The LORD Comes to Purify and Judge

You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” “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 in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years. “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 2:17-3:5

I remember hearing the words—mostly from my mother, I think: “Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it.” Have you ever been told that? It usually comes up in the context of our prayers that are not well thought out or perhaps when we covet someone else’s lot in life. The ancient Israelite needed something of the same rebuke. What began as a uninformed expectation became a prideful presumption. That expectation is called by other prophets “The Day of the LORD,” here simply, ‘the day of his coming’ (v. 2).

We are not talking about getting details wrong about some trivial fact or event. Let us put the problem in a more familiar setting. One time, C. S. Lewis was addressing a similar presumption of the modern person who has a kind of religion in which all is well.

Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion. Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger—according to the way you react to it. And we have reacted the wrong way.1

Doctrine. In the coming of the LORD, He divides between those He purifies and those He punishes—so, do not presume otherwise.    

This principle was true about the First Advent of Jesus Christ, and it will be true of the Second Advent of Jesus Christ—and it is true of God’s providential rule of all people groups throughout history; all traditions throughout church history.

• Presumption

• Purification

• Punishment

Presumption

The final verse of Chapter 2 belongs to this section because of how it paints the picture of presumption. Their collective voice—their collective sense of expectation—pretends to be ignorant, but God uncovers their true thoughts:

You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” (v. 17)

You see that? On the surface, they are saying to God through the prophet: What? We are just waiting—just expecting! But underneath the surface, under the probing light of God’s word, they are handing out hall passes from hell, and even mocking God’s judgment. It is with this background that we are to read the following collection of words: ‘the Lord whom you seek’ (v. 1b) and ‘in whom you delight’ (v. 1c).2

In other words, you have an expectation of meeting, as Lewis put it, the “blaze of absolute goodness” as if you were good and have been doing good. You wait for one who will exact vengeance on your behalf. You look for one who starts out on your side. But that presumes much.

Then the punchline: ‘But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?’ (v. 2). It is a rhetorical question. It is a rebuking question. One commentator points out that the obvious answer is no one. All true—but for the gospel! What does the Psalmist pray?

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared (Ps. 130:3-4)

If He should—but thanks be to God that He has instead counted the sins of we who believe to Christ! But we must also see that ending. Forgiveness leads to a healthy fear of the Lord. The gospel makes people who are assured, yes, but not presumptuous.

Purification

Notice first the exact destination: ‘And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple’ (v. 1b). The theme of the place of God’s presence continues, and therefore the great need for purity or holiness for anyone who would dwell with Him. The heart of the passage signals the first group of people that He is coming for, and it is what we should call good, hard news.

For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years (vv. 2b-4).

To sit speaks of judgment since both the appearance of the Lord and the sitting must be reconciled. As the Day of the Lord is not reducible to a temporal point in all cases, just so, neither can the judging actions of Christ be reduced only to the rending of the heavens, to use the imagery of Isaiah 64:1. While He who appears is either a subordinate messenger—whether angel or prophet—or the Christ Himself, yet Christ as King operates by enhypostastes, the human acting by the life of the divine, or else, once the kingdom is delivered to Him:

And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man (Jn. 5:27),

Whichever the best sense, it matters little. The point is the manner in which Christ draws near. For the sake of our mind’s eye, two images of purifying agents are used—fire and soap—painting a picture of both a reshaping and a cleansing. Here is a double-reformation: removal of that which is useless to God’s mission and that which is offensive to God’s holiness.

This has shades of 1 Peter 4:17 which we heard not too long ago: “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God,” or in the case of distinguishing between discipline and condemnation from Proverbs 3:11-12, just a few weeks later. So, as the Lord draws near to bring midnight upon a people, are we attuned to being refined and purified? Are we thankful for purification? That sin will be dealt with, not in judgment, but in refinement to participate in His holiness, is part of the good news too little celebrated.

Punishment

This is the last in a long line of Messianic prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament. Jesus really is in all the Scriptures from cover to cover. How gracious of God to give one last chance by sending yet one more messenger even as Jesus was making His appearance! These words, ‘Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me’ (v. 1a), were fulfilled in the person of John the Baptist. Mark, in his Gospel, combines Malachi 3:1 with Isaiah.

Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Mk. 1:1-2).3

The importance of that in our passage is that Jesus is not immediately the one spoken of as this first-final messenger to come. Why does that matter? Because when Jesus does take the first person address, His coming is not universal good news. Verses 1 through 4 speak of Him coming with a kind of purifying fire, but the rhetorical questions we heard before set us up to view the last audience—those who will not be purified by the light of His coming: ‘Then I will draw near to you for judgment’ (v. 5a).

