Malachi 3:1, commentary and pictures

The verse promises a messenger sent to prepare the way before the Lord, who then suddenly comes to His temple.
The preparing messenger is John the Baptist, the forerunner sent to prepare the way for Christ at His first advent, and his work typifies the heralding of Christ's second coming.
The Lord who suddenly comes to His temple is Jesus Christ, the Messenger of the covenant.
He came in person to His earthly temple as an infant whose presence made its glory greater than the first temple's, and again to cleanse the Jerusalem temple and declare His messianic mission.
His sudden coming is also His coming as High Priest to the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary for the cleansing of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment, distinct from His second advent to earth, bringing judgment and purification as refining fire and fuller's soap.

Messenger Preparing the Way

The promise is that a messenger is sent to prepare the way before the Lord, who then comes suddenly to His temple. The sought and delighted-in Lord who so comes is also called the messenger of the covenant, speaking by the word of the Lord of hosts. His coming begins a work of refining and judgment that purifies His people so they can offer righteousness to God, with unseen agents faithfully recording human words and actions deed by deed. In this coming God permits tests to come upon every soul, requiring sin to be removed and character made pure before intercession ends. Joined to the following verses, the day of His coming is a testing day that few can endure and stand, for He comes as refining fire and cleansing soap to sit as a refiner of silver and purify the sons of Levi as gold and silver until they offer a righteous offering. This coming belongs to the last days and is preceded by signs of the coming of the Son of man now fast fulfilling, applying to dealings in God's work where dishonesty and injustice have no place but equity and righteousness must rule, through a searching message that exposes evil, awakens consciences, and brings reformation and cleansing to people and institutions.

The preparing messenger is John the Baptist, the forerunner sent to prepare the way for Christ at His first advent. He fulfilled this mission by calling people to prepare for Jesus' coming and by pointing away from himself to Jesus, the promised Saviour. His preparing work was preaching in the wilderness that the kingdom of God is at hand and calling people to repent and believe the gospel. He was sent in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way for Jesus' first coming. He was to learn apart from the rabbis' schools and traditions, studying God's unadulterated word through the prophets.

John stood in the spirit and power of Elijah as the connecting link between the two dispensations and as the lesser light to be followed by a greater. He is more than a prophet, and among those born of women none greater has risen, yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. He was not educated in the schools of the rabbis and had no human scholarship, for God and nature were his teachers. He did not expose himself to evil conversation and corrupting influences but chose his home in the wilderness where, by studying the book of nature, he could become acquainted with the character of God and preserve a sacred sense of His majesty. God spoke to him by inspiration and illuminated his understanding for his task.

John prepared people by shaking their confidence in traditions, calling their sins to remembrance, leading them to repentance, and removing superstition and darkness gathered for generations through false teachings from the minds of honest Jews, so they would be prepared to appreciate the work of Christ. His preaching called the people to repentance and baptism, preparing the way for Christ's ministry, and multitudes flocked to hear him, many were convicted of sins, and he baptized them in the Jordan. His work was to expose sin and condemn a wrong course, and his teaching laid bare the defects in the religious experience of the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees. Those leaders claimed great piety but were not in close connection with God so they could not discern sacred things, and they refused to accept John and held to doubt and unbelief even when they saw demonstrations of God's power, choosing to pretend ignorance rather than yield to conviction and confess they were wrong, while many publicans and sinners and harlots received his testimony, condemned their guilty sins, and as true penitents embraced the salvation offered. Those who rejected the truth John proclaimed were left in deeper darkness and more ready to reject the evidence that Jesus was the Messiah. He did this work with steadfast integrity without being moved by flattery, prevailing errors, rewards, or worldly honors, preserving integrity at the expense of life, standing steadfast and firm as a rock, loyal to God and faithful to principle, readily rebuking sin and crime in kings and nobles as well as in the unhonored and unknown without swerving from duty.

John represents faithful reformers preparing the way for Christ's second coming. The work of heralding Christ's second coming is similar to his forerunner work at the first coming: it must warn the world that the great day of the Lord is near and call people to prepare to meet God. This preparation includes stirring the public mind and calling people to reform, especially temperance and turning from idolatry, gluttony, and extravagance. The verse's work of preparing the Lord's way also applies to God's messengers in the present age, who prepare for Christ's second coming through a straightforward, earnest message that calls people to live and work by God's standard of righteousness. They are to carry on preparing the way in the pattern of John the Baptist, using every ability God has given them to prepare people according to God's spiritual pattern, so they may stand in the day of God's preparation, with lives and work awakening people absorbed in the world to consider eternity, their standing in the investigative judgment, and their final destiny.

