Do you want to see Jesus? Do you want Him to be real to you? The experience could be more than you bargained for. All of us have our own preconceived notions as to what God is like. The Jews were no different. They were expecting a Messiah, and they generally had in mind that when He came, life would be grand and Roman (or other external) oppression would be done away with. But when Jesus did come, He was not the kind of Messiah they expected. Malachi says that the Lord would come as a refiner’s fire and a fuller’s soap. Without going into great detail, it is obvious that the object of both of these is to bring about purity.
You can almost hear the people of his day. “Whoa, Lord! What are you doing? We’re expecting you to get rid of these Roman soldiers and foreign devils! So please cut to the chase and quit talking about adultery, hatred and the necessity of a pure heart.” And you can hear them in our day, too. “What do you mean, Lord? I’ve invited you into my life as a guest, someone to be my personal divine broker, a friendly therapist, someone to make suggestions about how to improve my business dealings and maybe even my golf swing. What’s this about commitment? Where are all the blessings? And why worry about purity when we live on the curve?”
The answer is the same: God’s plan is for you to be pure. What kind of Jesus are you looking for?
