Malachi 2:10-17
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 fathers? 11 Judah has acted treacherously, and a
detestable thing 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 To the man who does this, may the LORD cut off any
descendants from the tents of Jacob, even if they present an offering to the
LORD of Hosts. 13 And this is another thing you do: you cover 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
Yet you ask, "For what reason?" Because the LORD has been a witness
between you and the wife of your youth. You have acted treacherously against
her, though she was your marriage partner and your wife by covenant. 15
Didn't the one God make us with a remnant of His life-breath? And what does the
One seek? A godly offspring. So watch yourselves carefully, and do not act
treacherously against the wife of your 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 Hosts. Therefore, watch yourselves
carefully, and do not act treacherously. 17 You have wearied the
LORD with your words. Yet you ask, "How have we wearied Him?” When you
say, "Everyone who does evil is good in the LORD's sight, and He is
pleased with them,” or "Where is the God of justice?”
Verse 10 - Don't all of us have one
Father? Didn't one God create us? Why then do we act treacherously against one
another . . .
•
The prophet Malachi boldly confronted
the bad behaviors that were prevalent in his society.
•
One of those bad behaviors was that
people treated each other treacherously.
•
The word treacherous came from
the Hebrew word begad which referred to deceiving someone on purpose.
•
The Israelites were purposely
deceiving each other in a variety of ways and it was destroying the fabric of
their society.
•
Malachi reminded the people that each
person was created by God in His image.
•
That means that all people deserve to
be treated with respect because the image of God is stamped on each person’s
soul.
•
We do not have to agree with all the
choices other people make, but we do have to treat other people with respect
because they are created in the image of God.
•
That image may be marred by sin, but
it is still the image of God and that should mean something to those who follow
God.
Verse 11 - . . . Judah has profaned
the LORD's sanctuary, which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign
god.
•
The word profane is from the
Hebrew word chalal and refers to polluting something so that it no
longer has value.
•
This verse has both a literal and
figurative interpretation.
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The men of Judah had literally
married women who worshiped foreign gods. This was strictly forbidden by God in
the Old Testament.
•
Marrying women who worshipped foreign
gods was not an issue of ethnicity. Malachi had just made the point that we are
all created by God in His image and therefore all people are equal regardless
of their ethnicity.
•
The problem was that these ladies did
not follow the true God of Heaven, but worshipped false idols.
•
The people of Judah had been swayed
by the false religions that these marriages had exposed them too. Their faith
in the true God had begun to waver as a result.
•
This ancient verse still applies to
Christians in our modern time. Christians should only marry people who share
our Christian faith.
•
Read 2 Corinthians 6:14 and summarize
its teachings below:
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While there are some marriages in
which a non-Christian spouse will decide that they want to become Christian, it
does not happen often.
•
This puts tremendous pressure on a
marriage because faith binds our hearts together. If we do not share the same
faith, then we will be missing a key element in the bonding process.
•
If we are unmarried, we should only
date Christians.
•
If we are already in a mixed faith
marriage, we should earnestly pray that God will allow us to be one of those
rare marriages where the non-believing partner will choose to believe.
•
We can also apply this same concept
to any area of life, not just marriage.
•
Though it is fine to have
non-Christian friends, we should be careful how they affect us.
•
When we allow non-Christian ideas and
concepts to begin to influence us more than our faith, then we have
figuratively married a foreign god and it can only bring pain and hurt into our
lives.
•
The most miserable person in the
world is the Christian who knows they are not living the way God wants them to
live.
Verse 13 - And this is another thing
you do: you cover the LORD's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning,
because He no longer respects your offerings or receives them gladly from your
hands.
•
Malachi also confronts the people’s
attempts to manipulate God through false piety.
•
They would come to the altar and weep
and groan over their problems, but they were not willing to actually change
their bad behavior.
•
Acting sad is not the same thing as
actually repenting of our sin.
•
Repentance is turning away from sin
and turning toward God.
•
When we really repent, we can expect
God’s blessings on our lives.
