1“Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me; and then suddenly the LORD, Whom you are seeking, shall come to His temple; the Messenger of the covenant, for Whom you eagerly look; behold, He shall come”, says the LORD Almighty.
2But who will be able to endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner's fire, or like strong cleansing soap:
3And He shall sit like a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness.
4Then shall the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasing to the LORD, as in the days of old, as in former years.
5And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be quick to witness against the sorcerers, the adulterers, the false swearers (perjurers), those that defraud laborers of their wages, those who oppress widows and orphans, and that deprive the sojourner (foreigner) among you of justice, but do not fear Me”, says the LORD Almighty. The first of the two “messengers” in verse 1 seems to be a mortal man, perhaps John the Baptist. The second “Messenger” in that verse is the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
6“For I, the LORD, do not change; that is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed.
7Ever since the days of your fathers, you have turned away from and failed to keep My ordinances. ‘Return to Me, and I will return to you’, says the LORD Almighty. But you asked, ‘How are we to return?
8Will a man (mere mortal) rob God?’ And yet you have robbed Me. But you ask, ‘How are we robbing You?’ ‘In tithes and offerings that are due Me.
9You are under a curse – your whole nation – because you have robbed Me.
10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing to you, that there shall not be room enough to receive and store it’”, says the LORD Almighty.
11“And I will prevent pests from devouring your crops and the fruit of your vines; nor shall they drop their fruit in the field before harvest time”, says the LORD Almighty.
12“’And all the nations shall call you blessed; for yours shall be a delightful land’, says the LORD Almighty.
13“Your words have been stout (you have spoken arrogantly) against Me”, says the LORD. “But you say, ‘What have we said against You?’
14You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God; and what do we gain by keeping His ordinances, and going about like mournfully before the LORD Almighty?’
15And now we call the arrogant happy; certainly evildoers get rich; yea, they that test God are unpunished.
16Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another; and the LORD listened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those that feared the LORD, and that honored His name.
17‘And they shall be Mine,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.
18Then shall you again discern the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those that refuse to serve Him.” Easy Reader Bible: Purple Letter Edition © 2023 by Jim Musser. Used by Permission. All rights Reserved. Bible Hub |
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