Malachi 3:2
But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
Malachi's question answers those who mockingly ask where the God of judgment is by warning that the Lord will come suddenly to His temple after His messenger prepares the way before Him. It asks who can endure the day of His coming and stand when He appears, because His coming is a searching test like intense heat that refines metal and like strong cleanser that washes clean. He sits as a refiner to purify the sons of Levi like gold and silver until their offering in righteousness is pleasant, and He comes near as a swift witness against all open and hidden evil, yet because He changes not His people are not consumed. That coming took place when Jesus cleansed the earthly temple, it takes place as He ministers in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary in the investigative judgment at the end of the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14, and it will take place in final retribution when transgressors cannot endure His burning glory at His glorious return. Only those whose robes of character are washed white through repentance, conversion and blotting out of sin will abide and stand without a mediator, for the painful furnace is not to destroy but to consume dross until self is subdued and the image of Christ is reflected.
Words and Original Setting
The question who can endure the day of His coming and stand when He appears answers those who mockingly ask where the God of judgment is, warning that the Lord, the Messenger of the covenant, will suddenly come to His temple after His messenger prepares the way before Him. That coming will be searching and cleansing, acting on people like intense heat that refines metal and like strong cleanser that washes clean, so no impenitent person can endure it or remain standing. It is a deliberate, seated work of refining and purifying silver, applied to the sons of Levi and purging them like gold and silver until they offer an offering in righteousness, with the result that the offering of Judah and Jerusalem becomes pleasant as in days of old and former years. The day is the coming of the Son of man in the last days, whose preceding signs are fast fulfilling now, and the furnace is not to consume and destroy but to refine and purify.
Its two questions present that day as a searching test that none can abide or stand in themselves, because He comes as a refiner's fire and fuller's soap to cleanse and purify. The Lord's coming to His temple will be a time of testing and purification in which each person will be judged according to deeds, so people must prepare for a coming that is soon. It is a searching judgment that none can face safely without being made clean, purifying the sons of Levi like gold and silver so they can offer in righteousness while judging those who do wrong.
He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap, meaning His coming acts like intense heat that refines metal and like strong cleanser that washes clean, exposing, testing and purifying. He cleanses what is defiled, announcing a cleansing of the human heart from sin, including earthly desires, selfish lusts and evil habits, so people may become holy temples for the Spirit. Taking His words into the heart purifies thoughts and speech like precious metal freed from dross, and no one can remain or stand before Him unchanged.
Fuller's soap makes a garment shrink into a smaller compass, picturing a humbling work that simmers people down and makes them much less than they are. It removes wrong preconceived opinions and prejudice and corrects the feeling of being perfect and needing no humbling, especially among those standing at the head of the work, so they come into closer touch with humanity. Those who claim Christ as their righteousness and have life hidden with Christ in God will not shrink into nothingness.
He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer an offering in righteousness pleasant as in days of old. His coming also brings judgment against those who act unjustly and do not fear Him.
He will come near in judgment and be a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, false swearers, oppressors of the hireling in wages, the widow and the fatherless, those who turn aside the stranger from his right, and those who fear Him not. Yet because He is the Lord who changes not, the sons of Jacob are not consumed.
The chapter must be studied and practiced through love and fear of God by following out every specification in His Word, lest neglect bring that visitation and leave a person found committing robbery toward God. It reveals God's will and purpose and warns that those who claim to be His people can turn into forbidden paths, calling for personal application and showing that judgment is connected with a needed work of restoration before He accepts repentance and heals sin's wounds. It is to be carefully studied, obeyed and taught to others so they may receive blessing, calling for faithful dealing with God and harmonious action as educators, with promise of blessing financially and spiritually and showing of His salvation. It belongs to plainly revealed teaching to be studied and obeyed rather than dwelling on unrevealed matters, and with Malachi 4 gives light for those who rejoice in hope of the soon-coming morning, showing His desire to send reviving, healing beams and the infinite bliss and boundless joy of the righteous rewarded with mansions, immortal inheritance and everlasting kingdom for those who love God, keep His commandments, take Him at His Word and hold fast their profession.
Its testing measures the worshipers and reveals who is sincere and truehearted, referring to this preparatory work and not to the time when the books are opened. Like a refiner's fire and fuller's soap, His Spirit reproves the unconcerned and shows them their need to cleanse the temple.
