A Plea of Ignorance...

For the past several months at the church where I serve, we have been looking at a letter in our Bibles called the book of Malachi as part of a series of talks called “Detour”. This week, I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. And once again we will see Malachi accuse the Jewish people of taking another 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. So let’s look together as Malachi makes his accusation, beginning in Malachi 3:7:

"From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts.

Malachi begins this section of his letter by making another accusation against the Jewish people. This accusation, if communicated in the language that we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Throughout your history as a people and a nation, you have continually taken a detour by not following My commands that I have given you to keep and observe. Instead of following My directions, you have gotten off track in your relationship with Me by taking a detour to follow your own desires”.

Malachi, after revealing the accusation that God had against the Jewish people, then reveals God’s promise toward the Jewish people: “Return to Me, and I will return to you”. Now this word return conveys the sense of repentance, which literally means to change the direction of the trajectory of one’s life. In other words, God is saying to the Jewish people “repent and change the direction of your life that has taken a detour so that you can get back on track when it comes to your relationship with Me. I promise that if you change the direction for your life back towards Me, I will be there for you”. After revealing God’s accusation and promise, Malachi records the Jewish people’s response in the second half of verse 7:

"But you say, 'How shall we return?'

The Jewish people responded to Malachi’s accusation with a question: “How shall we return?” The Jewish people pleaded ignorance: “What do you mean that we have not been following Your directions? What do you mean we have taken a detour? Where did we get off track when it comes to our relationship with You?” We see God’s response to their plea of ignorance in verse 8:

 "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me!

Here we see God respond to the Jewish people’s plea of ignorance with a rhetorical question and a statement. First, God asks a rhetorical question: will a man rob God? Now, the answer to this rhetorical question seems obvious, doesn’t it? I mean, how can any human being rob God? God is in Heaven outside of space and time, a distance that is far too distant to traverse. And even if we could traverse that distance, how would we rob the all-powerful Creator of the Universe? And while the answer to the rhetorical question should be a resounding “No”, that is exactly what God accuses the Jewish people of doing: “Yet you are robbing Me!” We see the Jewish people’s stunned response in the second part of verse 8:

But you say, 'How have we robbed You?'

The Jewish people repeat their response of ignorance: “How have we robbed You?” God responds to their ignorance by providing the evidence of their robbery and the consequences that should have clued them into the detour that they had taken that had gotten them off track when it came to their relationship with God in the remainder of verse 8 and verse 9. Let’s look at the evidence together:

In tithes and offerings. "You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!

Here we see Malachi reveal the reality that the Jewish people had taken a detour when it came to keeping God’s command to bring tithes and offerings. Now to understand the evidence that Malachi is presenting on God’s behalf against the Jewish people, we first need to understand what Malachi is referring to when he talks about tithes and offerings. The word tithe literally means a tenth. The Jewish people had been commanded by God to give 10% of the produce and proceeds of their labor as an act of worship to God in recognition of God as their provider. This act of worship was then to be given to the Levites, who were responsible to worship and minister to God and His people, in order to support them.

Tomorrow, we will look at God’s command concerning the tithe and how the Jewish people had taken a detour when it came to following God’s command…

"Where is the God of Justice?"

This week we have been looking at a section of a letter in our Bibles called the book of Malachi, where the Jewish people were arrogantly and skeptically questioning God’s justice. Wednesday, we saw Malachi’s response to those who accused God of delighting in those who were involved in selfishness and rebellion. Today, we will see Malachi respond to a second accusation that the Jewish people held that denied God’s justice in verse 5:


"Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me," says the LORD of hosts.

Here we see Malachi respond the Jewish people’s question “Where is the God of justice?” Malachi responds to this question by explaining that when the Jesus comes, the Jewish people will experience justice. When the Lord comes, He will serve as a witness that will testify about the selfishness and rebellion that led the Jewish people to take detours that kept them from living in relationship with God and that dishonored God and others. Malachi reveals seven different acts of injustice that served as evidence that the Jewish people denied God’s justice by living lives of injustice.

