29: Minor Prophets – Malachi 1-3:5

[Dunkle] So, we're gathered for Minor Prophets class. We're closing in on the end. As you know, Malachi is the 12th out of 12. And we introduced Malachi last time. So, we covered the five W's. We understand Malachi was the last of what we call the Post-Exilic Prophets. He comes on the scene not only after Judah is allowed to return from captivity, but far enough later that they have rebuilt the temple. They've reestablished their worship. And it seems that the people, or at least the priesthood, has become a bit complacent. And that is one of the main messages that Malachi has. He's addressing the priests. And you might recall that I told you we see a bit of a dialogue. And God is saying, "You say this, but I'll answer." So, God is providing both sides of the dialogue in the message that Malachi gives.

And we covered the first few verses. And the first one, God says, "I loved you." But you say, "Well, how did you love us?" God says, "I chose Jacob. I rejected Esau." And Edom isn't able to rebuild the way they wanted to. But you could say the Jewish nation has been reestablished. So that's the first part of the conversation as it goes. And that covers verses 1 through 5 of Malachi 1.

So jumping right in, I want to pick up with verse 6. So again, God is going to provide some of what He says and then what the other side says. So He says, "A son honors his father, a servant his master. If I then," this is God speaking in first person, "if I then am the father, where's my honor? And if I'm a master, where's my reverence," says the Lord God of hosts. "To you, priest, who despised my name. Yet you say, in what way have you despised?" Let me say that again. "In what way have we despised your name?" So He's going to answer that. (Malachi 1:1-6)

But we should see there's a connection with what we'd addressed in the first part of the chapter where God is showing He loved Judah. He gave them a special favor like a father would do his son. But He's saying, or He's asking, why no reciprocation? I showed you that. Why aren't you treating me the way it should be? And it's worth noting, near the end of the verse, He says, "To you, priest." He's directly challenging the spiritual leaders who were not showing the proper respect and deference to God. And they're the ones that were most responsible.

This stands out to me because serving in the ministry, I think, well, I'm not a priest, but I am considered a spiritual leader in the Church. All of us in the ministry have a responsibility to show proper reverence and honor to God and to lead the Church in doing so. And let's see how that continues in verse 7 because the question at the end of verse 6 was, "How have we despised your name, God?" Well, He answers right away. "You offered defiled food on my altar." Let me say that again. "You offered defiled food on my altar, but say, no, what way have we defiled you? We have? What do you mean?" Well, you're saying, God says, "The table of the Lord is contemptible." (Malachi 1:7)

Well, and I doubt that they were verbally saying that, but He's going to show that their actions were saying it. "When you offer the blind as a sacrifice, isn't it evil? When you offer the lame and the sick, isn't that evil? You offer it to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?" says the Lord of Hosts. (Malachi 1:8) Think of those as rhetorical questions. The obvious answer is no. God is saying, you're not treating me with the type of respect that you would a physical person, you know, who is in a position of authority.

And I do want to point out that offering animals that had any type of defect was strictly in violation of God's law. I'm going to turn back to Leviticus 22 and read starting in verse 20. There are several places where that command is there, but I'm just going to note a couple of them.

Leviticus 22 and verse 20, it's part of the sacrificial system, it says, "Whatever has a defect you shall not offer. For it will not be acceptable on your behalf. And whosoever offers a sacrifice of a peace offering to a Lord to fulfill his vow, or a free will offering from the cattle or the sheep, it must be perfect to be accepted. There shall be no defect in it. Those that are blind, broken, maimed, have an ulcer, excama, scab, you shall not offer to the Lord, nor make an offering by fire" (Leviticus 22:20-22).

Something similar in Deuteronomy 15 verse 21. I'll stop there on the way back to Malachi.

Deuteronomy 15 verse 21, speaking of the animals for sacrifice, it says, "If there is a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 15:21).

