Studies in the Book of Malachi #5

Transcription of the fifth episode of the series Studies in the Book of Malachi brought to you by Pastor Rusty Tardo.

You can listen to it here.

"The Book of Malachi.

The modern message of Malachi. I'll tell you, there's nothing outdated about the Bible. The Old Testament is just as relevant.

These prophets spoke to a generation much like our own. And their message, I'll tell you, their message is much needed today. It really is much needed in our generation today.

We're in Malachi chapter 2, and we're going to begin tonight in verse 10. Beginning in verse 10, and we're going to read through verse 16. And these are the verses I want to concentrate on tonight.

Where Malachi is addressing his people, the people of Israel, and here's what he says. Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us?

Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord, which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange God.

The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of Hosts. And this have you done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with goodwill at your hand. Yet ye say, Wherefore?

Because the Lord hath been witnessed between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. Yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one?

Yet had he the residue of the spirit, and wherefore one, that he might seek a godly seed? Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away.

For one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you deal not treacherously. Now we'll pick up verse 17 next week, because actually verse 17 goes better with chapter 3 than it does with the verses that we just read.

Interesting verses. Now you know, up to this point, Malachi has been mostly addressing the sins of the priests. He's rebuked them for offering their unacceptable offerings, for bringing the lame, the blind, the halt, and offering that to the Lord.

He's rebuked them for profaning his temple. He's rebuked them for despising the priestly covenant. He's rebuked them for irreverence.

Actually, these were all terrible charges that he brought against the people of Israel and against the priesthood. But perhaps the worst charge that he could bring against them is something we read last week in chapter 2 and verse 8. I don't think anyone could be accused of something worse than this.

Verse 8, notice with me chapter 2 verse 8, but you are departed out of the way. You have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of Hosts.

Now look, what could be worse than being accused of causing others to stumble? In contrast with the godly priest that he talks about in verse 6 and verse 7, he says in verse 8, but you, in contrast to them, in contrast to the godly leaders, in contrast to the godly ministers, you have caused many to stumble. I just don't think it can get much worse than that.

When God says, your life, your example, your ministry, is actually a snare and a stumbling block to people because of the way you live. People are actually turning away from God because of you, because of your life or your example. I don't think it can get much worse than that.

You know, this is a very, very sober rebuke, but I want you to consider why Malachi has focused his attention on the priest. Now think about this. If the priest's example is corrupt, if the priest, now these are the ministers of God, these are the ones who stand behind the pulpits, let's say, if we were going to use common analogy.

These were the ones who were the spiritual leaders. They set the spiritual tone of the nation. They're the thermostat.

If they're hot, you know, the people are hot. Here's the thing. If the priests have no fear of God, if the priests are irreverent, if the priests are profaning the place of God, the temple of God, the altar of God, what could you expect from the people?

Not much better, right? If the priest were corrupt, then what would the people be like? Well, listen to this.

In Hosea chapter 4 and verse 9, there's a really powerful statement there. Hosea 4-9, this is what it says, like people, like priest. Like people, like priest.

In other words, the people follow the example of the priests. They will do like the ministers do. The people will follow the example of their leaders.

Hosea 4 and verse 9, it's a very potent verse. That just tells us if the spiritual leaders of a people, now we're looking at it in the light of Israel, but I want you to know that it also is true today in a church setting or in a ministry of some sort. If the spiritual leaders of a people, if they are lax in their morals, if they are lax in their ethics, if they're greedy for success, greedy for recognition, greedy for gain, if they're selfish or wanton, if they are irreverent towards God, if they lie, if they curse, if they're drunken, if they're lecherous, what do you think the people in the congregation will be like?

If these are the people. If the priests are wicked, look, it's like people like priests. The people are not going to really be much better than the priest.

They really aren't. They're not going to rise to a level much higher or any higher really than their spiritual leaders. It is very difficult for a people to rise above the spiritual level of their teachers, of their ministers, of their priests, their preachers.

That's just a fact. Listen to what Jesus said. Matthew 10 and verse 24.

Jesus said this, The disciple is not above his master. He said, The slave is not above his lord. The disciple is not above his master.

It's going to be extremely difficult. I'm not going to say impossible, but the general principle is that like people, like priest, the people will not rise above the spiritual level of the priesthood or the ministry. In our generation, in our dispensation, you know, the ministry.

Right from the beginning, I mean, right at creation, God established this principle, and it's really an unalterable principle. It's an eternal principle. We see it all the way back in Genesis chapter 1, and you can see it in these words that the Bible uses over and over in Genesis 1, where God, right from the beginning, said this, kind produces kind.

Kind produces kind. You remember the creation account? God created man and woman, and they would they would reproduce after their kind.

You know, he created trees and those trees, each different tree would reproduce after its kind. He created the bushes and the flowers and the fruits and the vegetables, and he created all the different animals, and he gave each one this unalterable, eternal law. Kind produces kind.

That's the law. In other words, you don't have a puppy, you don't have a dog that gets pregnant and has rabbits. Doesn't happen.

Why? Because kind produces kind, right? Birds don't sit on eggs and hatch fish.

Doesn't happen. In spite of what the evolutionists tell us. Well, maybe they tell us that's backwards, right?

It doesn't happen that way. The unalterable law is kind produces kind, right from the beginning. Now, that's true in the physical realm, but the Bible teaches us it's true in the spiritual realm also.

