Malachi 2:13-16

Malachi 2, we’re going to read verses 11 to 16. Our focus is going to be on verses 13 to 16 tonight. 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 scholar, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offerth an offering under the Lord of hosts. And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering anymore, or receiveth it with good will 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 she is thy companion in 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 dey. treacherously against the wife of his youth for the Lord the God of Israel said that he hateth putting away for one coverth violence with his garments said the Lord of hosts wherefore take heed to your spirit that you deal not treacherously may God bless to us his sacred and holy word this evening the marriage vows was one of the most solemn public commitments that you can make. What could be more serious than the promise you make before God, the minister, friends, and relatives when you marry at your wedding. You promise to honor and love to cherish and to keep. one another in sickness and health and joy and sorrow, whether richer or poorer, while forsaking all others as long as you both shall live. In spite of the marriage commencing with such a solemn commitment to one another, marriages break up at previously unheard-of-of-of-of-rate. in our society. In 1920, from what I understand, there was one divorce in every seven marriage. In 1940, there was one divorce in every six marriages. In 1960, there was one divorce in every four marriages. In 1970, there was one divorce in every three marriages. And when we get to the 90s and And beyond, it seems like we’re getting down to where it’s almost every other marriage that there seems to be divorce occurring. Of course, some I probably skew the rates because they’ve been married divorce so many times. This is when there is an actual marriage, and you’re not even talking about living arrangements, when they actually do marriage. Divorces reach quite a number, over a million people. a year in the United States. What is the cause of this growing problem? Well, we could point to many different things, but the bottom line is it’s a spiritual cause. That is the problem. Today, there is such a permissive attitude or spirit with regard to divorce, as if, well, if it don’t work out, we’ll just get divorced. Not surprising. Many contemporary books on marriage advocate divorce for all sorts of reasons, as if it’s a cure all the marriage problems. Well, divorce was a major problem in Malachi’s day, as we see from these verses before us. Even among those who profess to be the people of God, God tells us here in verse 16, he hates the putting away. He hates divorce. permissive attitude toward divorce. Malachi shows why it is evil and some of the underlying problems that are associated with it. Matiahe 2 chapter 13 to 6 verses 13 to 16 they contain some of the most powerful verses here on divorce that you’re going to find in the Bible. Very strong teaching on this particular subject. Let me begin by saying this. You must carefully guard your spirit to preserve your marriage. You’ll notice in verses 15 and 16, twice you have this statement, take heed to your spirit, that you don’t deal treacherously with your mate. You must guard your thoughts and your affections. when God says something twice you ought to take notice. When Jesus says, verily, verily, I say on to you, he puts emphasis on something. So God does that when he mentions things twice. The words take heed to your spirit mean to guard, to keep watch over, to pay attention to your heart, to your affections, to your inner being. Watch carefully what you’re. think with regard to your thought life and what you set your affections upon. In Malachi’s day, the sanctity of marriage was being eroded by a massive increase in divorce and remarriage. Those who returned from exile in Babylon had little property or position in the new land. What happened was, of course, it was now in the hands of foreigners. non-Israelites. The divorce became common, it seems, so that some of the male partners could marry the local women, maybe from a prosperous family, and so they would marry up and increase their perspective position in the social ladder. It also seems that the Jewish wives, perhaps, have become less attractive with age, and they no longer were their wives of their youth, as perhaps is suggested by verse 14. The beauty begins to fade, the bloom comes off the rose, so to speak, and so these men were sinking out younger and more attractive wives from their heathen neighbors around them. There’s nothing new under the sun. It seems like men often pursue the same angle. They look for the more attractive younger women and divorce their wives who have been with them for a while. The underlying problem, though, is they didn’t guard their thoughts. They didn’t guard their affections. Now, notice that God takes note of the sin of your thought life. and he takes this matter very seriously. When God calls upon you to guard your spirit, he’s indicating to you that you’re going to be held responsible for this. What goes on within you is something God is going to hold accountable for. Your thoughts, while hidden from all those around you, are not hidden from God. He searches the