH of hosts.' As so often YHWH speaks of the coming One as ‘He' not ‘I'. (As is the case with the Angel of YHWH). But the promise is that He is surely coming, and they therefore need to be ready for His coming and for His own ‘great and terrible Day' (Malachi 4:5). Note the emphasis on the unexpectedness and suddenness of His coming.
So the promise is firstly of the initial coming of the preparer of the way (whose details are given in Malachi 4:5-6; Luke 1:15-17; Matthew 3:3 and parallels), and then of the coming of the Sovereign Lord Himself, that is, the Messenger (Angel) of the Covenant. That the Lord Jesus Christ did come in the fullness of time is what the Gospels are all about, and in them He is clearly revealed as the Sovereign Lord and the Messenger of the Covenant. And that He suddenly came to His Temple occurred twice, once at the commencement of His ministry (John 2:13-17) and once at the end (Mark 11:11; Mark 11:15-17 and parallels).
‘But who can abide the day of his coming?
And who will stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire,
And like fuller's soap,
And he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,
And he will purify the sons of Levi,
And refine them as gold and silver,
And they will offer to YHWH offerings in righteousness.'
He reminds them Who it is Who is coming. He is the Righteous One. And thus the question arises as to who will be able to bear His coming? Who will be able to remain on their feet when He comes? For He is like a refiner's fire and a launderer's cleansing fluid. The refiner of silver especially had the most difficult of tasks, for if he did not get it right the silver would lose its lustre. Thus the picture of the refining of silver is of the skill and care with which the divine Refiner will work. The vivid picture of the heated flames that smelt the gold and silver, and the chemicals used by launderer's to cleanse garments, demonstrate the intensity of what is to happen (see Jeremiah 2:22). People's hearts are to be thoroughly searched out, the dross removed, and the hearts cleansed. This picture of refining fire is often previously used by the prophets, compare Isaiah 48:10; Jeremiah 6:29-30; Ezekiel 22:17-22; Zechariah 13:9, while the idea of God seen as fire occurs throughout the Old Testament (e.g. Exodus 3:2; Exodus 19:18; Exodus 24:17; Deuteronomy 4:12; Ezekiel 1:27). As the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, ‘Our God is a consuming fire' (Hebrews 12:29).
And when He comes He will purify ‘the sons of Levi'. Note the wider term (not the sons of Zadok) for he is not thinking of the priests, but has in mind his words in Malachi 2:4-6 concerning the righteous preachers who will arise who will have the law of truth in their mouths, and no unrighteousness on their lips, and who will turn many from iniquity, the true heirs of Levi. And these He will refine as gold and silver, so that they will offer to YHWH offerings of righteousness (righteous offerings).
That there is a deliberate contrast between the righteous offerings mentioned here and the unrighteous offerings of the priests and laity mentioned earlier is undoubted. But as he has brought out in Malachi 1:12 they will also be a different kind of offering. They will be the offerings of prayer in His Name as incense (Psalms 141:2), the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving (Hebrews 13:15; 1 Peter 2:5), and the offering of their lives as a living sacrifice which is holy and acceptable to God (Romans 12:1-2) through the sacrifice of the One Who would offer Himself up for them once and for all.
There can be no doubt that in the coming of Jesus and His effectiveness in changing the hearts of men such a refining process did take place, and those whom He refined then went out refining others until His Name was made great among the Gentiles, and the offerings of praise and thanksgiving rose from all parts of the world (Malachi 1:12).
‘The sons of Levi.' If we contrast this with the ‘sons of Belial' we will see that the term can mean those who follow in the ways of Levi. It does not require that they be strictly Levites. Indeed it must be doubted if anyone today could genuinely identify themselves as sons of Levi with any authenticity, and there would have been few if any in Jesus' day. The ‘sons of Levi' were those who heaved like the ideal Levi.
‘Then will the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to YHWH,
As in the days of old, and as in ancient years.'
And once this happens the offering of the people of God will be acceptable and pleasant to YHWH, as they were in the best days of the days gone by. ‘Judah and Jerusalem' indicates the whole true people of God. The early church in Acts 1-12 was of course largely composed of people from Judah and Jerusalem, and all others who joined with them by becoming ‘proselytes' would be seen as one with them. Thus there are no grounds for denying that the early church is in mind here.
‘And I will come near to you to judgment,
And I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,
And against the adulterers, and against the false swearers,
And against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,
The widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right,
And fear not me, says YHWH of hosts.
For I, YHWH, change not,
Therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.'
But the One Who comes to refine will also act swiftly to judge those who fail to respond. This will include those involved in the occult, adulterers who take other men's wives, those who give false testimony, those who underpay their workers, or treat badly the widows and the fatherless (those who have no one to defend them), and those who are unjust towards immigrants. That this swift judgment came on Jerusalem and Judah in 70 AD at the hands of the Romans is unquestionable.
So there is a clear division between those who respond to the refining process and those who do not. For the former salvation, for the latter judgment. And this is because YHWH is unchanging. He continually shows mercy towards the repentant and continually brings judgment on the unrepentant. And it is because they are a special people to Him and because He has remembered His promises that He is yet offering the opportunity of repentance to them so that they are not consumed as Edom had been (Malachi 1:2-5). The question is as to whether they will demonstrate that they are true ‘sons of Levi' or not.