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Scott's Reference Library
December 7, 2003 | December 10, 2006 | December 6, 2009
Malachi 3:1 through Malachi 3:4 (NIV)
1“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then
suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the
covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.
2But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he
will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3He will sit as a refiner
and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and
silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,
4and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in
days gone by, as in former years.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 1-6
The first words of this chapter seem an answer to the scoffers of those days.
Here is a prophecy of the appearing of John the Baptist. He is Christ’s
harbinger. He shall prepare the way before him, by calling men to repentance.
The Messiah had been long called, “He that should come,” and now shortly he will
come. He is the Messenger of the covenant. Those who seek Jesus, shall find
pleasure in him, often when not looked for. The Lord Jesus, prepares the
sinner’s heart to be his temple, by the ministry of his word and the convictions
of his Spirit, and he enters it as the Messenger of peace and consolation. No
hypocrite or formalist can endure his doctrine, or stand before his tribunal.
Christ came to distinguish men, to separate between the precious and the vile.
He shall sit as a Refiner. Christ, by his gospel, shall purify and reform his
church, and by his Spirit working with it, shall regenerate and cleanse souls.
He will take away the dross found in them. He will separate their corruptions,
which render their faculties worthless and useless. The believer needs not fear
the fiery trial of afflictions and temptations, by which the Saviour refines his
gold. He will take care it is not more intense or longer than is needful for his
good; and this trial will end far otherwise than that of the wicked. Christ
will, by interceding for them, make them accepted. Where no fear of God is, no
good is to be expected. Evil pursues sinners. God is unchangeable. And though
the sentence against evil works be not executed speedily, yet it will be
executed; the Lord is as much an enemy to sin as ever. We may all apply this to
ourselves. Because we have to do with a God that changes not, therefore it is
that we are not consumed; because his compassions fail not.