heart of men. He knows our deepest secrets. Remember what the psalma said in Psalm 139, verse 1. O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me, thou understandeth my thought afar off. Hebrews 4, verses 12 and 13, we read that God is the discerner of the thoughts and intense of the heart, that all things are naked and open before the eyes. of him with whom we have to do. Jesus spoke very powerfully about your inner thinking and your affections in the sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter 5, he talked about heart adultery. He talked about looking on a woman to lust after her and how one must guard against us, for this is indeed a violation of thou shalt not commit adultery. So God is angry by sinful thought life, by an adulterous mind, by the extramarital thoughts that people may have regarding sexual relations. Perhaps you work around a very pretty young girl or a woman at the office or the job. A husband, you cannot allow yourself to fantasize about this woman. Perhaps you and your mate are, you know, enjoy. spending time with another married couple and that’s perfectly acceptable, you know. But the more you are in this social gathering with other people, perhaps you can become attracted to the other person’s mate. We see this happening all the time where, you know, one man’s wife runs off with a best friend’s husband and so forth. We see these things happening. And if you’re the wife, you can’t be taken in by the wit and the charm of the other woman’s husband. As the husband, you can’t be snatched away by the physical beauty of another man’s wife. Perhaps as a married Christian woman, you find that your marriages and all that you hoped it would be. Your dream house didn’t materialize. Financially, maybe your husband didn’t, uh, didn’t, uh, become very successful. And he was not the spiritual leader you had hoped he would be. Down deep inside, maybe you begin to think how much better life would be without him. And the career you could have perceived, a pursuit. Maybe the hasseless life that you could have had, you could have without the burden of a husband, children. And you can flirt with the idea of breaking your marriage vows. There’s danger in this with regard to how you think. Perhaps as a Christian husband, you feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities of taking care of a wife and a family. You long for the good old days of bachelorhood when you had none of these responsibilities. You could pursue those hobbies and those interests you had with no other concerns. concern. You could spend money as easily as you wished to do so, and you weren’t shackled to one woman you could play the field. Now you’re depressed. Your wife and your children seem to be getting in the way of you finding satisfaction in your life, and you find out your wife isn’t the Proverbs 31 woman you thought she might be. And you begin dayduring about, well, if I could just get out of this marriage and away from these responses. But this, the scripture, indicates this dangerous thinking. You’re not guarding your spirit. Now, you might respond more pastor, right? Aren’t you going a little overboard, or aren’t you being a little too strict here about guarding your spirit? No, this is the biblical teaching. Just because there are those who have fantasies about an extramarital thoughts and that doesn’t make it right. God says, guard your thought life or it will be disastrous. Right thinking leads the right actions, which will ultimately lead to right feelings. When our thinking gets off, we begin to get skewed on our feelings and then ultimately on our actions. When you have adulterous thoughts, it can affect your feelings and emotions, and then you get caught up ultimately into adulterous actions. Look at David. He had sinful thoughts about Bashim. He knew it was another man’s wife. and when his affections were stirred by those thoughts ended up causing him to commit adultery. Divorce prevention then begins with your inner being. There’s where you start with your thought life. So you must carefully guard your spirit to preserve your marriage. Secondly, notice that spiritual barrenness can be directly attributed to sins against your mate, your marriage partner. Notice verses 13 and 14. He says, and this have you done again covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering anymore, receiveth it with goodwill at your hand. God withholds his blessing from you when you sin against your mate. Imagine someone coming to Melachi and telling him, you know, I, my spiritual life just seems to be like it’s dried up. It’s just dead. I’m not life. I feel like I’m lifeless spiritually. