1.
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to this temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
THE FORERUNNER AND THE MESSENGER
‘Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts.’
Malachi 3:1
I. The forerunner and his commission.—(1) The forerunner of the ‘Messenger of the covenant’ was John the Baptist (cf. St. Luke 2:25; Luke 2:38). (2) His commission was preparative. This is indicated ( a) By his own confession. ( b) By the character of his preaching.
II. The Messenger of the covenant and His commission.—(1) ‘The Messenger of the covenant’ is our Lord Himself. (2) His commission involved a fulfilment of human desire and expectation. (3) This commission included an unexpected visit to His Temple. (4) His commission is implied in the name assigned— Messenger of the Covenant.
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:
3.
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifer of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
4.
Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
5.
And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
6.
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
7.
Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
8.
Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9.
Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10.
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11.
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.
12.
And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.
13.
Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
14.
Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
15.
And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
16.
Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
17.
And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
JEWELS
‘My jewels.’
Malachi 3:17
There is much in the nature and history of jewels that strikingly illustrates the character of the Lord’s people.
I. There is an intrinsic difference between jewels and other common stones.—Carve and polish a flint as you will, you can never make it a jewel. So is it with the Christian: he has a new heavenly birth, a new life, one with Christ and Christ with him, created anew by the Holy Spirit in the image of God. It is no partial reformation, hewing off here and there a glaring sin, but a thorough vital change.
II. Jewels are won with cost, and toil, and peril, from dark and lonesome mines, or as pearls from the bed of the ocean.—‘Ah!’ the Christian will exclaim, ‘here is a picture of my case. Words cannot tell the blackness of my own heart before the grace of God; and the ungodly were my chosen companions. Jesus came from heaven to this world of sin and sorrow, and rescued me with infinite labour and cost; but oftentimes with deepest humiliation “do I look unto the rock whence I was hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence I was digged.” ’
III. Jewels, after they have been found and won, are mostly carried many hundred miles over stormy seas and burning sands.—Very few Christians are transplanted to heaven at once; most have to tread a long pilgrimage, and traverse ‘the waves of this troublesome world.’
IV. Jewels, moreover, have to undergo many processes before they are fit for setting in gold; they are carved, and ground, and polished, enduring many a hard blow, many a delicate operation. See in this the preparing of the Lord’s people for glory, their being ‘made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.’
V. Jewels are only bought with a great price.—I need not remind you ‘Ye were redeemed not with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ.’ Oh! if earthly treasures had availed, the Lord could have created ten thousand worlds of gold, and myriad angels would have brought the riches of the universe. But ‘it cost more to redeem one soul, so that man must let this alone for ever.’
Yet the weakest believer may well swell the joyous acclamation, ‘I know that my Redeemer lives.’
—Bishop E. H. Bickersteth.
18.
Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.