Wednesday, September 5

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Malachi 2:17-3:4

You have wearied the Lord with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”

“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in the days gone by, as in former years.

Historians who study this sort of thing tell us that before an ancient silversmith fashioned silver into jewelry or some other form, they would subject the raw silver to the intense flames of a furnace until the impurities in the silver had burned away. This is what Malachi is referring to by the phrase “refiner’s fire.”

The “refiner”, of course, is God. The “fire” is that which he uses to confront, draw to the surface and then burn away the impurities and sin we carry in our hearts.

The fire might be God’s Holy Spirit searing away pride through the convicting truth of his word. The fire might be an event in our lives that drives us to our knees in confession and surrender. 

Here the Lord is confronting the resentful attitude harbored in the hearts of his people.

You have wearied the Lord with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”

Have you ever looked at what is happening in the world and thought, “It’s just not fair!” We see self-absorbed movie stars who earn $20 million per movie and buy their own personal islands. We see a star athlete who owns 25 luxury automobiles and flaunts a promiscuous lifestyle. We see these things and can easily start to think, “Where is the justice in that? Why do those who ignore God seem to prosper? Where is God in the world?”

Malachi says such thinking is wearying to God. 

God is wearied by such thinking for two reasons. First, questioning the justice of God because the wicked are prospering in this life is simply shortsighted. Remember, one of the central messages of the minor prophets as a whole has been, “God is paying attention and the day of judgment is surely coming!” We are to trust such things to God’s ultimate authority and judgment.

Second, such thinking misses the point of God’s blessing. While material and circumstantial blessings like houses, cars and good jobs are certainly part of God’s blessing in our lives, they do not necessarily reflect all of God’s blessing. And their absence does not necessarily mean that God has withdrawn his blessing from us.

The people of Judah were looking around at the prosperity of the pagan foreigners in their land and assuming that God was either impotent or simply not paying attention. 

But Malachi suggests that what the people of Judah are really experiencing is the refining fire of God.

“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in the days gone by, as in former years.

In other words, God is using their difficult circumstances to refine his people; to purify their hearts, to strengthen their faith and to call them back to himself.

Have you ever experienced God’s refining fire? The refining process is not comfortable, but it is good. In what way might God be seeking to strengthen and purify your heart through his refining fire?

Pastor Brian Coffey