The God of Justice
Malachi 2:17- 3:4
In chapter 1:13 the people were saying "Oh, what a weariness!' referring to the table of the LORD, but now the prophet says that they have wearied the LORD with their words.
In feigned injured innocence they ask their fifth question, "How have we wearied him?" They are offended that God would dare say this of them: they pretend to be entirely ignorant of their sins. God gives His answers through the prophet:
They offend God by saying that every one who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.
Did they really believe this, or were they saying this in sarcasm? In either case they are maligning the character of God. It certainly reminds us very much of the attitude today in many self-styled "Christian" churches which, in order to be attractive and politically correct, preach a God of love only, ignoring that He is also a God of justice and righteousness. John 3:16 says that "God loved the world", and indeed he loved His creation, but certainly not the sin it was covered in. In order to redeem it "He gave His only Son" to die so that "whoever believes in Him may have everlasting life." He only delights in those who receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
They offend God by asking, "Where is the God of justice?"
This question is asked frequently throughout the ages. Men who are big sinners are often prosperous and don't seem to have problems or trouble like those who try to serve the Lord. Once God's justice is put into doubt, standards of morality quickly drop into a kind of "new morality". "Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." (Ecclesiastes 8:11). It pays to do evil. Most people would say that crime does pay and people get by with as much as they possibly can. This applies to society in general. The honest little man is stepped on, and nobody cares.
Why doesn't God do something about it? The psalmist Asaph asks this question in Psalm 73 and got his answer when he went to God and then understood their end.
God's justice is inevitable, but He is patient and allows time for man to repent whilst he is in this world. Time slips by and one day each one of us will be in eternity - that is where all of us will "end" and it will be for time without measure. The godless today may build a "new morality" and accumulate as much wealth as they can, but they will have to leave it all and face the Judge tomorrow.
We need to be very careful about sitting in judgement upon the apparent inaction of God in our contemporary society. Any unsaved person who is familiar with the Word of God knows that he is a sinner and that there is a God of justice. He will not move in judgement immediately.
But the Lord will come to His temple
There will be two messengers: the first messenger will go before to prepare the way for the LORD.
Looking back over the twenty-four centuries since this was written we know that the first messenger came twenty centuries ago: John the Baptist. He identified himself as such and is quoted in all four of the Gospels as fulfilling this prophecy. He came to prepare the way for the "Lamb of God", the Messiah Jesus.
The messenger of the covenant is never quoted anywhere in the Gospels. He is the Messiah Jesus, who came to introduce the New Covenant, or Testament. He came in grace to save, as the Redeemer, and was rejected by the nation of Israel in His time: they did not delight in Him but crucified Him instead.
This passage isn't concerned with His first coming, however, but with His second coming, as a Judge, as the One who will establish His Kingdom and put down the rebellion that is on this earth. John the Baptist was an early and only partial fulfilment of this prophecy, and it awaits a later and complete fulfilment when Elijah (4:5) will prepare the people before that great and terrible day of the LORD comes.
Therefore, this is God's answer to the people of Israel: God will send Him first as a Saviour, not only to them but to all mankind, because He is gracious and He wants to save. But that doesn't end it all: He is coming again as the messenger of the covenant, that is, to execute justice and judgement on this earth.
God makes it very clear that He does intend to judge mankind. Having paid such a high price for our redemption, anyone who will not have Him as his Saviour is going to have Him as his judge whether they like it or not. He said, "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son, that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him." (John 5:22-23).
Whereas many have thought that the covenant of which Christ is the messenger is the New Covenant in the New Testament, the context implies that it has no reference to the first coming of Christ but rather to the covenant which God has made with the people of Israel, expressed in several places in the Scriptures (Leviticus 26:9-13, Deuteronomy 4:23, etc.).
The messenger of the covenant is coming someday to make good this covenant. God will dwell in their midst, and this is the reason we will also find in these first verses of Malachi 3 the cleansing and the purifying that will take place. God will not walk among them unless they are obedient unto Him, unless He has cleansed them and purified them. This is true, of course, of any Christian work today as well.
The Lord whom they sought is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh. He will suddenly come to His temple, meaning that when He comes it will be suddenly (the same is said about the Rapture, when the Lord will come for His church to take it out of the world). He is called the Lord, this is His temple, and He's the messenger of the covenant, so we know this is the Lord Jesus Christ. The One whom we know in the New Testament as the Lord Jesus Christ is the angel of the covenant in the Old Testament.
It is indeed for judgement that He is coming, for the prophet says: "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire…" In the refining process, the metal is put over red-hot fire, and as it begins to melt, the dross can be drawn off, and the metal is finally made pure. He will purify. "And like launderer's soap.." And He will clean.
He is going to purify, cleanse and purge those who enter the Millennium: no pollution is to be allowed there.
The Lord will then take a great delight in the sacrifice made by Judah and Jerusalem (the people to whom this prophecy was addressed) because the ones who are offering it have been cleansed and purified. God is not interested in our worship until our heart is right, until we have forsaken our sin and turned from it. We may fall into sin, but if you stay in it, God will not accept our worship.
In the time of Solomon, there was a period in which Israel served God in such a way that they witnessed to the entire world, and this holy and godly worship will be given again during the millennium.
R David Jones
Chapter 2:
17 You have wearied the LORD with your words; yet you say, "In what way have we wearied Him?" In that you say, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them," or, "Where is the God of justice?"
Chapter 3:
1 "Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts.
2 "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 launderer's soap.
3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness.
4 "Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the LORD, as in the days of old, as in former years.