Today is Pearl Harbor Day. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, called it “a date which will live in infamy” when “the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan” (ushistory.org).

Many people lost their lives that day. We can blame it on whoever we want, but the fact is that it happened, and lives were lost. It was a surprise to the U.S. because sometimes things happen that we are not prepared for. At the same time, while the attack on Pearl Harbor cost lives, if we are not prepared for the coming of the Lord, it will cost not only our lives, but our very souls. Are you ready should it come today?

One of the lessons for tomorrow is from Malachi 3. The difference between the two situations is that Malachi is telling us what is coming, just not when it will be. We knew on December 7th, 1941 that an attack could happen, but it was not expected. Had the United States not reacted to the attack on Hawaii as quickly as it did, our country could have lost the war.

Malachi tells us that God is sending his messenger to “prepare the way before me” and the Lord whom we seek will suddenly “come to his temple” (NRSV). It was believed that the messenger who was coming was Elijah. In the next chapter, Malachi makes it clear that he is speaking about Elijah. Jesus says in Matthew 11:14 and Mark 17:2-3 that Elijah has already come, and the people did to him whatever they wanted. Some scholars try to argue that it was not Elijah who came then because John the Baptist did not identify himself as such. Therefore, the scholars believe it was John in the Spirit of Elijah. My own belief was based on Jesus’ words that it was Elijah who returned in the form of John the Baptist. I also believe that Elijah is the one who is viewed as the one witness in the scriptures, and he will still come back when Jesus returns and fulfills the prophecy.

I believe that we see Elijah in the Transfiguration, at the Resurrection when there are two men or angels in white in Jesus’ tomb (John 20:12), and at the Ascension when two men appear and ask them why they are looking up in the sky, and that they need to go and do what he told them to do (Acts 1:11). In Revelation, he is one of the two witnesses who eventually is killed and then raised from the dead after lying in the streets for three days (Revelation 11:9).

In Malachi 3, it seems that the messenger will “prepare the way for the coming of the Lord,” or the Jewish Messiah, as he did when Jesus came to earth as a baby, and prepared the way for his ministry (also Isaiah 40:3). We know that the one who is coming will go “to his temple.” Some believe that Malachi is speaking about the Second Temple which is the one that was rebuilt and eventually destroyed in 70 CE (religionsfacts.com). Malachi 3:1 states: “The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight — indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.”

Malachi asks, “who can endure the day of his coming and stand when he appears?” The Messiah “will be like a refiner’s fire” (3:2). A refiner’s fire separates the ore from the impurities. The trash floats to the top and to the bottom. The pure ore is in the middle. The trash is either burned or discarded. Fuller’s soap refers to the cleansing of clothes. Fullers were people who could get things cleaned. References are made again to the transfiguration of Jesus Christ, that his robe became pure and brighter than fuller’s soap could bleach it (Mark 9:3). The Messiah “will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of the tribe of Levi, cleansing them until they are made pure and until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness” (Malachi 3:3).

We who are Christian believe that Jesus purifies us through the shedding and the covering of his blood, which washes away our sins. During the season of Advent, as we prepare for the coming of the Messiah, let us also be in preparation for the fulfillment of this promise given to us through the covenant of God to Aaron, and the one made in the wilderness as well as the one made through our Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, Malachi states, “Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years” (3:4).

Pastor Kathy Behrens, serving Picture Rocks and Tivoli United Methodist Churches