First, Malachi explains that the Lord would testify against the sorcerers, who were those who engaged in magic and other cultic practices of false worship that revealed their injustice toward God. Second, the Lord will testify against the adulterers, who were those who engaged in sexual activity in addition to marriage that revealed their injustice toward their spouse. Third, the Lord, upon His return, will testify against those who swore falsely. These were individuals who gave either false testimony or were deceptive in the promises that they made. And it was their false and deceptive words and promises that revealed their injustice toward God and others. Fourth, Malachi explains that upon His return, the Lord would testify against those who oppress the wage earner by extorting or defrauding their employees, which revealed their injustice toward those whom they employed.

Malachi then exposes the injustice that the Jewish people were displaying towards the most vulnerable in Jewish society. Fifth, Malachi explains that the Lord would testify against those who oppress the widow. Sixth, Malachi the Lord would testify against those who oppress the orphan. Just like today, in the Jewish culture of Malachi’s day, widows and orphans were extremely vulnerable and were often the victims of injustice. And there were those in the Jewish culture of Malachi’s day that were exploiting, extorting, and defrauding widows and orphans of the resources that they so desperately needed that revealed their injustice toward the most vulnerable in society. And seventh, Malachi explains that the Lord would testify against those who turn aside the alien. Instead of following God’s command to treat the non-Jewish person who lived in the Jewish culture with respect and love, the Jewish people were treating them harshly as outsiders, which revealed their injustice to the non-Jewish world.

Malachi then reveals the heart condition of the Jewish people that drove their injustice: the Jewish people did not fear God. In other words, the Jewish people did not give the Lord the honor and reverent awe that He deserved. The Jewish people did not respect God and being the just judge. Instead the Jewish people were denying or questioning the justice of God. And as a result, the Jewish people had taken a detour that got them off track in their relationship with God and that dishonored God. This makes what Malachi says next in verse 6 all the more amazing. Let’s look at it together:

"For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

Now when Malachi uses the word consumed here, this word, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to be finished or destroyed. If Malachi was to communicate God’s word to the Jewish people of his day in the language we use today, this verse would have sounded something like this: I am the Lord and because I do not change, you Jewish people have not been destroyed. I am a promise maker and a promise keeper. And I will keep my promise to send a rescuer who will provide an opportunity to rescue on His first coming and will come to usher in justice and judgment upon His second coming”.

And a little over 400 years after this letter was written, John the Baptizer began preaching and proclaiming that the Jewish people needed to repent, that the Jewish people needed to clear away the obstacles of unbelief, because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. And then the messenger of the covenant, Jesus Christ, God-in-a-bod, the Messiah, the One whom the Jewish people were searching and seeking, the One whom the Jewish people delighted in, suddenly appeared on the scene. Jesus came and cleansed the temple in Jerusalem not once but twice. Jesus suddenly appeared on the scene to usher in a new covenant that would provide all of humanity the opportunity to experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for through placing one’s confident trust in His life, death, and resurrection, as Lord and Leader.

Yet, the Jewish people missed it. The Jewish people missed it because Jesus came suddenly and in a way that they did not expect. The Jewish people missed Jesus as the Messiah and rejected Him by handing Him over to be crucified as an enemy of the state. The Jewish people missed it because they were taking a detour that questioned God’s justice while embracing a life of selfishness, rebellion, and injustice.

And in the same way today, we take a detour when we deny God’s justice while engaging in a life of selfishness and rebellion that results in injustice. You see, while we can question why injustice occurs in the world; while we can question why God allows injustice; we cannot question God’s justice, because God’s justice and God’s love is most clearly seen at the cross.

In His love, God sent His Son Jesus into humanity in order to allow Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. And Jesus death on the cross satisfied God’s justice, which demands eternal death for our selfish rebellion. God’s justice demands that sin be punished, but God’s love compels Him to save sinners. So Christ’s death on the cross releases His love and satisfies His justice.

Thus there is no contradiction between absolute justice and unconditional love. God’s justice is administered in love and His love is distributed justly. And just as Jesus suddenly and unexpected appeared on the scene some 2,000 years ago, at the end of God’s story here on earth, Jesus will suddenly and unexpected appear to put to an end once and for all the injustice that flows from selfishness and rebellion and to usher in God’s kingdom in its fullest sense. And all of humanity will stand before Jesus who will with perfect justice judge the world.

