Note from Celeste:
Before we look at today’s lectionary reading, I’d like to draw your attention to my Advent Bible Study books.
Getting Ready for Christmas is part of the Choose This Day Multiple Choice Bible Studies series, available in paperback and ebook.
The daily devotionals take 10-15 minutes and include:
- Scripture passage (World English Bible)
- Fun, entertaining multiple choice questions focused directly on the Scripture passage
- Short meditation that can be used as a discussion starter.
Like an Advent calendar, Getting Ready for Christmas begins on December 1 and ends December 25. However, these 25 devotionals focusing on the Messiah can be used any time of year.
Use this book personally during a coffee break or with the family in the car or at the dinner table.
Order Getting Ready for Christmas today to prepare your family for this year’s Christmas season!
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Kindle book of Getting Ready for Christmas.
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Paperback of Getting Ready for Christmas.
And here’s the link to its puzzle companion book: Getting Ready for Christmas Word Search Puzzles for Advent.
It’s a large-print puzzle book with over 1,200 hidden words taken straight from the same 25 Scripture readings. (30 puzzles in all.)
If you’re not in the U.S., you can still order the books from your country’s amazon platform. Simply search for “Getting Ready for Christmas” by Celesta Letchworth.
Thank you for your consideration! And thank you for faithfully following Tom’s SOAR blog!
AND NOW, BACK TO TODAY’S LECTIONARY READING:
He is like a refiner’s fire.
START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Malachi 3:1-4
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM
OBSERVE:
The prophetic book of Malachi occupies a unique position in the Hebrew Bible, (commonly known as the Old Testament). Although Malachi was probably written in the 5th century B.C. and there are other Biblical books that were written later, Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament.
If you flip the page after Malachi’s last chapter, you will turn directly to the genealogy of Jesus included in Matthew’s Gospel. So, Malachi gets the last word for the Old Testament.
This seems fitting because Malachi is calling the people of Judah and Jerusalem to repentance. Repentance is needed in their priesthood, their worship, their tithing, their marriages, and their families.
The prophet declares on behalf of the Lord:
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.
Just who is this messenger? Malachi answers this question in Malachi 4:5:
Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.
The irony is that though the people profess to seek the Lord, the coming of the Lord may not be a day of comfort:
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
Malachi is warning that when the Lord appears, he will purify them with extreme measures:
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.
The refiner’s fire refers to the process of refining and purifying precious metals such as gold and silver through intense heat. The fire melts the ore into liquid form, separating the precious metal from the dross that is then skimmed away.
Fullers’ soap is made from the ashes of plants for the purposes of making and cleaning cloths as well as thickening them.
These images are meant to describe the moral cleansing that the Lord will accomplish among the priestly caste of Israel so that the sacrifices in the temple will be consistent with the Lord’s righteousness.
Impure sacrifices and corrupted leadership of worship had been a recurring problem in the history of the priesthood, often condemned by the prophets. Quite often this impurity was also associated with social injustice and moral malfeasance as well as ritual impropriety (see 1 Samuel 2:12-17, 22-25; Isaiah 28:7-8; Jeremiah 32:31-35; Hosea 5:1-2, to name just a few).
But after the refiner’s fire burns through:
Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
APPLY:
What does this passage tell us about Advent and the preparation for the coming of Christ? One answer that we may not like — Be careful what you ask for, because you may get it!
From a Christian perspective, the messenger, (a.k.a Elijah), is identified as John the Baptist:
For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come (Matthew 11:13-14).
But contained in this message is a warning. Those who are seeking and desiring the coming of the Lord may be alarmed by what is necessary in order to prepare for him:
…who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
God’s coming will be like a refiner’s fire — not for the purpose of destroying, but for the purpose of purifying. Then, and only then, after we are purified, will our offerings, our “works” be acceptably righteous before God.
This is a moral lesson to us. The same fire that destroys may also temper steel. The fire will come to all of us. It can be either the fire of judgment or the fire of purification that prepares us for the coming of the Lord.
RESPOND:
Years ago when I was in seminary a friend invited me to attend a Salvation Army service in a downtown church. I went along, expecting to see homeless people, drug addicts, prostitutes and the like.
I was a little surprised that the congregation looked like most Protestant congregations I’d seen — parents with their kids, folks dressed for church. Oh, there were a few folks that looked like they were a little down and out, and of course there were Salvation Army officers in their uniforms.
The service was very much like any Protestant service, with similar liturgy and hymns.
When the Salvation Army officer stepped up to the pulpit, I was a little disappointed. He was a short guy in a uniform, with a crew cut. He placed his hat on the pulpit and then began to read his sermon. As a seminary student, I was critical. I’d certainly heard more polished sermons with more dramatic delivery, and I felt sure that I could do a better job as well.
And then, while he preached, I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit whispered to me that this man had ministered to pimps, prostitutes, drug addicts and the poor in ways that I never would.
And then he told a story that has stuck with me for over 35 years. He said that in ancient times when gold was refined, they took the dirty ore and placed it in a kind of cauldron. The refiner then began to heat the cauldron until it glowed red. Meanwhile, the refiner was stirring the ore as it began to melt, and as it melted he skimmed off the impurities and the dross.
This process continued until all of the gold had been melted to liquid form, and all of the impurities had been skimmed off. And the way that the refiner knew that the gold had been purified was by looking into the gold and seeing his own image reflected there.
That is what God does in our lives as well. He uses the “heat” in our lives, and he stirs, until the impurities of our lives have surfaced and been skimmed away; and then he can finally look into our lives and see his own face reflected there.
Lord, help me to see the fiery trials through which I pass as an opportunity for purification. Purify my heart so that my “offerings” may be pure as well. Amen.
PHOTOS: "Pouring Liquid Gold" by Dan Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
SOAR Lectionary Bible Study 