Bible Study on Malachi - Part 7, Malachi 2:11,14-16 and 3:13-18

In this study, we began with one more important concern Malachi raises about our dealing with others God has placed around us. In Malachi 2:11, we hear that quite a number of Jews who returned to the land of Israel were “marrying the daughter of a foreign god” - marrying women who were not Jews and worshipped false gods and might lead and actually were leading some Jews away from the one true God. The Old Testament warns about this in a number of places, including Deuteronomy 7:3-4. A New Testament example is 2 Corinthians 6:14. Note the contrast between the temple of God and idol worship.

A prominent example of how that could happen was the story of King Solomon, a wise man in many ways, but not at all about marriage and the very harmful influence his many wives had on his spiritual life and activity. See 1 Kings 11:1-8 and the reference to Solomon in Nehemiah 13:26-27. Remember that Malachi did his prophetic work at the time of Nehemiah or soon after and he dealt with many of the same issues as Nehemiah did.

An example of this is in Nehemiah 13:4-5, where a priest who was to care for the temple, God’s house, allowed a man, Tobiah, to move into one of the large areas of the temple that was supposed to be for storage of things donated and kept to support the priests and Levites and others who served at the temple. If you read Nehemiah 4:1-3 and 7-8, you find out that this Tobiah was not even a Jew, but an Ammonite who would believe in false gods.

Tobiah had been very critical of Jews rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and had even plotted, with others, to fight against the Jews. He and others did not want these Jews back in Israel. Maybe the Jewish priest was trying to keep peace and pacify Tobiah, by letting him have a place in the temple. But such non-Jews were never even to set foot in most of the temple and certainly were not to have a place there; and we have already heard how many Jews were “robbing God” by not bringing the gifts and offerings that they should have and that should have been stored where Tobiah was staying. We hear what Nehemiah does when he discovers this, in Nehemiah 13:6-9. What the priest allowed was a desecration of God’s house, and all had to be ceremonially cleansed and rededicated to its proper use. Cooperating with those following false gods could and did lead to very serious problems.

As we go back to Malachi 2, Malachi is most concerned about Jewish men marrying women who worshipped false gods; but as part of this, too many of these Jewish men had already been married to believing Jewish women. They were now also divorcing their wife in order to marry a non-Jew who could easily lead them into following false gods. This was the worst of situations.

Malachi gives, then, the very high standard God wishes for marriage, in Malachi 2:14-16. Read that and then think of this description by Dr. Roehrs, a Lutheran commentator:

This reproach contains one of the warmest and tenderest descriptions of marriage to be found in the whole OT. The sanctity of the selfless commitment of love under the witness and blessing of the Lord (covenant), the fervor of young wedded love (wife of your youth), the enduring companionable affection of later years (your companion), the godly offspring with which the Creator can bless the union - all are there.

Why give all this up, God is saying through Malachi, especially in exchange for a believer in false gods who can lead you to eternal spiritual disaster? Stay married to a believing person.

Malachi is giving the same high standard that Jesus describes in Matthew 19:3-9. Jesus is being asked His view about divorce. Was divorce OK for any and every reason, as some liberal Jews thought? Jesus takes us back to Genesis and God’s original plan: one man and one woman united in a lifelong commitment in marriage. Why then , some ask, did Moses allow for divorce in some circumstances? See Deuteronomy 24:1. Jesus simply says that it is because of human “hardness of heart” - the reality of our being sinful people in a sinful world, ever since the fall into sin. “It was not so from the beginning," Jesus says, and still upholds the very high view of God about marriage. That is the goal. However, even Jesus give one grounds for divorce, the reality of adultery.

We cannot get into all the issues of marriage and divorce in this study. There are certainly other grounds, too, like “desertion” and an interesting passage related to what Malachi talks about here, in 1 Corinthians 7:12-16. In this very rare case, Paul gives his opinion: “I, not the Lord,” he says - about a believer married to an unbeliever. We all know that marriages do not always work out as God intended. Sin infects us all, and even the “best” of marriages ( if we can even say that - we ultimately live together in love only by God’s grace and forgiveness) have plenty of struggles and challenges.