So here are a couple of questions to consider: First, are you denying or questioning the justice of God? Are you asking “where is the God who acts justly?” Because we take a detour that gets us off track with God and that dishonors God when we deny God’s justice. And second, what do you think will happen when you stand before the God of justice at the end of your life or upon His return?

Denying God's Justice by Approving of Evil...

This week we are looking at a section of a letter in our Bibles called the book of Malachi. Yesterday, we saw Malachi reveal 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 in that we take a detour when we deny God’s justice.

Just like the Jewish people of Malachi’s day, when we live our day to day lives as though it is good to do evil; when we begin to arrogantly and skeptically question the justice of God, we begin to take a detour that gets us off track when it comes to our relationship with God and that dishonors God. Today, we see Malachi respond to the Jewish people’s arrogance and skepticism by providing God’s response to their questions in Malachi 3:1:

"Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts.

God responds to the Jewish people’s willingness to test and try His patience by arrogantly questioning His justice with an amazing answer to their questions. God’s answer, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: So, you think that I approve of evil. Well, here’s the deal. Just like an earthly king customarily sends a messenger ahead of him to inform those whom he is visiting of his arrival, I will be sending a messenger ahead of My arrival. That messenger will call the people to prepare for My arrival by removing the obstacles of unbelief that would cause them to miss My arrival. I am coming and you will be surprised by My coming because it will come suddenly and in a way that you will not expect.”

You see, the Jewish people delighted in the idea of the Messiah coming because they thought the Messiah’s coming would result in them receiving the blessings of being restored to prominence in the world. And the Jewish people expected the Messiah to be a conquering king who would lead to a military and political victory. But, 150 years after being conquered and deported by the Babylonians and after spending over 100 years rebuilding the Temple and the city of Jerusalem, that had not happened yet.

So the Jewish people began to question God’s justice as they continued to selfishly rebel and reject the Lord and take detours when it came to living in relationship with God. And in the midst of those detours, Malachi answers the question “does God approve of evil?” by saying “the Lord is coming and you will be surprised by His coming because it will come suddenly and unexpectedly”.

Malachi then proceeds to respond to the Jewish people’s perception that the Messiah’s coming would result in delight and the blessings of restoration, by revealing the problem that they would face upon His arrival in Malachi 3:2:

"But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.

Here we see Malachi ask two rhetorical questions designed to respond to the Jewish people’s accusation that “it is good to do evil” and that God was pleased and delighted with those who were involved in selfishness and rebellion. First Malachi asks “But who can endure the day of His coming?” In other words, Malachi is asking, who is able to survive the justice of the Lord when He comes to earth?

The prophet then asks a second rhetorical question: “And who can stand when He appears?” Now this word, to stand, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to be able to stand upright. Malachi is asking, who will be able to stand before the Lord in a way that reveals that they are right with Him when He comes to earth?

Now these rhetorical questions were designed to reveal the reality that the Jesus’ coming would result in the Jewish people having to answer for the many detours that had taken that had resulted in them being far from God and dishonoring God. Malachi uses two different word pictures to hammer this point home. First, Malachi paints the word picture of a refiner’s fire. What would happen in the Jewish culture of Malachi’s day was that a smelter would use an extremely hot fire in order to refine metal. As the metal was heated, the dross and impurities would rise to the top and would be removed.

Malachi then paints a second word picture, this time of fuller’s soap. Fullers soap was a launderer’s soap that was used to remove stubborn stains from a garment. These word pictures were designed to hammer home the reality that, just as a fire removes impurity from metal and just as soap removes impurity from clothes, the Lord’s coming to earth would result in impurity and injustice being removed from the earth.

Malachi is asking the Jewish people “Are you sure you want the Lord to come, because the Lord is not going to respond well to you saying that it is good to do evil. Do you really want the Lord to come, because when He comes He is going to come like a fire and like a soap that will remove the impurity and injustice that you claim that God is pleased and delighted with.” Malachi then provides another word picture to describe what would occur in the lives of the Jewish people upon the Lord’s arrival in verses 3-4:

"He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness. "Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.

