BUT WHO MAY ABIDE THE DAY OF HIS COMING?

"Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” (Joel 2:1). 

"Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, Whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.  But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness." (Malachi 3:1-3).

About 400 years before John the Baptist was born, or Jesus Christ began his earthly ministry, the prophet Malachi foretold the arrival of these two messengers.  The first messenger, John the Baptist, would be the herald who would announce the coming of the other, more important Messenger, Jesus Christ. 

God, in His great mercy, sent John as a forerunner to announce Christ’s arrival.  John came in the spirit and power of Elijah the Prophet to call the Jews to repentance for their hypocrisy and apostasy.  He challenged their corroding morals and their religious traditions with which they subverted the laws of God.  John was, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness."  His message to Israel was, "Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”  He preached that “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." (Isaiah 40:3, 4).  John’s ministry was the transition, or bridge, between the Old and the New Covenants between God and man.  The angel who was sent to announce John’s birth to his father said of him, “And he [John] shall go before Him [Jesus] in the spirit and power of Elias [Elijah], to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:17).  God knew that if His people could not receive John's ministry, they would never be able to receive Christ's either.  So, John’s message was one that was intended to soften the hearts of God’s people through repentance and to prepare them to receive the things that Jesus Himself would soon teach them. 

John’s message and methods were unorthodox and confrontational to be sure.  Rather than preaching in the synagogues and the temple, he went out into the wilderness and preached there in the power of the Spirit.  His diet and his attire were austere, and his appearance was probably off-putting to refined tastes.  The people were drawn to his message, though, because the Word of God had been revealed to him, and he spoke it with great authority (Luke 3:2).  When the Pharisees and Sadducees (those religious sects of the time who maintained an appearance of godliness, but were far from God in their hearts) approached him to be baptized, he said to them, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bring forth therefore fruits meet [worthy of; suitable] for repentance...every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” (Matthew 3:7-9).  John knew that God was looking for the true fruit of righteousness in those who would call themselves godly, and not just a vain profession of faith for appearance sake.  He also knew that Jesus would be harder on them than he could ever be.  It was his deep love for the people of God that caused John to question and challenge their motives, and force them to examine themselves in the light of God’s Word.  Every mountain had to be leveled, and every crooked way had to be straightened! 

Unfortunately, as much as John tried to prepare the people, not many were able to abide the day of the Lord’s coming.  The Word that Jesus spoke was like a sharp, two-edged sword that divided the soul and spirit, and could discern the thoughts and intents of the hearts.  His coming was like the rising of the sun when it becomes so bright that one must look away or cover one’s eyes because of its brilliance.  The Jews soon discovered that, “...all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.” (Hebrews 4:13).  There were those, however, who heard and received the Words of Life that the Lord spoke, and embraced them as the Words of Eternal Life!

Jesus Christ, the Messenger of the Covenant, was the very One Whom the nation of Israel said they had been waiting and longing for.  They had long been seeking to know the time of His arrival.  They professed to delight in Him, and they longed to see Him come and establish Israel's place among the nations once more.  The prophecy that Malachi speaks concerning Messiah's coming, however, sounds more ominous than hopeful.  He said Messiah would, “...suddenly come to His temple,” and, “...who may abide the day of His coming?”  Malachi also said that, “He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.”  Indeed, Israel was not prepared for what they got in Christ when He did, in fact, appear to them.  They were not ready or willing to have their faith and morality challenged so openly, nor to have their motives exposed to so great a light.  The religious leaders had gained too much power and influence over the people, and they did not want to lose it.

This Messenger of the Covenant was sent from heaven to announce a New Covenant that God wished to make with His people.  The Israelites had broken the first covenant that God made with them when they came out of Egypt with Moses.  That covenant was based on their obedience to the Law that God delivered to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  God told them at that time, “If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people…and ye shall be a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5, 6).  God was willing to make a new, better covenant with His people.  It was one that was not based solely on works, but on a personal relationship with God based on faith in the finished work of Christ Jesus, God’s only begotten Son.  God had spoken of this New Covenant through His prophet Jeremiah when He said, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people.  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).  This, then, would be the foundation for man’s relationship with his Creator forever.

