A Call to Faithfulness (I)
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
This text that was read in your hearing, I trust you might have noticed that there is a word repeated throughout our text that takes us to the very heart of this passage. It takes us to the very heart of what this passage addresses. It is this Hebrew word, ‘bagod’. It is translated in the LSB and the NASB, "treacherously," "dealt treacherously." This Hebrew word is translated by words, you can say, bound up in this Hebrew word, words such as "faithless," "betrayer" or "betray," "traitor," "treacherous," ‘bagod’, "faithless," "disloyalty." It means to be faithless to a principle or to a person or to a group of people. It can mean to break faith, to prove untrustworthy, to prove untrustworthy, disloyal.
Five times, mark it down, five times in seven verses, five times in seven verses we have this word. Do you notice that? Five times in these verses just read, God speaks to His people about treacherousness, unfaithfulness, traitorous. Look at them with me. Verse 10, "Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother?" Verse 11, "Judah has dealt treacherously” – ‘bagod’ – and an abomination has been done in Israel and Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god." You go down to verse 14, "Yahweh has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have"—here's our word—"dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant." And of course, end of verse 15, "let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth." And finally, verse 16, the end of it, "Be careful then to keep your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously." Five times. Five times.
All of this has to do with loyalty, with faithfulness, with fidelity. To deal treacherously in this context is to prove disloyal to Yahweh, disloyal to God by being—and here specifically—to be disloyal to the covenant that God has given. But what's particularly striking about this passage is that this loyalty to God that's on display here involves acts of disloyalty towards people, and let us not miss that. This is quite important for us to make sure that we grasp this. God is being dishonored as people are being mistreated. God is being dishonored as His people are being mistreated. People are being disloyal to God by being disloyal to one another, and God takes issue with that.
There are a couple of things that come to mind when I think about this, when I consider this passage and its teaching. First of all, by way of introduction, I think about how often we misunderstand the Mosaic Covenant. I just want to say a word about this. The Mosaic Covenant was never intended to be a means by which people earned righteousness before God. The Mosaic Covenant was not given so that people could save themselves by keeping laws, and we know that.
But it's also true to say that the Mosaic Law was not given simply or exclusively to expose sin, and I think sometimes in the New Testament context, that's how we think about the Mosaic Law, the Mosaic Covenant—that it was just given to show us our sinfulness. You hear people talk about preaching the law before you preach Christ, and so they treat the Old Testament as if its only function exclusively was to expose our sinfulness. Let me say, certainly it does expose man's sinfulness, but this was a covenant that was meant to be approached by faith, nevertheless. That is, on the part of the people who truly believed in God, who were truly regenerate, who had truly been saved, the Mosaic Covenant was an administration, it was a means that God gave by which people—His people—would walk with Him.
His will was made known to them in the Mosaic Covenant, and they were to walk with God according to these laws that had application not only to one's worship, but to the nation's life, its civil life. They walked with God by faith as they walked loyally, obeying the words of Yahweh.
Paul, in fact, gives voice to this in Romans 9:30, where he says, "What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness, laid hold of righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith. But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain that law." Why? He asked in verse 32, "Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works." You see the point?
You see, they misunderstood the law of God, and anyone who's ever tried to achieve righteousness based on law-keeping has fundamentally misunderstood—completely misunderstood—why God gave His law to begin with. Verse 32, why? Paul says, "Well, because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, 'Behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, and the one who believes upon Him will not be put to shame.'"
So while the law served to show man's sinfulness—true, right, that's true—and it was intended by God to do that, it was never perfection that God expected of His people as He gave that law. It was rather loyalty that was required by the covenant, and that's what we need to underscore: loyalty.
That's why you see God being so patient with His people. If it was perfection that the covenant required, the nation would have been what? Destroyed immediately, gone immediately, perished immediately. The covenant would have never made any sense, and this is why their sins could be described in terms of what? Disloyalty, unfaithfulness. God gave commands. The commands could only be obeyed by faith, but they could only be obeyed by faith. We need to keep that in mind.
The law was to serve, to use the language of Paul, as a tutor. It is the way God would manage His people, that God had a special relationship with this nation, and through this nation would come the Messiah, the Christ of God. In Christ, not only God would save Jews, but the Gentiles. And until the Christ came, the believers—the Israel that existed in Israel (there was an Israel within Israel; not every Israelite was an Israelite indeed)—but genuine believers would walk with God as they believed His commands. And in this way, the law served as a tutor, pointing them to Christ, preparing them for the Messiah.
The genuine believers were loyal to God by obeying His laws, but those who were unbelieving, they revealed their unbelief through disloyalty—by disloyalty to God and to His Word. So as I think about this passage, and I think about treacherousness, what faithlessness means here, this disloyalty that's on display here, I think about how often we misunderstand the Mosaic law.
It's something else that comes to mind when we consider what we see here—not only misunderstanding the nature and the purpose of the Mosaic covenant, but also I think we woefully underestimate how our relationships with people—and follow closely—reflect our loyalty to God. Let me say that again. I think we woefully underestimate how our relationships with people reflects our loyalty to God.
Genuine faith is not only manifested in an individual relationship with God. Genuine faith is manifested when we believe God about how we have to, He would have us treat other people. That's how it is manifested—when we believe God about how He would have us treat each other. Do you love the Lord tonight? Do you love Him? Do you have genuine faith in Him? Really? Do you have genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well then, if that is the case, praise God. Praise God.
But if that is the case, then you care what He says to you and to me about how you and I are to treat other people. We do. This was true in the Old Testament as well. If they were really loyal to God and loyal to the covenant of God, then they would listen to the laws of God regarding the treatment of other people. It's as simple as that. Always the vertical has impact on the horizontal, always. It's interesting, isn't it?
Up to this point, God has been talking about how this people have dishonored Him, how they are irreverent toward Him, how they profaned His name, how they disrespected Him. There's no reverence toward Him. And everything He's talked about up to chapter 2 verse 9, has to do, has had to do with how they deal with God directly. You remember that, I trust. They dishonored God by not appreciating His love for them. "How have You loved us?" God says, "I've loved you." The people say, "What do You mean? How have You loved us?" God had to remind them of His electing purposes and how He had shown a special mercy to this people. You see, that's an individual relationship with God.
And then He went on to talk about how they were dishonoring Him by what they were offering to Him as sacrifices, and how the priest had dishonored Him by what they were receiving from the people and going on in offering it, though they knew that violated the law of God, that this was not worthy of God. He talked about their attitudes in worship. Remember that? Oh, how tiresome it is. Oh, what a weariness this is. How they disdainfully sniffed at it. It's boring. Again, we have to go to the temple and present an offering to the Lord all this time, sitting and listening to the Word of God.
Up to this point, it's all been about how they're dishonoring God directly. Perhaps we could describe it that way. But now you come to chapter 2, verse 10. They're still dishonoring God. They're still dishonoring God. They're still showing their disloyalty to God. They're still irreverent toward God. Now the question is, how are they doing it, though, at this point? How are they doing it?
You see, now they're doing it by how they're treating one another. That's what's happening here. Your loyalty to God is not just on display by how you deal with Him directly, but by how you deal with other people as well, whether you listen to Him about how you treat other people specifically, how you treat your brethren. And beloved, this is so instructive for us. This is so timeless.
How many people claim to love God when they're so clearly not loving the people around them? Do you imagine that you're loyal to God when you're not loyal to the people God has placed in your life? Do you imagine that you're loyal to God, that you love God, when you don't love the people who are in your life? Do you think somehow that God is pleased with your claim to love Him when you don't believe Him about how to treat others around you?
