Close and low in a dark workshop at night: a small clay crucible set in glowing charcoal, the molten silver inside bright as a mirror, a pair of goatskin bellows at rest beside it, under deep smoky darkness.

My messenger

Malachi 3

What would you want God to burn away in you, if He asked?

18 verses≈ 4 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1:1–5The LORD’s loveJacob loved, Edom laid waste
1:6–14Despised offeringsBlind, lame and sick on the altar
2Covenants brokenLevi’s covenant, and the wife of your youth
3My messengerThe refiner, the full tithe, a scroll of remembranceChapter 3
4The Day of the LORDThe sun of righteousness, and Elijah

I Will Send My Messenger

God

God

“Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me.

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God

Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple—the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight—see, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Malachi

Malachi

But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.

Malachi

And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.

Malachi

Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD, as in days of old and years gone by.

God

God

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

‘Where is the God of justice?’

Whiteboard

They asked where God’s justice was. He answers by coming Himself, with a herald sent ahead. Jesus says the messenger is John the Baptist, sent ahead of Him (Matthew 11:10).

Question

Quick question

Malachi 3:1 is quoted three times in the gospels.

Who does Jesus say is the messenger of Malachi 3:1?

Robbing God

God

“Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.

Malachi 3:6

God

Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts.

The people

“But you ask, ‘How can we return?’

God

Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me!

The people

But you ask, ‘How do we rob You?’

God

In tithes and offerings.

God

You are cursed with a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing Me.

God

God

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house.

God

Test Me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure.

God

God

I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your land, and the vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the LORD of Hosts.

“Then all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Reflect

Is your giving to God a bargain you’re making or a thank-you you’re saying? What would change if it were only thanks?

The Book of Remembrance

God

“Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the LORD.

The people

“Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’

God

You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts? So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”

Malachi

Malachi

At that time those who feared the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened and heard them. So a scroll of remembrance was written before Him regarding those who feared the LORD and honored His name.

God

A tied scroll lies alone on a plain stone ledge in a quiet room, soft morning light from a high window falling on it, a small clay lamp beside it gone out.

“They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

0:18

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

LORD, You do not change, and that is why I am still here. Sit over my heart as a refiner, and take away what does not belong. When I am tempted to say serving You is futile, remind me that You listen and that You remember. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Malachi 3

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A verse to carry with you

Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.

Malachi 3:6

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