In these verses we see Malachi paint the word picture of a smelter at work. During the Jewish culture of Malachi’s day, a smelter sat bending forward over a small melting furnace to evaluate whether the color of the metal they were refining was pure. Malachi uses this word picture to reveal the reality that the Lord would be a refiner that would cleanse and purify His people. And as a result of this cleansing and purifying work, the Jewish people would present to the LORD offerings in righteousness. The offerings that Malachi is referring to here were voluntary grain offerings that were offered as an expression of worship.

Malachi’s point here is that the Lord would come to purify His people so that they would worship the Lord in the right manner and in a right relationship with Him. As in the days before the Jewish people began to take detours that dishonored God, the Jewish people would offer up a lifestyle of worship that was pleasing to God, that honored God, and that held God in a reverent awe.

Tomorrow, we will see Malachi respond to the second accusation that the Jewish people held that denied God’s justice…

We Take a Detour When We Deny God's Justice...

This week, I would like for us to continue to look at a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament  of our Bibles called the book of Malachi. In this section of this letter, we will see Malachi accuse the Jewish people of taking another detour when it came to their relationship with God. And it is in the prophet’s accusation and the evidence that he presents we will see God reveal 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. So let’s look together as Malachi makes his accusation, beginning in Malachi 2:17:

You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, "How have we wearied Him?" In that you say, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them," or, "Where is the God of justice?"

Malachi begins by revealing God’s frustration with the Jewish people: “You have wearied Me with your words”. This accusation, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “I am sick and tired of you trying my patience with what you have been saying about Me”.

Malachi then reveals exactly what the Jewish people were saying that was testing God’s patience with them: "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them," In other words, the Jewish people were saying “it is good to do evil.” The Jewish people were accusing God of being pleased and delighted with those who were involved in selfishness and rebellion.

But not only did the Jewish people accuse God of delighting in those who were involved in selfishness and rebellion; not only did the Jewish people believe that it is good to do evil. Malachi also reveals for us that the Jewish people of his day were asking the following question: "Where is the God of justice?” Now it is important to understand that the Jewish people were not denying or questioning the existence of God. Instead the Jewish people were denying or questioning the justice of God.

The Jewish people were arrogantly and skeptically asking “Where is the God who acts justly? Because He does not seem to be acting very justly. He has not sent the Messiah yet. We have not been restored to prominence in the world yet. When is God going to demonstrate that He is just in how He has been dealing with us?” The Jewish people were openly questioning and denying that God was just.

           
And it is here where we see Malachi reveal 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 that we take a detour when we deny God's justice. 

Just like the Jewish people of Malachi’s day, when we live our day to day lives as though it is good to do evil; when we begin to arrogantly and skeptically question the justice of God, we begin to take a detour that gets us off track when it comes to our relationship with God and that dishonors God.

Tomorrow, we will see Malachi respond to the Jewish people’s arrogance and skepticism by providing God’s response to their denial of God's justice... 

Buy A Chair To Build HIS Church...

As a pastor, it has been both humbling and exciting to see all that God has done in and through City Bible Church these past two years. And as God has continued to expand the influence and impact that we have had in the community, we have seen our campus usage stretched to capacity, especially during our midweek Children and Student Ministry environments.

We have been blessed with a campus that is debt free. However, the largest room on our campus is only used for four hours a week, on Sunday mornings. In light of that reality, and in order to be better managers of the facilities that God has given us to use to advance His Kingdom, we are moving as a church to remove the pews from our sanctuary and replace them with chairs.

By replacing the pews with chairs, we will be able to use the sanctuary space to address the continued growth of our children's midweek ministry environment. This will also enable us to use the sanctuary for our Sunday evening worship gathering, called Connection Point, in order to handle the continued growth of that service while maintaining the unique format of Connection Point.

The additional flexibility that chairs provide will place us in a position to love and serve children, students, and their families as God continues to use C.B.C. as a "in a city" striving the reveal and reflect Christ as we love and serve the city.

The cost to purchase the chairs, along with other furniture that will enable us to continue to create environments where people can explore faith, grow in the faith, and experience genuine and authentic community, will be approximately $22,000.00. This money will be raised through the selling of the pews, which are in excellent condition, and through the generosity of the C.B.C. community of faith.

