Judah's Treachery Against The Marriage Bond

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: Malachi 2:13-16
Psalters: 418, 172, 360, 151
  1. Their treachery.
    1. The children of Judah dealt treacherously against their God-given mates (15b).
      1. They said they belonged to God’s covenant, but they broke their vows by divorcing unbiblically.
      2. They were driven by self-centered desires over against serving their God in loving gratitude.
      3. God declares them to be covering their garments with “violence” (16), a destructive and violent thing a tearing apart.
    2. Note how God describes how He views her (14) (she is still his wife even after her puts away!!!).
      1. “She is the wife of thy youth” speaks of first love and great tenderness.
      2. “She is thy companion,” i.e., a friend who travels with you experiencing same trials and experiences together.
      3. “The wife of thy covenant.”
  2. We are always answerable to God!
    1. “Jehovah hath been witness” (14a), for He sees and hears all we do, say, and think to and about one another in marriage.
    2. “Did not He make one?” (15a). Malachi, like Jesus (Matt. 19:4) goes back to the creation of marriage.
      1. In creating marriage God willed one man and one woman (with her from his rib).
      2. God could have made them another way (for He has “the residue of the Spirit”), but did not.
    3. Malachi’s point is that divorce destroys one of God’s purposes in marriage: to bring up “a godly seed” (15).
  3. God’s response.
    1. God is blunt: “He hateth putting away” (16).
    2. And God does not regard their offerings and sacrifices (13).
    3. So “take heed to your spirit” (16b).