Our love for God is proven by our love for His people. Our loyalty to God is proven by our loyalty to covenant relationships, and to be more specific, as we find here in this text, like marriage. Don't ever imagine that you're loyal to God if you're not loving your spouse, or when you've proved treacherous, faithless to the marriage covenant. And we'll get there as we study this text.
There are people in this world who are in the act right now of divorcing their spouse on unbiblical ground, and yet they claim to love God.
So here were people called to be loyal to God, loyal to each other by faith, and the God who had related them to Himself by grace, sheer grace, and He now is going to charge them with their disloyalty. That's what we have here going on in this portion in Malachi chapter 2. How does He see? How does God see? How does God see?
Well, here's the first point that I want us to see together as we begin to dig in this text of Scripture. Verse 10, I want us to see the charge of unfaithfulness declared. The charge of unfaithfulness declared. The charge of unfaithfulness. This oracle, this third oracle we find in the book of Malachi, is different from the first two in that this one doesn't begin with a question put in the mouths of the people. No, no, here the prophet Malachi himself is the questioner under inspiration.
Look at it together: "Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?" He charges them here with being faithless to one another. Faithless to one another, and in doing so profaning the covenant that God had given to their fathers, violating the covenant, proving disloyal to that covenant by their treatment of each other.
The “father” referred to here in verse 10, I believe, is God. Some commentators see the Father referred to here as one of the patriarchs, perhaps Abraham. I believe that it's God who's being referred to. Remember, in the context of this book, back in chapter 1, God says, "...if I am” – what? – “a father”, If you're a son, if I'm a father, where is My honor? And If I am a master, where is My respect? If you're My slave, where's the fear of Me? That's sort of a mirror here in verse 10 with the idea of Father and Creator.
"Do we not all have one father?" he says. And we could also say in the second statement, "Has not one God created us?" You could also say, do we not all have one Master? But either way, whether you would say that the father here is Abraham or you say that the father here is God—I believe it is God—the fact that they have one Father and one God has created them is another way of saying this: Are we not all brothers by God's doing? That's the point. Regardless, that's the point.
Are we not all brothers and sisters by God's doing? Isn't God the one who gave birth to the nation? Isn't God the one who related us to Himself in the way that He has by covenant? Aren't we God's doing? And aren't we, as a result of what God has done, aren't we brothers? And if this is true—and it is—then how can faithlessness, how can covenant disloyalty be excused? That's the point.
Knowing that God is our Father and Creator, how can we excuse the ways that we're treating one another? How? Is this what covenant loyalty looks like? Does this honor God? Does this reverence Yahweh? Does this believe God? Does this obey God the way we're treating each other right now? Is this what obedience looks like?
Why are we sinning against each other? Why are we mistreating one another? Why are we proving faithless, disloyal toward each other? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? Unfaithfulness denies spiritual sibling-ship. Unfaithfulness denies brotherhood. Unfaithfulness profanes the covenant.
When he says there in verse 10, "so as to profane the covenant of our fathers," that is defiling it. Or you can put it this way: treating it with contempt. Treating the covenant as though it is nothing. It is meaningless, void, empty, shallow—the covenant that God gave to their fathers. Yawn at it.
God has loved His people. God has formed them as a people. God has put His name on His people, and now here they were, like the majority of the people throughout their history. They are treating this covenant relationship with contempt. And in this case, they're treating it lightly. How? By disregarding the laws that God has given them about how they were to relate to each other.
It already has been proven they dishonored God by the way they're relating to God Himself, to Yahweh Himself, but they're also disregarding God's holiness and majesty by the way they're relating now to each other. Israel, as you know, was a theocracy. It's true. I said earlier, not every Israelite was an Israelite in terms of salvation, but Israel was designed to be a believing people. God gave them His words. God gave them many spiritual advantages that, in terms of human responsibility, should have led them to salvation.
Paul talks about this in the book of Romans. He's grieving over the loss of his kinsmen, according to the flesh, and he talks about all the advantages God has given him. There's so much advantage, so much light, privilege. Romans 9:4: "who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law and the temple service, and the promises." I mean, look at how privileged they were. "whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ, according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen."
Of course, as Malachi writes what he writes, the Christ has not yet come, but everything else that Paul talks about there in Romans 9 was true at this very moment. To these people belongs the adoption, the glory of the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises, the patriarchs, and in terms of the Christ, as Malachi writes, the promise still there that the Christ is coming, Messiah is coming from their own people. How should such people respond to God, but in faith, in trust, believing Him. And if you believe Him, then you believe Him as He commands you concerning how you treat your brothers.
They're connected. They can't be compartmentalized and disconnected, disjointed. And this first reference to being treacherous, faithless, in verse 10, I want us to notice this. It seems to be a general reference, a general reference. I mean, in just general terms, in sort of an all-encompassing terms, they had proven what? They had proven faithless, disloyal.
If you had looked at any way in which they treated each other, any way in which they lived with each other, you would have found disloyalty. You would have found faithlessness, betrayal, treacherousness—business practices, family relationships, friendships, worship context. This was a disloyal, unbelieving people, faithless people. And it was the law of God, it was the covenant that exposed them as such.
Just as a quick side note, I would remind us that just as these people were exposed by the law of God, so we don't measure how we treat each other by our own standard. Keep that in mind. The way you know whether you're loyal to God by being loyal to your brethren and by loving people the way God commands—that's how you know. The way you know whether you're doing that or not is His what? His Word. His Word. His Word is the plumb line. We measure our relationships with each other by the words of God.
Maybe you look at your life, and you say, well, I don't see that. I don't see that. I don't see that I'm doing anything wrong. May I ask you this evening, have you measured what you're doing by the Scriptures? Have you? It doesn't matter what, and I say this lovingly, it doesn't matter whether you think you're guilty of mistreating someone or not. It doesn't matter. What matters is if we measure how you're living, how I'm living by the Scriptures, are you mistreating someone? That's the issue.
There are people all over the planet who feel justified in mistreating other people. It just doesn't make them right, does it? And just like these people had questioned everything God had charged them with up to this point, you could be sure there were some listening to this who said, perhaps, well, how have we been faithless toward each other? But they had. So the first thing we see in verse 10 is the charge of faithlessness announced, proclaimed, the charge of covenant disloyalty. And the second thing I want us to see now, beginning in verse 11, and that takes us to verse 16, what God has declared in general terms, now He's going to make specific. So we'll call this the charge of faithlessness described.
So we move from the charge of this faithlessness declared to now it is described. Out of all the ways that they had proven faithless to one another, there are two specific ways, two specific ways, that the Lord is going to put His finger on. And here they are. I'm gonna share them ahead of time, and then we'll make our way through them together. Number one, two specific ways. The first one is this: they were faithless because of intermarriage. And number two, they were faithless because of divorce. They're right here in the text. Intermarriage, divorce.
Tonight, we'll only have time to deal with the first: intermarriage. We'll leave the second one next Sunday, Lord willing. We'll come back, and we're going to deal with the second issue, the second way that their unfaithfulness was proven. So if anybody wonders, well, how have we been unfaithful? How have we been disloyal? God, tell us. You say we're disloyal, we're unfaithful to You and to each other. The Lord says, well, let Me tell you. I'm gonna tell you now. I'm gonna be specific.
Look at verse 11: "Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem; for” – tells them, the reason – “Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. As for the man who does this, may Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers or who presents an offering to Yahweh of hosts."
