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 Read Malachi 3:1-4.
Every year during the holiday season, we wait anxiously, anticipate surprises, and maintain a robust, enthusiastic energy like no other time of the year. We attend celebrations and parties. We buy special gifts for our loved ones and friends. We began to decorate our homes, offices, churches, and businesses. We make travel plans and gather special recipes for the big celebratory day—Christmas. Preparing is hard work, but we find that it is worth it.
The Prophet Malachi calls us to a deeper kind of preparation as we anticipate the coming of Christ again at Christmas. He calls us to a sincere spiritual preparation. “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way, before me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.” This messenger is the Son of God who came to us in Jesus Christ. Preparing for the Lord’s coming is a matter of purification. True spiritual preparation involves repentance and judgment.
Malachi had a message of warning. He said that the coming of the Lord means judgment. He asks, “Who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?” No one can. If the messenger is to come, why must he be like a refiners’ fire?
The answer is stated in the Word itself. He must be like a refiner’s fire because we need to be refined. A refiner’s fire does not consume and destroy like a “wild fire.” A refiner’s fire refines. It purifies. It melts down the bar of silver or gold. It separates out the impurities that ruin its value and burns them up, leaving the silver and gold in tact.
The reason Jesus is like a refiner’s fire and not a wild fire is because God made a covenant. And Jesus is the representative of that covenant. He confirms it and seals it with his blood. So His blood is called “the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Hebrews 13:20).
We share the words from infancy to adulthood, “Don’t play with fire, because fire burns.” This fire is symbolic of purification. God wants to refine us. God wants to burn, scrape, and tear away the tarnish in our spirit and make us as pure gold.
We were indeed created in the image of God for the purpose of revering, trusting, obeying and glorifying God. Yet we were born in iniquity and conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5). We fall short of God’s glory over and over, but as Christians we get back up again. In other words, the refiner’s fire is very important to cleanse our temple and make us pure.
While you are preparing for the Christmas holidays, don’t forget that the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come and purify you and wash you whiter than snow. Remember to seek and desire cleansing by the Refiner’s fire this holiday season and for the rest of your life.
Prayer: O Most Gracious and Loving God, thank you that you have come as a Refiner’s Fire, not as a consuming fire, but as a purifier. As we prepare for this holiday season, may we forever be reminded that you love us, that your covenant remains for us today, and there is hope in Christ Jesus. With a sincere heart in the name of Jesus, thank you for refining and loving us. Amen.
Mary Tellis
Metro Denver Ministry
and Mission Coach
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