The sudden coming to His temple is a refining and cleansing work upon character in which everything that cannot enter the city of God is reproved, and if submitted to, all dross and tin are consumed. The purifying is of His chosen ones by light appropriate for this time, removing self-exaltation and every human standard, for there is not one standard for the poor and another for the rich. Every character is tested by one standard, the law bidding supreme love to God and love to neighbor as self, with pure, refined, elevating truth acting as a continual test measuring the man in every sphere and circumstance, controlling the conscience as an abiding principle, working by love to purify the soul, and appearing in words and spirit and actions. As heavenly Watcher He sees unbelief, opposition and ridiculing, scoffing words that will appear again when He pronounces the last decision, weighing character with different scales than deluded men use, so those who lived in doubt and used gifts and influence to rivet infidelity will not meet the Well done, while His almighty hand is now at work to purge from His people the spirit of self, selfishness, self-deception and wicked self-deification, removing base material they flattered themselves was gold.
Fulfillments in Christ's Comings
The coming to the temple took place when Jesus cleansed the Jerusalem temple of its buyers and sellers. That cleansing announced His mission to cleanse the heart with refiner's fire and fuller's soap from earthly desires, selfish lusts, evil habits, sensual passion and unholy thoughts, so that each soul might become a holy temple for the divine Spirit. The same coming was fulfilled again when He was proclaimed King of Israel and entered as King and Priest to cleanse and purify, finding a greater defilement than at the first cleansing three years before and confronting a corrupted priesthood whose reform would be in vain, yet doing the work to give evidence of His divine mission.
A cleansing had begun that would be to good purpose if reproofs were heeded with repentance and conversion. Before the second advent He will cleanse and purify His temple in displeasure as a judgment upon bringing in commercial concerns, forgetting God, disobeying His law and leaving no time for heaven, calling to account how much of the law has been kept and calling for humility and contrition.
That temple coming is distinct and separate from His second advent for the execution of judgment. It is Christ coming not to earth but to the investigative judgment in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, and the questions who may abide the day of His coming and stand when He appears have special reference to the present time of judgment with its searching, purifying work upon character and offerings. Abiding that day requires the closing work of Christ as High Priest in finishing the atonement, which makes a people ready to stand, and which Daniel 8:14 points to at the end of the 2300 days, not the purifying of the earth by fire at the second advent.
Light directs minds by faith to follow the High Priest in His ministration in the heavenly temple, with new duties revealed and another message of warning and instruction given to the church. While the investigative judgment goes forward in heaven the sins of penitent believers are removed from the sanctuary, and at the same time there is a special work of purification and putting away of sin among God's people on earth. He suddenly comes to His temple and sits as a refiner and purifier of silver to purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer an offering in righteousness pleasant to the Lord, while He comes near in judgment against sin and declares that He changes not.
His sitting as refiner means His coming to each person's name in the record books of heaven to judge every deed and pass judgment upon every unchristlike word and action, weighing character as recorded there. That purging prepares His people to offer an offering in righteousness. All must therefore wake up before He reaches their own name.
Those living when His intercession ceases in the sanctuary above must stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediator. Their robes of character must be spotless and purified from sin by the blood of sprinkling, and through God's grace and their own diligent effort they must become conquerors in the battle with evil. When this work is accomplished His followers will be ready for His appearing.
The verse also points to the coming time when God will vindicate His insulted authority and punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity in the great day of final retribution for trampling His sacred statutes. Sinful transgressors cannot endure the burning glory of His presence when He comes for the execution of His law, and the terrors of Sinai when Israel for sinfulness was forbidden to approach the mount foreshadow that tribunal, when trumpet call summons living and dead from the whole earth and Christ comes in His Father's glory with angels and all nations are gathered before His throne. That approaching coming to punish the world warns that His approach is near and presses all to help others turn to the fountain that washes away guilt.
In contrast to His humble first coming, at His glorious return His robe will be so white that no fuller's soap could whiten it and His face will shine brighter than the noonday sun. Readiness is therefore urgent in forming a righteous character, being cleansed, keeping His commandments and making peace with God, so as to be acknowledged by Him, enter the city and be made immortal.