Their unfaithfulness, you see clearly, is on display through intermarriage. You say, what do you mean? Well, the law of God had made it very clear, crystal clear, that an Israelite was not to marry someone outside the nation. A heathen, a pagan, a Gentile. They were not to intermarry with the nations around them. Why? Well, because the nations around them were idolatrous. They were idol worshippers. And so, you're talking about a relationship that was a mixed relationship spiritually.
This is not about culture. Rather, this is about devotion to Yahweh. Devotion to God. It's about worship. Time and again, when the laws of God that discuss intermarriage are found in the Old Testament, time and again, idolatry is brought to the forefront. Even in our text, you see that's the case.
Look at verse 11 again. “Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. The expression, "the daughter of a foreign God," is just a way of saying a woman who worships a foreign God, an idol worshipper. A woman who was the daughter of a foreign God. And remember, Malachi is ministering at the same general time when Ezra and Nehemiah were on the scene. And when you study the book of Ezra, you get a picture of what was going on. And it is so heartbreaking. So sad. The young ladies will know what I'm talking about as they study Ezra and Nehemiah.
In fact, one of the most moving confessions of sin you will ever read is found in Ezra chapter 9. Take a moment, turn with me there, Ezra chapter 9. This is very important for us. Listen to this confession of sin. But also, as you read this, you get a sense of what's taking place in the lives of these people who have returned from exile. Temple has been rebuilt. Worship has been re-established. But the people aren't believing God. They're proven disloyal, faithless to God, treacherous, and they're dealing with God.
Listen, what's going on in Ezra 9. Look at verse 1: "Now, when these things had been completed, the princes approached me," – that's Ezra, – "saying, 'The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the land, according to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed has intermingled with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hand of the princes and the officials have been foremost in this.” – What's the word? – “unfaithfulness”, – disloyalty. Is that not striking? Is that not shocking?
Now, did you see it? Do you know who's leading the way in this? The leaders. The leaders. And what does Ezra do? What does Ezra do? Verse 3: "When I heard about this matter… when I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe and pulled some of the hair from my head and my beard and sat down in consternation." What is Ezra doing? This is how a parent has felt sometimes, right? I can't believe this. What are you doing?
Verse 4: "Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening offering." I mean, Ezra doesn't speak until he's ready to speak, and he is deeply troubled. He can't even talk. He is—he's shocked. He's appalled. And those who care about the words of God have surrounded him, and they're waiting on him.
Verse 5: "But at the evening offering I rose from my affliction, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to Yahweh my God; and I stretched out my hands to Yahweh my God; and I said, 'O my God, I am ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have multiplied above our heads and our guilt has become great even to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and on account of our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day. But now, for a brief moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our slavery. For we are slaves.”
Here they are, returned to their homeland that God had given them, despite what they deserve, despite the fact that they were carried into captivity because of their great guilt but he says has multiplied above their heads. In spite of all of this, God has spared them, shown them mercy and grace, and returned them to their homeland. And it may be minimal compared to what once was, but it's far more than what they deserved.
Here they are in slavery because of what they've done. “Yet” – verse nine – "in our slavery our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us before the kings of Persia, to give us reviving, to raise up the house of our God, to restore its waste places, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. So now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, which You have commanded by the hand of Your slaves the prophets, saying, "The land which you are entering to possess is an impure land with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from end to end, and with their uncleanness." "So now do not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity."”
Not only don't take them in marriage, don't envy their ways, He's saying. "That you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as a possession to your sons forever." Listen to what Ezra says next. Verse 13: "After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since You our God have requited us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us an escaped remnant as this, shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not be angry with us to the point of destruction, until there is no remnant nor any who escape?” Oh, God, should You not completely wipe us out?"
Verse 15: "O Yahweh, the God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left an escaped remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this." What is Ezra saying? God, we have no excuse. We have no excuse. Ezra knows the clear words of God in Exodus 34, Leviticus 20, Deuteronomy 7, where God's people were commanded not to intermarry. They were commanded to be separate, to insulate themselves from all the abominations of the nations around them.
And knowing that teaching, he is crushed—crushed by the audacity, the nerve of the people. After all they've suffered, after all they've suffered, they should have learned. They should have learned and received that lesson. Here they are now, back in the land, committing the very same sins. And here's Malachi, after what we read there in Ezra, and he's still having to deal with these same issues.
And what does he say about this intermarriage? Look at verse 11 in Malachi 2. He says, in effect, this is hateful to God. This is hateful to God. "Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been done in Israel and Jerusalem." What is this? This is an abomination. This is to say it is a detestable thing before God. It is offensive to God. Offensive. Ezra says the same thing. It's an abomination. It's a detestable thing. It's a revulsion.
"An abomination has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh." Verse 11, of Malachi 2. What does that mean? Now there's a back and forth about what that means in terms of profaning the sanctuary of Yahweh. As to what it refers to exactly. Does it speak of the people of God themselves? Does it speak of these foreign women coming into the sanctuary and in that way defiling the sanctuary? Does it speak of the priests who have intermarried with foreigners, then coming into the sanctuary to serve as though they've done nothing wrong? Does it speak of the people who have intermarried and now they bring their offerings to God as though they've done nothing wrong?
Well, the word "sanctuary" is the Hebrew word ‘kodesh’, and it basically means holy or holiness. And so it could refer to the place, it could refer to the people.
One commentator put it this way: "Daughter of a foreign God, refers to pagan women who worship false gods. If ‘kodesh’ refers to the sanctuary, then possibly the profanation referred to the involvement of these women in temple worship. Such marriages have been expressly forbidden because they would lead the people into idolatry, and intermarrying was a big problem.” He goes on to say, “after return from the exile, the Jews were supposed to marry within their own nation. Failures to do so were acts of unfaithfulness among themselves as well as to God. They involved both a disregard for the nation's corporate nature and disobedience to God.”
And he's right on. When these people intermarried, it was not only disregard toward God, but disregard toward the covenant community, the covenant community of God. They were inviting God's judgment upon the whole group. They didn't care. Walter Kaiser takes ‘kodesh’ to refer to the people. He says this: "As a result of entering into these forbidden marriages, Israel, from Yahweh called holy, the one chosen from all the nations to be His holy people, a royal priesthood and a special possession had profaned herself."
And Kaiser picks up on the statement in verse 11 of Malachi 2 that says, "For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves." He picks up on that and he takes that to refer to the people of God themselves. The people whom the Lord has loved, they have profaned themselves. The ones who the Lord has called holy unto Himself, taken to Himself—they have defiled themselves. Whichever is the case in specific terms, the general message is absolutely crystal clear.
What is the general message? Here it is: that intermarriage with women who worship false gods was an abomination and a profaning of what God had loved and set apart for Himself. It was an offense to God. And God hated this. When you get to verse 12, notice what else you see. And this is important. Not only is this hateful to God, this is hateful to godly people.
It's hateful to godly people. Just like Ezra hated what he saw, just like Phineas, as we saw last week, the priest, is moved by zeal for the holiness of God. God said to Phineas that he was jealous for what God was jealous for. And just like you see in Ezra, just like you see in Phineas, so you see also in Malachi. Malachi hates this, for the prophet says in verse 12, he says this: "As for the man who does this, may Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers or who presents an offering to Yahweh of hosts."
What was hateful to God was hateful to the servant of God, was hateful to Malachi. Can I ask you tonight, can you say the same? Can you say that what God hates, you hate? You're hating, I'm hating. Can you say that, that what God loves, you're loving, and what God hates, you're hating?
Pastor MacArthur writes, concerning "who awakes and answers," he says: "A proverbial expression referring to two classes of people, the active watcher who awakens people to reality and the passive hearer who answers. This proverb apparently came from nomadic people who had guards around their tents to stay awake and make others aware of danger. This signified judgment so that everyone who sins in this gross, idolatrous way would be exterminated.”