We have to think carefully about lists of sin in Scripture. Let me mention three mistakes we make about such sin-lists: One mistake we often make is that sin lists are exhaustive, so that the only sins to which the predicates of those sins apply are those sins listed. A second mistake we make is assuming anachronistic definitions of the words on those lists. Still a third mistake is the non-sequitur fallacy that because many lists end in certain judgment that therefore such are unforgivable sins or else sins that true Christians cannot commit. Here is the list given through Malachi:

I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts (v. 5b).

Now I will address anachronistic readings in a moment. The primary thing this teaches us is about the punishment of a people. Yes, this is a list that pertains to individuals, because individuals commit these sins at the root. But the prophet emerges on the stage when God draws near to the people as a whole: when it is midnight for a people, a nation, as it was drawing near for Judah. And, as Calvin says elsewhere, “One nation might be more prone to a particular vice, were it not more severely repressed.”4

Practical Use of the Doctrine

Use 1. Correction. About anachronistic readings of the sins on this list, two in particular stand out: sorcerer and sojourner. A study of the Pentateuch would make plain that the sins of the sorcerer also apply to any who would lead God’s children away to foreign gods, as apostasy comes with a spiritual spell and such have the help of demons (e.g., Deuteronomy 13:1-15; 27:15; Isaiah 9:16; Jeremiah 23:32). So we are not simply talking about people who overtly call themselves witches.

Then, to our contemporary globalist meaning of the word sojourner read into such passages: A sojourner was someone who was traveling by themselves with their families and doing whatever they could, in humble deference, to assimilate to the culture in which they were a guest—usually only a temporary guest. The Bible has dozens and dozens of passages on the sojourner (e.g., Exodus 22:1; 23:9; Leviticus 19:34; Psalm 39:12), and many more dozens of passages on military conquest in which occupations by foreigners are either used by the conquerer (e.g., 2 Kings 17:24), or where such occupations are treated as a curse (e.g., Deuteronomy 28:43-44; Isaiah 1:7). Anyone who lays a claim on knowing what the Bible teaches about that issue must at least reckon will all of these texts and reconcile them in one coherent doctrine.

Use 2. Admonition. Do not presume with God. Calvin looks at those words that close the second chapter and says,

It is indeed a proof of true piety when we patiently submit to the judgments of God, and when, as Jeremiah teaches us by his own example, ‘we sustain his wrath, because we know that we have sinned.’ (Jer. viii. 14.) But as hypocrites are conscious of nothing wrong, (for they flatter themselves, and stupefy their own consciences,) because they examine not themselves.5

There is our patience to consider, as that proves out our faith; but this passage also speaks of God’s patience. It is that which we are not to presume upon. That the people had wearied God, Calvin says, “is indeed a mode of speaking taken from men, for we know that no passions belong to God.”6 But the Bible in many places speaks of the patience of God as running its course and warns us. Too many professing Christians in America have talked about “the end times” as a a synonym for this “Day of the Lord” in the presumptuous mouth of the ancient inhabitants of Judah.

Use 3. Exhortation. As John’s message was to “prepare the way” (v. 1; cf. Mat. 3:3), and as both those who came down to the Jordan to be baptized and the Pharisees that stood only to interrogate him—both heard his words, so this preparation is for the purification of the elect. Christ alone purifies us to enter God’s house: “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn. 1:7). But that’s justification. There’s a proving out purity called sanctification. So, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (Jas. 4:8). We must ask whether or not we long for such a perfect purity. We must prove this out by using those means God has given to us to make a practice of such purity.

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1. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 38.

2. The second referent—“the messenger of the covenant” (v. 1b)—makes it difficult to see whether this is the latter half of a parallelism of sorts, or else a third messenger aside from John the Baptist and Jesus. Why call him the messenger or angel of the covenant? Calvin mentions “a striking allusion to Moses” (Commentaries, XV.567), but then does not elaborate.

3. Moore suggests, in the line of others like Hengstenberg and Olshausen, that John the Baptist “is not the only one referred to, but only the last one of a series. This is inferred from the use of the plural ‘our God,’ and from the fact that this preparation was really the work of all the prophets who prophesied until John, and not of John alone.” Moore has in mind the whole testimony of several passages converging: e.g., “Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3; Luke 1:76; 3:4; and John 1:23.” — Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, 373, 374.

4. Calvin, Institutes, IV.20.16

5. Calvin, Commentaries, XV.562-63.

6. Calvin, Commentaries, XV.563.