When the Lord comes
1The Lord who rules over all says:
‘I will send someone
to bring a message to you.
He will prepare the way for Me.
You will look for the Lord
and He will suddenly come to his temple.
You are waiting for the angel
who has made a covenant with you.
He will come now.’
2But who will stay alive when the Lord comes?
Who can stand in front of Him when He comes?
No one.
He is like the fire that burns
when they melt gold and silver
and like very strong soap that cleans clothes.
3The Lord will punish the Levites
for all their sin and He will purify them
like when they melt gold or silver
to make it pure.
The Lord will teach them
to sacrifice_offerings to Him as He wants them to do it.
4Then the Lord will be pleased
with the offerings of the people of Judah
and Jerusalem again, as He was long ago.
You must come back to Me
5The Lord who rules over all says: ‘I will come to you to say who is right and who is wrong. I will punish the people who do not honour Me, people who use magic and witchcraft, people who commit_adultery, people who tell lies in court, people who do not pay their workers what is fair, and people who do not help widows and orphans and strangers, but oppress them.’ This is what the Lord who rules over all says.
6‘I, the Lord, do not change. That is why I have not killed all of you Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. 7From the time that your forefathers lived, you did not listen to Me, and you have not done what I have told you.’
The Lord who rules over all says: ‘Come back to Me, and then I will come back to you. But you ask: “What must we do to turn back to You?” ’
You steal from me
8The Lord asks you: ‘May someone steal something from God? You are stealing from Me, but you ask: “What did we steal from You? How did we do it?”
You are stealing from Me if you don't give all your 10ths and gifts that you must bring to Me. 9I have stopped blessing you, but you keep on stealing from Me. All the Israelites do it.’
10The Lord who rules over all says: ‘You must bring all your 10ths to the temple so that there will be food in my house. You must test Me and see if I will bless you. I will open the windows of heaven for you and give you lots of rain, more than enough. 11I will chase away the locusts so that they will no longer eat your wheat, and the grapes in your vineyards will no longer fall off.’ This is what the Lord who rules over all says.
12‘All the people will think you are lucky because you will have a wonderful land. The other people will want to have your land.’ This is what the Lord who rules over all says.
The book in front of the Lord
13The Lord says: ‘You have said bad things about Me, but you ask: “What have we said that is wrong?”
14You said: “It is worthless to serve God. It does not help anything. Did it help us when we listened to God and did everything that He said? No. Did it help us when we showed that we were sorry for the things we did wrong, and when we walked like people mourning at a funeral? No. We did that for the Lord who rules over all. 15Now we think the proud people are happy. We think all goes well with the people who sin and do wrong. They rebel_against God but God does not punish them.” ’
16Then the people who fear the Lord talked about it to each other and the Lord heard what they said. There was a book in front of the Lord and He wrote the names in the book of everyone who feared and honoured Him. 17The Lord who rules over all says: ‘These people will be my people on that day when I do what I want to do. They will belong to Me. I will not punish them, like a father who does not punish his son if he is obedient and listens to him. 18Then you will see who has done right and who has done wrong. You will see who serves God and who does not serve Him but does wrong.’
