Malachi 3:1-7
Breaking the Cycle

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight -- indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can 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; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.

Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.

For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished. Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, "How shall we return?"

New Revised Standard Version

On one level, this passage is a foretelling of what God would do to bring salvation. We see clearly that this passage speaks of John the Baptist, one who comes to "prepare the way for Me", one who is a "messenger", one who will challenge the sinful nature of the people and call them to repentance. For musicians, this analogy is strengthened by the inclusion of this text in Handel's Messiah. (Yet one more reason to sing in the choir!)

At the same time, John the Baptist wasn't the perfect fulfillment of this prophesy. The result of his ministry did not achieve the right relationship with God's people that Malachi saw in this oracle. Given that Malachi in chapter 4 says that God will send the prophet Elijah before "that great and dreadful day of the Lord", we might see John the Baptist as an earlier instance of what God is planning to do at the Second Coming.

Then again, to focus this message on just the person of John the Baptist 2000 years ago and the coming of Elijah before the Day of the Lord misses so much of the truth that Malachi wants us to hear. Over the centuries, God has sent many, many messengers to purify and refine the people of God, to call them to repentance, restoration, and back into a relationship with God. God does this because God never changes. God wants us to live lives of humility, love, and righteousness in affirmation of our fellow humans and in close communion with our Maker, and God continues to extend that invitation even though we fail to accept it again and again. In that sense, this is not a foretelling of specific persons as much as a prophesy of the sinful nature of humanity and the loving, patient, perfect nature of God.

But God says it has to stop. We hurt ourselves when we live in defiance of who God made us to be. We rob ourselves from God's blessings when we reject God's way for ourselves. We poison our relationships with each other when we leave out God's love, and the result is opportunistic repression of others, with everyone losing in the end. Furthermore, we know that God is forever, but we are finite, so we have only limited opportunities to repent and accept God's forgiveness.

Malachi tells us how to break out of the cycle. He starts with the "house of Levi", meaning the priests, so he reminds us that all of us, even those who appear the most righteous, need repentance. He talks of a "refiner's fire", calling to mind images of the furnaces in which precious metals like silver were melted at temperatures that would burn away the impurities. In just that way, we need to put aside those sinful habits that distract us from God's service. He talks of "fullers' soap", and he calls up the difficult and smelly task in his day of cleaning wool. The "soap" itself was an alkaline mixture resulting from burning wood to ash, and the soap, such as it was, was worked into the wool by beating the wool until the action of the alkali and the vigorous thrashing cleaned and prepared the wool to be made into clothing. The process was tiresome, and the materials used smelled so badly that they had to be used only outside the city gates. God's forgiveness is "easy" in a way -- all we have to do is receive it -- but purging our lives of that which would lead us away from God is hard work, and Malachi wants us never to forget the hard work required to grow in righteousness.

Malachi also tells us that success in our journey to righteousness comes because God is always there for us. Even though God has never left us, even though God never changes, God is always willing to come to us as we turn back and go to God. We don't have to create our righteousness -- we just have to make the effort.

The last phrase in this passage is depressing, though, because it shows how easily we can continue the cycle. The response Malachi saw from the people, again and again throughout this oracle, was self-righteousness denial. How, as the people, can we return when, implied in the Hebrew text, we never left? With that attitude, there is no possibility for reconciliation with God, and the cycle continues.