Friday, November 18, 2016

Treachery (Mal. 2:10-11, 14)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/18/2016 11:14 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                                Focus:  Treachery

Bible Reading & Meditation                                            Reference:  Malachi 2:10-11, 14

            Message of the verses:  “10 "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? 11 "Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god.  14 “Yet you say, ’For what reason?’ 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.”

            We begin the third main point from Warren Wiersbe’s commentary which he entitles “Profaning God’s Covenant” and will cover Malachi 2:10-16, and he writes the following introductory comments on this section:  “Having dealt with the sins of the priests, Malachi now turns to the nation as a whole and confronts the men who divorced their wives to marry pagan women.”

            As I read this statement it makes me think about Israel when they were in the wilderness and Balak wanted Balaam to curse Israel, but the Lord would not allow him to do so.  The result was the Balaam used the foreign women to entice the men of Israel and this they were doing something which against the Law of the Lord similar to what is not going on in Israel close to 2000 years later.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes about this sin “In divorcing their Jewish wives and marring pagan women, the men were committing several sins.  To begin with, it was treachery as they broke their vows to God and to their wives.  They were profaning God’s covenant and treating it as nothing.  Not only had the Lord given specific requirements for marriage in His Law (Ex. 34:11-16; Deut. 7:3-4), but the covenant of marriage was built into creation.  ‘Have we not all one father?’  (Mal. 2:10) refers to God as the Father of all humans, the Creator (Acts. 17:28).  God made man and women for each other and established marriage for the good of human family.  So, what these men did was contrary to what God had written into nature and in His covenant.”

            Now as we look at marriage in the church age Paul has written some things about it in his letter to the Corinthians, the first letter, and the second letter too.   The first letter speaks of a person getting saved after they are married and what should the unbelieving spouse do?  The answer is that if the unbelieving spouse desires to leave then they should be allowed to leave, but if they want to stay then they can stay for perhaps they too will be saved as they live with the believing spouse.  However if a person wants to get married who is a believer they should only get married to a believer so that they will not be “unequally yoked” is how Paul puts it.  11/18/2016 11:33 PM

 

No comments:

Post a Comment