We Take a Detour When We Disregard God's Directions for Marriage...

This week, we are looking at a section of a letter in our Bibles called the book of Malachi. Yesterday, we saw that prophet Malachi accuse the Jewish people of taking a detour by divorcing their Jewish wives in order to marry women who worshipped false gods. Malachi revealed the reality that these divorces were breaking a spiritual bond that God had divinely designed not to be broken. And these divorces and marriages to those who worshipped false gods would much more likely result in children who would embrace the worship of false gods.

Because, when you do not agree on spiritual issues, you are going to be pulled in a different direction. And the Jewish people were being pulled away from God and pulled to the worship of false gods as a result of these divorces and subsequent marriage relationships to those who did not believe in God.Malachi then concludes his accusations with one of the strongest statements in the entire Bible when it comes to the issue of marriage. Let’s look at it together:

Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. "For I hate divorce," says the LORD, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with wrong," says the LORD of hosts. "So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously."

Malachi commands the Jewish people of his day to take heed then to your spirit. In other words, the Jewish people were to stand watch and guard over the direction of their lives when it came to being faithful to the promises that they had made to their spouses. Malachi then provides the reason for this strong command with an even stronger statement from the Lord Himself in verse 16: “For I hate divorce, says the Lord the God of Israel”. 

Now a natural question that arises here is “wait a minute Dave, what do you mean God hates divorce. I mean God is love, God does not hate anything, does He”. When we read the pages of the Bible, the Bible clearly teaches that God does hate some things. The Bible teaches that God hates sin; God hates pride self righteousness; God hates those who devise evil and commit perjury; God hates the worship of Him when we also worship something other than Him. And here we see God say that He hates divorce.

But why does God hate divorce? Why does God feel so strongly about this issue? To understand why God hates divorce, we first need to understand why God created marriage. And to do that, I would like for us to take a minute to look at a section of a letter that is recorded in our Bibles called the book of Ephesians. In Ephesians 5:28-31, we discover God’s design and purpose for marriage:  

So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Now when Paul uses the word mystery here, this word refers to is a timeless truth about God and His Divine Plan that was once hidden, but now has been made known through Christ. This once hidden timeless truth about God, according to Paul is this: but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. You see, here’s the thing: the reason why marriage is so important in God’s eyes; the reason why divorce is such a big deal; the reason why God hates divorce; is because marriage has been divinely designed by God to be a picture on earth of the intimacy that we will have for all eternity with Christ.

Marriage was designed by God to be a word picture to the world of the vulnerability, the transparency, and the intimacy that followers of Jesus will experience for all eternity with Him. That is why God hates divorce. God hates divorce because divorce mars and misrepresents the eternal covenant relationship that Jesus has with His followers. Divorce mars the covenant relationship that Jesus selflessly and sacrificially died for. 

You see, God desires that our marriages provide to the unbelieving world a glimpse of the intimacy that we will experience for all eternity with Jesus. And God hates when we mar that glimpse of intimacy through divorce.

And it is in Malachi 2:10-16 that we see revealed for us a timeless detour that can get us off track when it comes to our relationship with God and can result in us living a life that dishonors God. And that timeless detour is this: We take a detour when we disregard God’s directions for marriage. We take a detour when we disregard God’s directions for marriage by marrying someone that is not in the same spiritual condition and shares the same beliefs and world-view when it comes to God and spirituality. And we take a detour when we disregard God’s directions for marriage by failing to keep the promises that we have made in front of God and others by getting a divorce.

Now it is important to understand that, from a Biblical perspective, divorce is not a greater sin than any other sin and divorce is not any less of a sin than any other sin. Sin is sin, plain and simple. And as with any sin, when we disregard God’s directions for marriage, we take a detour. We take a detour that gets us off track when it comes to our relationship with God. We take a detour that results in us dishonoring God and others. We take a detour that brings hurt, pain, and shame.

And like any other detour, to get on track when it comes to our relationship with God requires that we recognize and admit that we have gotten off track. Like any other detour, to get back on track requires that we ask forgiveness for the detour that we have taken that has gotten us off track. And like any other detour, to get on track requires that we repent, that is to change the trajectory of our lives that is moving off track from God back toward God.

That means that we follow God’s directions for marriage by dating and marrying those who share your set of beliefs and are in a similar spiritual condition when it comes to their relationship with Jesus. That means that we follow God’s directions for marriage by remaining faithful to the vows and promises that we made when we entered into marriage. That means that regardless of our past, whether we are single, married, divorced, or divorced and remarried, we live in a way that follows God’s directions for marriage in the current relational situation we find ourselves in.

Because the timeless reality is that we take a detour when we disregard God’s direction when it comes to marriage.