Who can endure the day of His coming? (Malachi - ministry era 450-430 B.C.?)                  

Malachi 3:1.  "See, 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.

 5.  "So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.

 6.  "I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.               

A few years ago I heard Squire Parsons sing a song on a Gaither Homecoming video. The song that Mr. Parsons had written and sang so marvelously was “Sweet Beulah Land.” I really enjoy hearing him sing that song. It's a song of hope, of promise, of longing.

“Beulah” land is a term that comes to us from a prophecy in Isaiah 62 (verse 4). It is a ‘new name’ that God said He would give to Israel when Israel became “righteous” and exhibited the “Glory” and “Splendor” of being God’s Hand extended.

The caveat is being “righteous.” We get that clarifier in Malachi 3:7 where, among other things, God expects the righteousness of Israel to include paying laborers their fair wages, taking care of widows and the fatherless, providing justice and treating equitably the “aliens” among them, and holding God in awe.

Well, as the Apostle Paul has written, we are now those ‘grafted-in’ children of God – and as such are under that same calling of being “righteous” as God had place upon those who, under the law, had called themselves by His Name.

Since we are in a relationship with God through Grace, our opportunities escalate in that we have the great privilege and responsibility of bringing Grace along with ‘fair wages,’ care-giving  and hospitality.

This third chapter of Malachi deals with fairness, to God and to others. We can’t rob God and get by with it. We can’t short change, or treat begrudgingly, those in society who are weaker than us – and get by with it. God is watching.

If we are wanting to inherit our little portion of “Sweet Beulah Land” we have this unwavering responsibility because He, “…the Lord does not change.”

And, He is coming near to us for judgment! Who can endure His coming. He is coming to do the laundry. He won’t tolerate ‘spots’ or ‘wrinkles.’ He is coming in judgment for a people “…without blemish,” “washed by the Blood of the Lamb,” walking in righteousness.