Malach I'm going to chapter 2, verse 17, and we will read through chapter 3, verse 4.

You have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say, how have we wearied him by saying,

everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them, or by asking,

where is the God of justice?

Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple,

the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight.

Behold he is coming, says the Lord of hosts but who can endure the day of his coming and

who can stand when he appears for he is like a refiners fire and like fuller's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And he will

purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver till they present right offerings to the Lord.

Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

Malachai is the last prophet to prophesy in the Old Testament era.

You remember Hagai and Zakariah preached at the time of the rebuilding of the temple after the exile into Babylon.

Well now the temple has been standing for some decades as Malachi gives his prophecy and in fact

according to chapter 1 verse 13 the people have grown weary with the worship

already after just such a short time. Not only that, they have settled

into their culture, they are divorcing, intermarring with unbelievers, withholding their tides, oppressing the poor, all of which are told in Nehemiah,

and therefore the date of this prophecy is in all likelihood about 450 BC, the last of the inspired spokesman of the Old Testament.

The relationship between Malachi's day and our day is remarkable, the parallels.

It was a day of waiting, primarily, a day when a promise had been given but hadn't been fulfilled.

You remember Hagai had said that the temple would be greater than in its former glory, that the nation would bring

all of its treasures and they would fill the temple, God would meet them and it would be a beautiful time in Israel.

Take courage you build more than you see, he said.

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