Anybody who does this, from the watcher to the one who answers the watcher, will be judged. What is standing behind this idiom is the thought that everybody in totality—the man and all of his descendants or anyone who would commit such an act—will be judged. Such is the abomination, such is the seriousness of the offense, that anybody who commits this should be wiped out so that his name is no longer known.
This is coming from the prophet. You see, not only does God hate sin, but godly people hate sin also. They hate sin also. We hate sin. And you know what? This is the wonder of the new birth. This is the wonder of salvation, isn't it? We hate sin in ourselves. Isn't that true? How many times do you feel sick to your stomach from yourself if you're a child of God? You feel like you almost want to vomit. In fact, listen, if you're walking with the Lord closely, you hate the sin in yourself more than you hate sin anywhere else.
Where should you begin to deal with sin? Well, begin within the confines of your own life, my own life. I always find it very interesting when someone is always, always as a pattern, pointing out the sin of everybody else. You just want to ask, what about you? That's where I want to begin—hating sin in my own life. But then, if we truly hate sin wherever it shows up, including our own lives, we're going to reflect God's love for what He loves and God's hatred for what He hates.
What are they doing? Well, they're violating God's commands concerning marriage. Let me say this. Before we think about the seriousness of divorce, we should think about the seriousness of marriage. If you think about it biblically, we really don't have a divorce problem. We have really a marriage problem. The reason why there are so many divorces is because people don't treat marriage for what it is. Your loyalty to God, your loyalty to God's people, will be expressed by your absolute commitment to marry someone with whom you are not unequally yoked.
Let's take a moment to see what's going on here in Malachi's day, remembering that these things happen to them as an example, "they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have arrived" 1 Corinthians 10:11. The Old Testament is for the church. Let's bring it now into our context and let's ask this question as we bring this message to an end. Is God still displeased when people marry unbelievers? When His people marry idolaters?
When we don't love God, we don't love His church enough that what ought to be first and foremost on our marriage list—which is, will they love my God? Will they love the people of God?—that isn't first and foremost. That's tragic. And young people in our midst, listen to me, I beg you. The number one thing that you're looking for in marriage is not, is this someone whom I like? The number one thing you're looking for is this: is this someone who loves God, who loves Christ, who adores Jesus, and who loves His people?
And if you love God and if you love His people, you'll understand that. Now, if you feign love for God, if you pretend love for God, if you pretend love for His church, you won't care. But if you really love the Lord and really understand what the church is, you certainly care.
Is this not the New Testament teaching also? Well, turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6, look at verse 14. 2 Corinthians 6:14, the Apostle Paul writes, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has a sanctuary of God" – that's who you are, the sanctuary of God, – "what agreement has a sanctuary of God with idols? For we are a sanctuary of the living God; just as God said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,' says the Lord. ‘And do not touch what is unclean, And I will welcome you. And I will be a Father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says the Lord the Almighty."
Those verses are not just addressing marriage, by the way. In the context of 2 Corinthians 6, they address any kind of spiritual enterprise. We don't yoke ourselves up together with unbelievers and then pursue spiritual matters. We don't do that. With that being said, listen, beloved, marriage is a spiritual matter. It is. And it's true in general terms. It is especially true in the covenant relationship that pictures Christ and His church.
And again, young people, oh, dear young people, is that the number one thing on your list when you think about who do you want to marry one day? Should the Lord have that in His plan for you? This is the non-negotiable, that they love the Lord our God with heart, mind, soul, and strength and love His church. 1 Corinthians 7:39 puts it this way, "A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes." So here's a dear widow. She desires to be married again. She's not told to, you know, open your Bible, thumb through it until you get to page 475 and look for a name. Oh, okay, I'm going to marry Micaiah. No, no. It's to whom she wishes.
I mean, if you're devoted to the Lord and you meet someone, you desire to marry him or her, be married to him or her, but how does Paul end that verse? – "only in the Lord." Only in the Lord. Only if they are a believer, and not just a believer in name, but a believer who clearly demonstrates their faith, thus you know they are a believer.
So here is the issue in Malachi 2:10 and following. God is being dishonored, not only directly through their acts of worship and their attitudes in worship. God is being dishonored because they have not taken His words to heart. He has clearly instructed them how to treat each other. This is true in general terms, but God is putting His finger on two specific terms, and the first specific term is this: you have committed an abomination. You're marrying people who are idol worshipers. You are allowing marriage to daughters of foreign gods, and it is such a serious thing that the people are doing that Malachi gives voice to the hatred of God and says, anybody who does this—and get the picture that he gives—you see that again in verse 11, "Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god. As for the man who does this, may Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers, or,” – now notice this, – “who presents an offering to Yahweh of hosts.”
What an attitude. What a reckless attitude. I'm going to treat what God has said about marriage lightly with the one hand, I'm going to violate His word with the one hand, and then I'm going to bring offerings with the other hand. And God says through the prophet, if that's the bent of your heart, that someone needs to be exterminated. Someone like that, may they be cut off, may they perish.
This is so serious. This is the seriousness with which God regards the sin in the life of the nation of Israel—disloyalty, unfaithfulness. So I want to finish tonight by asking you, beloved, what about your loyalty? What about my loyalty to God? Are you loving the Lord? And how are you measuring that? How? Are you including in your measuring of that how you're treating other people in your life?
In general terms, by the words of God, measuring yourself by the words of God—how you treat other people. But in specific terms, how are you treating your brothers, your sisters? "Do we not have one Father? Did not one God create us?" Malachi is talking about God bringing Israel into existence. Obviously it's not the universal fatherhood of God. He's talking about this relationship that we know with God as a people.
So look around the church and ask then, by way of extension, as New Testament believers, am I proving loyal to God by the way I am treating my brothers and sisters in Christ? And then what about the most precious human relationship that can exist outside of our relationship with Christ, if you're married? What about marriage—your marriage? Are you proving loyal to God right there?
And young people, again, again, again, listen. When you think about dating someone or marrying someone who doesn't love your God and doesn't love His church, do you understand the weightiness of your sinful thinking? I wonder if there's somebody really listening when I think of verse 10 and the general ways that people mistreat each other. If you'll be honest, you'll recognize that you have left a trail, a historical trail of mistreating people in your life.
With your mouth you say you love the Lord, with your mouth you say you're a worshiper of God, but look at your life and there's a trail of mistreating people. I want you to remember this. Mark it down, never forget it: relational problems are devotional problems. Relational problems are devotional problems.
You say, what do you mean? I mean your relational problems only reflect your lack of devotion to God. Do you know what will transform your relationships with people? Loving God. Loving God will transform your relationships with people. Loving God is what causes someone to humble himself and be teachable. Loving God is what causes someone to keep his word. Loving God is what causes someone to have a conscience that makes integrity a reality.
Loving God is what causes someone to ask for forgiveness. Loving God is what compels someone to grant forgiveness. Loving God is what moves someone to care about others more than they care about themselves and put the interests of others before their own interests.
Beloved, relational problems are devotional problems.
So just as God, through the prophet Malachi, calls His people to repentance, I humbly say to us: if we have been disloyal to our God—measuring that question by the Word of God—may we tonight admit it and grieve over it. Oh, that we would be like Ezra and sit down appalled. After all that God has done for us, after all the ways that He spared us, after all the mercies He has shown us, how can we do it again?