That's something every priest should have known quite clearly. God is saying that's just not acceptable. You have something worthwhile. And I've got a quote from the Jamieson Fausset and Brown commentary, which I think he was quoting from Thomas More, but I like the way he worded it because it was comparing the widow in the Gospel accounts who threw in two mites and Jesus praised her saying she gave of all she had.

The quote from the JFB commentary says, "God does not despise the widow's mite, but He does despise the miser's mite." So, you know, someone who's giving all they have the best they can, God will respect that. But someone who has plenty, but they still give the minimum, God's not so respectful of that.

And I would look at all of us again thinking we're not choosing animals. We don't have to worry about lame and blind. For some reason, words aren't coming today. But we come to God with spiritual sacrifices. You know, Hosea refers to the fruit of our lips and praises to God. As we come with that, you know, we should think of what type of enthusiasm are we giving? What about the quality of our time and attention that we devote to service to God? It shouldn't be just whatever is left over. It shouldn't be something that's defective. And if, you know, the way we treat God would seem rude to another person, we certainly don't want to do that. And God is comparing Himself to the governor.

So in verse 9, we see a bit of sarcasm, I think, on God's part. He says, "Now entreat God's favor that He may be gracious to us, while this is being done by your hands," that this being done is offering defective offerings. "Will He accept you favorably?" says the Lord of Hosts.  (Malachi 1:9) Will He? I think the obvious answer is no. I think the obvious answer is no. God's not going to respect that.

And again, this is addressed to the priest, but we want to look to see spiritual lessons for us. So He continues in verse 10. "Who is there even among you," still speaking to the priesthood, "who would shut the doors, so you would not kindle a fire on my altar in vain?" (Malachi 1:10)

The word there for vain could be translated for nothing, gratis. I've seen a couple of different ways to try and interpret what this means. Like, don't, you know, you leave the door open so the fire won't keep burning. But I think more likely it's talking about you don't want to do anything for nothing. Yeah, you're not even willing to do the simplest task, like opening and closing the doors to the temple or keeping the fire burning without getting a little pay. And God's saying, that's not the type of attitude we want. So He says in the latter part of verse 10, "I have no pleasure in you," says the Lord of Hosts, "nor will I accept an offering from your hands."

Now He's going to give a contrast. "From the rising of the sun, even to its going down, one end of the world to the other, my name shall be great among the Gentiles," the goim, the nations, the non-Israelites. "And every place, incense shall be offered to my name, and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the nations," says the Lord of Hosts. (Malachi 1:11)

And among the nations could have been translated among the Gentiles. God is saying, my chosen people took me for granted, didn't take me seriously, didn't honor me. So I'll look elsewhere. My name will be great. This is obviously looking ahead. Now we could say certainly to the millennium. In Joel chapter 2, it mentions the spirit being poured out on all flesh. So it's going to go beyond Israel when that time comes. And that's when people will worship God in spirit and in truth.

Think of Christ talking to the Samaritan woman at the well. You know, and she had the question, "Well, you Jews say there in Jerusalem is the right place. My people say here, you know, Mount Gerizim is the right place. Which is it?" Jesus said, "The time is coming. This mountain or that mountain won't matter, but you'll worship in spirit and in truth." I think this is looking ahead to that time.

I want to read from Acts 13, verse 46, an incident in Paul's ministry that I think illustrates that. Acts 13, verse 46. This is when Paul and Barnabas, you know, were preaching the Gospel. They'd go into the synagogues. And in verse 45 of Acts 13, it says, "The Jews were filled with envy, contradicting and blaspheming. They opposed the things spoken by Paul.So Paul and Barnabas grew bold and they said, 'It was necessary that the Word of God should be spoken to you first,' meaning the chosen people, the Jewish people at that time. 'But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles'" (Acts 13:46).

The point is, God could be seen saying the same thing to the Jewish people in the era of Malachi. Okay, it needed to go to you first. You're established. You've rebuilt the temple and you're sneering at it. You're offering corrupted sacrifices. In the future, other people will honor God. And God says, you know, they're going to pour out, you know, my spirit will be poured out, my name will be great among the Gentiles and they'll offer incense. My name will be great among the Gentiles, the nations.

