A Refiner’s Fire
In the manual: Come, Follow Me lesson 51, “I Have Loved You, Saith the Lord,” on Gospel Library
Start
A silversmith heats silver until it melts. The dross, the impure part, rises to the top, where it can be skimmed away.
Read Together
Malachi’s name means my messenger. In Malachi 3:1, the Lord promises to send his messenger to prepare the way, and then “the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple.”
1Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. 2But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: 3And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
What It Teaches
Jesus said that John the Baptist was the messenger in this verse (Matthew 11:10). John prepared the way, and then the Lord came.
Malachi asked, “Who may abide the day of his coming?” The Lord would be “like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap” (Malachi 3:2). A fuller washed and whitened wool with strong soap. Fire and soap both make things clean, and neither one is gentle.
“He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver” (verse 3). A refiner sits by the fire and watches the silver the whole time. The Savior stays close to us through our refining until the work is done.
The purpose was an offering, so that the sons of Levi could “offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” In 1829 John the Baptist restored the Aaronic Priesthood to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and he used Malachi’s words about that offering (Doctrine and Covenants 13:1).
Talk About It
Refining silver takes heat and time. What is something hard you have been through that made you better, and how was the Lord with you?
Take to Church
Malachi said the Lord would sit as a refiner of silver. When John the Baptist restored the priesthood, he repeated Malachi’s promise of an offering in righteousness.