The Coming Messenger

3 I will send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. He is coming, says the Lord of Hosts.

² 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; he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, and they will present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. ⁴ Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

⁵ Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against the perjurers, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who turn aside the stranger, and do not fear Me, says the Lord of Hosts.

Withholding Tithes

⁶ For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. ⁷ From the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts.

But you say, “How shall we return?”

⁸ Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me.

But you say, “How have we robbed You?”

In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are cursed with a curse, your whole nation, for you are robbing Me. ¹⁰ Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this, says the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing, that there will not be room enough to receive it. ¹¹ I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that it will not destroy the fruit of your ground, and the vines in your field will not fail to bear fruit, says the Lord of Hosts. ¹² Then all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of Hosts.

¹³ Your words have been hard against Me, says the Lord.

Yet you say, “What have we spoken against You?”

¹⁴ You said, “It is vain to serve God. What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of Hosts? ¹⁵ And now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are built up; they even test God and escape.”

The Reward of the Faithful

¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. The Lord listened and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name.

¹⁷ They shall be Mine, says the Lord of Hosts, on the day when I make up My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. ¹⁸ Then you will again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.