To seek God's forgiveness in the only place where it can be known—Christ, in Christ, in Christ. And I will add this, because certainly I am—aren't you grateful that Jesus died for covenant breakers? Aren't you? Because if He didn't, we'd all be in hell. So I'm thankful that there's forgiveness for us even where we have not only failed but royally failed. But Christ's death on Calvary's cross is not an excuse to go on in sin; it is the reason to turn from them and to rest in Him, yes, but to follow Him. May the Lord do that in our lives.
Let's pray.
Five times, mark it down, five times in seven verses, five times in seven verses we have this word. Do you notice that? Five times in these verses just read, God speaks to His people about treacherousness, unfaithfulness, traitorous. Look at them with me. Verse 10, "Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother?" Verse 11, "Judah has dealt treacherously” – ‘bagod’ – and an abomination has been done in Israel and Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god." You go down to verse 14, "Yahweh has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have"—here's our word—"dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant." And of course, end of verse 15, "let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth." And finally, verse 16, the end of it, "Be careful then to keep your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously." Five times. Five times.
All of this has to do with loyalty, with faithfulness, with fidelity. To deal treacherously in this context is to prove disloyal to Yahweh, disloyal to God by being—and here specifically—to be disloyal to the covenant that God has given. But what's particularly striking about this passage is that this loyalty to God that's on display here involves acts of disloyalty towards people, and let us not miss that. This is quite important for us to make sure that we grasp this. God is being dishonored as people are being mistreated. God is being dishonored as His people are being mistreated. People are being disloyal to God by being disloyal to one another, and God takes issue with that.
There are a couple of things that come to mind when I think about this, when I consider this passage and its teaching. First of all, by way of introduction, I think about how often we misunderstand the Mosaic Covenant. I just want to say a word about this. The Mosaic Covenant was never intended to be a means by which people earned righteousness before God. The Mosaic Covenant was not given so that people could save themselves by keeping laws, and we know that.
But it's also true to say that the Mosaic Law was not given simply or exclusively to expose sin, and I think sometimes in the New Testament context, that's how we think about the Mosaic Law, the Mosaic Covenant—that it was just given to show us our sinfulness. You hear people talk about preaching the law before you preach Christ, and so they treat the Old Testament as if its only function exclusively was to expose our sinfulness. Let me say, certainly it does expose man's sinfulness, but this was a covenant that was meant to be approached by faith, nevertheless. That is, on the part of the people who truly believed in God, who were truly regenerate, who had truly been saved, the Mosaic Covenant was an administration, it was a means that God gave by which people—His people—would walk with Him.
His will was made known to them in the Mosaic Covenant, and they were to walk with God according to these laws that had application not only to one's worship, but to the nation's life, its civil life. They walked with God by faith as they walked loyally, obeying the words of Yahweh.
Paul, in fact, gives voice to this in Romans 9:30, where he says, "What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness, laid hold of righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith. But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain that law." Why? He asked in verse 32, "Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works." You see the point?
You see, they misunderstood the law of God, and anyone who's ever tried to achieve righteousness based on law-keeping has fundamentally misunderstood—completely misunderstood—why God gave His law to begin with. Verse 32, why? Paul says, "Well, because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, 'Behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, and the one who believes upon Him will not be put to shame.'"
So while the law served to show man's sinfulness—true, right, that's true—and it was intended by God to do that, it was never perfection that God expected of His people as He gave that law. It was rather loyalty that was required by the covenant, and that's what we need to underscore: loyalty.
That's why you see God being so patient with His people. If it was perfection that the covenant required, the nation would have been what? Destroyed immediately, gone immediately, perished immediately. The covenant would have never made any sense, and this is why their sins could be described in terms of what? Disloyalty, unfaithfulness. God gave commands. The commands could only be obeyed by faith, but they could only be obeyed by faith. We need to keep that in mind.
The law was to serve, to use the language of Paul, as a tutor. It is the way God would manage His people, that God had a special relationship with this nation, and through this nation would come the Messiah, the Christ of God. In Christ, not only God would save Jews, but the Gentiles. And until the Christ came, the believers—the Israel that existed in Israel (there was an Israel within Israel; not every Israelite was an Israelite indeed)—but genuine believers would walk with God as they believed His commands. And in this way, the law served as a tutor, pointing them to Christ, preparing them for the Messiah.
The genuine believers were loyal to God by obeying His laws, but those who were unbelieving, they revealed their unbelief through disloyalty—by disloyalty to God and to His Word. So as I think about this passage, and I think about treacherousness, what faithlessness means here, this disloyalty that's on display here, I think about how often we misunderstand the Mosaic law.
It's something else that comes to mind when we consider what we see here—not only misunderstanding the nature and the purpose of the Mosaic covenant, but also I think we woefully underestimate how our relationships with people—and follow closely—reflect our loyalty to God. Let me say that again. I think we woefully underestimate how our relationships with people reflects our loyalty to God.
Genuine faith is not only manifested in an individual relationship with God. Genuine faith is manifested when we believe God about how we have to, He would have us treat other people. That's how it is manifested—when we believe God about how He would have us treat each other. Do you love the Lord tonight? Do you love Him? Do you have genuine faith in Him? Really? Do you have genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well then, if that is the case, praise God. Praise God.
But if that is the case, then you care what He says to you and to me about how you and I are to treat other people. We do. This was true in the Old Testament as well. If they were really loyal to God and loyal to the covenant of God, then they would listen to the laws of God regarding the treatment of other people. It's as simple as that. Always the vertical has impact on the horizontal, always. It's interesting, isn't it?
Up to this point, God has been talking about how this people have dishonored Him, how they are irreverent toward Him, how they profaned His name, how they disrespected Him. There's no reverence toward Him. And everything He's talked about up to chapter 2 verse 9, has to do, has had to do with how they deal with God directly. You remember that, I trust. They dishonored God by not appreciating His love for them. "How have You loved us?" God says, "I've loved you." The people say, "What do You mean? How have You loved us?" God had to remind them of His electing purposes and how He had shown a special mercy to this people. You see, that's an individual relationship with God.
And then He went on to talk about how they were dishonoring Him by what they were offering to Him as sacrifices, and how the priest had dishonored Him by what they were receiving from the people and going on in offering it, though they knew that violated the law of God, that this was not worthy of God. He talked about their attitudes in worship. Remember that? Oh, how tiresome it is. Oh, what a weariness this is. How they disdainfully sniffed at it. It's boring. Again, we have to go to the temple and present an offering to the Lord all this time, sitting and listening to the Word of God.
Up to this point, it's all been about how they're dishonoring God directly. Perhaps we could describe it that way. But now you come to chapter 2, verse 10. They're still dishonoring God. They're still dishonoring God. They're still showing their disloyalty to God. They're still irreverent toward God. Now the question is, how are they doing it, though, at this point? How are they doing it?
You see, now they're doing it by how they're treating one another. That's what's happening here. Your loyalty to God is not just on display by how you deal with Him directly, but by how you deal with other people as well, whether you listen to Him about how you treat other people specifically, how you treat your brethren. And beloved, this is so instructive for us. This is so timeless.
How many people claim to love God when they're so clearly not loving the people around them? Do you imagine that you're loyal to God when you're not loyal to the people God has placed in your life? Do you imagine that you're loyal to God, that you love God, when you don't love the people who are in your life? Do you think somehow that God is pleased with your claim to love Him when you don't believe Him about how to treat others around you?
Our love for God is proven by our love for His people. Our loyalty to God is proven by our loyalty to covenant relationships, and to be more specific, as we find here in this text, like marriage. Don't ever imagine that you're loyal to God if you're not loving your spouse, or when you've proved treacherous, faithless to the marriage covenant. And we'll get there as we study this text.
There are people in this world who are in the act right now of divorcing their spouse on unbiblical ground, and yet they claim to love God.