Because it's like Hosea says, in Hosea 4, in verse 9, like people, like priest. In other words, the priest would reproduce after their own kind. If they were drunken and immoral, if they were degenerate, if they were lecherous, what kind of people would be produced by their ministry?

Well, they produce after their own kind. Kind produces kind, like people, like priest. A worldly ministry reproduces after its own kind.

That's just the way it is. A ministry that has little regard for the Word of God, you know it yourself. If a ministry is shallow, if a ministry is carnal, if it's fleshly, if it's worldly, if it's undeserving, if it's unspiritual, if it's frivolous, if it's full of hype and frivolity and showmanship, what kind of disciples are going to be produced by that ministry?

Come on, tell me the truth. What kind of people are going to come out of that particular ministry? Shallow, frivolous, worldly, carnal.

That's the kind of... Look, it's like people like priest. It's kind produces kind.

That's an inevitable law. It's found everywhere. 

AW. Tozer once wrote a book. I can't remember the chapter of this particular book, but he mentioned something about this very principle, and he said something that I never forgot. He said, God preserve us from a revival of what we have now.

I'm giving you kind of a paraphrase of what his actual words were, but he said, God forbid that the present-day church would break forth in revival across the world. He said, the last thing we need is for this shallow, worldly, carnal, materialistic, self-centered church in America, the last thing we need is for it to travel overseas and reproduce itself on foreign soil. Because he said, it would set the cause of Christ back by a hundred years.

That's pretty sober language. But you know what? He's right.

He's right. What he said is what we need is a revival of true religion. What we need is a revival of true religion where people would really get saved and would really understand what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

It doesn't mean to be a foolish, frivolous, silly, carnal, worldly, half-baked believer. A cake not turned, as the prophet said. Israel's a cake not turned.

Half-baked, in other words. We don't need to be like that. But what we need is a revival of true religion.

And the reason Tozer said, God forbid that we would go across the sea and have a revival of what we've got now. Because look, if a worldly church goes overseas, what is it going to produce? Worldly disciples.

Worldly people. Look, kind produces kind. If you transplant, you take a crabapple tree and move it from the United States and plant it in China, what's it going to grow?

Not, not goldens. It's going to grow crabapples. Hello.

It's not going to, if you move it to China, that doesn't mean it's going to grow red delicious apples on it. It's going to still be a crabapple tree. Kind produces kind.

And that's, that was Tozer's point. Like people, like priests, they will follow the example of their ministry. They'll follow the example of their leaders.

A foolish, carnal, worldly example will reproduce after its own kind. Now, you want to remember why Jesus had such a passion for the cleansing of the temple. It's because anything that comes out of that temple, if the example of the temple is one of covetousness and greed, what's going to be produced by such a temple?

Why was he so concerned for cleansing the temple? So in John 2, the first thing he did, first public act of his ministry, cleansed the temple. Last public act of his ministry, Luke 19, he cleansed the temple.

Get the temple of house, the house of God, get it clean, get it cleansed from all this worldliness, pollution, ungodliness, carnality, worldliness. Here's the bottom line, folks. We reproduce what we are.

Kind produces kind. We reproduce what we are. What kind of disciples are we going to make?

The same kind of disciples we are. We reproduce what we are. That's just the way it is.

That means, like Tozer said, the last thing in the world we need is for a foolish and frivolous church to reproduce itself around the world. First and foremost, we need a revival in America of true religion. We need a revival of true religion so that what we reproduce will be the New Testament kind.

Y'all with me this evening? In Malachi's day, you see, this was the problem. In Malachi's day, a corrupt priesthood had produced after its own kind.

It had produced a corrupt society. And that's what Malachi was dealing with. And in this section, in fact, these verses we just read beginning in chapter 2, verses 10 and following, he rebukes them for a number of offenses, gross offenses.

The worst, the most treacherous offense that he speaks of here was the Jewish men divorcing their wives and marrying women from among the heathen nations that was surrounding Israel. And of course, that was a violation of God's law, a clear violation of God's commandments, a violation of the covenant that they had with each other, a violation of the covenant between husband and wife. Also, it was an act of treachery against God, because God had a special relationship with Israel, a special covenant with Israel.

And you know, by violating that covenant, by divorcing their Jewish wives, and by marrying heathen women, now you have to remember this principle that we just mentioned, that kind produces kind. We reproduce what we are. We don't reproduce what we want to be, necessarily, but we reproduce what we are.

But with that in mind, keeping those thoughts in mind, imagine what would be the results of the people of Israel intermarrying with heathen women. Imagine the results. Now what?

What's going to happen? Well, now you've got such compromise, such religious compromise. These idolatrous women, you know, he calls them the daughters of a...

What does he call them here in verse 10? 11, he says, you've married the daughter of a strange god. Pretty strong accusation, but the idea there is that by marrying these heathen women, they are endangering their very existence as a nation, as a separate people, as a separate people of God.

Because look, you start bringing... If you've got a heathen wife, she's an idolater, she practices idolatry, what kind of offspring are you going to have now? Is it going to be a godly offspring serving the Lord?

No, look, kind produces kind. That's the inevitable law. Kind produces kind.

