Admonition for the Priests
1 "And now this admonition is for you, O priests. 2 If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name," says the LORD Almighty, "I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me.
3 "Because of you I will rebuke [1] your descendants [2] ; I will spread on your faces the offal from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. 4 And you will know that I have sent you this admonition so that my covenant with Levi may continue," says the LORD Almighty. 5 "My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.
7 "For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction-because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty. 8 But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi," says the LORD Almighty. 9 "So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law."
When confronted with the evidence of God’s love for His people, His people should
recognize their failure to love Him in return and then repent. In order for the people to turn back
to God and strive to love Him with the entirety, they need to be instructed in right doctrine and
right practice (orthodoxy and orthopraxy). Therefore, God issues a warning for the leaders / priests
of the people here in chapter 2. Anyone who is charged with teaching the people of God must honor
Him in that endeavor. God wants life and peace for His people, and we get that by studying, trusting,
obeying, and teaching His word. We learn to walk in uprightness, and others see and follow. When
leaders fail to teach God’s word honorably, it’s a sign that there is lack of fear of God in their
own lives. And the result is horrendous. If the leaders – and therefore the people – treat God
dishonorably, like dung, then He will take that dung and smear it on the faces of their children.
It’s an ugly sight, but a serious matter.
Faithful teaching was seen in the examples of Ezra and Levi. They studied and held God’s word.
They obeyed and walked in the truth. They taught and explained it to the people around them.
These priests in Malachi’s audience turned aside, caused stumbling, and corrupted the covenant.
Where faithful teaching leads people to humble repentance before God, the alternative leads people
to arrogance before a God they come to despise. Faithful teaching includes impartiality, namely
explaining all truth and showing why specific errors are heretical (1 Corinthians 3:10-17).
Judah Unfaithful
10 Have we not all one Father [3] ? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?
11 Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. 12 As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the LORD cut him off from the tents of Jacob [4] -even though he brings offerings to the LORD Almighty.
13 Another thing you do: You flood the LORD's altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 14 You ask, "Why?" It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
15 Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. [5] So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.
16 "I hate divorce," says the LORD God of Israel, "and I hate a man's covering himself [6] with violence as well as with his garment," says the LORD Almighty.
So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.
We come to the third dispute in Malachi, and it’s all about faithful marriage, which includes
three important elements: marrying within Christianity, remaining faithful to your spouse in marriage, and
steering clear of divorce. One author says, “Malachi could very well be urging his audience not to break
faith with Yahweh (the God of Israel) by adopting new gods or idols. It is quite likely that, since the
people of Judah were questioning Yahweh’s love and justice (1:2, 2:17), they might be tempted to adopt
foreign gods. William LaSor suggests that, because the restoration to the land of Judah had not resulted
in anything like the prophesied splendor of the messianic age which had been prophesied, the people were
becoming quite disillusioned with their religion.”
God first claims that the people are committing sins against His covenant by intermarrying with pagan
idolators (V10-12). It’s pretty straightforward: don’t marry an unbeliever. Tom Schreiner said that
while the most important decision in life is to be a Christian, the second most important decision is
who to marry. In light of 1 Corinthians 7:39 and 2 Corinthians 6:14-16, he said, “It doesn’t fit to say,
‘Christ is my life,’ and yet marry someone who doesn’t love Jesus.” The language in Malachi is strong.
To go against this instruction is detestable, terrible evil, and treachery against the Lord. In our youth,
it’s easy to overlook the importance of this recommendation. But looking back after decades of marriage,
it’s often truly the precious glue that bonds two people together in a godly marriage, without which the
marriage would simply not be as strong or as enjoyably peaceful.
We finally see the disputational dialog here in v13-14, where God says, “Another thing you do: You flood
the LORD’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because He no longer looks with favor on your offerings or
accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, ‘Why?’ It is because the LORD is the witness between
you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of
your marriage covenant.” So the people wonder why God isn’t blessing their circumstances. God says it’s
because there’s unfaithfulness in your marriage. Now that’s a generality in the context of Malachi here,
and it shouldn’t automatically be deemed to be the cause or consequence of any specific issue. But it’s
certainly an invitation to consider your situation and turn in repentance to the Lord.
The language of covenant is crucial to unpack here. Men are to leave their father and mother, hold fast to
their wife (devotion), and become one flesh (starting a new family). The “wife of your youth” is to be a
permanent companion and helper (Proverbs 5:18). The primary purpose is not emotional fulfillment for the
spouses, but certainly one purpose is godly offspring (v15); and God includes His Spirit in a marriage,
as a cord of three strands is not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
Finally, v16 is particularly difficult to translate, but the main idea is clear. God does in fact hate divorce.
Divorce is never the ideal path to pursue before the Lord. There are occasions where it is necessary and
appropriate, but those are limited to adultery and violent spouse abuse (verbal and physical – as noted
here in v16). It’s certainly best to investigate the possibilities of forgiveness to remain married in
any circumstance, and this is why the command to avoid unfaithfulness is repeated in this section. We
must guard ourselves in our spirit, because it is easy to become disillusioned at times.
The Day of Judgment
17 You have wearied the LORD with your words.
"How have we wearied him?" you ask.
By saying, "All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD , and he is pleased with them" or "Where is the God of justice?"
Just a quick word here: The final verse of chapter 2 best fits with chapter 3,
and we will consider it further with the comments on that chapter. But v17 begins the fourth
dispute between God and His people recorded in Malachi.
Footnotes
- 2:3 Or cut off (see Septuagint)
- 2:3 Or will blight your grain
- 2:10 Or father
- 2:12 Or 12 May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob anyone who gives testimony in behalf of the man who does this
- 2:15 Or 15 But the one {who is our father} did not do this, not as long as life remained in him. And what was he seeking? An offspring from God
- 2:16 Or his wife
Bible text from
Gospelcom.net. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by
International Bible Society.