“And He shall purify the sons of Levi” — Malachi 3:3
He “shall” purify the sons of Levi, not might, not wants to, not will try; He ‘’shall” do this. As the Lord says in Isaiah 46:10, “I will do all my pleasure.” What the Lord determines to do will come to pass.
Most of this passage uses the illustration of precious metals being refined by fire, but in Malachi 3:2 mention is made of fuller’s soap. Fuller’s soap is an alkali used in the process of “fulling” woolen cloth after it had been woven. Fulling accomplishes two things: it cleans the cloth of dirt, oil and lanolin; and it makes the cloth thicker. Besides applying the fuller’s soap, the cloth is beaten. In very early times, people would take their clothes to a stream and wash them, part of the process was to beat the clothes against the rocks at the stream side to get the dirt out. In more recent times scrubboards were used to accomplish the same purpose, and the principle is still used today as modern washing machines have an agitator to “beat” the clothes.
Between the scrubboard and the modern washing machine was the wringer washer in which the clothes were tightly squeezed between two rollers, or wringers. From this we get the phrase “being put through the wringer” to signify someone or something is being given a very thorough or extreme test or workout. For real, deep down cleaning to take place there has to be some “beating” to get the impurities out. The Lord will have us to be truly, deep down clean and He will not hesitate to “put us through the wringer.”
The beating also thickens the cloth by compacting the fibers together, thus creating a higher-quality woolen cloth. God would not have us simply to be clean but to be complete, perfected, of a higher quality. If I may borrow from the U.S. Army, God would have us be all we can be.
The beating, or trying and testing, of God not only drives out the impurities from our life, it also compacts, or draws closer together. In I John 1:6 we are told that those who walk in darkness have no fellowship with Him. In contrast to this, in verse 7 we are told that those who walk in the light have fellowship one with another. Clearly the opposite of not having fellowship with Christ is having fellowship with Him. But the Holy Spirit presents the idea of having fellowship with Christ as having fellowship with the brethren. In many places in the bible love, care for, and fellowship with the brethren is declared to be the token of having fellowship with Christ.
So in compacting us together with Him, we are compacted together with the saints of God. In their company, the child of God is taught, comforted, rebuked, exhorted, encouraged, in short, given whatever is needed to bring about the “peaceable fruits of righteousness.”
God would not have His children just to be legally righteous before Him in the Day of Judgment; He wants them to experience righteousness as they walk through life. James (4:8) tells us to draw nigh unto God, but only one who is righteous can approach unto God for He will not dwell with evil (Psalm 5:4). The fuller’s soap and the beating may not be pleasant, but it both cleans the cloth and improves it. The end result is a sparkling white, luxurious cloth that God will hold in His bosom.
- Philip Green is pastor of Greenwood Primitive Baptist Church.
