“For He is like a refiner’s fire … ” (Mal. 3:2, NKJV)
In the previous teachings we came to the understanding that God’s nature as consuming fire is manifested in the New Covenant through his Son. Mal. 3:2 states, “For He is like a refiner’s fire …” Before we attempt to explain this Scripture, we need to firstly address the issue of the “assignment” of fire, as it is written about in Mal. 3 & 4.
We now know that God will send a messenger to prepare the way (also promised in Isa. 40:3), and then send his “Messenger of the covenant”.
It is thus primarily concerned with the establishing of a new covenant. And, as Heb. 10:8-9 makes it very clear, in the words of Jesus: “Previously saying, ‘Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second.” This is the primary reason for his coming to earth – “(to take) away the old order, so that He might put the new order in its place” (BBE).
Actually Jesus is more than just a “messenger” or “ambassador” of the new covenant – He IS the new covenant. In Isa. 49:8 it is explicitly spelled out – “Thus says the LORD: “In an acceptable time I have heard You, and in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You as a covenant to the people”! The New Covenant is, unlike earlier covenants, not an agreement – the New Covenant is a Person. You need to become part of Him, the one we desire, to become part of the covenant. In Mal. 3:1 it is explicitly stated that He comes to “his temple”, which no longer consists of brick and mortar, but of the body of the believers (1 Cor. 3:16). This immense quantum leap was a huge shift to make for the Jewish thought paradigm of the day. But as N.T. Wright states in his book, Jesus and the victory of God: “Jesus was inaugurating a way of life that had no further need of the Temple.”
This truth has enormous implications for the priesthood, as in the Old Testament the temple in Jerusalem was the center of spiritual activities, to which sacrifices were brought to restore one’s relationship with God. When Jesus thus says the words, as for instance in Matt. 9:2 and Luke 7:36-50, “your sins are forgiven”, it is an earth-shattering statement which has never occurred outside of the temple before. He thus demonstrates Himself as the Covenant, and the Temple. (Later He who is born from Him, also becomes part of the temple – more on that later.) Either way, the priesthood had to change. And what He uses to change things, is FIRE and those He works with, are the “sons of Levi”.
- Selah: What are the implications of this teaching for the church? Read Acts 7:48 to find out.
- Read: Ezek 23-25
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: Ezek 24:12 (Tip: How is this possible in the New
Testament?)