So here were people called to be loyal to God, loyal to each other by faith, and the God who had related them to Himself by grace, sheer grace, and He now is going to charge them with their disloyalty. That's what we have here going on in this portion in Malachi chapter 2. How does He see? How does God see? How does God see?
Well, here's the first point that I want us to see together as we begin to dig in this text of Scripture. Verse 10, I want us to see the charge of unfaithfulness declared. The charge of unfaithfulness declared. The charge of unfaithfulness. This oracle, this third oracle we find in the book of Malachi, is different from the first two in that this one doesn't begin with a question put in the mouths of the people. No, no, here the prophet Malachi himself is the questioner under inspiration.
Look at it together: "Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?" He charges them here with being faithless to one another. Faithless to one another, and in doing so profaning the covenant that God had given to their fathers, violating the covenant, proving disloyal to that covenant by their treatment of each other.
The “father” referred to here in verse 10, I believe, is God. Some commentators see the Father referred to here as one of the patriarchs, perhaps Abraham. I believe that it's God who's being referred to. Remember, in the context of this book, back in chapter 1, God says, "...if I am” – what? – “a father”, If you're a son, if I'm a father, where is My honor? And If I am a master, where is My respect? If you're My slave, where's the fear of Me? That's sort of a mirror here in verse 10 with the idea of Father and Creator.
"Do we not all have one father?" he says. And we could also say in the second statement, "Has not one God created us?" You could also say, do we not all have one Master? But either way, whether you would say that the father here is Abraham or you say that the father here is God—I believe it is God—the fact that they have one Father and one God has created them is another way of saying this: Are we not all brothers by God's doing? That's the point. Regardless, that's the point.
Are we not all brothers and sisters by God's doing? Isn't God the one who gave birth to the nation? Isn't God the one who related us to Himself in the way that He has by covenant? Aren't we God's doing? And aren't we, as a result of what God has done, aren't we brothers? And if this is true—and it is—then how can faithlessness, how can covenant disloyalty be excused? That's the point.
Knowing that God is our Father and Creator, how can we excuse the ways that we're treating one another? How? Is this what covenant loyalty looks like? Does this honor God? Does this reverence Yahweh? Does this believe God? Does this obey God the way we're treating each other right now? Is this what obedience looks like?
Why are we sinning against each other? Why are we mistreating one another? Why are we proving faithless, disloyal toward each other? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? Unfaithfulness denies spiritual sibling-ship. Unfaithfulness denies brotherhood. Unfaithfulness profanes the covenant.
When he says there in verse 10, "so as to profane the covenant of our fathers," that is defiling it. Or you can put it this way: treating it with contempt. Treating the covenant as though it is nothing. It is meaningless, void, empty, shallow—the covenant that God gave to their fathers. Yawn at it.
God has loved His people. God has formed them as a people. God has put His name on His people, and now here they were, like the majority of the people throughout their history. They are treating this covenant relationship with contempt. And in this case, they're treating it lightly. How? By disregarding the laws that God has given them about how they were to relate to each other.
It already has been proven they dishonored God by the way they're relating to God Himself, to Yahweh Himself, but they're also disregarding God's holiness and majesty by the way they're relating now to each other. Israel, as you know, was a theocracy. It's true. I said earlier, not every Israelite was an Israelite in terms of salvation, but Israel was designed to be a believing people. God gave them His words. God gave them many spiritual advantages that, in terms of human responsibility, should have led them to salvation.
Paul talks about this in the book of Romans. He's grieving over the loss of his kinsmen, according to the flesh, and he talks about all the advantages God has given him. There's so much advantage, so much light, privilege. Romans 9:4: "who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law and the temple service, and the promises." I mean, look at how privileged they were. "whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ, according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen."
Of course, as Malachi writes what he writes, the Christ has not yet come, but everything else that Paul talks about there in Romans 9 was true at this very moment. To these people belongs the adoption, the glory of the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises, the patriarchs, and in terms of the Christ, as Malachi writes, the promise still there that the Christ is coming, Messiah is coming from their own people. How should such people respond to God, but in faith, in trust, believing Him. And if you believe Him, then you believe Him as He commands you concerning how you treat your brothers.
They're connected. They can't be compartmentalized and disconnected, disjointed. And this first reference to being treacherous, faithless, in verse 10, I want us to notice this. It seems to be a general reference, a general reference. I mean, in just general terms, in sort of an all-encompassing terms, they had proven what? They had proven faithless, disloyal.
If you had looked at any way in which they treated each other, any way in which they lived with each other, you would have found disloyalty. You would have found faithlessness, betrayal, treacherousness—business practices, family relationships, friendships, worship context. This was a disloyal, unbelieving people, faithless people. And it was the law of God, it was the covenant that exposed them as such.
Just as a quick side note, I would remind us that just as these people were exposed by the law of God, so we don't measure how we treat each other by our own standard. Keep that in mind. The way you know whether you're loyal to God by being loyal to your brethren and by loving people the way God commands—that's how you know. The way you know whether you're doing that or not is His what? His Word. His Word. His Word is the plumb line. We measure our relationships with each other by the words of God.
Maybe you look at your life, and you say, well, I don't see that. I don't see that. I don't see that I'm doing anything wrong. May I ask you this evening, have you measured what you're doing by the Scriptures? Have you? It doesn't matter what, and I say this lovingly, it doesn't matter whether you think you're guilty of mistreating someone or not. It doesn't matter. What matters is if we measure how you're living, how I'm living by the Scriptures, are you mistreating someone? That's the issue.
There are people all over the planet who feel justified in mistreating other people. It just doesn't make them right, does it? And just like these people had questioned everything God had charged them with up to this point, you could be sure there were some listening to this who said, perhaps, well, how have we been faithless toward each other? But they had. So the first thing we see in verse 10 is the charge of faithlessness announced, proclaimed, the charge of covenant disloyalty. And the second thing I want us to see now, beginning in verse 11, and that takes us to verse 16, what God has declared in general terms, now He's going to make specific. So we'll call this the charge of faithlessness described.
So we move from the charge of this faithlessness declared to now it is described. Out of all the ways that they had proven faithless to one another, there are two specific ways, two specific ways, that the Lord is going to put His finger on. And here they are. I'm gonna share them ahead of time, and then we'll make our way through them together. Number one, two specific ways. The first one is this: they were faithless because of intermarriage. And number two, they were faithless because of divorce. They're right here in the text. Intermarriage, divorce.
Tonight, we'll only have time to deal with the first: intermarriage. We'll leave the second one next Sunday, Lord willing. We'll come back, and we're going to deal with the second issue, the second way that their unfaithfulness was proven. So if anybody wonders, well, how have we been unfaithful? How have we been disloyal? God, tell us. You say we're disloyal, we're unfaithful to You and to each other. The Lord says, well, let Me tell you. I'm gonna tell you now. I'm gonna be specific.
Look at verse 11: "Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem; for” – tells them, the reason – “Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. As for the man who does this, may Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers or who presents an offering to Yahweh of hosts."
Their unfaithfulness, you see clearly, is on display through intermarriage. You say, what do you mean? Well, the law of God had made it very clear, crystal clear, that an Israelite was not to marry someone outside the nation. A heathen, a pagan, a Gentile. They were not to intermarry with the nations around them. Why? Well, because the nations around them were idolatrous. They were idol worshippers. And so, you're talking about a relationship that was a mixed relationship spiritually.
This is not about culture. Rather, this is about devotion to Yahweh. Devotion to God. It's about worship. Time and again, when the laws of God that discuss intermarriage are found in the Old Testament, time and again, idolatry is brought to the forefront. Even in our text, you see that's the case.