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When we are just sad that we got
caught, we should not be looking for a blessing.
•
God no longer received their
offerings or prayers because they wanted the benefits of faith without the
responsibilities of repentance that came with it.
•
If our prayers do not seem to be
working, we should examine our level of repentance to ensure it is genuine.
Verse 14 - Yet you ask, "For
what reason?" Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife
of your youth. You have acted treacherously against her…
•
Though there were many areas of the
Israelites’ lives that did not please God, the one that most upset God was the
way the men were treating their wives.
•
In that time period, Jewish culture was
extremely male dominated.
•
Women were completely dependent on
men for their livelihood.
•
When a man married a woman, he made a
life-long commitment to provide for her.
•
He if broke that commitment, the
woman was in a very difficult situation because she had no other means of
support.
•
In Malachi’s day, men had made
commitments to their wives when they were young, but as the women had gotten
older, the men desired other women, presumably ones that were younger and
prettier.
•
God said He would not honor the
prayers of a man who treated his wife this way.
•
In our modern world, men and women
are often considered equals.
•
In our modern world, both men and
women are guilty of lusting after someone to whom they are not married. That
lust often leads to sinful behavior.
•
Christians cannot expect to be
blessed by God if we allow lust to control us in this way.
Verse 15 - Didn't the one God make us
with a remnant of His life-breath? And what does the One seek? A godly
offspring.
•
Not only are we created in the image
of God, but God breathed into us the breath of life.
•
Read Genesis 2:7 and write a summary
of it below:
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God’s breath is more than just
oxygen. It refers to His spiritual nature which He breathed into humankind at
creation.
•
The primary difference between humans
and animals is that humankind has a spiritual nature.
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What does God’s spiritual nature
produce?
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•
People also have a spiritual nature.
•
What should our own spiritual nature
produce?
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•
One “offspring” of our own spiritual
nature should be other people who share our spiritual values. We should be
sharing our faith and helping others embrace it.
•
When we fail to produce spiritual
fruit in our lives, we fail in the very essence of our faith.
Verse 17 - You have wearied the LORD
with your words. Yet you ask, "How have we wearied Him?” When you say,
"Everyone who does evil is good in the LORD's sight, and He is pleased
with them,” or "Where is the God of justice?”
•
Malachi tells his audience that they
had wearied the Lord with all their talk which was not backed up by action.
•
God had grown tired of their bad
behavior.
•
Ever ready with an excuse, the people
asked how they had wearied God.
•
Malachi said they had done two things
that wearied God.
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First, they claimed that people who
were doing evil were actually good.
•
Second, they accused God of not being
just.
•
Make a list of bad things that our
own society often calls good:
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Take a moment and reflect on whether
current events might indicate that God has grown tired of our culture calling
this list of bad things good.
•
Our society also often accuses God of
not being just when He does not do things the way we wish He would.
•
If we were God, how would we respond
to someone calling us unjust when we had done all the right things?
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We should be thankful that God has great
patience.
•
We should be thankful that God has
shown us love that we do not deserve.
•
We should be thankful that God has
withheld judgment that we do deserve.
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But we should never forget that at
some point, God will decide that enough is enough.
•
When God decides that we have wearied
Him enough, the Day of Judgment will come!
•
When the Day of Judgment finally
happens, we had better be on God’s side and not still playing spiritual games.
•
None of us know when that day will
be, but it is much closer for us than it was for Malachi.
Conclusion:
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If we are purposefully deceitful of
others, we should not expect God to bless us.
•
We should be careful not to let
anything draw us away from God, even our marriages.
•
When we realize we have done wrong,
we must repent of that behavior and change it.
•
If we are living right before God, we
should be producing spiritual fruit in our own lives and in the lives of
others.
•
Though we should be thankful for
God’s patience, grace and mercy, we should not use them as an excuse to continue
wrong behavior.
This is an excerpt from the book, Malachi: Finding Hope in the Midst of Adversity. The book can be found on Amazon.
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