Be faithful to your God and your wife Malachi 2:10-16

Introduction

Faithfulness to God means faithfulness in marriage.

Unfaithfulness in marriage betrays unfaithfulness to God.

This is illustrated by our socie

Does our society as a whole value marriage?

Four things to help you answer. Two are TV programs and Two are Changes in law.

Love Island and married at first sight. Civil partnerships and No fault divorce.

Did our society’s view on marriage change before or after the decline of Christianity in this country? After.

Unfaithfulness in the home is often a symptom of unfaithfulness towards God.

When a nation turns away from God the sanctity of marriage doesn’t remain for very long.

We see this today in the UK. Malachi saw the same problem in his day when the exiles had returned to the land.

Remember the people were in Babylon. They had been taken there as captives because of their sins. God in his mercy had brought the people back under Ezra and Nehemiah. The temple and walls had been rebuilt. The people at first were zealous to be faithful to God and his covenant. But it didn’t take long until they started to go back to their old ways.

Malachi 1:1-5 The people had started to doubt God’s love for them.

Malachi 1:6-2:9 The priests were sinning against the LORD. They were offering bad sacrifices and leading the people astray.

Hosea 4:9 says Like people like priest. When the priests go astray so do the people. The priests were to set the spiritual tone for the nation. They had failed and now we see the result in our passage.

God brings two charges against his people.

The people had become covenant breakers. They had broken their covenant with God and they had broken their covenant with their wives. They have been unfaithful to him and they have been unfaithful to their spouses.

In this passage we see that God cares about faithfulness. Faithfulness to God and faithfulness in marriage. The problem is the people had been unfaithful. Two points- Unfaithful to God. Unfaithful in marriage.

I. Unfaithful to God v.10-12

a) They had profaned the covenant v.10-11

Begins with questions- Have we not one Father? Once creator?

Obvious answer- Yes

why do we break faith with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers?

Why are we dealing treacherously with one another?

They were doing something that was breaking the covenant God made with Israel and this in turn was being unfaithful to each other because it was bringing God’s displeasure upon the community.

The were sinning against God and because of this they were sinning against each other.

What were they doing?

b) They had married pagan women v.11

They were breaking faith.

They were committing an abomination- תּוֹעֵבָה A word reserved for the worst kinds of sins. Something that is detestable to God.

What were they doing?

They had married daughters of a foreign God. They married women that were worshippers of false God’s. By doing this they were breaking God’s covenant because this was something God had commanded them not to do.

Deuteronomy 7:3–4 “Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.”

This was not to do with race but with religion. Examples of Jews marrying women from other nations and it wasn’t sinful- Ruth and Boaz. Ruth was from Moab. But she had come to trust in the God of Israel- Your God shall be my God.

The people should have known better. They all knew about King Solomon. Wisest and wealthiest. His downfall was marrying women who worshipped false gods.

They were breaking God’s covenant. Being unfaithful to God.

c) God’s warned of judgement v.12

We see how sinful this is by the seriousness of the judgement that is pronounced upon the people who were doing it.

May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob The man who does this, being awake and aware, Yet who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts!

May the LORD kill him and Bring his line to an end.

Why? Because they were breaking God’s covenant.

Application

The people were being unfaithful to God. They were profaning his covenant. They did this by marrying women who worshipped false gods, something God commanded them not to do.

This command of not marrying someone who is not a believer comes over in to the NT.

1 Corinthians 7:39 “A wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.”

2 Corinthians 6:14–15 “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?”

There are different instructions for the person is was married before they believed and now they believe but their spouse doesn’t. The Bible’s command then is to remain with the person if they are willing to remain with you. That is not the issue here.

The situation here is you are a believer you are not to enter into a relationship with an unbeliever. The Bible’s teaching on this can be hard to hear. But God has good and loving reasons for it and we must obey him. He knows what is best for us.

Illustration- Stand on a chair- It is easier to pull you down than for you to pull them up.

Maybe you are in a relationship with and unbeliever and you know that it isn’t right. You know it is effecting your relationship with the Lord. What should you do? As hard as it may be the right thing to do is to lovingly and tenderly bring that relationship to an end.

Maybe you are tempted to enter into a relationship with an unbeliever.

Sometimes we can try and justify our disobedience. They don’t mind me going to church. They show interest sometimes and ask questions about God. Surely God won’t mind, he may even become a Christian, I might be able to influence him to believe.

All those things may be true. But God’s word is clear.

In this passage we see what happens when God’s people disobey him. They’re relationship with him is affected. No relationship is worth trading for your relationship with God.

Have you been unfaithful by being in a sinful relationship?

Perhaps you are being unfaithful in other ways.

