The Messenger of the Covenant
17 You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in Yahweh’s sight, and he delights in them;’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’ Malachi 3 1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me! The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple. Behold, the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, is coming!” says Yahweh of Armies. 2 “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap; 3 and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Yahweh as in the days of old and as in ancient years. 5 I will come near to you to judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.
They ask where the God of justice is, and the answer is that he is coming — which turns out to be a more alarming reply than they expected.
You have wearied Yahweh with your words. The objection is quoted as usual, and the words that wearied him are given: evildoers prosper and God is pleased with them, or else — where is the God of justice?
The reply begins in the next verse and grants the demand exactly. He is coming. A messenger will prepare the way before him, and then the Lord whom you seek will come suddenly to his temple, the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Three figures in one verse, and the word for messenger is the book's own title word Malachi 2:7.
But verse 2 turns the answer over: who can endure the day of his coming, and who will stand when he appears? A refiner's fire and launderers' soap are both agents that remove things, and neither is gentle. The refiner sits down — the posture is patient, not hasty — and the first metal into the crucible is the sons of Levi, the very priesthood chapter 1 indicted. The God of justice they asked for arrives, and he begins at the temple.
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