So intermarriage with idolaters, with heathen idolaters, was strongly forbidden in the Bible. And then we read how these people had the nerve to come weeping at the altar of God. And, you know, they're all teary-eyed, and they act like they're all brokenhearted, wondering why God, why you're not answering our prayer.

You know, why God seems so aloof from us, why isn't he answering our prayers? It's like they don't understand, why isn't God answering us? Well, obviously, when you do wrong, God's not going to bless you.

When you do wrong, God's not going to prosper you. When you do wrong, no matter how many tears you shed, no matter how high you pile up the sacrifices that you bring, and that's exactly what they were doing here in this passage, no matter how many prayers you pray, when you do wrong, God's not going to bless you. You can't make up for wrong actions by praying a lot.

That's not going to do it. You can't make up for wrong actions by bringing more sacrifice. You do wrong and say, well, to make up for it, I'm just going to give a little extra in the offering.

That ain't going to work. That's not going to cut it. That's not going to move the hand of God.

What does Isaiah 59 say? God's ear is not heavy that he can't hear. His hand's not short that he cannot say, but your sins have separated between you and your God so that he will not hear you.

That's what he says in Isaiah 59, 1 and 2. Well, let's look at these verses. I believe that we can bring a number of things out here that are so relevant for us today.

Verse 10, Have we not all one father? Now, the Jews all shared a common ancestry through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob. They had a common heritage, a common spiritual father in that sense.

They were a brotherhood. They were a spiritual family. Have we not all one father?

Now, if we were going to make application of these passages to our own lives and our own situations, we want to remember that as Christians, we have a common heritage as well. We have one father. We're part of one family, you know, in a local church body.

And so, you know, we want to keep things like that in mind. Now, this verse, verse 10, has been the subject of some contention, I guess you could say, or discussion, because some people claim that this verse proves the universal brotherhood of all men. See that?

Have we not all one father? That proves the universal brotherhood of all men. We're all God's children.

Every single one of us are God's children. Well, in one sense, of course, we're all members of one, you know, we're all members of the human race in that sense. But that's not what he's talking about here.

He's talking to Israel. And to Israel, it could be referring to the fact that they all have one heavenly father, you know, as Jews, with that common relationship that they had as Jews to God, that unique relationship the Jews had to God. But it's also possible that he's referring to, you know, their common ancestry in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on.

Probably a reference to Abraham. He's called their father elsewhere in the Bible. So it's probably a reference to that.

It does not teach the universal brotherhood of all men, because, in fact, the fact of the matter is, the Bible doesn't teach that all people are the children of God. Jesus taught some of the children of God, some of the children of the devil. John chapter 8, Jesus was very, very clear when he told some of these Jews, religious leaders and so forth, you're of your father the devil, he said.

So he didn't teach some universal, loosey-goosey brotherhood of all mankind that, you know, God is going to save us all eventually, and nobody's going to perish or go to hell or anything like that. He was speaking here of Israel and how that they had one father, I believe probably in the spiritual sense, but also, like I said, also a good possibility could be referring to their common ancestry, Abraham, Isaac, and so on. But the fact is here that they had an essential unity and a distinct identity as Jews, as God's people.

He says one God has created this. Why? Here we are brothers.

Why then do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our fathers? You know, as fellow Jews, he's saying we ought to have some family loyalty, some brotherly loyalty. There ought to be unity.

There ought to be oneness of heart and so on, just like it should be in the church. You know how sweet and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell in unity? Well, the problem was, Malachi accuses them of dealing treacherously with each other.

And how is it? By profaning the covenant of our fathers. And then he expands on that a little bit.

Verse 11, he says, Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the holiness of the Lord, which he loved, and has married the daughter of a strange god. Judah has dealt treacherously.

Some versions translate that Judah has dealt faithlessly. And that's really what it means. It means to betray a trust.

It means to be unfaithful to a commitment. It means to be faithless. They've betrayed a trust, a solemn trust.

That's what they are guilty of doing. And because of it, the people have become abominable to the Lord in the sight of God. The holiness of the Lord is profaned because of their sin.

It's a terrible charge, a terrible indictment for a terrible sin, a terrible sin that they're committing. And what is the sin? Well, verse 11, it's the sin of intermarriage.

They are marrying heathen women. Verse 11, you have married the daughter of a strange God. Now, the idea there is that they married women who were currently practicing idolatry.

And of course, such a practice would corrupt Israel, it would corrupt the people. It would undermine the true worship of God. It would take the Jews away from the Lord that separated them from the rest of the world.

God had expressly forbidden them to do these things. In fact, there are several passages, Old Testament and New Testament, that says, don't do that. You don't marry the heathen.

You know, it's interesting. God didn't tell them that they couldn't marry people from another race, in essence. I mean, the fact of the matter is, marriage with a different race is not so much forbidden.

That's not the problem. Moses married an Ethiopian woman, Numbers chapter 12. Boaz married Ruth.

Ruth was a Moabitess. And God obviously blessed them and blessed their unions. The problem was not marrying people from a different race.

The problem was marrying people from a different religion. You see, Ruth had forsaken the god of the Moabites, and Ruth had converted to the god of Israel, as had, undoubtedly, Moses' second wife. There was no problem with marrying a person from another nationality as long as they served the god of Israel.

But look, when they were idolaters, then, of course, the prohibitions were in effect and expressly forbidden. You don't marry an idolater. You don't marry someone who's not worshipping the same god, the god of Israel.