Lord Messenger of Covenant

The Lord whom His people seek and in whom they delight suddenly comes to His temple, and He is Jesus Christ, the long-expected Messiah, the Messenger of the covenant and Angel of the covenant. His coming brings the refining work described in the verses that follow, purifying the sons of Levi as silver and gold until Judah and Jerusalem can offer a righteous offering pleasant to the Lord. That coming belongs to the last days, preceded by fast-fulfilling signs of the coming of the Son of man, and it was a prophetic theme foretold by the prophets and fulfilled in the fullness of time. His arrival at the heavenly temple is to the most holy place for work connected with the investigative judgment, not His coming to earth to redeem His people and destroy the wicked, and it is unexpected by those looking for an earthly appearance.

Though He came as a helpless infant only a few weeks old when brought by Joseph and Mary to the temple, He was the Ancient of days whose goings forth have been from of old, even from everlasting. He existed before Abraham as the eternal I AM, the eternal Word, the Majesty of heaven and King of glory. He is the head of an unchangeable priesthood, the only true high priest over the house of God, sharing divine honor and authority. He is the Sun of Righteousness shining truth amid moral darkness and error upon those eager to hear, whose pre-existence and future return in glory and power stand together with His having come. His coming grants probation on earth as a trial ground and school where people are educated, disciplined, and trained for the higher life of heaven, in whom mercy and truth meet and righteousness and peace kiss each other.

He clothed His divinity with humanity and came not with outward display and rank but in humble appearance and lowly garb to reveal God's purpose for humanity. As the Majesty of heaven and King of glory He humbled Himself to take human nature so He could meet men where they were, though rich becoming poor so that through His poverty men might be made rich. He is the only begotten Son and Eternal Word, sent from the bosom of the Father because the deep necessity of the human race called for a remedy for sin, bringing mercy and benevolence. He came in human nature in the likeness of sinful flesh as the appointed Instructor and divine Teacher when the fullness of time had come.

He came as the greatest evangelist and Teacher and healer to all people of every class and station, rich and poor, free and bond, bringing the tidings of salvation. Going from city to city and town to town He preached the gospel and healed all who came to Him of their diseases, with tender care for those in sorrow and affliction. His mission included preaching the gospel to the poor and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord. Multitudes flocked to Him for healing and for His words.

He would come in person to speak in His own temple, bringing God's message to humanity in human language. As the author of truth He separates truth from man's chaff and human error that had obscured it and made it of no effect. He clearly defines the principles of God's government and the plan of redemption, fully sets before men the lessons of the Old Testament, and fulfills prophecy, the Jewish economy of types and shadows, and the plan of redemption. His words carry invincible power and authority, revealing the Father, awakening desire, giving the bread of life to all who hunger for spiritual knowledge, setting judgment in the earth for which the isles wait, and shining as a light to which Gentiles and kings come. After His ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection, people would compare the Old Testament prophecies with what happened at Jerusalem and recognize His work of proclaiming the gospel, the Word of life, to a sinful world, with minds prepared to appreciate His work and words and nothing clouding the Word of God.

He mediates for believers and secures the acceptance of their prayers when they pray with faith and trust. He appeared to Jacob as the heavenly messenger with whom Jacob wrestled and from whom he sought a blessing. He empowers His servants to carry the message of mercy and present truth throughout the world, a work to be proclaimed not by angels only but by every member of the church, who is responsible for inviting others to receive the water of life. He is the divine Restorer and Redeemer who comes to protect God's people, the Light of the world and Dayspring from on high with divine and human nature united, who in the sealing scene of Revelation 7 comes from the east commanding the angels to hold back the winds and harm until God's servants are sealed.

Coming to His Temple

The sudden coming took place when He was brought as an infant only a few weeks old by Joseph and Mary to the second temple. The One who came was God manifest in the flesh, in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and His living personal presence alone made the glory of that house greater than the glory of the first. This was so even though the second house lacked the cloud of glory, fire from heaven, the abiding Shekinah between the cherubim, the ark, the mercy seat, the tables of testimony, and the voice from heaven.

The prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus came to the Jerusalem temple and cleansed it, driving out the buyers and sellers. His arrival and authority, His acceptance of the people's acclaim of Him as King and of their homage, and His work as King and Priest announced His messianic mission. His effort to reform the corrupt priesthood would not succeed.

That earthly house was meant to witness that every soul may become a dwelling for God's Spirit through Christ's saving grace. Its noisy courts, hidden meaning through pride in the building, pictured hearts stained by sensual passion and unholy thoughts. His action in its courts declared His mission to wash sin from the temple of the heart, removing earthly desires, selfish lusts, sensual passion, unholy thoughts, and evil habits that corrupt the soul. Christ alone can cleanse the heart, and He does not force entry but comes to dwell in those who welcome Him.

The sudden coming is also Christ coming as High Priest to the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary for the cleansing of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment. It is not His second advent to this earth to redeem His people and destroy the wicked, but is distinct and separate from that execution of judgment. While that judgment proceeds there, God's people on earth are to put away sin and have their characters purified so they may offer in righteousness. That heavenly arrival was sudden and unexpected by those looking for Him to appear on earth in judgment against the ungodly.

As He cleansed the temple at His first advent, so He will cleanse and purify it again before His second advent. That renewed cleansing is needed when commercial activity displaces remembrance of God, attention to Him, and obedience to His law, and it comes as an act of divine displeasure. It calls His people to examine their obedience and humble themselves before Him. Applied to the publishing house in Battle Creek, those who heed reproof, repent, and are converted will experience a purposeful cleansing.

Refining Fire and Judgment

The coming answers the impenitent cry over where the God of judgment is, for the Lord suddenly comes to His temple as the Messenger of the covenant bringing judgment and purification as refining fire and fuller's soap. He proves and refines professed followers, exposing spots and stains of character, testing every soul and making plain whether each can stand and answer for deeds in His day. His testing is like silver and gold tried by fire, revealing the worth of faith which is more precious than silver and gold and making the purified more precious than fine gold.

He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver to purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, shrinking the garment into smaller compass, so that Judah and Jerusalem may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness pleasant to Him as in former years. This purifying work is essential in the church, carried by a searching message that exposes evil, awakens consciences, and brings reformation and cleansing to people and institutions. It demands putting away worldly policy, unholy trafficking in sacred things, selfishness, covetousness, and making merchandise of souls, and cherishing high, holy, uplifting, sanctifying principles instead of being converted to the world.

The day of His coming is a searching, moral testing day that few can endure and stand, for God permits tests to come upon every soul including those with no real connection with Him. The furnace does not consume and destroy but refines and purifies, trying faith, reproving all that cannot enter the city of God, consuming dross and tin where submitted to, and measuring men by pure, refined, elevating truth working by love. To stand requires humility with the life hid with Christ in God and claimed as righteousness, lest the believer shrink into nothingness, with solemn reverent prayer, watching unto prayer, righted wrongs of speech that hurt and discouraged others, the poisonous sting removed, soul and tongue brought to the altar, and life in harmony with prayer.

His coming begins a judgment in which unseen agents faithfully record words and actions and Christ comes to each person's name in heaven's record books to pass judgment deed by deed according to deeds. He comes near as a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, false swearers, and those who oppress the hireling in wages, the widow and the fatherless, and turn aside the stranger from his right and fear not God, because He changes not. All must therefore wake up now before that judgment reaches them.

The call to return exposes robbing God in tithes and offerings and forsaking His ordinances, for which the whole nation is cursed with a curse. Willfully disregarding the Sabbath, which God set apart from toils and cares for holy communion with Him and contemplation of His power and love in creation and redemption, is marked robbery of God that robs the soul of rich blessing and separates from God the source of good. The chapter must therefore be studied with special care, love, and fear and practiced in every specification, with its warning and instruction in righteousness and its test of loyalty by bringing all the tithes into the storehouse with promise of opened windows of heaven, to arouse professed Christians who withhold from Christ's labors and sacrifice, with special reference to those living in the time of judgment. It lifts a danger signal against self-indulgence and selfish withholding, calling parents to cut out its roots in the family, teach children self-denial, return of tithe and offerings however small, and fruitfulness in good works, since those who rob Him cannot expect His blessing.