So carrying on, though, in that thought in verse 12, "But you," still speaking to the priest, "you profane it." His name would be great among the Gentiles. The Jewish people profane His name in that you say, "The table of the Lord is defiled. Its fruit, its food is contemptible." You say, "Oh, what a weariness." Oh, what a drag it is to do these rituals and worship God. "You sneer at it," says the Lord of hosts. "And you bring the stolen, the lame, the sick."

"Thus you bring an offering. Should I accept this from your hands?" says the Lord. (Malachi 1:13)

Again, I think the obvious answer is no. "But cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male and takes a vow, but sacrifices to the Eternal what is blemished. For I'm a great king," says the Lord of hosts, "and my name is to be feared among the nations." (Malachi 1:14)

And again, I'll just say we could look at our own lives. You know, what is our attitude in prayer and service to God and our Bible study? And, you know, do we do it grudgingly? And I don't want to sound accusatory because I can look back in my life and say, yeah, there are some times I said, "I got to pray. I got to make..." You know, that shouldn't have been my attitude when it was, and it shouldn't be my attitude or yours going forward. We want to be thrilled that we have the opportunity to approach God. We can come boldly before the throne of grace. So we don't want to take that for granted.

And I see in my notes, this applies most of all to the ministry. We don't want to become weary in well doing.

You know, and, you know, I fear what I was thrilled when I was hired by the Church and had the chance to do this. But I remember thinking that, well, it crossed my mind, I didn't want to see it as just a job because you can get into that frame of mind. I got to do the stuff to get the paycheck. It's nice to get a paycheck, but that shouldn't be the primary motivation for any of us. We should be thrilled that we get to serve God.

So, sorry I'm making this into a rant. I don't mean to say the Church is deficient in that way. I'm not implying that. I'm saying the nation of Judah was deficient in that way at this time, and we want to see them as a cautionary tale. Let's not let ourselves go to that place.

Moving on in chapter 2, he's still addressing the priest. So he says, "O priests." He began that in chapter 1 verse 6, still talking to them. "This commandment is for you, priests. If you will not hear, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to my name," says the Lord of hosts, "I'll send a curse upon you, and I'll curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already, but you don't take it to heart." (Malachi 2:1-2)

So God is addressing them. The priests need to give glory to God instead of leading in sin, leading in apathy, we could say. So they were bringing a curse. The curse, I think, since it's not elaborated, we might consider Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 where there's a list of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. And God is saying, you already have this curse. I've given you a curse. He doesn't describe what it is, but if we consider what it says in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, much of that had to do with lack of rainfall and poor crops, blight and pestilence. Maybe they were having a lot of trouble with their crops and growing food. Notice I said maybe, but that fits into something we'll see in verse 3.

Because in verse 3, continuing addressing them, God says, "Behold, I will rebuke your descendants and spread refuse on your faces and the refuse of your solemn feast, and one will take you away with it." And in verse 4, He'll say, "Then you'll know that I've sent this commandment to you that my covenant with Levi may continue." (Malachi 2:3-4) So the covenant with Levi is referring to the tribe of Levi. So the priesthood were from among the Levites.

And God made a special agreement with the tribe of Levi after the golden calf incident, you know, at Mount Sinai. If you remember, Moses is up meeting with God for 40 days and 40 nights getting the judgments and the statutes. Down at the base of the mountain, the Israelites eventually say, "We don't know what happened to Moses." They go to Aaron and say, "Make us gods."

Aaron crafts a golden calf. They fall into idolatry. I was trying to decide if I should say idol worship or idolatry, and I came out with neither. At any rate, when Moses comes down, he breaks the tablets with the Ten Commandments, he grinds up the idol, and he says, "Who's with me? Who's for the Lord?" And the tribe of Levi separates to him. Now, they're his family members, but they come and he says, okay, let's go out and slay the guilty in a sense, whether they're your friend or neighbor or whatever.

