Malachi 2:17 -3:7 Refined
He is a refiner's fire, and that makes all the difference. A refiner's fire does not destroy indiscriminately like a forest fire. A refiner's fire does not consume completely like the fire of an incinerator. A refiner's fire refines. It purifies. It melts down the bar of silver or gold, separates out the impurities that ruin its value, burns them up, and leaves the silver and gold intact. He is like a refiner's fire. The furnace of affliction in the family of God is always for refinement, never for destruction (Piper)
Four individuals in the text
Jehovah v. 1 Behold, I send . . . says the LORD of hosts
John v.1 my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me 4:5 "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. (Matt 11:13-14, 17:11-13, Mark 1:2, 9:11-13, Luke 1:16-17, 7:27)
Jesus v. 1 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. This individual is called “Lord”–Heb ‘adown which is a title for God. This term doesn’t apply to the messenger that was sent who was a mere man, He is sent to ‘His” temple God’s temple, he is the massager of the covenant, so this person must be Jesus, not John. (Piper)
Judah (sons of Jacob) v 17 You . . . but You say v. 4 the offer of Judah v. 6 Oh children of Jacob. This refers to the children of Israel, God’s people.
The Place for refining We were created in the image of God with the potential to reverence God and trust him and obey him and glorify him, but we were born in iniquity and in sin did our mothers conceive us. We are shot through with the impurity of rebellion and unbelief, and we fall short of God's glory again and again. You can prove this to yourself in many ways. For example, you can notice how readily your heart inclines to those things that will show your strengths to other people, and how resistant your heart is to communion with God in solitude. So we are impure by nature and by practice. But God will have no alloys in heaven. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." And yet he will have someone in heaven. He will have a redeemed people. His banquet hall will be full. And therefore he must be a refiner's fire. If he were only a forest fire, heaven would be empty. If he were only an incinerating fire, heaven would be empty. And if he were no fire, heaven would be empty. (Piper)
The Person who refines Jesus is also alluded to as the refiner v. 2 For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,
Character He will sit as a refiner The refiner sits. The silver or goldsmith of that time sat bending forward over their small melting furnaces to ascertain from the color of the metal whether it was pure (Ps 12:7, Prov 17:3, 1 Peter 1:7) (Verhoef). Yahweh is portrayed as a refiner who sits over a vessel containing slver ore until it is purged of every foreign substance and only pure silver remains (Smith). God knows what He is doing and He knows that His Divine methods are wise and Infallible. He is not hurting the silver, but doing it lasting service. He is not even putting it through a needless process. He is taking the shortest way of working when He seems to be longest in His tests. There is a haste that is not good speed and God uses not such haste as that—He moves at the pace of perfection and that may seem slow to us. Why does the Refiner sit, but because He is resolved to steadily watch the crucible? He will not go away and leave it, even for a moment, lest the heat should grow too great or a certain point should be passed over when His Presence would be essential to the success of the process. Our Lord sits as the Refiner at the furnace mouth because He is all attentive. He has, as it were, given up all other cares just to sit there and watch His treasure. He is determined that His servants shall be purified—that the sons of Levi shall be purged—and so there He is, everything else laid aside, giving His whole heart and soul to those whom He is refining . The Refiner has a settled patience, as if He seemed to say, “This is stern work and I will sit down to it, for it will need care, time and constant watchfulness. This metal may need to be purified in a furnace of earth seven times, but I am set upon the perfecting of the work and, therefore, here I place Myself. I shall bear with this man till I have delivered him from his faults. I shall bear with this woman till I have made something of her—till I have taken away that which weakens and injures her character. I mean to bear with this poor, petulant, unbelieving, complaining, selfish, groaning mortal—My Spirit has given him some love for Me and some life in Me—and, therefore, I will bear with him till his life and love shall have conquered all earthly grossness and he shall be a lump of pure metal fit for My