In all this, we need to keep in mind both the Law and the Gospel of God. The Law shows us, above all, our sins. See Romans 3:19-20. Malachi is very strong in speaking the Law in Malachi 2:14-16, and in calling us “not to be faithless to the wife of your youth." In most translations, from the King James Version on down to the NIV, God says in verse 16, “I hate divorce." I am no Hebrew scholar, but that seems to be what the Hebrew says. The ESV, though, understands verse 16 to refer to the husband who hates his wife and divorces her, in what can too often become a bloody, messy, violent situation. In either case, God hates all sin, not just divorce, and all the lack of love and understanding that comes out in any relationship, at times. The Scriptures also show very clearly that even great leaders like Abraham and Jacob and King David also had failures in their marriages and families. The Law speaks, and God condemns sin.

At the very same time, God still loves us sinful people of this world, with all our failures and problems, and wants to bring us hope and forgiveness. That is why He sent His only Son to be our Savior. Many churches had an Epistle reading, this past Sunday, from 1 Corinthians 6:12-19. It is a strong passage of Law about morality, including sexual morality, and calling us to use even our bodies in a way that honors God. But right before that in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Paul includes a long list of sins, all of which God hates, including various kinds of sexual immorality.

He is writing to people in Corinth, a Greek seaport city with the bad reputation those cities often have. The morality of the Greco-Roman world was very low, and there was not high respect for the sanctity of marriage. Paul has to say in verse 11, “And such were some of you.” The church in Corinth was a congregation of sinners, as all churches are.

But then comes the Gospel, as verse 11 goes on, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” “You were bought with a price," Paul says - the price Jesus paid on the cross for the forgiveness of all our sins, no matter what they might have been. In Christ, the church is also a congregation of forgiven sinners. We do not have to torture ourselves about past problems and failures and sins. Christ has been tortured in our place for the forgiveness of them all. The forgiveness of sins is real, and we start fresh and new as God’s people.

There is one more section of Malachi that we still want to look at today. Read Malachi 3:16-18. We live in challenging times still today, as Malachi did, with sinful ideas and actions all around us and sometimes within us. What is a believer, who wants to try to follow the Lord, to do? Certainly we are all called to repentance for our own sins - to ask the Lord to forgive us and to help us follow our Lord more faithfully, wherever we are weak. If we have been sinned against by others and even badly hurt, at times, we are also called to ask the Lord’s help to forgive, as we have been forgiven by Him, and to have His healing from the troubles and hurts of the past.

For all of that, we also need each other. Malachi 3:16 says, “Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another.” What did the believers in the Lord talk about? Surely they encouraged and helped and prayed for one another, and listened to the messages that Malachi and others had given to them in the Word of God and what that meant for them. The talking is centered on the Word and will of God. See Deuteronomy 6:6-9, as an example.

It is really what we try to do even toda in Bible study, and in worship, when we speak God’s Word to each other in our liturgy and are strengthened together by Word and Sacraments. (How good it will be, when the Covid problems are past us, to meet directly and talk and ask questions more directly and discuss things together. I try to anticipate questions, as I teach through Zoom and podcasts, but it is often more of a lecture than a discussion. But we do the best we can, even with these limitations.)

The amazing thing is that in Malachi 3:16, we hear that “the Lord paid attention and heard them.” He know us and hears us and cares about us, too. He pays attention to us! And He gives us great promises, as we seek to “fear, love, and trust in Him,” as the Catechism says.

We hear that “a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed His Name.” The book of remembrance is parallel to what is called “the Lamb’s book of life” in Revelation 21:27 and by other very similar terms. It is a way of saying that our future is secure, now and eternally, through our connection with Christ, as our Lord has brought us to faith and keeps us in faith, through the Holy Spirit, working through Word and Sacrament.  The study of Scriptures about this Book of Life could be another whole study, which we cannot get into today. If you want to read more on your own, here are many of these references: Exodus 32:32, Psalm 56:8, Psalm 69:28, Psalm 139:16, Isaiah 4:3, Daniel 12:1, Philippians 4:3, Revelation 3:5,13:8, 17:8, 20:13,15, 21:27.

God summarizes these promises in Malachi 3:17-18. “They shall be Mine... My treasured possession... I will spare them.” This will all be even more clear, as Jesus came to be our Savior and when He comes again on the last day, for the final division of all people for eternal life or eternal sorrow. The griping of people in Malachi 3:13-15 will finally be ended, and there will be perfect peace in heaven. We have all that to look forward to.

Next week, we will look at promises given to us through Malachi about the coming Savior Jesus, and John the Baptist, who would prepare His way.