Malachi 3:1
Malachi 3:11“Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple—the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight—see, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts.
The messenger who prepares the way is identified as John the Baptist, and the messenger of the covenant as Jesus in his pre-human existence as Michael, sent as Jehovah's agent. Jehovah did not personally come to the temple on this reading; Jesus came on his behalf, and the prophecy is fulfilled "by means of" the Son.
Read the verse slowly and count the figures, then notice who is speaking. Three are named: my messenger, who clears a way; the true Lord, whom you are seeking, who suddenly comes to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant. The first is John the Baptist — quotes this line and applies it to him. The second and third are set side by side as the same arrival. Now the decisive words: "he will clear up a way before ME." The speaker is Jehovah, identified at the end of the verse as Jehovah of armies, and he says the way being prepared is the way before himself. Then Mark opens his Gospel by quoting this verse, putting John in the messenger's place, and having him prepare the way for Jesus. reinforces it by quoting — in the NWT, "Prepare the way of Jehovah." The agency answer cannot reach this one, because Malachi has Jehovah speaking in the first person about his own coming. If John prepared the way for Jesus, and the way being prepared is Jehovah's, the conclusion is already in the text. Compare , , .