God used two metaphors in Malachi’s prophecy to describe the process that He would employ in cleansing and purifying His people.  He said the Lord would be like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap.  Both of those processes - the refining of precious metals and the cleansing of wool and other cloth by the use of fuller’s soap - are very intense operations. 

Refining silver or gold requires the use of heat high enough to actually alter the normal state of the metal.  The heat causes a shift from a solid to a fluid state that releases all of the particles of impurities that are trapped inside the metal.  What before was unseen now becomes seen as these impurities float to the top of the molten metal.  God employs this same method with us.  He changes our normal state by allowing the heat to be turned up in our lives until the impurities in our character rise to the top and become apparent.  He uses things like tribulation, difficulties, setbacks, temptations, disagreements, etc., to crank up the heat.  This is when our “normal state” is altered, and the faults and impurities in our character become visible.  Then we can really see and acknowledge our flaws and bring them to the Lord in repentance to be skimmed away. 

The other process that Malachi mentions is the work of the Fuller.  According to Easton's Bible Dictionary, “fulling” is the “ancient art of pressing or scouring cloth in a mill.  Fullers also used their feet to stomp out garments.”  An article on the No Stone Left Unturned Facebook page says, “A fuller was someone who cleaned and thickened (to make it "full") freshly-woven (usually woolen) cloth. The process involved cleaning, bleaching, wetting and beating the fibers to a consistent and desirable condition.  Fuller's earth was a variety of clay that was used to scour and cleanse the cloth.  Fuller's soap was an alkali made from plant ashes which was also used to clean and [make] full new cloth.  Since fullers required plenty of running water, along with the natural substances described, a fuller's field was a place where all [those elements] were available for the fullers to conduct their profession.”  From these descriptions, the same picture emerges as that of the refining process: namely, it takes some drastic measures to work out the impurities in the fabric of our lives.  Stomping, scouring, bleaching, and beating were required, along with strong cleansing agents and much water, to purify the wool or cloth being processed.  There are no more powerful cleansing agents in the universe than the Word of God and the precious blood of the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.  Paul describes this cleansing process that the Church must go through when he writes, “That He [Christ] might sanctify and cleanse it [the Church] with the washing of water by the word, that He [Christ] might present it [the Church] to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:26, 27).  It should be evident to us that the Lord is not interested in ushering us into heaven some day in the same state that He found us.  No, He wishes to clean us up and make us fit to be citizens of the Kingdom that is to come.  Heaven is a holy and righteous place for a holy and righteous people.  John, the Beloved Apostle wrote, “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He [Christ] is pure.” (1 John 3:3).  This was the message that Isaiah, Malachi, and John the Baptist were divinely inspired to announce to the world, and Jesus Christ would be the One Whom God would send to accomplish this work in His people.  John said, “...He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” (Matthew 3:11).

Malachi also prophesied of John the Baptist’s coming with these words, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5).  Luke refers to this prophecy in his Gospel when he quotes the angel that was sent to John’s father in Luke 1:17.  The angel, however, does not quote the entire prophecy, but omits the words “...before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.”  This indicates that the prophecy speaks of more than one single event.  The first event is when John came and proclaimed the coming of the Messiah to bring the Gospel of Peace to the world.  The second fulfillment will be prior to Jesus’ second coming when He returns to execute judgment on the ungodly and usher in “…the great and dreadful day of the LORD.”  

