Listening for the Promise
Sola Publishing – Weekly Devotions
Second Sunday of Advent – December 8, 2024
SOWeR Site — Weekly Devotional © Sola Publishing: www.solapublishing.com, 2024, written by Peggy Hoppes. Scripture taken from ESV Bible® (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright ©2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
(permission granted to active subscribers to reproduce this sheet for local congregational use)

“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.” 
- Malachi 3:2 -
Pure and Clean
What does Christmas look like? To the world it is Christmas trees and Santa Clause and perhaps even a nativity scene here or there. It is “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night” but how does that line up with scriptures like the prophecy from Malachi that foretells John’s coming as a witness and messenger to prepare for the coming of the Lord. John doesn’t bring a happy story or the expectation of a silent night. Instead, Malachi warns that the coming of the Lord will be sudden and that He will come like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. The Lord’s coming will mean transformation and cleansing.
The image of the refiner’s fire is harsh and distant. It takes extreme heat to refine metals, it is almost unbearable even for the refiner. Though the refiner must remain close to the metal while it refines, he does not become actively involved in the refining. The fire does all the work. On the other hand, the launderer is thoroughly involved with the cleansing of a garment, handling each item with special care, scrubbing when necessary. These two images show us that our God is both distant, refining with fire, but also very near, intimately involved with our very souls. He cleanses out the impurities in ways that might seem harsh, but He also does so in ways that are gentle.
When the refiner is finished and the launderer is done, the finished product is pure and clean. The same is true of the work God does in our life, and yet we never seem to be complete. The reality is that though Christ finished the work of salvation, we are continually refined and cleansed by our God until that day when Christ comes again. We look forward during Advent to the beauty of Christmas and long for the peace and joy that comes with the child in the manger, but Malachi reminds us that something even greater is to come. We wait for Christ the King who will transform and cleanse us for eternity.