And after that, God chose the tribe of Levi. He took them in place of the firstborn of all of Israel. So the Levites were devoted to God's service from that time on. So when it says, "my covenant with Levi," at the end of verse 4, that's what it means.

Verse 5, "My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear me, so he feared me." (Malachi 2:5)

Now, I'm going to back up and cover some things that I've passed by, but I wanted to bring that out. There's the special covenant. They would have life. They would have peace. And in return, though, they were to offer service and obedience and reverence to God. They were the spiritual leaders. And so God is calling them out because they weren't doing that.

Along with choosing the tribe of Levi, it's worth noting, it shows up in Numbers chapter 25, that Phineas in particular, who was a grandson of Aaron, the first high priest, Phineas was distinguished for his zeal. And zeal was expressed by running a javelin through a couple people who were engaged in idol worship and such, but God promised that the priesthood would continue through Phineas. So along with a covenant with Levi in general, we could see one with part of Aaron's family.

Now here's what I want to back up. I've been talking about the family line.

Back in verse 3, it says, "Behold, I will rebuke your descendants." If you're looking at an old King James Bible, which I believe Rebecca is, does it say, "I will rebuke your seed?"

It's in verse 3. "Corrupt." Yeah, "corrupt your seed." Yeah, so the question Hebrew scholars have had is, does it mean literal seeds? Like in the previous verses seem to talk about a curse, like crop failure. So it could be there's a curse on the seeds you're planting, and that's why there's crop failure. If it's looking back, connecting it to verse 1, but it could be looking ahead to verses 4 and 5, talking about your seed as in your descendants, and there's a corruption there.

And while God leaves us to ponder, and I say ponder because the Hebrew word can literally or properly be interpreted as seeds in the ground or as having children and descendants, I think sometimes God does that on purpose. He wants us to consider both meanings, I think.

But as I said, sometimes God will have a little bit of a, I'm not sure if I'd call it sarcasm or irony, because there in verse 3 He also said, "I'll spread refuse on your faces." And you might say, well, refuse, we don't use that term a lot. Mostly we use it to refer to rubbish, or we don't use that term a lot either. Trash, garbage. And in this case, in reference to the sacrificial system, it can refer to manure, to dung. I don't know if anybody has a translation that literally says that. Okay, some do.

And there was one of the perks for the priesthood, and I'm looking for the scripture. It's in Deuteronomy 18:3. You know, the priest got certain parts of animals that were sacrificed. I think in Pentateuch class we talked about the right thigh, and it says the breast, which by the way, Jason Musgrove looked up for him. He said that he checked with a butcher's site, and it said what they called the breast meant the brisket. So if you like a good brisket, that's what it's talking about. No wonder the priest, they would have been happy to have that.

But anyways, in Deuteronomy 18:3 it says they also got the cheeks, which seems to be referring to the head of the animal. You could say, what do they want that for? I don't know, but you know, some people say the maul or cheeks might be referring to the other end of the animal, not the head, which would relate to the refuse. In other words, there's special perks the priest should get for doing proper sacrifice. But what He's saying here is He's going to give them the stuff they don't want. And it's going to be "spread refuse on your faces." So yeah, God is saying, okay, you treat me wrong, I'm going to take the dung from these animals and smear it on your faces.

Gives us an idea of how God feels about their mode of sacrifice and their lack of respect. Not very good. And of course, that would make them unclean and disqualified from service in the temple. Maybe I spent more time building that up than we needed to, but I didn't want to let it pass.

Let's go on in verse 6. Still talking about this group. "The law of truth was in his mouth." This is referring to when He had the covenant with Levi, one of life and peace. So Levi and the priesthood had the law of truth. "Injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity, turned many away from iniquity." (Malachi 2:6) That was the ideal. There was a time when the priesthood was doing this.

