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Date:   03/28/10

Text:   Malachi 2:17-3:5

Title:   Fire and Soup

Theme:

 

Introduction:

  What imageries or pictures would come to you when I say, Christ or Messiah? It really depends on the time of the year. During the Advent and Christmas season, we think of Candles, Advent wreath, poinsettias, Christmas trees or even Santa Claus. During the Easter season, lilies, and today, being Palm Sunday, we have palm branches. Some may include the Easter bunny. Easter bunny was first recorded in Germany in the early 1600s. The story is that the rabbit will bring baskets of eggs to children who behave well.

Now, as we study the scripture, what do we find in it about images or symbols that depict Christ? In the book of Malachi, we find two. Let us turn to Malachi 2:17-3:5. Do you notice which two symbols? Refiner's fire and soap.

  To understand the meaning of this message, we'll need to review part of Israelites' history. The covenant God had with His people is about He being their God and they are his people. In this covenant God promised his presence with his people as they follow and obey him. When the Tabernacle, and later the Temple were built, God came and dwell in it. The Tabernacle and the Temple were filled with His glory. When the nation of Israel was conquered by the Babylonians, the temple was destroyed. 70 years later, the Israelites began to return to their homeland from exile. They rebuilt the temple and the Jerusalem city wall. Yet the former glory of God that was not seen again.

  At the time of Malachi, they had been back in their homeland for some time. Their living condition was not much improved. They were under the influence of the Persian Empire and surrounded by regional enemies and there was still social and political oppression, and economical hardship. There was injustice in their society. They asked, where is God, where is the God of justice? Where is God's promise of his presence with them? Where is God's promise of wealth and prosperity? Where is the promise of international prominence? Where is He, where is Hope? How long still do they have to wait for his promised coming.

  May be during this past year, more than any other years we can in some way identify with the sentiments expressed by the Israelites about 2400 years ago. Towards the end of 2009, Time magazine had this cover story: decade from hell. It outlined what the country had gone through during the last 10 years. The 20 th century was often called the American Century, but we are certain that this title is no longer with us in the 21 st century. During the last 10 years, the stock market is down by 26%. There was a drop of medium household income. The employment rate has climbed to over 10%. We saw the tripling of the oil price, the drop of average house value by 26%. We witness the bankruptcies of familiar companies: Kmart, UA, Circuit City , Lehman Brothers, GM and Chrysler. Then there was the unending war in Iraq and Afghanistan , where thousands of young men and women had died. We agree 2009 had not been a good year for the United States . We hear and read articles and books on the decline of a great power. Everyone is looking for and grapping onto every slight hint that the country will be better in the next decade. We want to believe in the experts who tell us that the worst is behind us. We want to believe Time magazine telling us the reasons why the next decade will be better. Besides these social and economic issues, there are other matters bothering us. It could be relationships with our spouse, children, or aging parents. Looking at 2010, it appears that the only thing we are certain is uncertainty. Therefore during last year's advent and Christmas season, and especially this year's Easter season, we want to hear messages of hope. Not only the congregation want to hear hope, preachers are also reminded by different preaching magazines of the need and how to preach messages of hope when hope is hard to come by. The other evening, I saw this line in the local chinese TV station: ???? , ???? . I ask myself, what kind of message is this? Believe in what? Is there an object of this believe? Does it matter what one believes?

  Isn't it true that like the Israelites in 400 BC, we too are waiting? They were waiting for the coming of a Messiah that will usher in their utopia, political, social and economical prominence. To us, the Messiah has come and we are waiting for the Messiah to come again. We live in between the two advents. Yes, every Christmas, we celebrate his first coming, while waiting for the second. Every Easter we celebrate his resurrection from the dead, we want to experience the hope and power his resurrection will bring to us. We wait for the Messiah, Jesus Christ, his resurrection power will bring us a better tomorrow. How did God respond to the Israelites who were longing for his coming?

  In 3:1, “ Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. ” the Lord responded to his people by telling them that he would come to them. Before his coming, he would first sent a messenger to prepare the way. The four gospel writers all agreed that John the Baptist was this messenger. The Lord here is Jesus Christ. After the messenger, he would come. He would suddenly come to his temple. Again, this fulfilled when Joseph and Mary brought the 40 days old infant Jesus to the temple.

  Yes, the messiah will come. But there is more. The Israelites were given two symbols of this messiah. In 3:2, “ But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. ” They are looking for the messiah to give them material hope, prosperity and tangible self-reliance. Instead, what were the two symbols of this Messiah? The Refiner's fire and literally, Soap. Fire and Soap. God was telling the Israelites that yes, you are waiting for the Messiah to come, he will come, but he will be like fire and soap. Let's take a closer look at this fire and soap.

  First the fire. This is not the camp fire we are familiar with. Camp fire is warm and cuddling. When we are cold, we want to get near, when it's too hot, we move away. This fire is not the forest fire. Forest fire are fierce and can be very destructive. Many fire fighters have lost their lives in attempt to put down the fire. They not only destroy tress, but if not controlled, houses are also burnt. The fire in Malachi is called the Refiner's fire. If there is a piece of gold ore, there will be impurities buried in it. How does one get rid of the impurities? One would put the piece of gold in a crucible which comes in all kinds of sizes, and then apply high heat to it. Since the gold's melting point is lower than the impurities, it will be melted first at high heat, about 1947 0 F. The melted gold will be poured into a container with the impurities left behind. It is through high heat that gold is purified.