The disappointment surrounding His coming was itself the refiner's fire by which He purges dross and refines like gold in the furnace. That trying ordeal is a needful purifying process to be endured with patient submission without murmuring and with patient hope while waiting for the Saviour to redeem His tried and faithful ones.
Refining Work and Purpose
The refining among God's people is painful but necessary to remove defilement and prepare them to offer an offering in righteousness. Through trials He brings them into submission to His will, bringing them again and again through testing with ever-increasing pressure until humility fills the mind, self is subdued and dead, and character is transformed into harmony with Christ and heaven. Those thus purified serve from principle for God's glory rather than acting rashly from impulse, yielding to temptation, or following passion and carnal desire, becoming victors over self.
The fire of affliction and trial consumes the dross and separates what is worthless from what is valuable, so that the true gold of character remains and reflects divine love and the image of Christ. It is needful to be placed in the furnace fire that earthliness may be removed, and even when affliction is great and the flames seem about to consume, love remains as strong and tender as in days of sunniest prosperity, with angels sent to comfort and protect and the divine eye and ear open to cries. This testing reveals hidden defects and motives and gives opportunity to correct weakness and be prepared for service and to endure the time of trouble, until an offering in righteousness can be made and every work and heart revealed. It removes coldness, self-sufficiency, self-righteousness, harsh criticism and unsympathetic spirit so Christ may enter, requires whole consecration settled and grounded in truth with willingness to endure hardship, and will not cast off those deceived and tempted and betrayed into sin who return with true repentance despite fierce assaults and terrible delusions.
The furnace is to refine and purify, not to consume and destroy. God determines the needed measure of temptation and trial, Jesus watches each test and knows what is needed, and the process continues only as long as necessary for purification to form the divine image and prepare for immortality. Willingness to be searched and tried belongs to genuine grace.
The testing purifies faith as earthly silver and gold are purified and tried by fire, that its worth, more valuable than metal, may be made apparent and the person made precious like fine gold. Successive trials reveal true worth and expose falseness, pride, selfishness, motives and purposes, how self is mingled with plans and course of action, and what is in the heart. Those who avoid self-examination or refuse to be searched cherish sin, and vain confidence will not endure judgment, while trials that do not consume what is true cleanse away dross and lead to putting away sinful thoughts and plans in preparation for the heavenly city.
At His coming every pretentious cloak is stripped away and the precious is divided from the vile and gold from dross, with no mingling of true with spurious able to deceive. The faithful are separated from those whose professed service to God is joined with service to Satan, true godliness is distinguished from mere appearance like wheat from chaff and gold from dross, and the wheat is gathered for the garner. This cleansing begins in the heart, tests and tries, removes evil and corrupting practices so sacred things are kept sacred, and sets apart the chosen like the Levites for special work with priestly credentials to represent the character of the Father and be perfect as He is perfect, while all face judgment for deeds including unchristlike words and actions. The church must thus be cleansed before judgments fall more fully on the world, for those adopting worldly customs may yield when obedience brings persecution, while those clothed with Christ's righteousness stand.
The Holy Spirit sits as refiner and purifier of silver, and His coming brings decided change and conversion. By the Spirit and power of God the heart is softened and purified, the dross removed and God's image left discernible, preparing messengers to carry saving truth to those in darkness and to bear reproach, and preparing believers to love one another as Christ loved. He refines, enlightens, sanctifies and revives workers and institutions, including those bearing large responsibilities in printing and sanitarium work, purifying from dross, revealing divine glory, and reviving the whole church. Those who see no need of this refining continue in unconverted principles, and trifling with truth brings sure results. Purifying comes when truth is allowed to possess the soul and abide as a living working agency in life and character, for self occupies too much space and must be crucified to let the Spirit work, with earnest heart-longings heard and true godliness given to those who humble the heart and seek most earnestly, remembering that of self nothing can be done and in Christ is all efficiency.
Holiness and perfect love work in the heart like refining fire, consuming what is corrupt and impure and scattering darkness. Whatever is from Satan resists truth and hastens its own destruction, but truth triumphs. The word acts as fire consuming dross and tin, breaking the flinty heart so it may become pure and holy.