And verse 7 tells us something else about the ideal. "The lips of the priest should keep knowledge. People should seek the law from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." (Malachi 2:7) So this is another of the five messengers we mentioned in the introduction last time. The priests were to have God's law. They were to be teachers. So I look at butchering and sacrificing animals as being a secondary function. And especially as we look forward to being priests in the Kingdom, I don't think God's going to occupy our time with cutting up animals, but teaching, I believe.

And I'm not going to turn there, but 2 Chronicles 15 and verse 3 makes passing reference to a teaching priest in the land. And I like that phrase. If I'm going to be a priest in the Kingdom, I'd like to be a teaching priest, and maybe all of us, and carrying the message from God.

It makes me just wonder if I can speculate a little. Maybe that was God's intention, the priesthood, and maybe all of the tribe of Levi were to be His messengers. If and when they fell short, God would send a special messenger, a prophet. And we see that obviously happened. Some prophets were also priests, notably Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Perhaps Malachi, we can wonder about that. And there were some of the others, so it doesn't have to be one or the other.

But we're going to see, in contrast to what was intended, verse 8, God tells the priest, "But you've departed from the way. You've caused many to stumble at the law." You know, he's supposed to keep the law and teach knowledge, but he caused people to stumble. "So you've corrupted the covenant of Levi." That covenant of life and peace, God didn't break it. The Levites were breaking it. "Therefore, I also have made you contemptible and base," think of that refuse on the faces, "before all the people, because you've not kept my ways, but have shown partiality in the law." (Malachi 2:8-9)

Partiality means showing favoritism. Probably included taking bribes. And that's something we see throughout the Bible. You know, in the Torah, the Pentateuch, God warns against taking bribes. He, in Proverbs and Psalms, talks about how bad that is. Here it comes out again.

I'm pausing in verse 10. Yeah, so I'm looking at the wrong chapter.

There's a question. Who is speaking here? It says, "Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?" That's not God speaking. Some, most people think this might be the priest answering back, you know, and sort of saying, well, we're just, we have one Father. We're from Abraham. We have one God. He's our Father. So how could we be dealing treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant?

So the translation of why is what I have in my New King James. But some scholars think it would be better to say, you know, look, we've got one Father. How could we be doing this? And I think that fits because of the answer that God is going to give. It says, "Judah has dealt treacherously." How could we be dealing treacherously? Well, "Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem." And here He's going to tell how.

"For Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution, which He loves." Wow! What holy institution does God love? He's talking about marriage. "For he," speaking of Judah, the people of Judah, "has married the daughter of a foreign god." (Malachi 2:10-11)

Let me read a couple more verses and we'll back up.

"May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, being awake and aware, yet who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts." (Malachi 2:12) Tying it back to the offerings. God's not respecting these offerings because of the spiritual state of the people who are bringing them.

Oh, and this is the second thing you do. "You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying, so He doesn't regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands." (Malachi 2:13)

Actually, I want to connect it to verse 14. So it says, "Yet you say, for what reason?" "The Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you've dealt treacherously." (Malachi 2:14)

So God is bringing in the institution of marriage and saying, you've done wrong here, you've defiled it. And He's going to talk about divorce, but before that He talks about, you know, marrying the daughter of a foreign god.

Okay, what does that mean? Well, foreign gods are fiction, right? There are no others. They're not real. They're statues. They're figments of people's imagination. They don't have children, but we could say the people who worship them would be counted as such. So what this is basically saying is you have these people in the land of Judah marrying people who worship other gods, and God forbids that pretty strongly.

And in verse 12, He says, you know, "The Lord will cut off the man who does this being awake and aware." The old King James translated that, I believe, as "the master and the scholar."

Literally, the Hebrew says, "him that watches and him that answers." So it refers to an educational technique that they would use of teaching by asking questions and giving answers. It seems to be used as an idiom for people who know what they're doing. So awake and aware, teaches and learns, everybody's involved. If you're old enough to read and write and have understanding, you know you're not supposed to do this. Why would they know they're not supposed to do it?

