Malachi 2:13-16

Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Chapter 2

13 וְזֹאת֙ שֵׁנִ֣ית תַּֽעֲשׂ֔וּ כַּסֹּ֤ות דִּמְעָה֙ אֶת־מִזְבַּ֣ח יְהוָ֔ה בְּכִ֖י וַֽאֲנָקָ֑ה מֵאֵ֣ין עֹ֗וד פְּנֹות֙ אֶל־הַמִּנְחָ֔ה וְלָקַ֥חַת רָצֹ֖ון מִיֶּדְכֶֽם׃

14 וַאֲמַרְתֶּ֖ם עַל־מָ֑ה עַ֡ל כִּי־יְהוָה֩ הֵעִ֨יד בֵּינְךָ֜ וּבֵ֣ין׀ אֵ֣שֶׁת נְעוּרֶ֗יךָ אֲשֶׁ֤ר אַתָּה֙ בָּגַ֣דְתָּה בָּ֔הּ וְהִ֥יא חֲבֶרְתְּךָ֖ וְאֵ֥שֶׁת בְּרִיתֶֽךָ׃

15 וְלֹא־אֶחָ֣ד עָשָׂ֗ה וּשְׁאָ֥ר ר֨וּחַ֙ לֹ֔ו וּמָה֙ הָֽאֶחָ֔ד מְבַקֵּ֖שׁ זֶ֣רַע אֱלֹהִ֑ים וְנִשְׁמַרְתֶּם֙ בְּר֣וּחֲכֶ֔ם וּבְאֵ֥שֶׁת נְעוּרֶ֖יךָ אַל־יִבְגֹּֽד׃

16 כִּֽי־שָׂנֵ֣א שַׁלַּ֗ח אָמַ֤ר יְהוָה֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וְכִסָּ֤ה חָמָס֙ עַל־לְבוּשֹׁ֔ו אָמַ֖ר יְהוָ֣ה צְבָאֹ֑ות וְנִשְׁמַרְתֶּ֥ם בְּרוּחֲכֶ֖ם וְלֹ֥א תִבְגֹּֽדוּ׃ ס

Malachi 2:13–16

“And this second thing you do.

You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.

These are [1 Kings 8 — practices of Baal worship]

But you say, “Why does he not?”

Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, (even though) she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

Verse 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.

Didn’t God make them one (fronted from previous verse)

And he did not make one

Did he not make them one, (Fronted subject “he” from previous verse)

And there is not one he made.. “there is not” requires eyn.

If the purpose of marriage is to create descendants who love the Lord, and you are dumping the wife of your youth, this is counterproductive.

A goal of marriage is godly seed, then divorce and remarriage with a foreign wife is utterly productive.

Verse 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.””

Verse 16 - For/if he hates, and the result of that hate is that he divorces and covers his garment with violence says the Lord of hosts. So guard your spirits and do not be unfaithful.

APPLICATION

Application: #1 Guard yourselves (man) —> (Man + Woman) against divorce

In antiquity, only the men had the power of divorce. The women would usually just go home.

We sometimes talk about separation and divorce as different things, but in antiquity they are not so differentiated.

Once you leave the house, you have left your spouse.

Background —> Idols

In our context, idols tend to be more abstract.

What do people seek in divorce? There is something that people think they will get from a divorce.

Perhaps security?

A relationship with someone who will satisfy sexually.

Church discipline: When it is clear cut, it is easy to apply church discipline. In the case where it is difficult to publicly tell the whole congregation about things, the session will need to take the hit. people can leave. because in our context people no longer trust the church leadership.

Application: #2 Intermarriage Issue / Marriage + Kids

Marriage —> Godly seed.

Having more kids does not necessarily translate to more godly kids.

In much the same way, less does not mean the kids are more godly.

We want to be making these decisions in terms of godly decisions rather than blanket decisions.

People don’t have kids sometimes for idolatrous reasons.

People also have kids sometimes for idolatrous reasons.

If now is not wise to have kids, be wise to prevent that.

You might want to take a few weeks to talk about this. You want to sort this out before your emotions get involved.

We want to speak about this before issues come to the fore.

Inevitably you will have people in your church for which these things are a reality and not just a theological argument.

Am I going to be judged? Is this an unforgivable sin?

Christ Connection: The Lord’s relationship with Israel

There are passages where the Lord is divorcing his people

Hosea: Faithfulness of God even when he is deserted.

Malachi: No blame on the wife, but he leaves her.

Hosea and other OT: There is blame and grounds for divorcing his people, but he does not do this. The faithfulness of the husband and the unfaithfulness of the bride. We are not the perfect picture of the bride.

We do not deserve this heavenly husband that we have been given.

We are leading to the marriage supper of the lamb. Unity of God with his people.

Why should we guard ourselves, our spirit? We are recipients of this love. Having loved like this, we are also motivated to love our spouses as we have been loved to produce godly offspring.

A discipling father invested in the life of our kids.

Training them to think through how to live as a husband loves his wife.

Divorce is the ultimate expression of hating.

We are to love our wife as Christ loves the church. Not just we are to guard ourselves from divorce, we are to pour ourselves to loving our wife. NT gives us an image of how weare to do this.

Marriage is this bonding - so we ought to marry in the Lord.

We need to marry someone who also share the same faith commitment - if not then what is likely the case is people will drift away.