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MALACHI 2:10-16
(Reading: Ezra 9:1-15; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1)
The Lord Re-Claims His Families!
We have seen in the first part of chapter 2 how the Lord exposed those who were meant to be his ministers. And how much didn’t we see there the terrible judgment upon those disobedient priests? A judgment already taking place then with the people’s open despising of those meant to be God’s special servants.
But, sadly, in the words of the well-known expression – ‘you aint seen nothing yet!’ For what was also clear at the beginning of this chapter was the powerful influence those ministers of God’s Word had on his people. If there was no heart for the Lord in them you weren’t likely to find it anywhere else in Israel.
Walter Kaiser says that just like the ancient proverb said ‘like father, like son,’ so here you could say ‘like priest, like people.’ In the same way water can only rise to the level of its source, so, he says, the spiritual level of a people can only be expected to rise to the level of its spiritual leaders. How much don’t we see this in so much of Christendom around us?
Naturally, such a situation would lead to the rot extending throughout the people. Where selfishness sits on the throne righteousness and faithfulness will be dethroned. So it was that the very part of national life that is such a blessing in the obedient covenant community is here completely broken up.
It is inevitable that in bringing God’s Word to bear on his erring children Malachi turns to this. And so we note, first of all, THE FAMILY ISRAEL SHOULD BE IN.
Verse 10 sets the course for what we follow in the next seven verses. “Have we not all one Father?’ has the Lord starting this particular part of the dialogue. And let’s be clear on the “father” this is about. While we might think it could be one of the patriarchs, this is not about Abraham, or Jacob, or Isaac, or any of those from whom the twelve tribes were descended.
And don’t think this relates either to the universal brotherhood of man. Rather, the language used here strongly suggests this is a continuation of the verse before. Here Malachi is going to outline some of the key examples as to how the priests have caused the people to stumble by their instruction. In the further words of verse 8, now will be brought out what happens when God’s ministers turn from his way.
In verse 10 there is a call to return. This is a cry to go back to their roots. Indeed, this brings out where they have come from and what they were made to be.
There is a later echo of this same call in 1st Peter chapter 2. In verse 9 the apostle says there, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
So when the prophet next says in our text, “Did not one God create us,” this is specifically about the Lord’s creation of his people. This was what Moses sung of in his song in Deuteronomy 32, verse 6. And the prophet in Isaiah 63:16 is definitive that this God is the Father who takes that special interest in them.
Israel had come to such a disregard of their covenant God they had become so crass as to say to a tree, ‘You are my father.’ Jeremiah chapter 2 vividly pictures how far Israel had forsaken the Lord.
It’s no wonder the next question the prophet asks is no surprise. Well, how could it not be? If you don’t have a good father, what kind of family flows from that? We live in a world where the impact of bad or absent fathers is all too devastating!
So when Malachi asks “Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?” it’s not a question. This is a fact. After all God has done for them and through them they spit in his face!
This is the effect of what he says here. These are sharp words. And they have to be. The situation has gone far beyond a gentle nudge or mild rebuke. Actually it’s gone all completely the wrong way! Their whole lifestyle now was a constant catalogue of every kind of sin. The marrying of foreign women, divorcing the wives of their youth, joining themselves to foreign gods, and all the rest of it, is treachery. They are traitors to the covenant! They have gone against the whole body, the individual family units, and God. The priests have been directly implicit in this. They had failed to teach God’s Word against this. Indeed, they themselves were living just like this in their unfaithfulness!
The word used here for ‘breaking covenant’ refers to a general tendency to disregard promises and agreements of all kinds – whether in business, marriage or social affairs generally. This is in complete contrast to the upright man of Psalm 15 who never ever lets his neighbour down.
While there is a different verb used for breaking covenant in verse 8 regarding the priests the meaning is the same. The covenant is violated!
And now Malachi turns to the first part of spelling out how this was so. In the verses 11 and 12, we note, secondly, THE SPIRITUAL FAMILY’S FALL INTO SIN.
