Malachi 2:16

“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

Covenants. Agreements. Contracts. Treaties.

All of these terms describe a state of being of two or more parties having one opinion about something. As two (or more) enter into a covenant or agreement, it is accompanied with some sort of written or public announcement. Such is the special covenant of marriage.

Malachi, throughout his second chapter is discussing the marriage covenant, and has some very interesting points he wants to communicate to the priest of his day, and to the priests of our day – folks who take the name of Christ as their identity.

1 Peter 2:5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

In Malachi’s day, the priests seemed to think it was an allowable action to ditch the wife of their youth, and to pick up some young foreign woman as a wife. Where did this allowance come from in their thinking?

Malachi provides and answer and is blunt.

Malachi 2:8 But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts,

Malachi goes on and describes Judah as “faithless”, and with an abomination having been committed in Israel.

Malachi 2:11a Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem.

Tell us Malachi – What is it that Judah has done to exhibit faithlessness, or what is it that is considered an abomination in Israel?

Malachi 2:11b For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

Now as I mentioned above, the priests had abandoned the wives of their marriage covenant, and found themselves a young “mail order” bride of sorts, a woman of foreign descent.

And the Lord is talking of cutting off from the tribe any descendant of the man who does this. This is the equivalent of excommunication!

Let’s take a moment to review the Lord’s attitude towards marriage.

#1 God loves Marriage

Malachi 2:11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

We have briefly considered the verse above, but it may be good to remember that it teaches of the LORD’s love for the sanctuary, and that the marriage of a foreign woman, which would require the divorce of the priest first wife, profanes this sanctuary. For you see, God’s love for the sanctuary carries over into the actions of those who serve in it.

This is a typical Bible teaching, that the one who serves God is to serve according the the Word and will of God. A life of no restrictions brings about a restriction from the service of God. These priests decided they wanted young wives and in so doing, departed from God.

#2 God seeks holy offspring

Malachi 2:15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

Why is marriage so important before God? An initial thought is that it provides a man a chance to die, to give up his desires for the sake of another. Another facet of marriage for the man is that he can display, in real time and through continual actions, a fidelity to his promise to his wife.

Malachi provides another reason. Holy offspring. In this context, Malachi is referring to pure Jewish offspring, not combined with those of the nations. To think of a priest of the Lord’s sanctuary producing offspring that are not – cannot be – of the holy lineage is an affront to the plan of God.

For us today, nationality, race and ethnicity mean nothing. The requirement to satisfy God’s seeking godly offspring is faith in the Christ for both partners. Parents that are not in agreement concerning the identity of the Christ, or that have not committed to His will, can not intentionally produce godly offspring.

#3 God hates divorce

Malachi 2:16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

If any of this post get’s me in trouble, this will be the portion that does!

This verse was a favorite of mine in my early Christian faith, and I used it “willy nilly” around a lot of hurting people. Now I will not deny that God hates divorce – it is clearly a teaching that is provided here. But He hates all sin, and we have to live amongst and minister to a lot of sinful, hurting people. Judging someone’s past is not in my wheelhouse (anymore!). I have also come to understand there is a nuance to the marriage covenant that I had not considered until I needed to.

Someone very close to me suffered abandonment by her husband. He simply got up and left her with all the bills, all the trouble and no answers. In this case, is she to remain unmarried, tied to a treacherous man that is faithless? Consider Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 7:15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.

Paul has much to say about marriage, and how the believer is to respond to a faithless, or unsaved partner. In the above case, I understand the brother or sister is not bound to the original covenant. It has been broken by the faithless partner.

Although this has been more of a short study on God’s attitude towards marriage than a discussion on conditional security, it does relate to the original topic.

Malachi, throughout this passage, warns the priest of his day that they are faithless five times in this six verse passage, from verse 10 through 16

Twice, at the end of this passage, Malachi advises the priests to

….guard themselves in their spirit…

Now of course, some may see that this description of being faithless as referring to the priest’s commitment to his first wife, and that may very well be the emphasis of Malachi’s teaching. Yet, for a man of God to abandon his covenant promise to his first wife, to walk away from one who he promised to protect, love and provide for, speaks of a character that may abandon other covenants that are also holy, precious and life long.

No matter, it is wise counsel that in our commitments to agreements, covenants and contracts, we are to be men and women of our word.

Matthew 5:37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Let’s be men and women of our word, faithful to the covenants we have freely entered into.

---

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you would like to receive daily posts from Considering the Bible, click on the “Follow” link below

Follow Considering the Bible on WordPress.com