Reality Check (Holiness of Marriage)

We have been going through the book of Malachi. The time period after the exile and right before the end of the OT. God has been rebuking the priests for their actions in leading people away from God and today God will use the topic of marriage to show the people that they have gone astray as well.

Please open your bibles to Malachi chapter 2.

Stand with me as we read Malachi Chapter 2 verses 10-16.

Malachi 2:10–16 (CSB)

10 Don’t all of us have one Father? Didn’t one God create us? Why then do we act treacherously against one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors? 11 Judah has acted treacherously, and a detestable act has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord’s sanctuary, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, whoever he may be, even if he presents an offering to the Lord of Armies.

13 This is another thing you do. You are covering the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning, because he no longer respects your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands.

14 And you ask, “Why?” Because even though the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, you have acted treacherously against her. She was your marriage partner and your wife by covenant. 15 Didn’t God make them one and give them a portion of spirit? What is the one seeking? Godly offspring. So watch yourselves carefully, so that no one acts treacherously against the wife of his youth.

16 “If he hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord God of Israel, “he covers his garment with injustice,” says the Lord of Armies. Therefore, watch yourselves carefully, and do not act treacherously.

Malachi 2:10-12 Marriage Judged

As Malachi turns his attention to the people of Isreal he starts with a reminder of who they are.

Malachi 2:10 (CSB)

10 Don’t all of us have one Father? Didn’t one God create us?

This is a reference back to covenant that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai.

Exodus 19:3–6 (CSB)

3 Moses went up the mountain to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain: “This is what you must say to the house of Jacob and explain to the Israelites: 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, 6 and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.”

God made a covenant with Isreal and he establishes them as his kingdom of priests to be a holy nation. Chapters 19-24 of Exodus God lays out the covenant and gives Israel the Laws. Even though he is sovereign over the entire earth he has set this group of people up to be holy. It was God who established the nation of Israel not because of who they were but because they were the people he choose. In chapter 1 God reminded them that he chose them and his love for them was shown through his choice. This covenant was tied to the laws. God said IF you listen carefully and keep my covenant, they would be a chosen, blessed nation if they listened to God. in all things.

Malachi says if we have one God and are one nation why do we deal treacherously with each other.

Malachi 2:10–11 (CSB)

10 … Why then do we act treacherously against one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors? 11 Judah has acted treacherously, and a detestable act has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. ...

He is accusing them of acting treacherously among the people of God and by doing so, they are profaning the covenant that was established. They have stopped listening to God The use of Israel , the nation, meant this was an issue everywhere, the use of Judah and Jerusalem were pointing to the fact that this was right in the heart of the worship of God.

If you remember from two weeks ago the word profane means to make something common, to take away the sacred attributes of something. It is the opposite of holy. The people had made the holy covenant of God common and had removed the sacredness of it.

Malachi is going to focus them in one a specific set of instruction. That is the instruction on marriage of women outside of the nation of Isreal who follow other gods.

In Deuteronomy 7 God tell Israel before they go into the promised land that they must drive out the nations from the land. He commands them not ot intermarry with the other nations. Specifically giving there sons and daughters to marriage with these nations that worship other gods. The reason why. Because they will turn the people away from God and cause them to worship false gods. God warns of the anger and that will burn against their worship of others.

As you can see God was very specific with them to not intermarry with the foreign women or give their daughters to foreign men. Why “because they will turn your sons away from God to worship other gods. And do not worship their gods, for that will snare you.

Malachi describes the marring of foreigners as an abomination or detestable act to God.

Malachi 2:11 CSB

11 Judah has acted treacherously, and a detestable act has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord’s sanctuary, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

They have profaned the Lord’s sanctuary. The sanctuary can be a specific space or thing. In this case the sanctuary that God is speaking of is holy matrimony. God loves marriage, He instituted marriage and to profane it was to break the commands of God. This the behavior that was happening within Israel. We see this in Ezra and Nehemiah as well.

Ezra 9:1–3 CSB

1 After these things had been done, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the surrounding peoples whose detestable practices are like those of the Canaanites, Hethites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. 2 Indeed, the Israelite men have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed has become mixed with the surrounding peoples. The leaders and officials have taken the lead in this unfaithfulness!” 3 When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and robe, pulled out some of the hair from my head and beard, and sat down devastated.

It is pretty simple. God said don’t do this and they did so Malachi called on God to cut them off even if the show the outward appearance of worship.

Malachi 2:12 CSB

12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, whoever he may be, even if he presents an offering to the Lord of Armies.

Malachi has accused them of profaning their marriages and not presents a second accusation

Malachi 2:13-14 Marriage Violated

Malachi 2:13–14 (CSB)

13 This is another thing you do. You are covering the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning, because he no longer respects your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands.

Covering the Lord’s alter with tears, weeping and groaning. Some have concluded that the people were weeping on the alter because of their sin, but there isn’t anything in Malachi that presents that they had come to this place. The more common interpretation is that Malachi is referring to the damage and pain to the women who were being broken by these men’s actions. It isn’t likely that this is literal since women would not have been around the alter. The men who were doing this were still bringing offerings to the other in “worship” of God. We have seen earlier in the book that they were treating the alter without reverence but the were still going through the motions. The sin of these men had made their acts of worship as ineffective. That when they went to present offerings to God their sin against their wives was covering the alter of worship. God no longer recieved their offerings because of their treachery with their wives.

They once again defiantly ask WHY? Why has God stopped receiving their offerings. Why has he turned his back on them. Because God had witnessed their marriage to their wife by covenant. The wives of your youth does not mean of young people it was ment to be the time of early years. The new lives of being together or creating a family of the early times of marriage. Their wives were their covenantal partners and companions. There betrayal of the vows they made and were continuing to make was causing their worship of God to be rejected because there heart was wrong.

