Malachi 3:1-3 - Sermon Bible Commentary

Bible Comments

Malachi 3:1-3

Interpreting this prediction by the event, let us read what it says,

I. As to the manner of the Saviour's coming. (1) He was to come announced by a forerunner. (2) He was to come to fulfil a great commission. (3) He was to come suddenly.

II. Consider what is said of a certain work that the Messiah was coming to accomplish. Looking into the text, we find that it sets before us: (1) The severity of the trials through which Christians may be called to pass. It is a trial by fire. Fire is the symbol of all that our nature most shrinks from, yet it is the symbol of what our nature must pass through. (2) The agency by which the trial is wrought. It is the Lord; therefore let no man's heart fail him: "He" shall do all this. (a) He alone appoints it. (b) He alone effects it. (c) He is present all through the operation of the trial. (3) The utility of the trial. (a) It is a sign of preciousness. You never try that which is unquestionably worthless. Do you cast a stone into the crucible? Do you winnow chaff? Do you plough a rock? While the Refiner is subjecting dross to the high heat of adversity, it is only because, mixed with it, He detects a Divine particle which cost the sacrifice of Calvary, which transcends the worth of worlds, and which is destined to shine for ever. (b) It is a test of genuineness. Trial is the grand revealer of character, the certain analyst of life. There are depths of undiscovered character in us all. "No man knows what he is until he is tried." (c) It is a medium of purification. The dust, the stones, the grains of sand which fire finds in the silver it will not leave there. (d) It is a preparative for service. Powers of great usefulness can be educated in no other way. Powers of endurance are unknown, where there has been nothing to endure. Powers of rule belong alone to those who have learned to rule by learning to obey. (e) It is the precursor of glory. Cling to the joyful creed, so radiantly distinct in our Gospel revelation, that trial alone belongs to earth, glory alone belongs to heaven; that, "absent from the body," the soul is at once "present with the Lord."

C. Stanford, Symbols of Christ,p. 175.

References: Malachi 3:1-3. W. Jay, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 37. Malachi 3:1-4. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 397. Malachi 3:2. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xii., p. 31; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 289; J. Keble, Sermons for Saints' Days,p. 133.

Malachi 3:1-3

1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and 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.

2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:

3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.