Monday, December 9-Peace

Malachi 3:1-4

“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.

2 But 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. 3 He 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, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.”

The long-ago writer ponders the question, “Who can stand when he appears?” It’s a query that has resonated for more than two thousand years. Malachi states that the Lord will send a messenger to prepare the way before the Messiah, the messenger of the covenant, appears. John the Baptist later fulfilled the prophecy in verse 1, preparing the way in the wilderness for the public declaration of Jesus as the son of God.

Jesus’ first coming, the event that John so eagerly related to his followers, was a bold reminder to the Jews and generations of later Christians that our ultimate redemption was near. We all need to be refined and purified with the fire of the Holy Spirit and offer our lives as “offerings in righteousness,” not half-heartedly but with our entire minds, bodies, and souls. Then, we can wait for the second coming or resurrection with the confidence that we will stand before the Lord with a redeemed, sanctified heart on the great day of judgment. We need not tremble with fear and doubt, but stand with confidence.

As Fanny Crosby so richly penned in 1873,

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
 O what a foretaste of glory divine
 Heir of salvation, purchase of God
 I'm born of His Spirit, washed in His blood

SCOTT MINGUS SR