Malachi 2:15-16 Marriage Protected

Malachi 2:15–16 (CSB)

15 Didn’t God make them one and give them a portion of spirit? What is the one seeking? Godly offspring. So watch yourselves carefully, so that no one acts treacherously against the wife of his youth.

These two verses may have different wording in your translation. Each verse is pointing to the repeated warning to for Israel to watch themselves, to guard themselves, so that they are not unfaithful or act treacherously to their wives. This is repeated 4 times through out these verses and is the root of Malachi’s charge. They have

Matthew 19:4–6 CSB

4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female, 5 and he also said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

There isn’t a clear understanding of portion of spirit. There were multiple attempts to describe this but they don’t provide a single conclusion. However all of this has a single unified theme, God created marriage and this union had a purpose and that was to provide Godly offspring. To raise children in a God honoring way. This was the great purpose of marriage and it was Malachi is warning them to watch yourself carefully so they do not act this way toward their wives. Other translations say be attentive to your spirit so that you are not unfaithful to you wives.

Verse 16 is translated into differently as well. The CSB says

Matthew 19:4–6 CSB

Malachi 2:16 CSB

Malachi 2:16 (NKJV)

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

What is clear is that God loves the marriage covenant. A man who divorces his wife this way hates his wife or rejects her and God hates sin which these men were performing by divorcing their wives for selfish reasons.

Both end with covers his garment with injustice or violence. A man who act treacherously and is unfaithful will be marked with violence or wickedness.

Malachi is rebuking the people of there violation of the marriage covenant that God had established within the Jewish continuity. He has been focusing on the peoples heart rejecting the holy ways of God. They were flippant with their marriages that God witnessed. These men had hard hearts and were selfishly following their own fleshly desires by rejecting their wives for these women.

Conclusion

So far we have just looked at what God said to Israel and what it ment to them. Now we must look at what this means for us.

First, that Malachi is addressing the selfishness of man. Issues of the heart. In a single word sin. Sin manifests itself in many ways and he is showing the people ways that their action are showing that they have fallen away from God. Today we talked about how sin was manifesting itself in the Jewish community and with no surprise it is alive and well in 2022. The warning of Malachi was to be on guard so we don’t fall into this unfaithfulness. How do we do that.

First we must understand what marriage is and isn’t. If we don’t understand God’s purpose in marriage then we have no baseline.

Marriage is a special covenant that God established with the first man and woman. Marriage is the first institution establish by God on this earth. It was personal and intimate.

Genesis 2:20–24 (CSB)

20 The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found corresponding to him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. 22 Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 And the man said:

This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man.

24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.

This union of man and woman had a purpose in the nation Israel and in the church today. To produce Godly offspring to provide an environment where two people who are equal but different submitted to one God, can help children to grow up to love the Lord. If we do not see marriage the the filter of scripture it will never be a holy matrimony. God love marriage. They are supposed to bring Him Glory.

BUT

I think most in here have heard this before and recognize it but are in a place of conflict in their hearts.

Some of us are divorced, and are struggling to understand how God feels about this. We have been taught different doctrines and are conflicted. Since many of them are not correct. I talked to a friend of mine who has great guilt over his situation and struggles because of it.

The second thing we can take away is. We must understand that though God does not want divorce for his people, it is not an unforgivable sin. We can submit to the scriptures in repentance and restoration to Christ and though there will always be consequences of divorce, it does not mean we cannot come to Christ and be used in great ways. Sometimes we are the cause but sometime we are not. Sometime you try to do everything you can and the other person’s sin causes you much pain. There was no rebuke of the women in this part of Malachi. They were broken because of their selfish husbands. Sometimes other people’s sin cause us the great pain and there is nothing that we can do other than seek comfort and support from God and his people.

Many are married and are in “domineering marriages”, some are in abusive marriages, many are in unevenly yoked marriages, many have had past transgressions that continue to effect their marriages. Many are in marriages where one or both are not actively participating in the marriage under Christ. I would be surprised if anyone in this room is not struggling with this topic today in some fashion. Since the beginning sin and human selfishness have eroded this holy institution and it has effected every marriage here.

The third thing we can take away is that even though not many are in jeopardy of leaving their wives for women that are worshiping other gods, our world is full of idols that are taking us away from the wives and husbands of our youth. Work, video games, friends, hobbies, sports, tv, social media, pornography, laziness, gluttony. Just to name a few. Sin is sin and we are not immune to the influence of the world on our minds and marriages.

We must be on guard. we must have watchmen in the night. What do we do. We realize that if we are not training couples and supporting families in following God and rejecting the world then we are not cherishing the institution of marriage.

I have officiated weddings over the last eight years and something I found very interesting is that all of the couples that I worked with were learning what God wanted in their marriage for the first time in pre-marital counseling. Can I ask a question?

How many of you had been sat down and someone helped you to understand what God wanted for you in marriage before you started dating? before you were engaged? before you were married? After marriage? I won’t ask to raise hands but how many of you have had to deal with the struggles in your marriage on your own, with no support or help from the church? Does that sound correct?

This should be a major focus of our ministry here at Dishman. We should be actively helping people in all stages of life to honor God in their marriages. I hope this will be something we can really focus on in the future here. If you are struggling there are some great resources in Spokane so please reach out to us.

After our relationship with Christ, no relationship on the planet will effect our lives more than out spouses. And we have the ability to effect our spouses as well. Today is a sensitive topic and I know it sits deep with all of us. I hope that you see that God’s loves you where ever you are at but is still just and you have hope in the future no matter where you are at. So please if you are offended or hurt by anything that I have said today please come and discuss it with me. I don’t suppose to understand what you are going through but I know how awesome God is and I would love to help to explain things more. Let us pray.

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