  Second, the soap. We are all familiar with soap. It is alkaline in nature and has the ability to remove dirt and grease spots from clothing. Nowadays we use detergent and even bleach to rid of dirt and greasy spots. In the ancient days, after washing the clothes in soap, it would be placed on the ground or rock and beat with a stick. Or in the Asian tradition, some may remember the washing board (some may still use this).

  There are two things common with the refiner's fire and soap. First, their objective is to rid of the dirt, the impurities in gold and in the clothes. Second, the process to rid the impurities is painful.

  We and the Israelites of old wait for the Messiah's coming. We want the joy and hope of Christmas and Easter. But I am not sure if we are ready for this fire and soap? Are we ready to be purified by Him?

  What are the impurities among the Israelites? Vs.3 and 4, “ 3 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, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.” They tell us about the purification of the priests. They had the form of worship, they performed their duties, but there was no content in what they did. They had the outward motion but their hearts were not there. When the religious leaders' hearts were away from God, vs.5 tells us about the condition of the people. Vs.5, “ Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts ” We notice that the repeated appearance of the word ‘against'. God was against those who turn to other gods and spirit and seek direction and guidance. God was against the adulterers and liars. They were clear violation of the 10 commandments. God was against the exploitation of widows and orphans, laborers and the aliens. These three groups of people were considered to be the most powerless in the society and the Mosaic laws had clear instructions not to oppress or take advantage of them. In other words, the priests, the religious leaders are disobeying God's commandments. Then it was summarized this way: no fear of God.

  Do we see what is happening here? They had no fear of God. They were not worshipping God as they should. They were not being obedient to what we call the 1 st table of the law. When there is no fear of God, then other gods will come in. When there is no fear of God, there will also be no fear of men. Instead of loving the neighbor, we ended up oppressing and exploiting the weak and the poor. The Israelites wanted a Messiah that would bring them freedom and prosperity, yet the Messiah would come and purify them. Can they stand it? What do we see here? What are the impurities that need to be gotten rid of? The separation of their religion and daily live. One commentator said, “They had the spiritual split personality disorder”.

  How about us? Some of us give God 2 to 3 hours on Sunday morning. Others, in addition to that, may also give 2 or 3 hours during the weekdays. However, what are we like during the rest of the week? Unfortunately, there is no fear of God nor love for men. I think of some of the abuses, be it verbal or physical that are going on in many of the so called Christian homes. Spouses and children are abused. We failed to treat our employees and coworkers with respect and dignity.

  We claim we worship God, yet outside the church, there is no sign of this worship. Instead we worship our career, finance or family.

We hear this saying, we are too busy with our work or study, we don't have time to take care of the children. In HK, many parents let their maids ended up taking care of and nurturing their kids. Overseas chinese, here and in Europe, will send their children to the grandparents in China . I was told that in WenZhou , there are many villages populated by grandparents and grandchildren, while the parents are doing business, making money in Spain . By the time we decide to come home, our children don't know us anymore. We have sacrificed our children, family on the altar of career and money.

We may also worship our children, they have become the center of our life. We have allowed our children to pull us away from God. Because our children have to sleep, therefore we cannot come to church to worship God. Because our children don't like the church, therefore we parents also stopped going to church. Instead of leading our children to God, we have allowed them to lead us away from God. This happens in Houston and in HK. In Chinese and Caucasian churches. Why? Can it be because we have no fear of God? We are worshipping ourselves instead of the creator God. Because of this little or no fear of God, we can also see other consequences. Such as instead of helping and loving, we take advantage of the poor and weak; instead of loving our spouse and children, we abuse them. These are some of the impurities we see in our lives.

  When we recognize such impurities within, we too need the Messiah, our lord Jesus Christ to come as fire and soap, to cleanse us.

  How will he purify us? Both fire and soap can be painful. There are times God would use those unpleasant situations in life to purify us and bring us to him again. I remember many years ago we were in a very serious car accident in Chicago . The first thing we asked of ourselves that evening was: how was our relationship with God? I recognized I have been moving away from him, and spiritually I need some house cleaning. A father said, if not for my special need son, I would not have come to know God. Another father shared that when my special need child was one month old, I made sure to bring him to church every Sunday. Very often God used tragedies and unplanned events in lives to open our spiritual eyes, seeing our true condition that we want to come home to him.

Conclusion:

  Why this need for purification? Why can't we just be left alone? Or on second thought, I don't want to be left alone, I do want the Messiah to come, to experience the joy and power, hope that He can bring. I want Him to come, not just in the future, not just during the Christmas and Easter season, but every day. I want the Messiah to come on my terms. I want him to give me health, wealth and the ability to get what I want. I do want him to help me achieve or give me my dreams in life. But purification, riding of the impurities in life? I have enough pains in life already.

  In one of the commentaries I came across the following. The refiner would increase the heat to the crucible. As the gold melts, the impurities will start to surface. The refiner would then remove the impurities. After going through this several times, the refiner's face will be reflected from the gold.

  In the front cover of YuTan's «??»?? she wrote, “ «??»???,??????? ?????????????????????? ? The Chinese ethical teaching is to show us how we can fulfill the happy life that our hearts desire.”However in the Christian world view, ????????????? a true happy life is one that the beauty of Jesus Christ is being reflected in all areas of life. The key to this is to allow him to use various circumstances in life to purify us, removing those impurities until his beauty is clearly seen within us. It is with this desire that we look forward to the joy and hope of the Easter season.

 

  




http://archive.hcchome.org/

English Service:

Mandarin Service:

Cantonese Service:

2014 |2013 |2012 |2011 |2010 |2009 |2008 |2007
2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999

2014|2013|2012|2011|2010|2009|2008 |2007
2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999
Cantonese audio translation available up to 2011

2014 |2013 |2012 |2011

 


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