Who Can Stand Before the Lord?

How easy it is to be bitter at God's dealings with other sinners when He's been so gracious toward our own sin. This is the great conundrum of the human heart, which rarely recognizes its own depravity as easily as it spots the depravity of others. This is where the remnant of Israel found itself in Malachi chapter 2. 

Malachi 2:17 (ESV) You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

The people were looking for God to judge evil people. They were even questioning His fairness. Where is the God of justice??? Did they not realize that if justice had come, they would be dead? These people had been offering second-rate sacrifices, calling worship a weariness, while divorcing their wives and marrying pagans (and that's all that's been reported thus far, up to Malachi 2:16). They committed the most common sin: judging others while receiving mercy for themselves. 

Judging others is the oldest response to our guilt in the book. Adam blamed the woman, the woman blamed the serpent, and they both, by implication, laid the blame on God for starting the whole "creation" thing in the first place. 

So what does Malachi say next?

Malachi 3:1 (ESV) “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.

This is yet another prophecy about John the Baptist; Isaiah 40:3 said it, and now Malachi reinforces it. Later, in the book, Malachi names this man as Elijah. Jesus affirms that the reference was about John. John had a ministry much like Elijah, coming out of nowhere, prophesying to the powerful, calling for repentance, and preparing God's people for God's judgment. And in John the Baptist, that ministry occured just before Jesus arrived. 

Malachi asks a probing question in verse 2:

Malachi 3:2–3 (ESV) But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.

The arrival of the Lord will pierce the heart of the nation. He will separate true from false Israel. He will cleanse them and burn away the priests' impurities, making them precious stones. This work is what Christ accomplished, not in bringing judgment on sinners, but in bearing their judgment on Himself! He caused many in Israel to stumble, He brought many of Israel back to God, and through His blood He washed them clean, and through the Holy Spirit, He purifies them, sets upon them a royal priesthood, and now calls them His precious stones (see 1 Peter 2:9-10). 

What argument can be made about God's justice (or fairness) when we consider Christ's Cross? NONE! We all stand guilty before Him, and yet He willingly bore our guilt and shame on the cross. The greatest event of cosmic injustice happened to the Lord on our behalf. We have no complaints. We have been redeemed.

Malachi concludes this section with a further warning that applies to God's people then as it does today. 

Malachi 3:5 (ESV) “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.

The Lord will take the sin of witchcraft (sorcery), adultery, lies, oppression, and inhospitality seriously. God's people are to reflect God's heart for sinners while hating sin themselves. Only the Lord Jesus can do this, through His blood, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, His people are turned from sin to righteousness.