It's pretty clear in the Bible. Back in, let me give you a couple of scriptural references. There's more than a couple, but Leviticus 20 verse 24, God forbids marrying the people of the other nations. Deuteronomy 7 verses 1 through 4.

Actually, I'm going to turn to Deuteronomy because I want to devote a little bit of time to this to point out that we've used it to say one thing in the past that I think was partly correct but not entirely correct.

So I'm in Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse 1. It says, "When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, Hittites, Gergesites, Amorites, the Canaanites, Parazites, Heivites."

I always want to do a Dr. Seuss and rap a little bit. "Seven nations greater and mightier than you." And "when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son." Why?

The word in verse 4 that says, "For," could be translated because. We could say, "Because they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. So the anger of the Eternal will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly" (Deuteronomy 7:1-4).

God did not want the Israelites to marry people of other nations, not because they were of other nations so much as because they would turn them to worshiping other gods.

Okay? And what I would want to say is, in previous decades in the Church, we pretty strongly taught that any interracial marriage was a sin. And we based it on these scriptures. Along with these, there were scriptures in Ezra and Nehemiah when the Jews who came back from captivity were doing that exact thing.

They were marrying people of the other nations around them, particularly Ammonites and Moabites. But if we look at the reason God gave, He said, "is because they'll turn your heart to following their gods." The reason we've adjusted our teaching to stop saying marrying someone of another race is a sin is because God gives the reason.

We sometimes didn't take into account the fact that in ancient Israel there was no separation of church and state, as the United States very strongly has. You know, government's one thing, religion is another. In ancient Israel, if you're in Israel, you're supposed to be worshiping the true God.

And if you're an Ammonite, you're worshiping, what, Chemosh or Dagon? I don't remember which one. And so in those other nations, church and state were one and the same. You're married to another nation, you're marrying into another church. And that becomes fairly clear.

And I mentioned the passages in Ezra and Nehemiah where some of the people in question were Moabites and Ammonites, who were descended from Lot, Abraham's nephew.

They weren't of a different race, but they were of a different religion. So, and I'll come back. If we look in Malachi chapter 2 verse 11, you know, that profaning the Lord's holy institution was done by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. It's not saying you married the daughter of a different color.

Now, I want to be clear, I'm not saying interracial marriage is something I'm promoting that you should go out and do, because there could be problems from the difference in culture and background. But I'm going to say I don't believe it's a sin, you know.

Now, something could be not a good idea and still fall short of sin. But I'll add to this. If we've changed our teaching to say interracial marriage isn't a sin, we would have to say interreligious marriage is a sin. And we didn't say that so much in the past when we're focusing on the interracial part.

So now, I would say, look, someone's not worshiping the true God. Like the Apostle Paul said, "don't be unequally yoked." In Romans 7, he said, "if a widow is living, she's freed from the law of her husband. She's free to marry whom she will only in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 7:39)

So I'm slowing down. I know people will be watching this on the video later, and I don't want to give the wrong impression. You know, the Church of God and ABC are not promoting interracial marriage, but we're trying to be as honest as we can with Scripture and what it says is a sin and what it does not.

And I believe Scripture does say marrying outside the faith. You know, we used to say outside the Church, but the Church is harder to define than it was 40 years ago. But God says, "don't marry the daughter of a foreign god." You know, there's a curse that comes from that.

Oh, there's one other thing I would add that struck me in Deuteronomy chapter 21 verses 10 through 13. You could make a note if you want.

I'm not going to turn there, but in Deuteronomy 21, God is talking about when you go to war with other nations, not all the -ites who they were to kill utterly and harem them, but the ones at a far distance that you could conquer them. And He says you could take slaves from them. They're probably not of the same race, but there's a procedure for it. It says if you see a beautiful woman and you want to take her for your wife, you can.

Now, she's got to shave her head. She's got to wear the clothes of mourning for 30 days. And then if you still want her, you can marry her. And it doesn't say anything about what color skin is. It seems to imply during that 30 days, she's agreed to worship the true God.