I believe that before Christ comes again there will be a company of believers – witnesses for the truth - who have been nurtured and perfected by the Church for the purpose of preparing the hearts of God’s people for the Lord’s second coming much like John the Baptist did right before Jesus’ first appearance.  They will operate in the spirit and power of Elijah and will mightily preach repentance to God’s people.  Like John the Baptist, they will speak to the hypocrisy, corroding morals, and apostasy of those in their age who name the name of Christ, but do not follow His teachings.  These Witnesses will be greatly anointed to preach the Word of God and will have power to work many signs and wonders in the Lord’s name.  The ones called to this ministry will not be puffed up or self-promoting in any way.  They will have no interest in selling books or DVD’s, building large churches or cathedrals, or organizing worldwide crusades.  Their focus will be to magnify the Lord, glorify His name, and call the unrighteous to repentance.  They will be profoundly humble, believing, like John the Baptist, that, “He that cometh after me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.”  Also, like John, they will have learned that Jesus must increase in their lives, but they must decrease (John 3:30).  You can read about this company in the eleventh chapter of Revelations.  There, they are called the Two Witnesses and are described as, “...the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.” (Revelations 11:4).  These will be a company of believers rather than just two individuals, much like the Bride of Christ is referred to as a single person, but is actually a company of overcomers who have made their garments white in the blood of the Lamb.  The Two Witnesses will receive power from God to prophecy for three and a half years (1260 days).  During that time, they will be supernaturally protected from harm until they have finished their testimony.  They will have power to stop the rain, turn water into blood, and bring plagues upon the earth.  After the three and a half years, when they will have finished their testimony, they will be martyred and their bodies will be left to lie in the streets for three and a half days before God sends the Spirit of life into them again and calls them up to heaven. 

The Church today is in a sad state.  She is broken and fractured by many denominations and doctrines that have divided and alienated believers from one another.  Paul says in Ephesians four that there is but one body; and yet, we are split into hundreds of differing groups who find it hard to find fellowship with one another.  These things should not be!  Many churches are filled with those who are uncircumcised (in their hearts) and unclean (in their spirits) but are not being challenged to repent and prepare themselves for the coming of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God (See Colossians 2:11 and Isaiah 52:1).  Malachi speaks of that day of judgment when he says, “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” (Malachi 4:1).  As a Church, we need to be stirred up and challenged to follow after the Lord with a fervent spirit, and to lay aside our selfish, self-centered pursuits in order to see His will done on earth even as it is done in heaven!

The Prophet Zechariah saw a vision of the same olive trees that the Apostle John saw in his Revelation.  The vision that the Prophet saw was of two olive trees that supplied a never-ending flow of fresh olive oil into two bowls, or reservoirs, that were mounted above two candlesticks.  Each candlestick had seven lamps that were fed oil from the two bowls by means of seven tubes, or pipes.  When he asked the angel what these were, instead of answering directly, the angel said, “This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.  Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.” (Zechariah 4:6, 7).  You see, Zerubbabel was appointed by the Persians to govern Judaea and manage the rebuilding of the temple of God in Jerusalem when the captive Jews were released from Babylon to return to their home.  The prophecy that Zechariah was to deliver to Zerubbabel indicated clearly that the task that the Jews were undertaking would be accomplished, not by their own might or power, but by the Spirit of Almighty God!  No matter how great a mountain might stand before them, God would remove it, and Israel would know that it was purely a work of grace that God Himself had engineered!  The angel then answered Zechariah’s question and told him that the olive trees were, “...the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” (Zechariah 4:14).

What this means is that the ministry of the Two Witnesses will be fully directed and anointed by the Spirit of the Lord.  They will proclaim the great message of grace and faith to whoever will listen and receive their words.  They will teach God’s people how to walk in the Spirit and not trust in their own strength.  They will also call God’s people to repentance and to make their crooked ways straight.  Mountains that once stood before God’s people will now become plains. 