Look at verse 11 again. “Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. The expression, "the daughter of a foreign God," is just a way of saying a woman who worships a foreign God, an idol worshipper. A woman who was the daughter of a foreign God. And remember, Malachi is ministering at the same general time when Ezra and Nehemiah were on the scene. And when you study the book of Ezra, you get a picture of what was going on. And it is so heartbreaking. So sad. The young ladies will know what I'm talking about as they study Ezra and Nehemiah.
In fact, one of the most moving confessions of sin you will ever read is found in Ezra chapter 9. Take a moment, turn with me there, Ezra chapter 9. This is very important for us. Listen to this confession of sin. But also, as you read this, you get a sense of what's taking place in the lives of these people who have returned from exile. Temple has been rebuilt. Worship has been re-established. But the people aren't believing God. They're proven disloyal, faithless to God, treacherous, and they're dealing with God.
Listen, what's going on in Ezra 9. Look at verse 1: "Now, when these things had been completed, the princes approached me," – that's Ezra, – "saying, 'The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the land, according to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed has intermingled with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hand of the princes and the officials have been foremost in this.” – What's the word? – “unfaithfulness”, – disloyalty. Is that not striking? Is that not shocking?
Now, did you see it? Do you know who's leading the way in this? The leaders. The leaders. And what does Ezra do? What does Ezra do? Verse 3: "When I heard about this matter… when I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe and pulled some of the hair from my head and my beard and sat down in consternation." What is Ezra doing? This is how a parent has felt sometimes, right? I can't believe this. What are you doing?
Verse 4: "Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening offering." I mean, Ezra doesn't speak until he's ready to speak, and he is deeply troubled. He can't even talk. He is—he's shocked. He's appalled. And those who care about the words of God have surrounded him, and they're waiting on him.
Verse 5: "But at the evening offering I rose from my affliction, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to Yahweh my God; and I stretched out my hands to Yahweh my God; and I said, 'O my God, I am ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have multiplied above our heads and our guilt has become great even to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and on account of our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day. But now, for a brief moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our slavery. For we are slaves.”
Here they are, returned to their homeland that God had given them, despite what they deserve, despite the fact that they were carried into captivity because of their great guilt but he says has multiplied above their heads. In spite of all of this, God has spared them, shown them mercy and grace, and returned them to their homeland. And it may be minimal compared to what once was, but it's far more than what they deserved.
Here they are in slavery because of what they've done. “Yet” – verse nine – "in our slavery our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us before the kings of Persia, to give us reviving, to raise up the house of our God, to restore its waste places, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. So now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, which You have commanded by the hand of Your slaves the prophets, saying, "The land which you are entering to possess is an impure land with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from end to end, and with their uncleanness." "So now do not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity."”
Not only don't take them in marriage, don't envy their ways, He's saying. "That you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as a possession to your sons forever." Listen to what Ezra says next. Verse 13: "After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since You our God have requited us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us an escaped remnant as this, shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not be angry with us to the point of destruction, until there is no remnant nor any who escape?” Oh, God, should You not completely wipe us out?"
Verse 15: "O Yahweh, the God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left an escaped remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this." What is Ezra saying? God, we have no excuse. We have no excuse. Ezra knows the clear words of God in Exodus 34, Leviticus 20, Deuteronomy 7, where God's people were commanded not to intermarry. They were commanded to be separate, to insulate themselves from all the abominations of the nations around them.
And knowing that teaching, he is crushed—crushed by the audacity, the nerve of the people. After all they've suffered, after all they've suffered, they should have learned. They should have learned and received that lesson. Here they are now, back in the land, committing the very same sins. And here's Malachi, after what we read there in Ezra, and he's still having to deal with these same issues.
And what does he say about this intermarriage? Look at verse 11 in Malachi 2. He says, in effect, this is hateful to God. This is hateful to God. "Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been done in Israel and Jerusalem." What is this? This is an abomination. This is to say it is a detestable thing before God. It is offensive to God. Offensive. Ezra says the same thing. It's an abomination. It's a detestable thing. It's a revulsion.
"An abomination has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh." Verse 11, of Malachi 2. What does that mean? Now there's a back and forth about what that means in terms of profaning the sanctuary of Yahweh. As to what it refers to exactly. Does it speak of the people of God themselves? Does it speak of these foreign women coming into the sanctuary and in that way defiling the sanctuary? Does it speak of the priests who have intermarried with foreigners, then coming into the sanctuary to serve as though they've done nothing wrong? Does it speak of the people who have intermarried and now they bring their offerings to God as though they've done nothing wrong?
Well, the word "sanctuary" is the Hebrew word ‘kodesh’, and it basically means holy or holiness. And so it could refer to the place, it could refer to the people.
One commentator put it this way: "Daughter of a foreign God, refers to pagan women who worship false gods. If ‘kodesh’ refers to the sanctuary, then possibly the profanation referred to the involvement of these women in temple worship. Such marriages have been expressly forbidden because they would lead the people into idolatry, and intermarrying was a big problem.” He goes on to say, “after return from the exile, the Jews were supposed to marry within their own nation. Failures to do so were acts of unfaithfulness among themselves as well as to God. They involved both a disregard for the nation's corporate nature and disobedience to God.”
And he's right on. When these people intermarried, it was not only disregard toward God, but disregard toward the covenant community, the covenant community of God. They were inviting God's judgment upon the whole group. They didn't care. Walter Kaiser takes ‘kodesh’ to refer to the people. He says this: "As a result of entering into these forbidden marriages, Israel, from Yahweh called holy, the one chosen from all the nations to be His holy people, a royal priesthood and a special possession had profaned herself."
And Kaiser picks up on the statement in verse 11 of Malachi 2 that says, "For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves." He picks up on that and he takes that to refer to the people of God themselves. The people whom the Lord has loved, they have profaned themselves. The ones who the Lord has called holy unto Himself, taken to Himself—they have defiled themselves. Whichever is the case in specific terms, the general message is absolutely crystal clear.
What is the general message? Here it is: that intermarriage with women who worship false gods was an abomination and a profaning of what God had loved and set apart for Himself. It was an offense to God. And God hated this. When you get to verse 12, notice what else you see. And this is important. Not only is this hateful to God, this is hateful to godly people.
It's hateful to godly people. Just like Ezra hated what he saw, just like Phineas, as we saw last week, the priest, is moved by zeal for the holiness of God. God said to Phineas that he was jealous for what God was jealous for. And just like you see in Ezra, just like you see in Phineas, so you see also in Malachi. Malachi hates this, for the prophet says in verse 12, he says this: "As for the man who does this, may Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers or who presents an offering to Yahweh of hosts."
What was hateful to God was hateful to the servant of God, was hateful to Malachi. Can I ask you tonight, can you say the same? Can you say that what God hates, you hate? You're hating, I'm hating. Can you say that, that what God loves, you're loving, and what God hates, you're hating?
Pastor MacArthur writes, concerning "who awakes and answers," he says: "A proverbial expression referring to two classes of people, the active watcher who awakens people to reality and the passive hearer who answers. This proverb apparently came from nomadic people who had guards around their tents to stay awake and make others aware of danger. This signified judgment so that everyone who sins in this gross, idolatrous way would be exterminated.”
Anybody who does this, from the watcher to the one who answers the watcher, will be judged. What is standing behind this idiom is the thought that everybody in totality—the man and all of his descendants or anyone who would commit such an act—will be judged. Such is the abomination, such is the seriousness of the offense, that anybody who commits this should be wiped out so that his name is no longer known.