And I'm getting off on a sidetrack. I don't think Malachi's main point is, well, it is a pretty big point. God was upset that they were marrying people that worshiped other gods. And the result was, it was pulling people away from the true God.

So, but He adds a second thing to that. And I read ahead, you know, because in verse 14 they say, "For what reason?" "Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you've dealt treacherously. Yet she's your companion, your wife by covenant."

"But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one?" (Malachi 2:14-15)

Well, He, the He there is capitalized, it's God, "seeks a godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit. Let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth." Okay, none. Of course, this is a male-centric society. So God is addressing the men. He could tell women, don't deal treacherously with the husband of your youth, and that would be appropriate in our society.

I'll read verse 16 before we back up and explain. "The Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce." (Malachi 2:16)

"It covers one's garment with violence," says the Eternal of Hosts. "Therefore, take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously."

Boy, that's a pretty strong statement. And I think it's a true one. God hates divorce. I want to pause and say it never says God hates people who have been divorced. God hates the breaking up of a marriage. That doesn't mean He hates people who have had their marriage broken. God is merciful and patient.

And although we haven't covered it in this class, you know, Mr. Meyers, as he went through 1 Corinthians 7, talked about the things that can cause grounds for divorce. Of course, the Greek word porneia or adultery. And if an unbelieving mate is not pleased to dwell with someone. And we've talked about fraud, where the marriage wouldn't have been bound by God in the first place.

For those reasons there can be divorce. It's still a miserable institution. It still "covers one's garment with violence," it says in verse 16.

I believe that "covers one's garment" might be a reference to the common practice in ancient times where a symbol of getting married was to spread one's garment. Now, it wouldn't work the same with a sport coat, but it's like wrapping around. There's a place where it says, "spread your skirt."

And it's a symbol of a man taking a woman. Matter of fact, there's an incident I know of in the book of Ruth because that's where I've spent time talking about it. You know, Ruth is a widow, and she spends time with Boaz, who it turns out is a close relative. Yeah, in Ruth chapter 3 verse 9, Boaz wakes up in the middle of the night and there's a woman at his feet. He says, "Who are you?" "I'm Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing." Some translations say, "spread your garment," which is a way Ruth proposed to him. She said, marry me.

And so what I'm saying is here in Malachi 2:16, "covers one's garment with violence" seems to be referring to that, but it's talking about violence rather than an act of love and creating a new bond in the covenant. It's doing violence to the covenant of marriage.

And I'll say that's true. Divorce does violence to people's lives. It does violence to their minds. And I say that from a place of experience. My parents divorced when I was three years old. And I respect both of my parents. They weren't in God's Church. They weren't converted. But it's affected me all of my life. And I would spare people of that if and when it's at all possible. Yes, Flower?

[Flower] "King James said, spread your skirt."

[Dunkle] Thank you. Yeah. And the New King James said, "your garment."

Okay. And like I said, some say, "spread your wings," skirt. It's all that imagery.

But divorce spreads violence. So God hates it.

Another thing I would say to add to this is God sees marriage, certainly it's a covenant, a covenant with a man and a woman. But that's not all. It's also a covenant with God. God is involved in that covenant. Think of it as a three-way covenant. So He hates it when that covenant is broken. If God is involved in that marriage, He wants it to continue.

And of course, all of this leads into why we're careful. We tell young people, well, we tell old people too if they're getting married, you know, be careful. Consider. Prepare. But then go ahead. I'll say, as I've said many times, I was single for a long time and then I got married, and married's better. So we don't want to avoid marriage because divorce is bad. We just want to avoid divorce because divorce is bad. God hates divorce.

I want to back up, though. I wanted to get to that point. But because God wants to join people in marriage, in verse 15 it says, "Did He not make them one?" This refers to the two people. You go all the way back to Genesis 2 verse 24. You know, Adam sees Eve. "This is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman." God says, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).