To say “Judah has broken faith” is to strongly express that those who were meant to be set apart to witness to the Lord now are completely set against him. And that is clear even if what happens on the outside seems to still be the same. While they follow those old traditions their hearts aren’t in it. How can they be? Look at where their hearts are leading them. They don’t have the love for the Lord. Otherwise they would certainly not be doing what verse 11 describes them doing. As Malachi says there, “A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.”
Now, let’s be clear here. The issue isn’t cross-cultural marriages of different races. This is actually about the mixing of religions. The phrase, “daughter of a foreign god” refers to an idolatress – a woman who was a worshipper of that deity.
Those marriages had taken place in Israel’s history, though the Lord had specifically forbidden them. We read in Nehemiah 13 that his final reforms involved cleaning all this up. There one of the sons of the high priest had to be driven away because of this.
Ezra had been completely distraught about this. As we read in Ezra chapter 9, it brought him to utter despair and contrition because of it. And what a prayer he prayed!
But while there the Lord yet brought reformation, here there can only be judgment. The nation of Israel, whom the Lord had called ‘holy’ had profaned herself as the sanctuary of God. In Exodus 19:6 the Lord had said of them, “Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
This is the same principle Paul wrote of in his second letter to the Corinthians. There in chapter 6:14 he declares that believers should not be yoked together with unbelievers. “For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?” he asks. And further on, after more statements of the same, he asks in verse 16, “What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?”
There can be no contamination within God’s people. The only thing that will come out of anything like this will be God’s judgment. You can spout all the excuses you like, ‘Oh, he’s open to the gospel,’ ‘They do so much good,’ and the old rubric, ‘She’s a lot better behaved than many Christians.’ But God won’t stand for it. And so you and yours will fall because of it!
How many examples of that haven’t we seen in the churches and Christians we know? And while it may make it all the harder to find a godly marriage partner when so much of Christianity is shot through with this, God’s Word is still definite.
The consequences are explicitly stated. Verse 12 spells it out. “As for the man who does this,” says Malachi, “whoever he may be, may the Lord cut him off from the tents of Jacob – even though he bring offerings to the LORD Almighty.”
We see an example of cutting off with what Nehemiah did to the son of the high priest. Nehemiah 13 records this. That son had married the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite. And so he had no place within the priesthood anymore. Indeed, he only had a place with the nation of pagans he had taken his wife from!
To be cut off was to be barred from Israel. They had no share in God’s people anymore. And certainly they had no future. They would be so alone, and thus so obviously cursed, that they couldn’t help but show what happens when you go against the ways of the Lord.
It’s a punishment that is still amongst us, isn’t it? Where do those go who disobey the Lord in this way? Much as they might say they’ve gone their own way, it doesn’t bring them anywhere!
Even if they keep on pretending nothing has changed. As Malachi ends verse 12, “even though he brings offerings to the LORD Almighty.”
Here we see Malachi’s finger still pointing at the Levites. They were those whose role was to present the offerings to the Lord. It could well be the end of that priesthood. So another indication from the Lord that the old covenant is soon to be subsumed.
All those who are guilty of going against the covenant will be cut off. No longer would they be part of “the tents of Jacob” – a collective phrase which refers to the Israelites altogether.
And, now, the prophet brings it even closer to home. He walks right into people’s homes with the verses 13 till 16. In the words of the third aspect to our text, THE PHYSICAL FAMILY FOLLOWS THIS SPIN.
Verse 13 starts with another accusation. And this accusation brings out the consequences of this particular disobedience. Because people are finding that their offerings and prayers to the Lord are getting nowhere.
Now as the people could not themselves offer sacrifices this is most likely figuratively. It could be literally true of the priests, though. Whichever the case, it is obvious that what the Lord turns to here makes it equally reprehensible! To not pay attention to their offerings and to not accept them with pleasure means a terrible block in worship. That is no communion with the Lord.
No amount of emotionalism can change the facts. And when they ask the Lord “Why?” in verse 14, he quite blunt about the evil they have done. They have broken yet another covenant!