There is a great deal of symbolism, and types and shadows, that may be unclear to our understanding right now concerning God’s agenda for the last days; but the Lord will make all things plain to His people as we attend to prayer and Bible study.  It is important that we receive what we can of the revelation of God’s will, and leave what we don’t understand yet on the shelf and not get hung up on it.  God reveals His Word to us line upon line, and precept upon precept; therefore, we must take the time to learn the Word of God for ourselves so that we become workmen who do not need to be ashamed (See 2 Timothy 2:15).  If you want to dive deeper into some of the symbolism concerning the Two Witnesses, consider Romans 11 which describes the Church as being comprised of the natural olive tree (the Jews), and the branches of a wild olive tree (the gentiles) which have been grafted into the natural.  Also, consider the candlestick in Revelation 1:20 being described as the seven churches.  In 1 Kings 6:23, we are told that the two cherubim that overshadowed the Ark of the Covenant were fashioned out of olive wood and overlaid with gold.  The more we study the Word of God, the more we will find that each piece, each truth, fits together with every other piece like a vast jigsaw puzzle.  It is our guide to life and peace, and is, without question, the most important document in the world.

In Luke chapter four, Jesus enters into the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth and is given the opportunity to read from the scriptures.  Very deliberately, He chooses the passage in Isaiah 61 that says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.…” (Isaiah 61:1, 2).  Jesus then sat down and when He noticed that every eye was upon him, He said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”  Like the prophecy of John, there is a portion of this prophecy that Jesus chose not to read.  That’s because that portion of the prophecy was not fulfilled on that particular day, and would not be for quite some time.  That portion of Isaiah’s prophecy went on to say, “...and the day of vengeance of our God.” (verse 2).  This “day of vengeance” is the same period that Malachi refers to as “the great and dreadful day of the LORD.”  Surely, both of these prophecies speak of not just one event, but two.  The first, when Jesus came as the Lamb of God to offer Himself as a sacrifice to take away the sins of the world; and the second, when He will come again as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah to execute judgment upon the sinners and the ungodly.      

But who may abide the day of His coming?  And who shall stand when He appears?  We find the answer to these questions in the inspired words of David in Psalm 15, “LORD, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in Thy holy hill?  He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.  He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.  In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD.  He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.  He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent.  He that doeth these things shall never be moved.” (Psalm 15).

Today is the day in which we must prepare our hearts to wholly seek the Lord.  Our devotion to God must be complete and not just occupy some small percentage of our life and activities.  Every choice we make, every endeavor that we undertake, and every moment of our lives that we live must be governed by our faith and informed by the Words that the Holy Spirit speaks to our spirit.  Any area that we refuse to bring under God’s control becomes a pocket of rebellion and resistance to the Lord’s sovereignty over us.  We cannot effectively serve God and mammon at the same time!  We will cease to follow our Lord, and, instead, follow our own will making ourselves the god of our life.  That is not Christianity.  That is idolatry. 

Victory in Jesus begins with being willing to yield our will over to the Lord.  It then involves heart-felt repentance for the choices that we have made that were contrary to His will.  After that, we proceed to faith in the work which Jesus finished through His death on the Cross, His Resurrection, and His bodily ascension to the throne of God.  The Apostle Paul wrote, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass [mirror] the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18).  The more we allow God to reveal His Son to us, the more we are changed into His image, and God’s Word is the mirror that we look into to see the glory of the Lord.  We see Jesus revealed to us in every story, every prophecy, and every parable.  We see Him in the Psalms, in the Proverbs, and in the letters of the Apostles.  “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me...” (Psalms 40:7).  The more we see Him, the more we are changed as we place our faith in the Lord of Glory!

The day of vengeance of our God, that great and dreadful day of the LORD, is fast approaching.  How will we have lived our lives?  In service to the Lord Who bought us with His own life, or in service to our own selfish aims?  Now is the accepted time – today is the day of salvation!  God has given us this time to prepare the way of the Lord, to fill the valleys and bring down the mountains, to make the crooked ways straight, and the rough places plain and smooth.  Jesus has given us everything we need so that we can say with confidence, “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.” It is no longer a matter of begging the Father to give us help in any area; we can, instead, thank God for all that He has provided for us in Christ!  Praise His precious name!

“But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.  And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 4:2, 3).