THE GREAT REFINER

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“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 sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; 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 days gone by, as in former years.”

“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear Me,” says the Lord Almighty.

Malachi 3:1-5

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The Israelites were a people in trouble and God knew it. Despite His best efforts to get them to stay faithful and obedient to Him, He watched them fail and fall into sin over and over and over again. They were clearly traveling a path of clear peril, one that would only have destruction and damnation at its destination. Something had to be done and as we see in today’s passage from the opening verses of Malachi, Chapter 3, God was ready to take action. Look again at these words here:

“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 sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; 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 days gone by, as in former years.”

“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear Me,” says the Lord Almighty.  Malachi 3:1-5

It was obvious to God that His people needed a Savior, someone who could come and bring a new covenant of salvation for not just the Jews but all of His people, a Great Refiner who could take away the impurities of sin and make believers presentable and acceptable to God.

Note here that God promises a messenger who would be introduced to prepare the way for the Lord’s arrival. Here we see what the Lord intended to do, that He would actually come to earth to refine and save His people, to deliver the message of a new covenant. Before He arrived on the scene, a messenger was promised and we know that indeed happened in the way of John the Baptist who proclaimed these words in the Gospel of John:

John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” John 1:23

We’re reminded here that this prophecy of John the Baptist wasn’t only limited to Malachi. For God’s word from John tells us a predecessor, the prophet Isaiah, had also foretold of a messenger coming to make the way for Jesus’ arrival.

And so it was. John announced Jesus’ coming and then Jesus made His appearance along the banks of the Jordan where He would be baptized by John. Later, His death would pay the price for all mankind who would place their faith and trust in Him, Israelite or otherwise, and His resurrection would pave the way for His disciples to follow one day. Indeed, it was a new covenant, one that saw the gates of heaven open wider to accept any Christ believer.

His arrival and work were unmatched and unrivaled by anyone who had done the work of God the Father before. For Jesus was empowered by God to take away sins, a privilege completely reserved for Him and Him alone. He was the Great Refiner who God sent with the explicit responsibility of cleansing and purifying His people from the sins that kept them separated from Him. Once connected to Jesus, no sin would be able to survive within a sinner. All who trusted Him would find themselves justified.

The Levites who had so sinfully chosen to disregard and disobey the law in the way worship practices were carried out would be refined and purified like gold and silver.

Ditto for the sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers, labor defrauders, widow and orphan oppressors, and justice deprivers.

No sin was a match when a person chose to be washed clean by blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. And once in Christ and washed clean, any believer will come before God with offerings that will be righteous and acceptable in His sight. It was true in New Testament times In Judah, Jerusalem, and elsewhere and it’s still true today no matter where a person might be in the world.

Today and every day, won’t you join me for giving thanks to God for the gift of His Son Jesus and the eternal life we find in and through Him, the Great Refiner who cleanses and purifies all sinners.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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