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I go to church regularly. I pray. I have Bible reading all the time. Nothing seems to help. I cry out to the Lord in prayer for spiritual renewal. My faith has just seemed to have lost its vitality. and Malachi looks at him and says, well, how are relations between you and your wife? And the man says to Maliki, why are you changing the subject? What does that have to do with my relationship to Lord? Well, the idea is it has a lot to do with your relationship with the Lord. Malachi says, the unity of the people of God I’ve been talking about in verse 10 extends to your marriage. When God tells us in the New Testament, grieve not the Holy Spirit. Let not be. bitterness and wrath and anger and evil speaking, let these things be put away from you. Apply is also to your marriage partner. I mean, it’s not just the other members of the church, it’s also to your marriage partner. God pitches these people weeping, pleading for his blessing, but not receiving. The heavens are brass. He doesn’t regard it. There’s unproductive worship. Why? Look how you treated your marriage partner. Now, unless you think this is just Old Testament teaching, I mentioned last week, and I’ll mention it again tonight, 1st Peter 3.7, ye husbands dwell with your wise according to knowledge, giving honor under the wife, why? That your prayers be not ended. Isn’t it the same idea as our text? In verse 13. So God asks here, how are things between you and your make? how have you been treating her? Have you grieved my spirit? Oh, you can go to church, you can read your Bible, pray regularly, and so forth. But here is something that can affect your spiritual well-being, your vitality. So God withholds his blessing from you when you sin against your mate. Notice God will witness against you when you sin against your mate. Verse 14, yet ye have said, wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness. 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? I think people forget that marriage is a covenant relationship. You have a bond of friendship with your mate, and there’s a solemn promise associated with it. Remember how Jonathan and David made a covenant with one another? and there were also responsibilities in that covenant. You recall that Jonathan said that he would sound out his father to see what was happening, and he would certainly work to spare David’s life. And David, when he became king, was not to put to death any of Jonathan’s family, that he would spare any of his offspring. Like other kings, sometimes they got into power, they got rid of everybody that belonged to the previous king. There are no threat to the throne. Do you remember the promises you made on your wedding day, to love and to cherish, to honor and obey, and so forth? You promised to remain husband and wife as long as you both shall live. Thus, God says this about your mate. She is the wife of your covenant. You’ve got a lifetime bond with this. person. Sinful divorces are not then a private matter. God is a witness to what’s taking place. Your marriage vows were not just before the minister and friends, but before God. So God sees what you’re doing. And when your thoughts and your desires are turned away from your wife of your youth and your companion, covenant companion, then probably. begin. That young woman you married, who shared with you the bloom of her youth, who shared in your early struggles and all the hardships, she rejoiced in your successes, she cried with you in those losses and sufferings that you went through. And she walked arm and arm with you, day in and day out, and through the good times and the bad. times. And now that the bloom of her youth has faded, when her mother and father perhaps have now already died, you are going to throw her out of the house and discard her. This is what you’re going to do. You’re going to treat her like a worn-out shoe. And you’re going to insult her spiritual walk by putting a heathen, wife in her place. The daughter of a heathen God, a foreign God. That’s what you’re going to do. Do you think God will allow you to do that and go unscathed? Is God going to just ignore that kind of behavior? Shall not the one who witnessed your wedding vow avenge her? The Bible commands us that we’re to rejoice with the wife of thy youth and be thou ravished, find sexual delight always in her love. Proverbs 518 and 19. So she is your covenant companion. You can’t just willy-nilly cast her off. God may withdraw his fellowship with you. He may indeed chasing you because of it. And vice versa. If it was the woman doing the same thing, God would deal with it in a similar manner. So spiritual barrenness can be directly attributed to sins against your marriage partner. The third thing he says is this. You should realize why God hates divorce. First is 15 and 16. Divorce violates God’s original marriage design. Let’s look at verse 15. 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. It is admitted by anyone who has spoken and commented on these verses. These are difficult verses to interpret here. But this is what I believe that Malachi is saying. God is the one who in the beginning created marriage. Did not he, meaning God, make one. flesh, meaning of Adam and Eve, Genesis 224, they shall be one flesh, is what he said. It was God, it was not evolution or man that made the race male and female. It was God who looked at man in his singleness and declared it’s not good for a man to be alone. I will make a help meet or suitable for him. It was God who looked at man. It was God who not only made the woman from the rib of Adam, but brought her to the man, and we might even say, actually performed the first wedding ceremony. He brought them two together and told them that they should be one flesh, and blessed the union, and said, be fruitful, and multiply. What be more appropriate then, than for Malachi to return to the original marriage design say this is what God