Preparation to Abide Stand
Only those whose robes of character have been washed white in the blood of the Lamb will bear the searching test of His coming and stand when He appears. Only those with clean hands and a pure heart will abide the day of the Lord's coming, for purity is essential to standing before Him. His coming proves character and purifies like burning and washing, sitting over His people as silver is refined until dross and stain are purged away so they may offer a righteous offering. In the last days of lukewarmness, apostasy, and mere form of godliness without power, the question who can endure that day should cause trembling, anguish of soul, and remorse.
Standing requires true contrition, inward crucifixion of sin, zealous repentance, conversion, and blotting out of sin rather than leaves of profession covering fruitlessness. It tests even a class of professing believers not suspected of danger, exposing polluting sins among them. It requires moral purity of mind and body, chastity and virtue, the crucifying of lust and low brutal passion, and the resolute resenting and repelling of every invitation to sin and every unwarrantable liberty with the person, with the body kept in its best condition to serve its Maker. Abiding requires being wholly consecrated, settled and grounded in the truth, with God refining and proving His people like gold and consuming the dross until His image is reflected in them, and with willingness to endure hardship for the truth.
Salvation under the last message of mercy to the world requires the deep working of the Spirit in purification and refining, not merely an outward form of religion. Preparation for the coming events is by devoted, distinctly spiritual work and by winning souls to Christ. Those who will stand are all who have been born again, who have opened the door of the heart to the Holy Spirit and been converted, practicing the truth in word and in deed as witnesses whom the truth has made free. Standing requires entire surrender to God and entire dependence on Him to work with Him and for Him, being wide-awake, daily converted anew, and cleansed from every habit and every practice that hinders influence, so that light shines before men in good works and a sacred, holy ministry is performed.
Fitness to join the sinless angels with spotless character must be gained before He comes and is not given at His coming. When Christ comes He will not remove character defects or cleanse from sin, for the holy will remain holy while the unjust and unsanctified will remain so, so the Refiner's work of cleansing and removing sin must be accomplished during the present time of probation before receiving immortality. Enoch, who walked with God amid widespread corruption and was taken to heaven, shows that a faithful life is possible even amid corruption. He represents those who will remain on earth through the perils of the last days, resist corruption, and be translated without dying, with help provided through Christ's strength and through angels who minister to the heirs of salvation and protect those striving to overcome.
Standing in the day of God's preparation requires that precious truth be unfolded with new and increased light given to His people. God has appointed publishing centers as His own sacred instrumentalities to do the essential work of preparing a people to stand in that day in their part of the world. That work must be sacredly guarded by faithful stewards, and all who connect with it must be consecrated to God in soul, body, and spirit, with minds under the control of the Holy Spirit, and all must have their trial and test. The central question is whether anyone will be able to endure the day of Christ's coming and stand when He appears, tied to being counted worthy to receive the reward given to the overcomers, for those who share Christ's sufferings will also share His glory, connected with hope in His soon coming and the joy awaiting the righteous in the world to come.
None of the discordant elements can ultimately thwart that preparation or the completion of the plan of salvation when God comes and prepares a people to stand. The message is to be heard so that a people may be ready for the day of the Lord when they must be prepared to stand. Those who carry an atmosphere of peace and love will stand in the great day of the Lord and receive their reward.
Warnings for Daily Faithfulness
Malachi 3 stands as warning and instruction in righteousness for every soul, testing whether people will prove faithful servants by considering God's goodness, responding to His mercy, and giving proof of loyalty by bringing all the tithes into the storehouse. The promise joined to that loyalty is that He will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing with no room to receive it, blessing financially and spiritually and showing His salvation to those who deal faithfully and work together in harmonious action. Withholding what He has reserved makes entrusted wealth a curse rather than a means of advancing the gospel, leaves required work undone, and proves unfaithful stewardship that loses both what was withheld and what was committed as one's own. The chapter must therefore be studied, practiced, obeyed and taught through love and fear of God by following every specification in His Word, lest neglect bring His sure visitation in the day of His coming and leave a person found robbing God with a record none will care to meet. That call reaches the church to a higher piety, a juster sense of duty and clear realization of obligation to the Creator through systematic giving of a tenth of increase as prospered, swelling church revenues if all on the books tithe, with even the poorest to give small gifts in acknowledgment of mercy and supply of necessities.