You can partner with us by, in addition to your regular giving, being a part of the "Buy a chair to build His church" campaign. You can simply write "Buy a chair to build His church" on your check or offering envelope, or denote that through your online giving.

As a church, we are excited to partner together in a way the reveals and reflects the generosity of Jesus. Our faith goal is that we would celebrate our Christmas Eve service in a sanctuary filled with people sitting in chairs instead of pews.

We look forward to what God is going to do in these upcoming months!!! 

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.

A Relational Tug of War...

This week, we are looking at a section of a letter recorded for us in the Bible called the book of Malachi, where the prophet Malachi was accusing the Jewish people of taking a detour when it came to their relationship with God. Yesterday we saw that the Jewish people in Malachi’s day were being pulled away from God and pulled to the worship of false gods as a result of their dating and marriage relationships to those who did not believe in God. The Jewish people were violating their covenant relationship with God by entering into covenant relationships with those who rejected God. Today, we will see Malachi reveal God’s response to the unfaithfulness of the Jewish people in Malachi 2:12:

"As for the man who does this, may the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers, or who presents an offering to the LORD of hosts.

To understand what Malachi is communicating here, we first need to understand what the phrase “awakes and answers” means. This phrase was an idiom in the culture of the day which literally means irrespective of the person, whoever he may be. This sentence, if communicated in the language we use today would sound something like this: As for the person who does this; as for the one who marries someone who is not a follower of Mine in spite of my command to do otherwise; I do not care who they are, I will root them out and eliminate them from experiencing the covenant relationship with Me that they were created for. Even those who attempt to come to church and worship Me as though everything is o.k., everything is not o.k., because they are willfully violating a command that I have given them and are opening the door to idolatry and rebellion through their spiritually mixed marriage.” But that was not the only thing that Malachi had to say when it came to the Jewish people and how they were engaging in marriage. We see Malachi make a second accusation against the Jewish people in Malachi 2:13:

"This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.”Yet you say, 'For what reason?'

Here we see Malachi explain that there was a reason why God was no longer paying attention to the Jewish people when they worshipped Him. There was a reason why God was not responding to their worship with approval. There was a reason why the Jewish people were beginning to feel, once again, God’s rejection of their worship.

And the Jewish people were devastated that God was no longer paying attention and was rejecting their worship. However, the Jewish people did not know the reason why and the Jewish people wanted to know the reason why. So with weeping, groaning, and crying they asked “God, why are you not answering my prayers? Why are you so distant? We have not done anything wrong?” Malachi, however, reveals the reason for God’s rejection of their worship in the second half of verse 14:

Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. "But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring?

To understand what Malachi is communicating here, we need to understand what happens in a marriage and what was happening in the Jewish culture of Malachi’s day. As part of a marriage ceremony, a husband and wife make vows to one another. And these vows, whether we realize it or not, are covenant promises that we are making in front of God and those who are witnessing the marriage ceremony.

So when Malachi states that the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, he is reminding the Jewish people of his day, and us here today, that God is present and is a witness to the promises we make in our marriage vows. The Jewish people, however, were failing to keep the promises that they had made in front of God and others. Instead, the Jewish people were being unfaithful and untrustworthy to those promises by getting a divorce.

And in many cases, the Jewish people were divorcing the spouses that they had married earlier in their lives in order to marry those who were far from God and worshipped false gods. Even though they had entered into a covenant relationship to be partners and helpmates for life, the Jewish people were being unfaithful to that covenant.

Malachi responds to this unfaithfulness in verse 15 with what is one of the most difficult to translate verses in the entire Bible, due to the differences between the Hebrew and English languages. The closest translation of this verse, in the language we use in our culture today, would probably sound something like this: “Don’t you know that God made you one with your wives? And in spite of your unfaithfulness in divorcing your wives, there is still a remnant of that spiritual bond. And what is the purpose of that spiritual bond? To produce godly offspring with God’s help.”

Malachi’s point here is that by divorcing their Jewish wives in order to marry women who worshipped false gods, these divorces would be 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.

Tomorrow, we will see Malachi conclude his accusations with one of the strongest statements in the entire Bible when it comes to the issue of marriage.