established. We see our Lord doing that in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 19, verses 4 to 6. Have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What God hath joined together, let not man, put asunder. He spoke about divorce. Could a man to divorce his wife for any cause? Jesus said, that’s not the way God established things. The he then would be God, the one would refer to the one flesh here of Genesis 224. The second phrase here, yet have had God or yet have he the residue of the spirit. God, the residue, the overflowing power of the, of the spirit remaining. I take this to mean that even though God only created Adam and Eve, and only made Eve one woman for the man, he had the power to make many women for Adam. He could have made old harem for it. He could have populated the earth a lot faster if he had done that maybe. God certainly had more in an unenable. enough of the creative power in him. The spirit could have furnished many marriage partners for Adam, but he didn’t do that. That was not his purpose. One woman, and wherefore? The next phrase, that God might seek a godly, a legitimate seed or offspring. Now, legitimate offspring, born in a true and lawful wedlock, a seed suitable to being created after God’s image. Not the offspring like beasts, because many of the animals are promiscuous, and there’s a mixture of marriage partners and so forth. But the person who seeks a godly offspring has spiritual insight and does not violate the marriage covenant. He does not violate the marriage covenant. send away his legal wife and divorce her in order to marry a heathen girl. In addition, we can even take this a little bit further, this phrase, godly seed. Isn’t one of the purposes of the Christian marriage is to raise up a godly seed? It’s God’s designed, I think, for his people, that children would be brought up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Not that a faithful marriage guarantees a godly, regenerate offspring. We see it with Abraham. That wasn’t the case with all his sons, nor was it the case with Isaac and his sons. One was saved, one was not. Divorce, along with inner marriage here, with an unbeliever, frustrates then the purpose or this design. It provides mixed signals in the heart. The focus then is not raising the children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. If we marry a heathed person, we’re throwing that idea out the window. We’re not pulling together in one direction to train our children up in godly fear. You know, it’s a blessing. You know, when you hear children are able to quote scripture, and, you know, memorize the books of the Bible and things of this nature, and repeat. these things. And hear the Bible verses from the little children. Georgia quoted me a verse this morning from Psalm 119. And I thought back to my children and all the, you know, the memory verses we taught them and how we tried to train them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord and the covenant question, the London confession questions and things like this that we work with our children. The idea was not that somehow or other, they’re automatically converted, but it is being under the sound of the word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word. And what an advantage it is to be raised in such a home, where the desire of the parents is that raised godly children. Thus, God intends marriage to be the union of one man and woman to produce a legitimate offspring, certainly, and even, according to God’s grace, a godly offspring. So divorce. violates God’s original marriage design, and also divorce brings harm and hurt, according to verse 16. Well, the Lord, the God of Israel, said he hateeth putting away. For one covereth violence with his garments, said the Lord of host. Therefore, take heed to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously. Perhaps I could word that. a little better and put it this way for he the man evidently covers he he spreads his garment with violence it seems that the garment here and connected with marriage relates to this idea of spreading a garment over a woman when you claim her for a wife you remember how Ruth lay at the feet of Boas, when he was at the threshing floor, and he requested that he spread his skirt or his garment over her. That was a symbolic gesture. Take me as your wife. In Ezekiel chapter 16, when God sees Israel as forsaken and, you know, cast out and so forth, and he comes along and he sees her, and he spreads his garment or takes her as his wife. Same idea. So the garment is a symbol of the marital faithfulness and the marital faithfulness and protection. It’d be like a mother hand-gathering here, chicks under her wings. And so there’s an idea of the husband here, taking the wife under his protective hand-hand-hand-hand, and providing for her and so forth. Now, God is saying that these men were spreading their garments, but they weren’t no longer providing protection anymore. They were doing it with violent intent because now they’re going to throw her out and divorce her. You’re treating your marriage partner unjustly. You’re withdrawing the protection and the care that she deserves. The word violence here, I think, points to the fact that divorce, the putting away here is harmful. It leaves scars. It leaves