Malachi: "He Will Sit as a Refiner": The Messenger and the Tithe (2:10–3:15)

Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with one another so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?

Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the LORD’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. As for the man who does this, may the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who is awake and aware—even if he brings an offering to the LORD of Hosts.

And this is another thing you do: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and groaning, because he no longer regards your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands.

Yet you ask, “Why?”

It is because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

Has not the LORD made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because he seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel. “He who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence,” says the LORD of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith.

You have wearied the LORD with your words; yet you ask, “How have we wearied him?”

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the LORD, and in them he delights,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”

“Behold, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple—the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight—see, he is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts.

But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.

And he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.

Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD, as in days of old and years gone by.

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

“Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed. Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts.

“But you ask, ‘How can we return?’

Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!

But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’

In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing me. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your land, and the vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the LORD of Hosts.

“Then all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight,” says the LORD of Hosts.

“Your words against me have been harsh,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against you?’

You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping his requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts? So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’ ”