“But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?” (3:2). Malachi cautioned those who thought that ancestry or residence in Judah gave them permission to sin. God’s judgment, like a refiner’s fire, was coming against “sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers ... those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless. and deprive the foreigners among you of justice” (3:5). God called out to them to change their ways (3:6).

“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace ...” (4:1-2). Malachi warned that a life of unrepentant sin would lead to terrible consequences. But for those desire God’s ways, “the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays” (4:1-2).