Edmund was upset that I didn’t make pancakes for lunch after church on Sunday. We had leftovers instead. However, for dinner, we did have pancakes. I provided the instructions and the ingredients, and Edmund helped mix the batter. I came behind him to fully mix the batter and prepare the pan. Edmund was pleased to help and even flipped all the pancakes. He got what he had desired (and more), but much later than he originally wanted.
Similarly, the justice the Israelites desired would come later than they
expected, but with much greater blessings for those who patiently waited. Last
week, Malachi 2 ended with the Israelites questioning God’s justice. God answered
by not only promising to bring justice, but also promising to send a messenger
before sending the purifying Messiah!
Malachi 3:1-5
“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.
2 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. 3 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, 4 and the
offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as
in days gone by, as in former years.
5 “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.
God’s plans for justice may seem quite delayed to us, but they are
unfolding in His perfect time. In verse 1, God promised to send a messenger
(John the Baptist) before sending Jesus the Messiah for His first coming. Jesus’s
first coming didn’t bring the victory the Jews were expecting, but it provided a
way for any follower of Jesus to be guaranteed greater blessings at His second
coming. Malachi 3:2-5 talks about this, when Jesus will fully cleanse and
transform His followers so they can perfectly worship Him in complete righteousness.
His followers will also witness Jesus’s complete judgment of the wicked.
At Jesus’s second coming, which side will you be on: those purified and
given Jesus’s righteousness, or those on trial for not fearing God? I pray that
each of you will fear God and receive Jesus’s righteousness. Then, we will be
made into perfect jewels, completely able to enjoy and please our loving
Father!
