In the closing chapters of Malachi, really his entire book, evil is passing away and death is being burned off as slag. Sin is the target of this cleansing, as Jesus says He will be a swift witness against all those who do not fear Him.
True fear of God comes in regarding our sins as very horrible and serious. That we do not rank them or attempt to self-justify any commission or omission, on our part. That we learn to believe that no creature can make satisfaction for our sins.
However, primarily, true fear of God begins in the recognition of this sin within ourselves. That, by the very presence of God among us, brings this to a very painful light; a light exactly like a refiner’s fire that will burn the slag away.
Then, it is fear as we know it that sets in, because we find that our entire being appears to only be slag and if that fire touches us, we shall be unmade. We are as St. Isaiah proclaims,
True fear of God comes in regarding our sins as very horrible and serious. That we do not rank them or attempt to self-justify any commission or omission, on our part. That we learn to believe that no creature can make satisfaction for our sins.
However, primarily, true fear of God begins in the recognition of this sin within ourselves. That, by the very presence of God among us, brings this to a very painful light; a light exactly like a refiner’s fire that will burn the slag away.
Then, it is fear as we know it that sets in, because we find that our entire being appears to only be slag and if that fire touches us, we shall be unmade. We are as St. Isaiah proclaims,
“’Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the
King, the Lord of hosts.’”(Isa.6:5)
To those who do not recognize their sins, those who wish to retain their slag, to them this Day of the Coming of the Lord will be something they want no part of. Really, who wants to be scrubbed to death by soap? And who wants to die? The wages of sin is death and death must occur.
Repent. We are so concerned with our own selves that we fail to take in the Great Picture. We rely so heavily upon our emotions that we fail in hearing the Word of God and Psalm 80 reveals this for us.
Psalm 80, part of which we chanted this evening, is a Christological psalm. Meaning: its about Jesus. In it, the psalmist confesses his sins and makes no excuse for them. He confesses this fact to God and yet still begs for God to hear and save him.
He asks for a vine to be brought out of Egypt, as Jesus was sent to and returned from Egypt when He was young. He begs the Man who dwells between the cherubim upon the holy Ark to cause His face to shine upon us: the place where Jesus sat in the Temple, forgiving sins.
To those who do not recognize their sins, those who wish to retain their slag, to them this Day of the Coming of the Lord will be something they want no part of. Really, who wants to be scrubbed to death by soap? And who wants to die? The wages of sin is death and death must occur.
Repent. We are so concerned with our own selves that we fail to take in the Great Picture. We rely so heavily upon our emotions that we fail in hearing the Word of God and Psalm 80 reveals this for us.
Psalm 80, part of which we chanted this evening, is a Christological psalm. Meaning: its about Jesus. In it, the psalmist confesses his sins and makes no excuse for them. He confesses this fact to God and yet still begs for God to hear and save him.
He asks for a vine to be brought out of Egypt, as Jesus was sent to and returned from Egypt when He was young. He begs the Man who dwells between the cherubim upon the holy Ark to cause His face to shine upon us: the place where Jesus sat in the Temple, forgiving sins.
Verses 17 and 18 then get to it. 17, of which we chanted
this evening, and 18, which we didn’t are:
“Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man
whom thou madest strong for thyself. So will not we go back
from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
In there we hear two things. We hear of the Son of Man and we hear a plea for “quickening”. Of course the Son of Man is Jesus and just look at what the psalmist is asking for. All of this judgment, all of this burning, all of this wrath; he is asking for it to be upon Jesus instead. He is begging for atonement.
Turn us again O God. Show us Your great salvation in that Your Son, whom You have made strong for Yourself, be sacrificed. That He die in our place and rise again to give us new life. That He might come to us; not just in a manger, but upon the cross and in blazing Glory on the Last Day.
So that we may endure and stand on His day of Glory, quicken us. Though dead in our sins, bring us back to true Life in Your Son. Bring us to the depths of baptism, drowning our sin and death and raise us to new life in Jesus.
For only Jesus has endured and will endure. Jesus has been refined and purified of our sin and death in offering Himself in righteousness. Jesus, who perfectly feared God, was foretold by St. John the Baptizer, and comes to turn the hearts of sinners with His Gospel.
Jesus is the Vine without Whom we can do nothing. Jesus is the strong man that pillages sin, death, and the devil to bring us out alive again in Baptism. Jesus is our Salvation Who has brought us from the death and slag of our sins in to the silver and gold of His holy Body and Blood. He is the Son of Man, made strong enough to bear the cross.
In Jesus, we know God is for us and not to be feared according to His wrath against sin, but feared, loved, and trusted according to His love shown by Jesus. In Jesus, we fear, love, and trust even above the possibility of our own death, for not even death, a refiner’s fire, or fuller’s soap will be able to separate us from Christ Jesus.
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