harm to the wife. So instead of finding the protection from her husband, she’s cast out to defend for herself. She has been there upholding her husband, furthering his career, and now she’s past her prime. Maybe she’s going to get left out in the cold now. She’s squeezed out of the picture for another woman, perhaps who’s younger and more attractive, even heathen. She’s cheated out of a rightful place. And emotionally, this is devastating with deep scars and bitterness setting in. What about the children? What harm does this do to the children in the marriage? God says here, I hate this putting away because of the harm it does, and it violates my marriage, original marriage ordinance. Now, let me say that there are miscible grounds for divorce in the Bible. But they’re narrow. The Bible says adultery is one and desertion is the other. Not all divorces are sinful. But this idea of just getting rid of someone because, well, you know, I want to find somebody more attractive or something of its nature, for any reason, not a biblical one, is evil in the eyes. of the Lord. So you should realize why God hates divorce. Now, let me conclude with two brief thoughts. We have to take all appropriate actions to eradicate adulterous thinking. God commands to take heed, guard your spirit, those inner contemplations that you have, so that adulterous thoughts do not control you. Jesus said, in dealing with adulterous thoughts, you should take radical measures. Do you remember what he said in the sermon of the Mount? Whosoever looketh thought a woman the lost after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart? And then, he says, if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast in the apple. That’s a radical measure, isn’t? Now, he’s indicating to us this is a very serious matter of adulterous thoughts. Life or death matter. Go to any lengths to deal with this issue. Not that we should take it literally here, that he literally pluck your eye out. I don’t think that’s what he means. But he is saying go to great lengths, even painful lengths if necessary, in order to get rid of evil thoughts in this direction. Now, I have to say, we have to be careful about books, magazines, plays, TV, movies, things of this nature. Because these things can lead to evil thoughts. Therefore, we have to be selective in these matters. There are certain things you just, it’s best not to even to look at, to get involved in it. think about God’s warning here. Think about the terrible consequences of broken marriage and adultery. This is where adulterous thoughts can lead. So God calls upon, take heed of your spirit, guard your ways. The second thing is, work at building a loving friendship with your mate. The word companion here, a covenant companion, indicates to us what we ought to have. This close bond of friendship with our mate. The very essence of marriage is this friend. friendship, this companionship that we have. Don’t allow the friendship which blossom in your youth get withered as you go along in life. There’s a lot of things that can really play havoc with your marriage as you go along. There’s a lot of strain that can happen. And if you don’t have a commitment with the idea we’re committed to one another, regardless of what happens, there’s always that danger of things breaking apart. I like with Thomas Watson, once wrote. He said, a man is not kept chaste, sexually pure, by having a wife, but by loving a wife. And I think that’s true. I think he hit a good point here. Love should deepen in your marriage relationship as you grow older. Of course, it takes work. It takes perseverance. It takes patience. Love involves committing yourself to this person. Martin Luther and his wife Katie struggled with a problem with perhaps as common with many marriages. After a day of handling children and doing chores at the house and taking care of the animals, Katie wanted to take some time and talk with an adult human being. And so she wanted to talk with her husband when he got home. Now Luther, who has been busy all day preaching and lecturing and talking with students and people, members, and so forth, wanted to drop in a chair, open a good book, and read it. Confrontation was inevitable. And so Luther would just, you know, sit down and crack open his book, and all of a sudden his wife would start asking questions. Is the prime minister of Prussia the Duke’s brother? Luther would finally conclude with the he said this about it. He says, all my life is patience with the Pope, with heretics, and Katie. I don’t know why he put her in that group, but, you know, those are the ones that took his extreme patience in dealing with. So you may go home today, tonight, and I think maybe you might think about, well, how can, you know, how can I be a better mate. How can I be a better companion? Maybe this is something we ought to, you know, be thinking about, praying about, how could I be better than I have been? And faithfully love your husband or wife. I hope you see the vital importance of this message for the church today because this is, this is very timely for our day and age. It’s not, it’s not old, old hat stuff. This is, this is lively, true teaching that we need to hear today, just as a good. as well as in Malachi’s Day long ago. Well, let us close with word of prayer.