The refining removes defilement through permitted trials and repeated tests until character is transformed, self overcome, and the soul brought into humility, submission, and harmony with Christ and heaven. Rich and poor are tested by one standard, the law bidding supreme love to God and love to neighbor as self, producing humility rather than self-exaltation or human standards where the light is received. God is behind all His promises, distinctly pledging Himself to answer prayer with positive ample assurance, yea and amen, from inexhaustible resources, challenging all to prove Him and do their part to see what He will do. He comes to find sincere worshipers and measure who is truehearted and self-sacrificing, beginning an investigation and preparatory work that calls the unconcerned to recognize need of cleansing, though it is not yet the time when the books are opened.

Prophecy Time and Parallels

The sudden coming to the temple is the same event as the cleansing of the sanctuary foretold in Daniel 8:14. It is the same as the coming of the Son of man to the Ancient of days described in Daniel 7:13. It is also represented by the coming of the bridegroom to the marriage in the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. In this coming Christ enters as high priest into the most holy place in heaven for the cleansing of the sanctuary.

That coming to the temple is distinct and separate from His second advent to earth for the execution of judgment. It is not the return to redeem His people and destroy the wicked, but the priestly entrance for judgment work in heaven.

This coming belongs to the last days and is preceded by signs of the coming of the Son of man that are now fast fulfilling. The day of that coming is a testing day that few can endure and stand, for He comes as refining fire and cleansing soap to sit as a refiner of silver and purify the sons of Levi as gold and silver until they offer a righteous offering. The third chapter of Malachi, in which the promise stands, is therefore to be studied with special care because it contains warning and instruction in righteousness for every soul. It shows the Lord still testing people to see whether they will prove faithful servants, calling them to consider His goodness, respond to His mercy, and give proof of loyalty by bringing all the tithes into His storehouse, with the promise that He will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing without room to receive it. Because the Lord will surely visit His people by coming suddenly to examine them, the chapter must be studied and practiced with love and fear of God by following out every specification in His Word, lest neglect leave one found committing robbery toward God, which no one can afford.

The Messenger of the covenant was a prophetic theme of the prophets, identifying Christ who was to come. The long-expected Messenger came as the distinguished Teacher and Son of God, fulfilling prophecy in the fullness of time, not with outward display and rank but clothing His divinity with humanity to reveal God's purpose for humanity. His coming fulfilled the plan of redemption and the Jewish economy of types and shadows, His words carrying invincible power and authority in a mission that included preaching the gospel to the poor and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord. Malachi 3:1-18 outlines the future experience of God's people, and its promises will be fulfilled exactly as God's people serve as channels of blessing for the work entrusted to them. The verse introduces the Lord's message to His people for their time and presents God's requirements with clear and forceful authority.

The heralding of the second coming follows the same pattern as John's heralding of the first. John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ's first coming, going ahead to prepare the way. In like manner the work of heralding Christ's second coming must warn the world that the great day of the Lord is near and call people to prepare to meet God. That work of preparation is part of the second advent mission, in which God's people proclaim the Lord's day near.

Preparing the Way Today

The way is prepared in the lives of God's people by true conversion of soul that turns from commercialism and engrossment in worldly business and from love of trade and gain, so that the word is carried into the life in its purity and power and His paths are made straight. That turning puts away worldly policy, unholy trafficking in sacred things, selfishness, covetousness, and making merchandise of souls and of sacred things, for His coming as refiner's fire and fuller's soap purifies His people and confronts such wrongdoing. Those accepted as His subjects cherish and hold up before the world high, holy, uplifting, sanctifying principles of truth instead of being converted to the world. Cleansing is needed because commercial activity has displaced remembrance of God and obedience to His law, and Christ who cleansed the temple at His first advent will cleanse it again before His second advent as an act of divine displeasure calling His people to examine obedience, humble themselves, repent and be converted.

