“Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will
prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to
his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is
surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
“But who will be able to endure it when he
comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be
like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches
clothes. He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will
purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once
again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. Then once more the Lord will
accept the offerings brought to him by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as he
did in the past. Malachi 3:1-5 (NLT)
It’s easy to do a couple of things with this passage. It’s easy to
get confused, and it’s easy to dismiss this passage as something written for
someone else. But, this is written for us, just not to us.
The first messenger that
Malachi mentions is John the Baptist. “He will prepare the way before me.”
That’s clear. Then, the Lord will appear. This is Jesus, the Messiah. Then,
some fear enters in. What if we can’t face the Messiah when He comes? What if
His presence is too powerful for us?
I’m intrigued by how the Messiah entered the world. He didn’t come
on horseback with guns blazing. He didn’t come in an overwhelming and
unbearable fashion. Jesus came in the most innocent way possible, as a baby. No
one is afraid of a baby. No one is threatened by a child, except for King
Herod.
But, Malachi wasn’t off base in this prophesy. He was hearing
right. The Messiah came to save His people and to perfect them. “He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away
the dross.” Jesus will remove every impurity from us. He will
take away anything that interferes with who He has designed us to be.
Jesus will continue this work until He can clearly
see the best version of each of us that He could possibly design. That doesn’t
mean we will end up identical like paper dolls on a string. Each of us is
unique. Jesus wants to reveal the best part of who we are. In the process, He
must remove the lesser parts of who we are.
What “dross” do you see in your life? What are
your circumstances revealing about your progress? Right now submit what you are
facing to Jesus and ask Him to use it as a tool in your life. Ask Him to make
the best version of you.
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