These women were the daughters of a strange god, in that they were practicing idolatry. And you don't marry unbelievers. You don't marry, well, not only unbelievers, you don't marry make-believers either.

You don't marry the heathen. That's the idea. If just common sense tells us, look, if you're going to live together, a man and a woman under one roof, if you're going to have a blessed union and a fellowship and communion, then you want to marry someone of like-precious faith.

You want to marry someone where you have that commonality of faith. Nothing is better than that in a marriage relationship, to have a husband and wife in unity and one accord serving the Lord together. It just doesn't get any better than that.

It doesn't. Now, some people have the privilege of serving the Lord with their husbands and with their wives. Others are believing for the salvation of a wife or the salvation of a husband.

Maybe you came to Christ after you were married, and you know, so you're in a position where you're believing God for your husband to get saved or for your wife to get saved. Well, you just keep believing. You live your witness before him.

You let your light shine. You live for the Lord, trust the Lord, that the Lord will bring them around. But let me tell you this.

If you are not married, you are prohibited in the Old Testament and the New. You are prohibited from even considering marriage with an unbeliever. You don't marry unbelievers.

You don't marry. Make believers. Somebody told me there's only two kinds of people.

Believers and unbelievers. And I said, well, there's three kinds. Believers, unbelievers, and make believers.

Well, you know, several passages we could mention. But in the Old Testament, let me just read one over in Deuteronomy 7. Listen to this one.

Over and over, the Old Testament forbids marriage outside of one's faith. Let me read Deuteronomy 7. You don't have to turn there, but you can just listen if you like.

Deuteronomy 7, I'm going to read a couple of verses. Just a couple of verses where God says, when He brings you into the land that you're going to go and possess it, He says there's going to be all kinds of people there, and He mentions them by name. Girgocytes, Amorites, Canaanites, Parasites, Hivites, Jebusites, and so on and so forth.

This is what He says, verse 3. He says, Neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give to his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. And so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy you suddenly. Now, this is strong language.

He says, Do not marry, do not intermarry with the heathen, because this is what will happen. Don't think that if you marry a heathen, you're going to bring them up to your level. In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite is true.

Listen, here's what God says. He says, If you make marriages with them, here's what will happen. He says, For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods.

In other words, don't marry and think, I'm going to bring them up to my spiritual level. That's not what happens. They inevitably bring you down to their spiritual level.

You don't bring them up, they bring you down. God forbids intermarriage with the heathen. You're not going to raise them up, they'll pull you down.

Now, in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians chapter 6, I know is a very familiar passage. I'm going to read it anyway, but I'm sure you're familiar with it. But listen while I read.

2 Corinthians chapter 6, here's what the New Testament tells us. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion has light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?

What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? What do you have in common with an infidel? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God.

They shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. And I will receive you and will be a father unto you, and you will be my sons and my daughters, saith the Lord God Almighty.

You know what? His point is here. Don't marry the unbeliever.

Don't be unequally yoked together with the unbeliever because when it comes right down to it, you don't have anything in common with them.

A lot of people would save themselves a whole world of grief if only they'd listen to the Word, if only they'd follow the Word of God. I can't tell you through the years how many people I've had come and say, Brother Rusty, I believe the Lord has sent this man into my life, or this woman. And I believe this is the one that he's got for me and so forth.

And I'll ask him, now, here's a woman or a man who's a Christian, a serving Lord, and I'll say, well, is this person saved? He'll say, well, no, but he is so kind, and he's so close. I'll say, well, he's not the one God's got for him.

He's not the one. If he's not saved, then the Bible expressly says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. I had one lady who told me, but I prayed about it, and the Lord told me he's the one.

I said, the Lord didn't tell you that. You didn't hear from God, because the Bible says, don't do it. Now, God's not going to tell you contrary to the Bible.

Hello. He is not going to tell you contrary to the Bible. You may have a vision.

You may hear voices, but I'm going to tell you, you didn't get it from God. He doesn't contradict himself. He doesn't say, don't marry unbelievers, but you say, oh, but Lord, he's a good man, and he's nice, and he's kind, and he buys me chocolates.

And nobody ever did that before. The Bible says you don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. That's what the Bible says.

Now listen, if we'll follow the Bible, we'll be safe. If we go our own way, we'll be sorry. Now, if you think this is the one God's got for you, and he's so close to getting saved, wait and see if he does become a believer.

Because I'll tell you what else we've seen. People play games with the church. You know, they know, here's a woman, this is a godly woman, she serves the Lord, and she would be a good catch for some guy.

And he'll do back flips if she'll marry him. I mean, he'll go to church. Oh, I'll go to church.

Bless God. And he'll do it a couple of times. You know, he'll act all right.

But you find out, sometimes too late, that there was no real commitment to Christ in his heart. He was appeasing his wife, but after he marries her, he's content to sit in front of the TV, drink beer and burp on Sunday rather than serve the Lord in church. Well, we can save ourselves a lot of grief just by simply following the word of the Lord.

Now, the problem is, in Israel, at this point in the time of Malachi, the priests and the people were abandoning the word of God and the clear dictates of the word of God, and they were marrying heathen women. And so God, in verse 12, he speaks this curse upon them. He says, the Lord will cut off the man that doeth this.

