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See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and ha-adown whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. -- indeed, he is coming, says Yahweh of hosts. 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; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to Yahweh in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Yahweh as in the days of old and as in former years.
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This is an alternate Frist Reading to be read aloud on the second Sunday of Advent, Year C, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. If chosen, this will be read prior to Canticle 16 (The Song of Zechariah, from Luke 1:68-79), which sings in part: “You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, To give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.” That pair will precede a reading from Philippians, where Paul wrote, “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.” All will accompany the reading from Luke’s Gospel, where the words of the prophet Isaiah were recited: “Prepare the way of Yahweh, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth.”
As a reading selected to fit a theme of pregnancy, where the future holds the realization of spiritual change coming, which is now strongly sensed, the theme here focuses on what that change can be expected to be. As an alternative to the Baruch reading, which is difficult to grasp without the original Hebrew text making clear that references to “God” were Greek replacements for “Yahweh,” Malachi returns one to that reality of specificity. While the Baruch reading sang clearly of repentance being the requirement for redemption and salvation – a change within the soul – the wording makes it difficult to see the individuality of Jerusalem and Israel as being relative to souls. While Baruch was a plea, sent by Jeremiah through his ‘secretary,’ to change their path to destruction by submitting their souls to Yahweh in marriage, the words of Malachi are now making the promise about what will be born from such a divine union.
The first word in this reading is [transliterated] “hin·nî,” from “hen,” meaning “behold!, lo!” A translation as “see,” while possible, is weak and diluting the feeling that comes to a pregnant woman, once changes begin to be noticed within her body. Those changes will eventually be capable of being physically seen by others, when symptoms are displayed and her body increases in size, due to a fetus within. However, the pregnancy of change must be something “beheld!” by each individual that has become spiritually pregnant with the Son of Yahweh, after a soul’s marriage to His Spirit.
In verse one is twice presented forms of the word “malak” [transliterated as “mal·’ā·ḵî” and “ū·mal·’aḵ”], which have been translated by the NRSV as “messenger.” While this is the meaning of the word “malak,” the reality is this word is translated in Scripture more times as “angel, angels,” than it is as “messenger, messengers.” When one realizes Yahweh is the one speaking [He is named when Malachi wrote, “says Yahweh of hosts”], then one must also realize that Yahweh is not going to send a hotel bellhop with a message on a silver platter for one to read. Yahweh is going to “send His angel” to His wives; and, this is the truth of the words “Yahweh elohim,” stated eleven times in Genesis 2.
In that naming of Yahweh, as one “of hosts,” the Hebrew word “tsaba” means “army, war, warfare,” where “host” means “a large number of,” in this case “angels.” When one understands that Yahweh is the source of all souls, one can also see how He is the creator of all angels, which are eternal beings just like souls, only not placed in a prison of flesh, retained on the earthly realm. This is the meaning of “elohim,” as that was the “angels” created by Yahweh to exercise His plan for Creation. Part of that plan (which demanded a “host” of workers) came after six 'days,' when Yahweh told the “elohim” to rest. He then declared that point of cessation to be the seventh day; and, that was when a soul of one man (and one woman later) would be merged with an “angel” of Yahweh’s devotees, creating not just another “elohim,” but a “Yahweh elohim.” Thus, from the beginning of the seventh day (and we are still in the seventh day now), souls who will be saved from the prison of the material realm will need to receive His Spirit, from which a possessing “angel” will be “sent.” That is what one “beholds!” when one’s soul is ‘with child’ and the Son of Yahweh is to come – Jesus.
It is clear to most Christians who hear the words of Malachi read aloud to them, as they sit in pews and listen, that the metaphor is of Jesus Christ. To hear of “my messenger to prepare the way before me” and “the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight” is heard as Jesus; but those ears hear that coming as having already come and gone, through Mary, wife of Joseph. They sense that because they all know Advent is the four Sundays when lights on a wreath are lit, until Christmas Day comes and baby Jesus is once again found in a manger. The problem with that is none of those listeners are hearing Malachi speaking as Yahweh’s prophet to each individual sitting in pews, all of whom are souls placed into dead matter by His hand, none of whom have married Him, received His Spirit, and been sent Jesus to be reborn as them, in their souls, possessing their bodies of flesh.
In verse one, the Hebrew states [transliterated], “ū·p̄in·nāh-ḏe·reḵ lə·p̄ā·nāy”. Those words are marked off between a comma mark and a semi-colon, setting them apart as a segment of words that need to be understood separately. Those words literally translate into English as, “he will turn the manner to face me,” while the NRSV shows this as “to prepare the way before me.” This must be seen as relative to the following statement about the “angel-messenger,” who will be that of the “covenant.” The “covenant” is the marriage vows committed to by a soul, which then brings an “angel” that will change one’s soul from wearing the “face” of self, to “turn the manner” of being, so one’s soul then wears the “face” of Yahweh. The First Commandment says this, when known to say, “Thou shall not wear the face of any other gods [such as self] before My face.” This is a change that must come; and, it is one sensed by a wife [soul] submitted unto Yahweh.