Its questions about abiding the day and standing when He appears have special reference to the present time of judgment, when Christ comes suddenly to His temple not in the second advent to earth but to the investigative judgment in the most holy place, calling for searching, purifying work upon character and offerings. That refining and cleansing bears directly on the call to purify the soul and remove defiling practices, exposing the need for spiritual cleansing and clear discernment between good and evil. Only those with clean hands and pure heart can abide the day and stand when He appears, which tests even a class of professing believers not suspected of danger and exposes polluting sins among them. The body must be kept in best condition to serve its Maker, requiring moral purity of mind and body, chastity, virtue and modesty cherished as guards of purity, crucifying lust and low brutal passion, and resolutely resenting, repelling and refusing every invitation to sin and every unwarrantable liberty.
He sits as refiner and purifier of silver to purify and purge His people as gold and silver until they offer an offering in righteousness pleasant as in days of old, and that requires preparation by all who expect to receive anything from Him. When prayers seem delayed there must be careful humble searching of heart, examining the talent of speech and voice whether any saint or sinner has been hurt, discouraged or bruised, removing the poisonous sting and putting all things right with restitution as with a trespass offering. Soul, tongue and words must be brought to God's altar to glorify Him, approaching the living God with reverence rather than Pharisaic superiority and self-exaltation that praises self and despises sinners, watching unto prayer and speaking and acting in harmony with prayer, for without this the offering will not be heard and accepted.
His coming brings a searching judgment like refiner's fire and fuller's soap that cleanses from evil so righteous offerings joined to practical right doing in daily life may be pleasing, awakening conscience to reformation and transformed character. That purifying work tests whether people live by truth with integrity and selflessness, exposing selfishness, covetousness and unfaithfulness, and it must go throughout the church and its institutions, enlightening, sanctifying and reviving workers and the whole church with decided change and conversion. The Holy Spirit so refines, enlightens and sanctifies those bearing large responsibilities in every line, including printing and sanitarium work, purifying from dross and revealing God's glory, while those who see no need continue in unconverted principles and trifling with truth brings sure results. The dross to be consumed is selfishness, especially selfish handling of the Lord's goods, as contagious as leprosy and the greatest curse in life, breeding hardheartedness, halfhearted service and dearth in the treasury; the cure is the divine leaven of renovation restoring godliness, benevolence and fruitfulness so members become producers rather than mere consumers and the church can convert souls without corrupting contamination.
Abiding that day means enduring His work as refiner's fire and fuller's soap by cutting away all self-indulgence and wrong habits, practicing temperance in eating, drinking and dressing, attaining true sanctification and conformity to Christ's will, and holding up high holy principles instead of being converted to worldly policy. It rejects bringing worldly policy and dealing into the church, unholy trafficking in sacred things which He hates, selfishness and covetousness making merchandise of blood-bought souls, selling the church to the world, and saying service is vain while calling the proud happy and the wicked set up and delivered. He will come near in judgment as swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, false swearers, oppressors of the hireling in wages, the widow and fatherless, those turning aside the stranger, and those fearing Him not, yet because He changes not the sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Taking His words into the heart purifies thoughts and speech like precious metal freed from dross, fitting people to present righteous offerings when no one can remain unchanged before Him. The correction that stops a strange path is mercy drawing from evil to good, for trials are not strange happenings but His testing in which He speaks peace and calls the tested to look to Jesus. His coming is a solemn event confronting sin and need of reconciliation, prompting appeals for the unconverted, backsliders and burdened to come forward and give the heart to God. It demands devoted piety with no thread of self-exaltation or self-sufficiency, close examination and seeking the Lord rather than preoccupation with business, and receiving every religious and spiritual advantage under the Holy Spirit to meet His standard.
Young Sabbath-keepers professing to look for the Son of man face that refining test in which faith is proved: worldly pleasures separate from God, while the wholly converted are sanctified by obedience to truth and those remaining worldly are left to receive the world's reward. The testing fire upon tempted and tried workers, as upon publishing workers in Nashville, is not to consume but to refine and purify, so those standing at duty in union and going straight ahead will be greatly blessed through it. Those refined are transformed with God's image stamped upon the soul, clothed with Christ's humility and no longer defending truth with harsh, bitter or combative words.