God will destroy him. God will cut him off. He says, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offerth an offering unto the Lord of Hosts, you'll not be blessed.

He'll curse you. He'll curse your offspring. Now, there's some debate as to exactly what this curse would consist of.

Some said it would be a curse of barrenness. That means that if you do this, you're not going to have, you're going to be barren. You won't have offspring.

You won't have children. God won't allow you to. Others say, well, if they do have offspring, God's going to destroy their offspring, that they won't allow this mongrel race to be continued because God's going to bring judgment upon them and judgment upon even their offspring for their actions because this is a forbidden act.

And God is not going to allow Israel to be destroyed. Now, you have to understand, Israel is God's covenant people. He separated them from the rest of the world.

He gave them a unique covenant. In all the world, they had a unique covenant, were unique people, and God forbade them to intermarry. Now, by intermarrying, they were threatening the very existence of Israel as a nation and as a religion because remember the law we just talked about?

Kind will produce kind. If they bring heathen into the religion of Israel, what's going to happen? It's going to become a corrupt religion, an idolatrous religion.

It's going to incorporate paganism right into it. It's kind of like what's happened in the church in America. We've incorporated some junk into the church in America.

And it's, I mean, it's come from every corner of the globe, everything from New Ageism to idolatry right in the church in America. But at any rate, that's another story. God speaks a curse upon them for their disobedience.

And, you know, that might sound pretty harsh, but let's never forget rebellion has consequences. Don't think rebellion has no consequences. It has consequences in the Old Testament.

It has consequences in the New Testament. And you can't do wrong and then think, well, you know, if I do wrong, but then I can go to church and I can bring an offering, or I can repent, or I can do this or do right, and everything is going to be all right. That's not so.

Because He tells them right here that they cover, verse 13, they cover the altar of the Lord with tears and with weeping and with crying. But God won't listen. It's actually a pretty sober passage.

You know what the idea here is, or what it seems to be, is that the people had the idea that God is more interested in just us continuing the form of religion than He is interested in how we actually live our religion. I mean, as long as we carry out the form, as long as we attend, as long as we give, as long as we go through the ritual, you know, God's going to bless us. That's not the case.

It's not the case at all. God is concerned, of course, with our obedience. In fact, He told Saul, what was it that he wanted from Saul?

It's not your sacrifices that I want. It's obedience that I want. It's obedience from your heart.

That's what I want, not your sacrifices. All the good intentions in the world will not make up for bad actions. He wants obedience to His Word.

God's not impressed with our ceremonies, folks. He's not impressed with our offerings, our sacrifices. He's not even impressed with our prayers when our actions are contrary to the plain teaching of the Word of God.

That's his point. He says, this is what you've done. You bring an offering.

You think I'm going to accept the offering when you're doing wrong? Your actions are wrong. You're divorcing your wives.

You're marrying heathen women. You're violating my covenant. You're violating your covenant with your wife.

You're putting in danger the very existence of the nation of Israel and the very existence of the truth of Judaism. All that's endangered by your actions. And then you wonder why I'm not answering your prayer.

And then you come with offerings and tears, and you say, oh, why, God, why? Look, verse 13, this have you done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears and weeping and crying out in so much that He regards not the offering anymore or receives it with goodwill at your hand? And you say, why?

Why, Lord? Why won't you hear us? Why won't you answer our prayers?

And He tells them why. I'll tell you why. He says, because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet she is your companion and the wife of your covenant.

Now, there's the problem in the first few verses that we read, the problem with disobedient people, disobedient priesthood, bad example, and so forth, like priest, like people, like priest. But here is the next problem He really zeros in on, and that's the problem of divorce, another blatant example of unfaithfulness. These people were not only unfaithful to God, they were unfaithful to their wives.

There has been some, also, some debate as to whose tears these were, that the Bible speaks about in verse 13. One view is that they were the tears of the Jewish women who had been treated so treacherously by their husbands and divorced by their husbands. And I remember one person commenting on these verses said there was nothing more heartbreaking in Old Testament times than to see a wife in her later years divorced by her heartless husband and cast out.

You'd be hard pressed to find a more tragic sight, they said, in all of Israel than that. But the other view, and I believe the correct view is, that these tears are the crocodile tears of the same Jewish men who so flagrantly disregarded the Word of God, divorced their wives, broke their covenant with God, broke their covenant with their wives, married idolatrous women, corrupted the truth, violated God's eternal principles here, and endangered the very continuance of Israel as a separate people and nation. And then when their prayers didn't get answered, they come to the altar and cry and weep, and they wonder, why isn't God blessing us?

Maybe things were going bad. Their crops were failing, the rain wasn't watering their fields or whatever, their cattle were getting sick and dying. Things were probably not going well for them.

And then they come crying and weeping at the altar and wondering, why, God, what's wrong? Why aren't things working out for us? Why are we cursed instead of blessed?

We don't understand it. We're nice people. Look at all the offerings we bring.

Offerings are no substitute for obedience. That's his point. You can't do the rites and the rituals and think that God's going to bless you when you do wrong, when your actions are wrong.

Well, he says, verse 14, the reason heaven is brass, the reason things are not working for you, the reason God's not hearing your prayers, the reason you are cursed is because of the way you have dealt with your wives. You know, the way the Israelites dealt with their wives, the way you did with your wife. You broke your marriage vow.