God’s message to his people is Return to faithfulness.

Repent. Look to Christ for forgiveness.

Jesus was always faithful. He died for our unfaithfulness so that through him we can be made faithful. His faithfulness is counted as ours when we put our trust in him.

That was the first charge God made against his people. They had been unfaithful to him by marrying pagan women.

The second charge. They had been unfaithful in marriage.

II. Unfaithful in marriage v.13-16

God brings against the people a second charge of sin.

a) God rejected their offering v.13

The people were weeping and wailing as they brought they’re offerings to God because God had rejected their offering.

Why did God refuse to regard their offering?

b) They had been unfaithful to their wives v.14

The LORD has been witness -

Wife of your youth- The one you married when you were young. The one who has stood by you all these years. The one you should cherish and love the rest of your days.

Your companion- Your friend. The one you have spent your life with. The one who is closest to you.

Your wife by covenant-

You entered into a covenant when you married her.

Marriage is a covenant between you and your wife before God.

Illustrate- Marriage vows.

I, take you, to be my wife to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy law. In the presence of God I make this vow.’

Yet they had dealt treacherously with them wives-

They were divorcing their Jewish wives in order to marry pagan women.

c) God calls to faithfulness v.15-16

God challenges their unfaithfulness by reminding them about his work in marriage- God makes them one. He does this because he seeks godly offspring. Husbands and wives who are faithful to God who have children who are also faithful to God.

Yet they had acted treacherously. They had broken faith.

What follows is a section that is bookended by a command that is repeated. V.15b&v.16b.

Therefore take heed to your spirit and do not deal treacherously. So guard yourself in your spirit and do not break faith.

This is a call to covenant faithfulness with their wives. Be faithful to your wife.

Then in the middle of these two commands is a reason why they should obey.

“For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the LORD of hosts.

God hates divorce-

Why? Because it covers ones garment with violence. It is brutal and brings destruction.

Notice it doesn’t say that God hates the person who is divorced. But he hates divorce itself. It spoils. It ruins. It destroys.

Marriage is supposed to be beautiful. It should be the place where two humans feel the greatest intimacy and express the deepest love. It is where two become one.

It is a picture of something greater than itself. It pictures the love that Christ has for his church. That self sacrificing love caused him to bare the sins of his people on the cross paying their debt, baring their shame.

This is why the NT says Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her.

Yet divorce ruins all of this. The LORD God of Israel says that he hates divorce.

So what were the people to do?

After this statement about divorce the command comes a second time-

So guard yourself in your spirit and do not break faith.

Be faithful to your spouse because God hates divorce.

Application

The people were being unfaithful to their wives. This isn’t just an OT problem. The statistics show that even within Bible believing churches these problems are still happening.

Today this applies to men and women.

Are you being faithful to your spouse? To the wife of your youth or the husband of your youth? Your companion. Your wife or husband by covenant?

This is much broader than divorce. Often divorce comes at the end of a long trail of unfaithfulness.

Ephesians 5:22–23 “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.”

Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,”

Ephesians 5:28 “So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.”

Just as unfaithfulness in marriage affected the people’s relationship with God here in Malachi, the same is true for believers today. Malachi says God no longer paid attention to their offerings because they broke faith with their wives.

In the NT it says in 1 Peter 3:7 “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.”

When you are unfaithful in marriage it affects your walk with the Lord.

So as v.16 says Guard yourself in your spirit and be faithful.

Conclusion

Unfaithfulness in marriage betrays unfaithfulness to God. The people were unfaithful to God and Unfaithful to their wives. We have been looking at this negatively. It can feel like quite a heavy message.

But if we look at this positively is holds out a wonderful picture of what can be. In Christ we can live a life of faithfulness to God and a marriage of faithfulness to our spouse. This is what we are called to.

A life of faithfulness to God where we trust in Jesus alone for salvation and we obey God’s word. A life of serving God and living for his glory. A life where we are living for our chief end which is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

A marriage of faithfulness. A marriage that exemplifies Proverbs 5:18–19 “Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love.”

A marriage that pictures Christ’s love for the church. Where he loved her and gave himself for her.

This is what is is held out to the believer. This is what the Lord calls us to as we look to Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to have his way in our lives walking in obedience to the word of God.

Maybe you haven’t been faithful to God.

Maybe you haven’t been faithful in marriage.

Jesus was faithful to the Father every moment of his life. In his faithfulness to his church he died to pay for our unfaithfulness.

When we repent and trust in Christ. God forgives our unfaithfulness and counts the faithfulness of Christ as our own.

If you have been unfaithful confess to God, return to faithfulness and trust in the faithfulness of Christ.