Father’s treasury.” The Lord has had boundless patience with some of us already, for we required a world of purifying and we have been very slow to receive it. How many sermons have we heard and yet how little have we been purified by the Word of God? How often has the Spirit striven with us and yet every thought is not yet brought into captivity? How often have we had near and true fellowship with Christ and yet have again forsaken Him? How frequently have we had to endure the furnace of affliction and yet our dross and tin are not removed? The Refiner still perseveres with settled resolve of ceaseless love. He will not give up His gracious task. He did not come hastily to the furnace door and shut us in and then leave us while He minded other matters. He has been sitting near His work ever since He began it—even as the refiner sits close to his work—and He means to stay as long as the work remains unfinished. He will not be gone till all is over. Grace will complete what Grace begins, eternal power performs what everlasting love designs. (Spurgeon)
Cleansing like a refiner's fire The refiner’s fire was used in purifying precious metals to remove the impurities from within the metal. The fuller’s or laundry soap was to remove the stains on garments. When silver becomes molten it gives off some twenty times its own volume of oxygen with noticeable hissing and bubbling. This phenomenon is known as “spitting.“ The molten silver must be treated with carbon (charcoal) or it will reabsorb oxygen from the air and lose its sheen and purity. (Robinson). God desires to remove all impurities and unclean elements from his people presenting us as a holy pure spotless bride in Christ to Christ (Eph 5:27, Heb 10:19-22). Fire purifies as well as destroys (Smith). There are two fires of God: the fire of destruction (Deut 4:24) and the fire of discipline (Heb 12:3-12). All ungodly, those who do not fear the Lord, who are not God’s people, will be removed by God’s consuming fire of judgement (3:5). Those who know the Lord will be cleansed by His refining fire. At the coming of the Lord the ungodly will be consumed with fire and the godly will be cleansed with fire. (3:5, , Luke 3:16-17)Thus, the refiner, the purifier would remove the internal and external stains. We find ourselves thinking ungodly thoughts and plunging into unrighteous behavior. We find ourselves daily stained and soiled by the worldly internal thoughts and fleshly external desires. We need clean hands and a pure heart We need to experience a daily cleansing by the word. Daily encounters with Jesus, the refiner and purifier, in his word are not optional, but a necessity to allow the word to wash us (Eph 5:26, ) and the Holy Spirit of fire to purge us. . . . the Holy Spirit is the great fire that burns in Zion to purge believers from the love of sin. It is He that makes use of the Word, makes use of fellowship and makes use of everything else to sever sin from the saint and take away the dross from the silver. The Well-Beloved seeks to purify His chosen by the washing of water through the Word of God. If any . . . are seeking the Lord at this time . . . you are seeking a fire which will test you and consume much which has been dear to you. (1 Cor 3:11-15). We are not to expect Christ to come and save us in our sins! He will come and save us from our sins and, therefore, if you are enabled by faith to take Christ as a Savior, remember that you take Him as the Purger and the Purifier, for it is from sin that He saves us. (Spurgeon) There is a simple illustration of the work of the refiner: The mother has her dear babe upon her knee. It is time for washing. She washes its face. The little one cries. It loves not the soap; it loves not the water and therefore it cries. Here is a great sorrow! Listen to its lamentations! It is ready to break its heart! What does the mother do? Is she sorrowful? Does she weep? No! She is singing all the while because she understands how good it is that the child should suffer a little temporary inconvenience in order that its face, all smeared and foul, should become bright and beautiful again! Thus does the great Father rest in His love and rejoice over us with singing while we are sighing and crying.” (Zep 3:17). Ours is but a child’s sorrow, sharp and shallow, of which the greatest source is our own ignorance of the great designs of the Perfecter of men! The Lord pities our childish sorrow, but He does not regard it so as to stop His hands from His cleansing work (Spurgeon) The refiner knows that his metal (silver) is pure when he can see his own image reflected in the mirror-like surface of the metal (Robinson). God will know when his work of refining is done when he sees reflected in the Christian soul his own image (Smith). Christ patiently and perfectly refines us in through the process of sanctification in the power of the Holy Spirit, conforming us into the his image (Rom 8:29, Phil 1:6, Jude 24