You violated that holy covenant. You betrayed a solemn trust. I want to point out a few things that Malachi mentions here in this little section that's not mentioned anywhere else in the Old Testament.

I think you could really preach several messages and make some really profound points from some of the things that Malachi mentions about the uniqueness of the marriage relationship from right here in these few verses. I want you to notice a couple of things here. The first thing he mentions here in verse 14 is how that God is a witness in a marriage contract, in a marriage covenant.

He says God has been a witness. Now, that's pretty sober, especially when you consider that nowhere in the Old Testament do we really see a marriage ceremony. They didn't do it like we do it today.

They didn't have the same kind of ceremony. They did something. I don't know what they did, but they did something that was kind of a contract, that made a covenant between the man and his wife.

But it wasn't exactly like we do it today. But the important thing for us to recognize is that God saw the marriage vow. God bore witness to the marriage vow and saw it as an eternal covenant, a covenant between one man and one woman that they were supposed to marry and stay married for their lifetime.

That's the way God intended it to be. And notice that God bore witness of it. That means he didn't take it lightly.

I have people every now and then who ask me questions about marriage and say, well, what if we got married by a justice of the peace? Because, you know, does that count? It counts.

If you're married, you are married. God bore witness to that marriage. You made a covenant.

Whether you got married by JP or anybody else who is authorized by the state to perform a wedding, you made vows, you took vows with each other, God bore record, you were married. I don't believe you get any more blessed by being married in a church than if you were married under a tree. The important thing is that you are exchanging vows, husband and wife, you are doing it in the sight of God, and you take note of that fact, you recognize that fact that me and this woman or me and this man, we are exchanging covenant vows with each other before God.

You know, wherever you are, in a church building...

We take this seriously. Don't take marriage frivolously. That's part of our problem too in American society.

We try on marriage like we try on shoes. We will try them for a while if they don't work. 

We will try another pair.

Try another one. You know, do something else. Whatever.

Now, I know that whenever you deal with these subjects, there's the danger of people taking things wrong, especially if you've been divorced. But keep in mind, if you were divorced in your past, divorce is not the unpardonable sin. You've repented.

You've asked the Lord to forgive you. You're a new creation in Christ. Then walk in the light that you have now.

You were a different person then. That was a past tense, past life. You're a new creation.

Walk in the light that you have now. Serve the Lord. You're not a second class citizen in the sight of God.

Hello. But let's also recognize how God considers marriage so that we all are on the same page and we all recognize what a sacred thing it is in the sight of God. And notice this mention.

He says, God's been a witness between you and, look, and the wife of thy youth. Now, they did do things differently in Old Testament times. Many of the marriages, perhaps most of the marriages, were arranged marriages.

Sometimes they married very young. But nevertheless, however you want to look at it, the idea here is that the wife of your youth speaks of what actually should be true, and would normally be true. People get married, they normally get married, at a relatively young age, you know.

Late teenage years, early twenties, mid twenties, late twenties, that's still relatively young. So the idea of marrying, you grow together with your spouse, you grow up together with your spouse. You really do.

You grow up together. You learn about life together. You learn about family together.

I mean, you just, you go through various adventures of life together. You share your lives. You share victories and defeats.

You share joys and sorrows and troubles and triumphs. I mean, all of those things, you grow together, you learn together, you love together, you laugh together, you labor together, you do it together, and you share life with each other, all the experiences of life. You raise your children together.

You've shared your lives with each other. You've become one. You know, the two of you have become one.

Such a wife, and this is what Israel was lacking here, this is what they were forgetting, such a wife who has shared your life, such a wife should be treasured. Such a wife should be your delight and your joy. And as you grow older together, you should be growing closer together.

You know, that's the whole idea. You grow old together, a husband and wife. You grow old together, hand in hand, loving each other, going through the joys and sorrows and trials and triumphs of life together.

You grow older, you grow wiser, and your love becomes deeper, and your relationship becomes more and more one, more and more beautiful, more and more intense, more and more intimate, more and more personal. That's the way it is. One of the greatest tragedies I witness is watching people, married people, growing older and growing distant from each other.

Instead of growing together and coming together as one, they grow older and grow distant. And here's what often is the case, the husband and wife. You know, especially when you don't share that intimacy of faith, when you don't have that like precious faith, when you don't have that intimacy, that commonality, it's very easy for husband and wife to go separate ways.

The husband has his interests, the wife has hers. He does his things, she does hers. You know, and as the years go by, they become more and more distant.

The communication becomes less and less. They develop substitutes for the communication that they should have with each other. You know, husband and wife should be best friends.

We're going to talk about that in just a minute when he calls her your companion. Nowhere else in the Bible or nowhere else in the Old Testament is that used in reference to a husband and wife relationship. But boy, it's powerful.

But as we grow older, we should be growing closer and more intimate. But what happens with many is they develop other relationships. And so some guy will take the place, you know, the man instead of confiding in his wife and talking things through and all, he's got another buddy over here and they talk things out.

She develops other relationships with other women and so on. And what happens here is they eventually grow apart. They grow distant.

And here's the saddest thing of all, that one day they wake up and they realize, you know, I don't even know this man that I'm married to. I don't even know who he is. I mean, I don't know anything.

I don't know him anymore. What a tragedy that is, because as they grow older, they grow distant instead of growing closer together.