This time it concerns the vows they made upon entering into marriage. Because oh so conveniently they have found they have fallen out of love! How much doesn’t that show up all their weeping and wailing in verse 13? With them it has become all about feelings – very selfish ones. And so it is they act so selfishly when they are called to account.
It could also be a commentary of what’s happening in so many churches today, couldn’t it? And it is, because the nature of man hasn’t changed. It can only be by obedience to God’s Word and the blessing of his Spirit that keeps us from ourselves.
Again we see Malachi involved in a conversation with them. But, believe me, this is not one they want to hear. Yet they will.
‘Marriage is sacred,’ the prophet declares! Not only is it the agreement between two parties but especially it is the witness to the agreement that makes it an unbreakable covenant. “The LORD is acting as the witness” bring our loud and clear what this is about.
This is nothing new. Back in Genesis 31:50 Laban reminded Jacob, that, in the matter of his marriages to Leah and Rachel, God is the witness. In Proverbs 2:17 it is declared that the marriage act is a covenant made before God.
Verse 15 draws out the sanctity in marriage even more. Here is a direct allusion to the creation ordinance – the way it was meant to be before the fall into sin. Genesis 2:24 speaks of this same becoming one flesh that a bride and his groom become.
Of course, as we hear these words, we must bring in our Lord’s word about marriage in Matthew 19. There he draws this out even more. For there, in spite of quite rampant divorce happening then amongst the Jews, he declares, “So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
Malachi is saying, ‘Why did God make Adam and Eve only one flesh, when he might have given Adam many wives? God certainly had plenty of the Spirit, or of his creative power, to produce more.’
But he chose not to. As verse 15 goes on, this was “because he was seeking godly offspring.”
You know, there is something about what comes out of a faithful relationship. The qualities that come out of sticking at it together, because you believe the Lord put you together, brings Christ out in you. This is all about following the one who, in the words of Hebrews 12:2 , “for the joy set before him endured the cross…” It is Jesus who suffered so much for obeying his Father’s will. And it is looking to him that keeps us from becoming weary and losing heart (Heb.12:3). It is in this commitment that Malachi concludes verse 15 by saying, “So guard yourself in your spirit, and don’t break faith with the wife of your youth.”
And then he pulls out the big gun! In verse 16 he most definitively attacks divorce – the putting away of wives. With forthright words the covenant God attacks estrangement in the marriage relationship. “I hate divorce,” he declares.
And to bring out absolutely his meaning here he takes them back to the actual wedding. You see, the intention to marry was done amongst these people through the spreading of a garment over a woman. This is what is shown by Boaz in Ruth 3:9.
So to use the expression ‘to cover with one’s garment’ means to be married. And thus to then speak of “a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment” is to act against the marriage relationship. In the same way that being unfaithful to the ‘bed’ is to be unfaithful to the marriage vows, so divorce is the way of violence against these wives.
Now, here someone could make the case that divorce was allowed for under the law. Deuteronomy 24:1 speaks of a man writing a certificate of divorce, gives it to her, and sends her from the house. Perhaps those in Malachi’s time, like those in Jesus’ time, were using that as their excuse. But the original intention in the Law was that it could only be done in the case of a gross indecency. So it could be nothing less than something actually adulterous. Jesus in Matthew 5:32 makes that clear.
The meaning of the Lord’s words, through Malachi, are quite lucid. That’s why he ends verse 16 echoing the encouragement at the end of verse 15. He knows it is not always easy to follow the Lord. He rouses them to keep looking up. “So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.”
And how much don’t we need this strength today, too? As we live in a world full of human selfishness, we need to look at the perfectly unselfish One. It is Jesus Christ who is “the way, the truth, and the life.” In him we have it all and we will not fall. But without him we have nothing and we’re only doomed to the greatest of all falls! Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, how much don’t we thank and praise you for all you have done in your Son! He completely fulfilled your will, offering up the perfect sacrifice and so it is that we are here before you this day.
Lord, please bless our marriages. And where there is brokenness we pray for your strength and guidance. May we not break faith with each other but rather serve you and one another out of true love.
In Jesus’ precious Name, we pray. Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2022, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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