Malachi 3:2

But, Heb. And. Who may abide the day of his coming? among the Jews were two sorts of inquirers after the day of the Messiah's coming: some inquired with doubt of the truth of the promises, that he should come to set all right, like them Zechariah 2:17, Where is the God of judgment? Others inquired hoping for preferment in the kingdom of the Messiah: of these, who shall be able to endure, to abide this day, when the unparalleled afflictions of that time shall cut off so many Jews, when the sword of the God of judgment shall destroy the ungodly scoffers, when so many must, as in Malachi 13:8,9, be cut off, and so many must pass through the fire? This will be a terrible day to these ungodly ones. Nor will it be much better with those who, disappointed of the expected worldly grandeur of the Messiah, shall stumble and fall, and be snared and broken; who will reject that Messiah who appears in a character so extremely different from that they had preconceived; and when God shall punish for the rejecting the Messiah, it will be a dreadful day, as it is described, Matthew 24:6, &c.; Mark 13:2,8,12-14: the righteous will scarcely be saved; what then will become of the sinner? Abide; think of, as the Latin Vulgate: the forethought of those calamities would be a burden; who shall be able to stand under the heavy weight of those crosses which in that day will fall on all sorts of men? The day of his coming: this day was from his preaching till the utter destruction of the city Jerusalem, about seventy years after the birth of Christ: days they were, had they not been shortened, which would have worn out all; but for the elect's sake they were shortened, Matthew 24:22. Who shall stand when he appeareth? an elegant ingemination, to confirm the thing, and to affect us with it. For he is like a refiner's fire: some are like metals, which nothing but a fierce fire can purge; such fire shall the troubles of these days be. And like fullers soap; another allusion; though this may express the troubles of those times somewhat more tolerable, yet troublesome enough. The boiling waters into which spotted clothes are thrown, where they lie soaking ere they are taken out; the rubbing of them with the soap, by which the clothes are whitened and cleansed indeed, but withal fretted, weakened, and in time worn out: so that day of the Lord will prove to all a day of great trial, to purge and refine.