But here he talks about how you've dealt treacherously with the wife of your youth. This woman should have been treasured by you. She has been close to you.

She's been your companion. She's stuck with you through all the trials and troubles of life. And you've gone through hardships and difficulties together.

And now that the men were growing older, and here's what also happens that was a real act of treachery. You know, normally, young couples struggle. That's just the way it is.

You're young. You don't have as good of an income. You sacrifice.

You struggle together. You make financial sacrifices and so on and so forth. That's just the way it is in early marriage for almost everybody.

Few exceptions, but for most people, that's the way it is. For some people, they struggle throughout marriage. But for some people, generally, as you get older, especially once a person reaches middle age and so forth, they say, statistically, a man reaches his peak earnings, his optimum earnings, that he will earn in his lifetime about 45 years of age.

And from the years of 45 to about 55, 45 to 55, that's the most money he's going to make in his life. That's his optimum earning time in his life between the ages of 45 and 55. Now, think about this.

They married young. They struggled together, lived together, laughed together, labored together, went through trials and troubles, sacrificed together. Now, they reach middle age.

As they reach middle age, you know, gravity affects us all. We get older, we get lines in our faces, our bodies aren't as tight as they once were, our hair starts turning gray, and the men start reaching their peak earning capacity. At the time in their lives when their wives should have been the most comfortable, the men started looking for younger women.

That's what was happening. At the very time when the man's wife should be the most secure, the most, now they're more financially, you know, secure, now more blessed than they've been in the past. At a time when things should be the best, the husbands develop roving eyes and decide that, you know, these young gals, man, I'll tell you, those Ammonite, them Jebusite gals, man, they start thinking about the 20, 21, you know, 25 year old women, and they start divorcing the wives of their youth.

God says it's an act of treachery. It's an act of faithlessness. In fact, God says, those of you who do it, I'm going to cut you off.

Now, that's strong language, but God hates divorce, He goes on and tells us in this passage. He hates it. You've dealt treacherously with the wife of your youth, so I'm going to destroy you for that.

That's pretty... We need to know how God feels about divorce. We need to know how He feels about this marriage covenant that we've taken.

It's a sacred covenant, and the wife is to be treasured. I mean, you know, if you have a godly wife, you've got the greatest gift on this side of heaven that God can give.

He says, verse 14, look at this. He says, and she is your companion and the wife of your covenant. The only place in the whole Old Testament where that word companion is used in reference to husband and wife relationships.

Normally, that word is reserved for the intimate relationship that a man would have with, like, his best friend, you know, like a real close friend, a pal, somebody you run with, you hang with them. You know what's unique about companions? What's a companion?

It's somebody you do stuff with. It's somebody you hang around. That's your companion.

The Bible says your wife is supposed to be your companion. Hello? She is your companion, God says.

She's your companion. That means you ought to have a commonality of interest even with your wife. Now look, you can be miles apart in some things.

Maybe you don't like to sew, and your wife does. Obviously. I mean, maybe you like to hunt.

You like to sit out in the duck blind and shoot ducks at four in the morning in the freezing cold. You can't expect your wife to be out there with you. Now, some gals would, but you can't expect...

Obviously, you're going to have some interests that are diverse, but there ought to be a commonality, a fellowship, an intimacy, a companionship. Your wife is your best friend. That's the point.

God says your wife is your companion. She ought to be your best friend. You ought to run with her.

Do things with her. Hang out with her.

Well, you do things with your companion. You converse with your companion. You talk with your companion.

You communicate with your companion. You know what? You grow old with your wife.

You grow old with your husband. It's one man, one woman, one marriage for one life. That's the way it is.

She is your companion, and he says she's the wife of your covenant. You made a covenant with her, and then you violated it. You've dealt treacherously with her.

What a serious charge. And you did it for these pagan women. Now, these women had a reputation.

In fact, one of the sources that I had read said that the women, obviously, these women, you know, young women coming from idolatrous backgrounds, these were sensual women. They lived in idolatrous nations. You know what kind of women these were.

I mean, these were seductive, sensual women. I mean, they worship fertility gods for the most part. So, they were involved in every kind of licentious behavior that you can imagine.

And these, you know, middle-aged men and some getting, you know, middle-aged and older, they would be considered a pretty good catch for these young gals. I mean, you know, middle-aged Jewish guy, the Jews known for, you know, by that time in their middle age, they probably had a few coins that they could rub together. They were probably doing all right financially.

So they would be considered a pretty good catch for these young gals. And maybe even for the Jewish men, these idolatrous women might have been considered a pretty good financial advantage too, in this sense. You know, basically, the economy surrounding them was, the economy was controlled by idolatrous nations.

You trade with the idolatrous. If you're going to do business with them and you've got an idolatrous wife, hey, that might open some doors for you. You know, you could maybe find a little business advantage even in some of those things.

And, you know, you hang around with a younger woman and it makes you look good too. You know, might open up some other doors. You know, the sad thing is that the very thing that Malachi addresses in his day, it's still prevalent in our own society.

It's still very prevalent. Nowadays, they might call it crisis. Yeah, midlife crisis.

These guys get to be, you know, 45, 50, whatever midlife is. I don't even know where it's at, but you start getting in that neighborhood and they start. It would be very easy.

