An Offering In Righteousness

At the end of his epistle to the Saints about baptisms for the dead, the Prophet Joseph quoted Malachi saying this, “He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap; and 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.  Let us, therefore, as a church and a people, and as Latter-day Saints, offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; and let us present in his holy temple, when it is finished, a book containing the records of our dead, which shall be worthy of all acceptation” (D&C 128:24).  The verse that he was quoting from Malachi speaks of the Lord purifying the sons of Levi so that they can “offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness” (Malachi 3:3).  I believe that what Joseph is saying is that the offering we will make is the great work in temples (baptisms for the dead and other ordinances) that the Church is engaged in at an amazing rate.  Someday the Church will present to the Lord the records of all the temple work that has been done. 

                Part of that great offering, though, is not only the act of doing this temple work alone but the purifying and refining that must accompany it.  When Malachi spoke of doing an “offering in righteousness” I think one valid way to interpret that is that the offering itself is righteousness.  Just as we might say something like “he made an offering in silver and gold”—meaning that the gift was to give silver and gold—this seems to suggest that the offering we give is our own righteousness.  Performing ordinances in the temple is only part of this great sacrifice Malachi referred to; purifying and refining ourselves so that we could be worthy even to enter the temple is also part of the offering.  Earlier in the book of Malachi the Lord had warned against impure sacrifices, saying, “Cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing” (Malachi 1:14).  He was speaking specifically about sacrificing impure animals, but the principle is the same for us.  We cannot offer up acceptable sacrifices to the Lord without seeking to keep our lives right before him.  As Samuel questioned Saul, “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and scrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22).  If we are willfully disobedient to the Lord, if our hearts are not right before Him, then physical sacrifices have very little meaning.  It is the “broken heart and contrite spirit” that the Lord wants from us as our acceptable offering.  When we turn in that great book to the Lord in the Millennium with the “records of our dead,” it will also be symbol for the millions of Saints who put their lives in order and had their hearts clean to be able to serve in righteousness in the temple.  Then shall it truly be “a pure offering” before the Lord (Malachi 1:11).