Malachi 3 · The Lantern

I Will Send My Messenger

See, I am sending my messenger, and he will clear a way before me. And suddenly the Lord whom you are seeking will come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight — see, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.

As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. [Malachi 3:1] The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Of these two comings the prophet Malachi says, "And suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek"; that is one coming. Of the second coming he says, " 'And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire, yes, he is coming,' says the Lord of hosts. 'But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears?

Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before thy presence. This passage the Lord applied to himself and to John the Baptist.

And who can endure the day of his coming? And who is the one standing when he appears? For he is like a smelter’s fire and like launderers’ soap.

But as it is in mockery that Celsus says we speak of "God coming down like a torturer bearing fire" and thus compels us unseasonably to investigate words of deeper meaning, we shall make a few remarks, sufficient to enable our hearers to form an idea of the defense which disposes of the ridicule of Celsus against us. And then we shall turn to what follows.

The same Christ who did all this will hereafter stand before us as our judge. Certainly the prophets did not pass over this but foretold it. Some saw him in that very form which he would stand before us; others predicted this only in words. Daniel was in the midst of the barbarians and the Babylonians when he saw Christ coming in the clouds.

(Verse 2) Look, says the Lord of Hosts, who can think of the day of his coming? And who will stand to see him? For he will come like a refining fire and like the fullers' soap. LXX: Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts, and who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.

And he will sit smelting and purifying silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and like silver; and they will be for the LORD those bringing an offering in righteousness.

And the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD, as in the days of long ago and as in former years.

And I will draw near to you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those swearing to a falsehood, and against those oppressing the wages of a hired worker, the widow and the orphan, and those who bend the judgment of the sojourner — and they do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.

Robbing God

For I the LORD have not changed, and you, sons of Jacob, have not come to an end.

But let us look at what Celsus next with ostentation announces in the following fashion: "And again," he says, "let us resume the subject from the beginning, with a larger array of proofs. And I make no new proofs. And I make no new statement but say what has long been settled. God is good and beautiful and blessed, and that in the best and most beautiful degree.

He does not lack things that are of Him and through Him and in Him. The Source and Maker of all, Who contains all, Who is beyond all, does not need that which is within Him, the Creator His creatures, the Possessor His possessions. Nothing is prior to Him, nothing derived from any other than Him, nothing beyond Him.

That the divine being is immutable is shown thus: First, by authority, Malachi 3: I am God and I do not change: the Gloss says: "He says this lest it be thought that there is any mutability in God." It must be said that without doubt the divine being is altogether immutable: and this indeed must be maintained, although we cannot perfectly understand it; whence all agree in main…

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not guarded them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. And you say, In what shall we return?

And while God is provoked with frequent and continual offenses, he softens his indignation, and in his patience waits for the day of retribution, once for all determined. And although he has revenge in his power, he prefers to keep patience for a long while.

(Verse 7 and following) Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, 'How shall we return?' Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.

On account of its great intensity, this reflection is sometimes mingled with wonder. For the heart of those who see the Lord will rejoice. Seek the Lord, O sinners, and be strengthened in your thoughts because of hope. And seek his face through repentance at all times, and you will be sanctified by the holiness of his presence, and you will be purified of your iniquity.

Will a man rob God? For you are robbing me. And you say, In what have we robbed you? The tithe and the contribution.

With the curse you are cursed, and me you are robbing — the whole nation.

Bring all the tithe to the storehouse, and let there be food in my house; and test me now in this, says the LORD of hosts, whether I will not open for you the windows of the heavens and pour out for you a blessing until there is no sufficiency.

And I will rebuke the devourer for you, and it will not ruin the fruit of the ground for you; and the vine in the field will not miscarry for you, says the LORD of hosts.

And all the nations will call you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.

The Book of Remembrance

Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD. And you say, What have we spoken against you?

You have said, It is emptiness to serve God; and what gain is it that we have guarded his charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts?

(Verse 14) You have said, 'It is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his precepts, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?' LXX: And you said, 'It is vain to serve God; and what good is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?' To whom the Lord replied: You have said, It is in v…

It was, in fact, of their purely material interpretation of the law and of their failure to perceive that its temporal promises were but symbols of eternal rewards that they broke into such rebellious resentfulness as to say, "He labors in vain that serves God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances and that we have walked sorrowfully before the Lord of hosts?

And now we call the insolent happy; also those doing wickedness are built up; also they have tested God and have escaped.

Then those who fear the LORD spoke, each with his neighbor; and the LORD listened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the LORD and think on his name.

And they will be mine, says the LORD of hosts, for the day that I am making, a treasured possession; and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

And you will return and see between the righteous and the wicked, between the one serving God and the one who has not served him.

Malachi3

I Will Send My Messenger

Robbing God

The Book of Remembrance