Commitment 6 "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. God doesn’t change. He doesn’t gaining knowledge because he already has all knowledge. He is omniscience. He doesn’t grow in power because he is already all powerful. He is omnipotent. He doesn’t become more present because he already is all present. He is omnipresent. To have a mutable God is to have a God that is unreliable, untrusted and unfaithful. We cannot rely on his “unchanging” word. We cannot trust his “unchanging “promises. We cannot put our faith in his “unchanging” commitment. A mutable God is no different than a mere fallible, fickle and faulty mortal. But our God is unchanging in his commitment and covenant with Israel and all those in Christ. He doesn’t increase in his love for us, He has loved us (1:2). His love for us, his mercy and grace toward us, and faithfulness to us doesn’t change. The reason that the children of Jacob (and Christians) are not consumed is because God has set his covenant love upon us. (I have loved Jacob 1:2). That love is not contingent upon us but on a covenant keeping God. His covenant stands even in our disobedience (2:4 that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts.) The Fire of affliction cannot consume us because of the faithfulness of God’s covenant toward us. (Piper)
The Product of refining The way to experience the fire of Christ as refining and not consuming is to trust his promise to bring us through the fire to endless joy. Salvation is by grace through faith in the purifying mercy of God. (Piper) (1 Cor 6:11)
There are three results that should emerge from the refiners work.
Fear of the Lord 5 do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts (1:6) It is returning to and revering God. It is respecting God. It is giving God the honor and glory due his name. It is replacing a pursuit of the pleasures of this world for a passion for the kingdom of God. It is remembering who God was and worshiping Him the proper way.
Following the Lord 3 and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.
Here it is not speaking of the offering itself, but the manner of the offering. Their offering will be brought in the right manner. 1 Sam 15:22-23) The offering would be in accordance with God’s righteous demands as opposed to the offerings brought before (1:8, 13). Worship would be in spirit and truth (John 4:24) rather than in selfishness and self-seeking.
Favor with the Lord 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years. (2:4-6) Our “offering” is pleasing to the Lord because of the messenger, our high priest, Jesus, who is pleasing to God and who’s sacrifice was pleasing to the Father. The people of Israel didn’t offer the sacrifice, the priest did. So when the people bring imperfect animals (1:8-10) and the priest offers them as a righteous offering, God is not pleased. So when the priests are righteous they will instruct the people in the proper offerings that are pleasing to God and “then the offering . . . will be pleasing”. Jesus is both the righteous priest and the perfect sacrifice that is why the Lord’s messenger who was to come would be the one “in whom you delight”
Purification by the Lord 3. he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, The purity of the people starts with the purity of the priests. The people are included in this process in v. 4 Judah and Jerusalem (Verhoef).
Oh, Beloved, if you have been refined by the Word of God; if you have been refined by the Spirit; if you have been refined by heavenly joys; if you have been refined by sanctified sorrows, you wish to serve God much more than ever you did before. You now pray that if you have lived to self in any degree, you may be forgiven, for you wish to live to Christ and to Him alone! (Spurgeon)
The Participation in refining 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, 'How shall we return?' The decision is simple. We must plunge into the word to allow it to reveal to us the dross in our life that prevents us from living godly. (Heb 4:12, Col 3:16-17). Let his word search deep within the recesses of your heart and bring to light the impurities that remain within your flesh. (Ps 139:23-24) We can’t be led were we don’t want to go. We can’t return if we don’t want to return. We cannot delight in Savior if we delight in sin. So, until we see our unrighteousness we will have no desire to live in righteousness. We must decide if we want to be purified. We must chose to return to be refined. We must repent to be refreshed. (Acts 2:19).