J. Deering

The Book Of Malachi
Introduction The Book of Malachi - Chapter 2:10-2:16

"The Sin of Self: Self indifference, Self righteousness, Self seeking, Self indulgence, Self centeredness"

Rebuke of Restored Remnant with Announcement of Future Purging and Blessing.

The Word of the Lord through Malachi

MALACHI Chapter 2:10-16

Finding God’s mind on “divorce”

Malachi moves on from the Priesthood to the family of God – within the Nation of God. When God speaks of “divorce,” He speaks to many levels of understanding. Speaking through Malachi, He reveals to us aspects of divorce that offends Him – the sacred relationship between God and the individual.

For many, the verses contained here and elsewhere in the Scriptures are only understood on a popular (no scholarship) level. For these, the topic of divorce only has relevance to a man and a woman who are married (before God, or otherwise). While this understanding of divorce is relevant – it does not contain the whole truth concerning what God means in these verses.

Let me set the historical stage for this study. For the first lessons that God taught Israel through Malachi the emphasis was upon the unbelieving priesthood. Perhaps you remember God asking, “Isn’t there even one who would close the doors to the temple.” He was pointing out that there wasn’t a single priest who was faithful to Him. Not a single individual acted to prevent the un-holy and perverse activities  - in the temple – by the priesthood. We left off last week with Chapter 2:6, and God was asking, “Where is My honor, where is My respect, O priests who despise My name.”

But God is not done speaking to the priesthood. He now moves into the area of marriage, inter-marriage, and divorce. We’ll need to look deeper than the surface in what God has Malachi to say. We’ll need to understand the truth behind the examples that God will bring forth.

PRIMARY PRINCIPLES

1.     God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) is one God in essence, yet He reveals Himself as being three distinct persons. This is certainly a great mystery to us who are of the flesh.

2.     God reveals Himself as being in absolute unity with each member of this trinity. There has never been any sense of division, there is no sense of division now, and there will never be any sense of division within this trinity.

3.     God has revealed that He made mankind in His image and likeness in order that we might enjoy true unity and fellowship with Him (apart from sin).

4.     God further reveals that those who believe will enter into an eternal relationship with Him in perfect fellowship and unity with Him.

5.     And God revealed that when man was created alone, there should be a partner which would come from his very being, so that in their rejoining they would – once again – regain that unity by once again becoming “one flesh.”

6.     And finally, God revealed that this mystical relationship of a man and his wife was the pure example of the unity within the Body of Christ, the Church.

So, any deviation from the pattern set by God, would be offensive to God and seen by Him as the breaking of so many patterns of unity, including Christ and His Church.

So, therefore… we should look for God’s examples of disunity and put our emphasis upon the disunity, and not the examples.

THE TEXT

The Example of Breaking Unity through Divorce,

The Example of Breaking Unity through Spiritually Mixed Marriage

10 Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to  one another?

[All one Father - Trinity]

[Did not one God create us – relevance?]

[Profane – to make unholy things that are Holy]

[Covenant VS unfaithful to one another]

11 Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. 12 As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.

[Judah unfaithful]

[detestable / desecrated]

[The Lord’s love for His sanctuary]

[Offense, marrying a worshipper of a foreign god – probably a pagan temple prostitute]

[The penalty for the offense]

[Relationship of “an Offering to the Lord” to the man who brings it]

13 Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 14 You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth (first wife). You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.

[The length of the list of offenses so far]

[What’s the evidence that God has turned away]

[Why is it all about the offerings]

[They cry and ask why]

[The wife of your youth]

[From your hands]

[God is the Witness]

[Unfaithful – Partner – Wife of your marriage covenant]

15 Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.

[Ref 2:10, One God made you]

[Belonging to God – expectations of relationship]

[God’s “Godly offspring”]

[Consequences of marriage unfaithfulness]

16 “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty.

So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.

[Relational hate VS Relational hate plus divorce]

[Violence VS Protection]

[“Be on your guard”]

[The responsibility of the man in faithfulness]

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