Preparing the way means carrying the truth to places that have not heard it, leaving where the work is already established to plant centers for missionary work in towns and cities. It is earnest missionary work, especially the work needed in the Southern field, reaching the highways and hedges and sowing the third angel's message in new and unenlightened places and cities to those in error and ignorant of the truth for these last days. In Washington this work sows the seeds of truth, gives knowledge of the third angel's message, and leads souls to light with awakening, conversion, and wonderful reformations. God's messages prepare people to receive the truth and be sanctified by its power, and the Holy Spirit then transforms character so they can serve as honorable vessels and useful messengers who prepare the way before Him.

Health reform prepares people for the greater light of the last message and must be presented in a way that does not disgust them. Manufacturing health foods at Cooranbong and sending them out to every place where the standard of truth is uplifted works in proper lines in the spirit of Elijah at the time when secular reports that only one or two out of twenty market cattle are fit for consumption arouse the reasoning mind and lead people to ask what can take the place of flesh meat. Gospel medical missionary work and medical institutions established as Seventh-day Adventist institutions to represent its various features prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. The work preparing the way for Christ's second coming is to be given character through sanitariums, and these institutions are to support that work without exorbitant prices or extravagant spending to attract patronage.

That preparation depends on people receiving the light and truth essential for it, and valuable books carry that needed light, so withholding them and flooding the market with cheap books deprives people of what they must have to be prepared. God's appointed publishing centers exist to prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord, and because the centers are sacred by God's appointment they must be sacredly guarded by faithful stewards. All who connect with the institutions must have their trial and test, and only those consecrated to God in soul, body, and spirit, with minds under the control of the Holy Spirit, are fit to handle the sacred work.

The third chapter lifts a danger signal cautioning God's people against every kind of self-indulgence and is to be studied with special care because it contains warning and instruction in righteousness for every soul, with the Lord still testing people to see whether they will prove faithful servants. Selfishly withholding from the Lord the portion He claims as His own in tithes and offerings leaves undone what He requires, makes an unwelcome record to meet, and robs Him so that those who rob Him cannot come to His house and expect His blessing. Parents are to work diligently in the family to cut out the roots of self-indulgence and selfishness and to teach children to do the works of God, to deny self and worldly pleasures, to return tithe and bring offerings however small, so they become fruitful in good works to God's glory and sow seed bearing fruit unto eternal life. The call is for sincerity in serving Him, self-denial instead of unnecessary spending, best efforts and giving to advance the work in Washington and supply men and means for calls from foreign fields and to plant His standard where truth is unknown, that unbelievers may see the work begun is able to be finished, with proof of loyalty by bringing all the tithes into His storehouse and promise that He will open heaven's windows and pour out blessing without room to receive it.

The Lord's way is prepared before Him when workers use all their capabilities to give the last message of warning to the world. Those appointed to this work prepare the Lord's way through faithful, undivided effort, united by the Holy Spirit, love, and sympathy as they prepare for His coming and prepare the way for the coming King in unity and true medical missionary work. In the pattern of John the Baptist they use every ability God has given to prepare people according to God's spiritual pattern, so they may stand in the day of God's preparation, with lives and work awakening those absorbed in the world to consider eternity, their standing in the investigative judgment, and their final destiny. The work God calls for must be healthful and solid, advance the proclamation of the final message of mercy, and perfect a people and prepare them for the Lord, while enterprises and diversions that hinder this preparation or divert resources do not serve His purpose.

No one can expect to receive anything from the Lord without preparation as refiner's fire and fuller's soap, sitting as refiner and purifier of silver to purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver so they may offer an offering in righteousness pleasant as in former years. That preparation searches the heart with humility, puts right wrongs of speech that hurt and discouraged others by removing the poisonous sting, brings a trespass offering to God, and brings soul, tongue, and words to the altar to be used to glorify Him, which He will then accept. Prayer is solemn and requires reverence rather than human superiority and self-exaltation, requires watching unto prayer, and requires speaking and acting in harmony with prayer, for the Lord will not hear irreverent, unprepared prayers. God is behind all His promises and distinctly pledges Himself to answer prayer with assurance so positive and ample in Christ Jesus that it leaves no room for mistake or limitation and with resources that cannot be exhausted, inviting all to prayer and challenging all to prove the Lord of hosts, to do their part and see what He will do in their behalf. The Angel of the covenant empowers His servants to carry mercy and present truth throughout the world, and the message is to be proclaimed not only by angels but by every church member responsible for inviting others to receive the water of life.