This is coming from the prophet. You see, not only does God hate sin, but godly people hate sin also. They hate sin also. We hate sin. And you know what? This is the wonder of the new birth. This is the wonder of salvation, isn't it? We hate sin in ourselves. Isn't that true? How many times do you feel sick to your stomach from yourself if you're a child of God? You feel like you almost want to vomit. In fact, listen, if you're walking with the Lord closely, you hate the sin in yourself more than you hate sin anywhere else.
Where should you begin to deal with sin? Well, begin within the confines of your own life, my own life. I always find it very interesting when someone is always, always as a pattern, pointing out the sin of everybody else. You just want to ask, what about you? That's where I want to begin—hating sin in my own life. But then, if we truly hate sin wherever it shows up, including our own lives, we're going to reflect God's love for what He loves and God's hatred for what He hates.
What are they doing? Well, they're violating God's commands concerning marriage. Let me say this. Before we think about the seriousness of divorce, we should think about the seriousness of marriage. If you think about it biblically, we really don't have a divorce problem. We have really a marriage problem. The reason why there are so many divorces is because people don't treat marriage for what it is. Your loyalty to God, your loyalty to God's people, will be expressed by your absolute commitment to marry someone with whom you are not unequally yoked.
Let's take a moment to see what's going on here in Malachi's day, remembering that these things happen to them as an example, "they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have arrived" 1 Corinthians 10:11. The Old Testament is for the church. Let's bring it now into our context and let's ask this question as we bring this message to an end. Is God still displeased when people marry unbelievers? When His people marry idolaters?
When we don't love God, we don't love His church enough that what ought to be first and foremost on our marriage list—which is, will they love my God? Will they love the people of God?—that isn't first and foremost. That's tragic. And young people in our midst, listen to me, I beg you. The number one thing that you're looking for in marriage is not, is this someone whom I like? The number one thing you're looking for is this: is this someone who loves God, who loves Christ, who adores Jesus, and who loves His people?
And if you love God and if you love His people, you'll understand that. Now, if you feign love for God, if you pretend love for God, if you pretend love for His church, you won't care. But if you really love the Lord and really understand what the church is, you certainly care.
Is this not the New Testament teaching also? Well, turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6, look at verse 14. 2 Corinthians 6:14, the Apostle Paul writes, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has a sanctuary of God" – that's who you are, the sanctuary of God, – "what agreement has a sanctuary of God with idols? For we are a sanctuary of the living God; just as God said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,' says the Lord. ‘And do not touch what is unclean, And I will welcome you. And I will be a Father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says the Lord the Almighty."
Those verses are not just addressing marriage, by the way. In the context of 2 Corinthians 6, they address any kind of spiritual enterprise. We don't yoke ourselves up together with unbelievers and then pursue spiritual matters. We don't do that. With that being said, listen, beloved, marriage is a spiritual matter. It is. And it's true in general terms. It is especially true in the covenant relationship that pictures Christ and His church.
And again, young people, oh, dear young people, is that the number one thing on your list when you think about who do you want to marry one day? Should the Lord have that in His plan for you? This is the non-negotiable, that they love the Lord our God with heart, mind, soul, and strength and love His church. 1 Corinthians 7:39 puts it this way, "A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes." So here's a dear widow. She desires to be married again. She's not told to, you know, open your Bible, thumb through it until you get to page 475 and look for a name. Oh, okay, I'm going to marry Micaiah. No, no. It's to whom she wishes.
I mean, if you're devoted to the Lord and you meet someone, you desire to marry him or her, be married to him or her, but how does Paul end that verse? – "only in the Lord." Only in the Lord. Only if they are a believer, and not just a believer in name, but a believer who clearly demonstrates their faith, thus you know they are a believer.
So here is the issue in Malachi 2:10 and following. God is being dishonored, not only directly through their acts of worship and their attitudes in worship. God is being dishonored because they have not taken His words to heart. He has clearly instructed them how to treat each other. This is true in general terms, but God is putting His finger on two specific terms, and the first specific term is this: you have committed an abomination. You're marrying people who are idol worshipers. You are allowing marriage to daughters of foreign gods, and it is such a serious thing that the people are doing that Malachi gives voice to the hatred of God and says, anybody who does this—and get the picture that he gives—you see that again in verse 11, "Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god. As for the man who does this, may Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers, or,” – now notice this, – “who presents an offering to Yahweh of hosts.”
What an attitude. What a reckless attitude. I'm going to treat what God has said about marriage lightly with the one hand, I'm going to violate His word with the one hand, and then I'm going to bring offerings with the other hand. And God says through the prophet, if that's the bent of your heart, that someone needs to be exterminated. Someone like that, may they be cut off, may they perish.
This is so serious. This is the seriousness with which God regards the sin in the life of the nation of Israel—disloyalty, unfaithfulness. So I want to finish tonight by asking you, beloved, what about your loyalty? What about my loyalty to God? Are you loving the Lord? And how are you measuring that? How? Are you including in your measuring of that how you're treating other people in your life?
In general terms, by the words of God, measuring yourself by the words of God—how you treat other people. But in specific terms, how are you treating your brothers, your sisters? "Do we not have one Father? Did not one God create us?" Malachi is talking about God bringing Israel into existence. Obviously it's not the universal fatherhood of God. He's talking about this relationship that we know with God as a people.
So look around the church and ask then, by way of extension, as New Testament believers, am I proving loyal to God by the way I am treating my brothers and sisters in Christ? And then what about the most precious human relationship that can exist outside of our relationship with Christ, if you're married? What about marriage—your marriage? Are you proving loyal to God right there?
And young people, again, again, again, listen. When you think about dating someone or marrying someone who doesn't love your God and doesn't love His church, do you understand the weightiness of your sinful thinking? I wonder if there's somebody really listening when I think of verse 10 and the general ways that people mistreat each other. If you'll be honest, you'll recognize that you have left a trail, a historical trail of mistreating people in your life.
With your mouth you say you love the Lord, with your mouth you say you're a worshiper of God, but look at your life and there's a trail of mistreating people. I want you to remember this. Mark it down, never forget it: relational problems are devotional problems. Relational problems are devotional problems.
You say, what do you mean? I mean your relational problems only reflect your lack of devotion to God. Do you know what will transform your relationships with people? Loving God. Loving God will transform your relationships with people. Loving God is what causes someone to humble himself and be teachable. Loving God is what causes someone to keep his word. Loving God is what causes someone to have a conscience that makes integrity a reality.
Loving God is what causes someone to ask for forgiveness. Loving God is what compels someone to grant forgiveness. Loving God is what moves someone to care about others more than they care about themselves and put the interests of others before their own interests.
Beloved, relational problems are devotional problems.
So just as God, through the prophet Malachi, calls His people to repentance, I humbly say to us: if we have been disloyal to our God—measuring that question by the Word of God—may we tonight admit it and grieve over it. Oh, that we would be like Ezra and sit down appalled. After all that God has done for us, after all the ways that He spared us, after all the mercies He has shown us, how can we do it again?
To seek God's forgiveness in the only place where it can be known—Christ, in Christ, in Christ. And I will add this, because certainly I am—aren't you grateful that Jesus died for covenant breakers? Aren't you? Because if He didn't, we'd all be in hell. So I'm thankful that there's forgiveness for us even where we have not only failed but royally failed. But Christ's death on Calvary's cross is not an excuse to go on in sin; it is the reason to turn from them and to rest in Him, yes, but to follow Him. May the Lord do that in our lives.
Let's pray.
Recent
Archive
2026
2025
January
February
March
May
June
July
August
September
October
2024
November
Categories
no categories