Malachi 3:2-3 reads, “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 launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness.”

The book of Malachi is a most solemn book that describes the spiritual decline of the nation of Israel. If you read Chapter one, verses 6-14, you will see that Israel failed to “offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Their priests (the sons of Levi) were offering “POLLUTED bread” (verse 7) and animals that were BLIND, LAME, and SICK” (verse 8). In verse 11 the Lord rebuked them sharply for this and then spoke of the time when His name would be “great among the Gentiles…who would offer “incense and a pure offering.” He rebukes them sharply for offering that which was “TORN, and the LAME, and the SICK…and a CORRUPT thing” (verses 13-14). In short, they were “going through the motions of worshiping the Lord” but it was all superficial and revealed a heart that was “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). When the Lord appeared 400 years later their wickedness and hypocrisy were even worse, which led them to reject the Lord Jesus as their Messiah. And thus we read, “He came unto His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).

In our portion above we see the Lord will come again and when He does it will be a “Day of Judgment.” He will remove the wicked from off the earth before He establishes His Millennial Kingdom. The wicked will NOT be able to stand before Him (to plead their case or to rebel against Him). His judgment of the wicked will be against “all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly” throughout the world (see 4:1), but in our verses His judgment will be of the “wicked among the nation of Israel.” His judgment of Israel is likened unto a REFINER who will “sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver” who will remove the dross (the wicked) from Israel, including the wicked from “the sons of Levi” (the priests who made the offerings to the Lord on behalf of the nation). Here is another passage that speaks of this same “refining passage”:

“And it shall come to pass in all the land, says the LORD, ‘That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one-third shall be left in it: I will bring the one-third through the fire, will REFINE THEM AS SILVER IS REFINED, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, This is My people; and each one will say, The LORD is my God’” (Zechariah 13:8-9).

It is solemn to think that two-thirds of the nation of Israel will be “cut off and die” because of their unbelief. But it is precious to see that the Lord will have mercy on one-third of the nation by using “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (see Jeremiah 30:7) to humble them and bring them to repentance and faith. This “purifying of the sons of Levi” will cause them to praise the Lord will “new hearts” (see Ezekiel 36:16-28) and then they will “offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness.”  (DO)  (682.3)