Here, you will take note of how the NRSV’s translation saying, “and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple,” has been changed to denote the Hebrew written, which is [transliterated] “hā·’ā·ḏō·wn,” a form of “adon.” This is a singular designation as “the lord,” in the lower-case, as a reflection of the plural word “adonay,” meaning “lords.” The plural is elevated to capitalized status, while translated in the singular, which “adon” is [not “adonay”]. In both cases, a soul is “the lord” over its body of flesh; but a soul is not considered to be an “adon,” nor one of Yahweh’s “adonay.” This makes the meaning of “the adon whom you seek” become a statement of Yahweh knowing a soul “seeks” to be led divinely, because one’s soul has proved incapable of being such a “lord.” In most cases, a soul will submit itself to demonic spirits, who will then “lord” over such a soul, causing it to submit to the weaknesses of the flesh, becoming a sinner with great regrets. That will be the soul’s motivation for seeking redemption and salvation, thereby “seeking a divine lord” that will rescue them.
This divine change – the pregnancy with Jesus theme of Advent – will transform a body of flesh (along with its soul) into a temple in need of a high priest. This is the meaning of Jesus telling his disciples that Yahweh would send them an Advocate, which would be his soul, after his soul had been released from his body of flesh; so, the soul of Jesus could return to being an “elohim” (angel) that could be sent back into the souls of Yahweh’s wives.
Verse two has Yahweh ask two questions through His prophet Malachi: “Who can endure the day of his coming?” and, “Who can stand when he appears?” These are not questions of who is great enough to receive the Spirit of Yahweh and give birth to His Son. Instead, they are stated rhetorically, as no soul is capable of retaining itself [a “self” equates to a “soul”] as the “lord” of itself or the body of flesh it is imprisoned within. None can “stand,” as all must bow down their heads and kneel at the feet of Yahweh AND His Son – one’s new “Lord.”
The metaphor that then follows, “like a refiner's fire” and “like fullers' soap,” is then answering the questions as to the only way that a soul can “endure” [a statement of eternal life] and “stand” is through a complete and thorough cleansing or purification. All souls, prior to divine marriage to Yahweh, are filthy dirty from sins, making them incapable of experiencing eternal life or standing before Yahweh as a soul in judgment (when death comes knocking). Not one impurity and not one speck of filth can be present in one’s soul, for it to be deemed a “temple” prepared to seat Yahweh’s Son.
The aspect of Levi must be realized as one whose sins of murder kept his descendants from receiving any land holdings in Canaan [look them up]. The Levites were granted placement within all of the tabernacles spread throughout the Promised Land, as the servants who maintained those holy places. They became the priests who physically cut the throats of sacrificial animals and burned them as sacrifices to Yahweh, on the sacred altar. Then they had to clean everything up. Thus, when Yahweh had Malachi write, “until they present offerings to Yahweh in righteousness,” that has zero to do with animal deaths caused by Levi and everything to do with the sacrifice of one’s soul to Yahweh, upon the altar of oneself, as an “offering to Yahweh” so one’s soul can be cleansed in receipt by His Spirit. This is the submission a soul makes in marriage to Yahweh at the altar, where one kneels before Yahweh as an offering to forever do as He commands. One’s soul is then the sinner Levi, maintaining the temple of one’s soul-body entity, sacrificing self-will and self-ego to Yahweh, in exchange for His blessing.
The names of Judah and Jerusalem are then necessary to understand the root meanings of “yə·hū·ḏāh wî·rū·šā·lim” [from “yehudah” and “yerushalaim”]. “Judah” means “Let Him Be Praised” and “Jerusalem” means “In Awe Of Peace.” To then be cleansed of sins and promised eternal life – freedom from the entrapment of reincarnation in the material realm – one’s soul must become like an “angel” and forevermore “Praise” Yahweh. In return, that redeemed soul will feel the presence of Yahweh and the pregnancy of His Son within, being “In Awe Of Peace,” with Jesus bringing that to bear into the world, in one’s flesh.
In the second Sunday of Advent, when one should be halfway into one’s expected delivery of Jesus reborn into the flesh, the Gospel reading from Luke, when John the Baptist was the beacon of Good News coming, the prophet Isaiah was said to prophesy: “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” When “God” [from the Greek “Theos”] is understood to be “Yahweh,” then “salvation of Yahweh” translates as “Jesus” – “Yah[weh] Saves.” Thus, the Advent of “the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Yahweh,” because “Praise” and “Peace” comes in the name “Jesus.”