Look, I'm convinced of this. If you don't have the right relationship with your husband and wife, the devil will send a woman or a man in your direction that will give you attention that your wife or your husband fails to give you. If your relationship with husband or wife is not what it should be, I mean, if you're not the kind of husband you should be loving your wife, the way Christ loved the church, being a blessing to her, look, let me tell you, the devil's got a thousand traps.

The devil's got a thousand traps for the men. The men, you're at work, and here's some young, attractive gal. I mean, she's going through terrible problems in her marriage, and it seems like you are so sympathetic.

I mean, you just understand everything she's going through, and she cries on your shoulder, and first, you just pat her on the back and feel so sorry for her, and say, you know, I'm going to pray for you, and the Lord loves you. Maybe your intentions initially are good. You know, you're going to pray for her.

And then the next day, you're looking forward to patting her on the back and pray for her. And then the day after that, you start thinking, you know, this gal is going to divorce her husband. And the point is, the devil will set you up.

And he'll do it to the men. He'll do it to the women. That's why you and I have to be on our spiritual guard all the time.

None of us are immune from the devil's traps. And none of us, none of us are at a place where we could not fall. Look, if David could fall, if David could yield to those kind of temptations by not guarding his heart and guarding his eyes, it could happen to anybody.

Better men than you and I have failed. So that means you and I, we, all the more, we have to throw ourselves on the mercy of the Lord and trust the Lord to keep us right and keep us pure, keep our hearts right. And we've got to keep our relationships with our spouses right.

You grow old together. She's your wife by covenant. That's a solemn pact, he says, one man, one woman, that God himself has borne witness to that covenant.

She's the wife of your youth. And verse, notice what he says in verse 15. Didn't he make one?

Yet had he the residue of the spirit, in other words, he didn't have to do it that way. It seems to me that what he's talking about here is that right from creation, he made one woman for one man. And he didn't have to do it that way.

You know, didn't he have more of the spirit? He could have done otherwise, right? He could have made two women for one man, or three women, or two men for one woman.

He could have done it the other way, right? Or he could have made, instead of making Adam and Eve, Adam and Steve, like one guy said. He didn't do it that way.

It's supposed to be one man and one woman, one marriage, one covenant for a lifetime. That's the way God intended for it to be. Now, obviously, that was his intent.

And look at why he did it. Verse 15, And wherefore one? Why did God make one man, one woman?

What's the idea of this covenant, this marriage covenant, that he might seek a godly seed? Now, look at that. Now, let's start putting it all together here.

Kind produces kind. You see, if you've got a godly man and a godly woman, the idea is kind produces kind. They reproduce after their own kind.

Inevitably, ultimately, the apple tree is going to bear apples. Now, in some cases, you know, maybe you're believing for a child that's going to get with it, like some of us all, we're believing for children that's going to get with it. But the idea is that kind will produce kind.

And if you marry a heathen, kind's going to produce kind. God's intention is that a Jewish man would marry a Jewish woman, they would produce a godly offspring. That was the idea.

You're going to raise them up in the ways of God, they're going to serve the Lord, they're going to follow the Lord. But if you intermarry, you're going to raise an idolater. You marry an idolater, she's going to drag you down, and whatever offspring is produced in your union is going to be idolaters, because kind will produce kind.

That's the point. Kind will produce kind. So he goes on and says, Therefore take he to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

He says in verse 16, For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. Literally, he hates divorce. He hates divorce.

He goes on and says, For one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of Hosts. Therefore, and he mentions this again, Take he to your spirit, that you deal not treacherously. Don't deal treacherously with the wife of your youth or else, in other words.

That's what he's saying. He just tells it like it is. And the idea there of covering violence and so forth just seems to be that he puts divorce, this dealing treacherously with your wife, in the same category of violent actions.

Cruelty, wickedness, robbery, murder. He puts it in the same classification as that it's a wicked sin in the eyes of God. That's something we need to be reminded of, that God hates divorce.

God hates divorce. Whenever I do marriage counseling, I always tell young couples. I tell them basically the same thing every time, but one of the things I never fail to tell them is in the home that you're going to make together as husband and wife, the D word, divorce, is not to be mentioned.

You don't mention that word. You don't ever say, I'm getting a divorce. Don't even say that.

Don't even think that. Take the word out of your vocabulary. It's not an option.

It's not an option. God doesn't give you that option. You take it out of your vocabulary.

Now, it's another story if there's a violation of the marriage covenant. Somebody breaks the covenant, he's unfaithful, and so on. It's another story.

But when you start talking to a young couple, you tell them divorce is not an option. God's intention is for you young man and for you young lady to grow old together, to live your lives together, to grow up together, to share your lives, to learn, to love, to laugh, to labor. Just live together.

Be companions, be best friends. Share your lives, communicate. Love each other.

But the word divorce, take it out of your vocabulary. It's not an option. And if you serve the Lord, no matter what you face, you'll be able to overcome it.

Because if you serve the Lord, He's going to give you the ability to rise above the circumstances, the trials, the troubles. And together, together, you face the trials and triumphs of life. And God will bless you.

But His rebuke to the Jews, treachery. He said treachery. You've divorced your wives.

An act of treachery. Well, like I said, there's a whole lot here in this passage, a whole lot that we can draw from. But we're going to stop there for the night and pick up with the next section next week.

Hallelujah. Amen.

Amen. Let's stand together.”