Malachi 3

3 ¹Look, I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord whom you are seeking will come to his temple—Jesus, the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Look, he is coming, says the Father of heaven's armies. ^a a v1 The messenger who prepares the way is John the Baptist, and the Lord who comes to his temple is Jesus — the messenger of the covenant. Mark opens his Gospel with these very words (Mark 1:2). ²"But who can endure the day he comes? Who can stand when he appears? He is like a refiner's fire, like a launderer's soap. ³He will sit refining and purifying silver; he will purify Levi's sons and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings to our Father in righteousness. ⁴Then Judah and Jerusalem's offering will please our Father, as in days past, as in former years."

⁵I will come near to judge you, a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, those who swear falsely, who cheat the worker of his wages, oppress the widow and orphan, push aside the foreigner, and do not fear me, says the Father of heaven's armies.

Return to Your Father

⁶For I, your Father, do not change; therefore you, children of Jacob, have not been destroyed.

⁷Since your ancestors' days you have turned from my statutes and not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Father of heaven's armies. But you ask, 'How are we to return?'

⁸Will a person rob their Father? Yet you rob me. But you ask, 'How have we robbed you?' In the tenth and the offerings. ⁹You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me—the whole nation of you. ¹⁰Bring the full tenth into the storehouse, so there's food in my house. Test me in this, says the Father of heaven's armies, and see if I won't open heaven's windows for you and pour out blessing for you until there's no more need. ¹¹I will rebuke the devourer for you, so it will not destroy your ground's fruit, and your vine in the field will not fail to bear, says the Father of heaven's armies. ¹²Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Father of heaven's armies.

¹³Your words were harsh against me, says our Father. But you ask, 'What have we said against you?'

¹⁴You said, 'Serving God is useless. What have we gained by keeping his charge and walking as mourners before the Father of heaven's armies?' ¹⁵Now we call the arrogant blessed. Those who do evil prosper; they even test God and escape.

¹⁶Then those who feared our Father spoke to one another, and he listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written before him for those who fear him and treasure his name.

¹⁷They will be mine, says the Father of heaven's armies, on the day I act, my treasured possession. I will spare them as a father spares his son who serves him. ¹⁸Once more you will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves our Father and one who does not serve him.