The Apostle Paul refers to that. Jesus Christ talks about it in Matthew 19 verses 5 and 6, you know, quotes God's creation of marriage. But Paul talked about becoming one flesh does mean sexual union.

Okay, so God made them one. He made one marriage. He made them to become one flesh. The part that causes some people confusion is it says, "having a remnant of the Spirit." And then, "Why one? He seeks godly offspring."

Hebrew scholars have questioned, well, what does it mean "remnant of the Spirit?" You know, a remnant, anybody? Well, I don't know if most of you have laid carpet much. I haven't had a lot of experience, but my brother-in-law was a floor and tile mechanic. Did a lot of carpet. And, you know, when you stretch out the carpet, you cut off the extra. That's remnant. It's more than you need is the remnant.

Is this saying God had more of the Holy Spirit and its power than He needed to create marriage? Some people would say, yeah, it means that. And we could say, well, remember marriage is an image of God's covenant with the Church.

And God's covenant with Israel was typified by marriage. So let me give you two explanations people give to what it means. Why was it "made them one having a remnant of the Spirit?"

One explanation is that God was going to marry Israel and have a special relationship with Israel, but He still had plenty of power and spiritual awareness and whatever we could attribute to God to pay attention to all the other nations in the earth. He didn't focus in on Israel and not know what was going on in Asia and Australia and North America and South America. You know, those weren't excluded. And, you know, we've seen His plan includes all of those nations.

But let's give another explanation. Let's look at Adam and Eve in particular. He made one man, one woman. He wanted them to become one family, but He had a remnant of the Spirit. Some scholars suggest that this is God's way of saying, you know, when I put Adam to sleep and took his rib, I could have made him a whole harem. I could have brought him a whole bunch of women.

But He didn't. Why not? "He seeks godly offspring." Now, I want to pause there because there are some that will say, well, "make them one flesh" refers to having sex. And some, inappropriately, I think, incorrectly translate this to mean that sex is admissible and allowable only for the sake of having children. And there are some religions that teach that. Some, I've heard of people in God's Church who have that stuck in their head because they were taught it when they were very young before God called them.

I don't think that's what it means. God created sex as something that binds a husband and wife. There's a book that I recommend when I do premarital counseling called Intended for Pleasure. And it's a medical doctor who is also a Christian, not in the Church of God, but who believed in God. And he writes a very good book about how this is meant to be pleasurable. It's meant to be something special that brings a husband and wife together in a unique relationship. God created that.

So the sexual union was not only and exclusively for the purpose of bearing children. And that's long been the Church's teaching. I'm not saying anything controversial. But what does it mean, "He seeks godly offspring" then? Let me propose an answer.

And it's not one that I came up with on my own. There's plenty of people out there that believe this. So I feel confident saying it. If Adam, no, if God made for Adam just one woman, when He had a remnant of spirit, He could have made him a lot of women. But God knew He designed the family so that a family that has one husband and father and one wife and mother is the proper setting for raising godly children. Especially if you have a father and a mother who are both worshiping God, devoted to Him together, they're both practicing Deuteronomy 6. "Teach your children when you lie down, when you rise up, when you walk in the way." That's the way to raise godly offspring. Not just children, not just even healthy children, but godly offspring when you have the one.

Now again, I'll tell you, I have experience with divorce. I know it can be survived.

You know, so if you come from a background of divorce, don't lose hope. You know, if your parents were divorced, don't hold it against them. Don't think nothing good could ever come of it. Good can come of it. Just the ideal is one husband, one wife, for life. And that's good for the kids.

Wow, I thought I'd be through the end of chapter 3 by this point, but that's good. Let's get to the end of chapter 2 before we come up on time for a break.

We got to the end of verse 16. In verse 17, God is carrying on, and He says, "You've wearied the Eternal with your words." God said, "You're wearing me out." Yet you say, "Well, in what way have we wearied Him?" Well, in that you say, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord," or "He delights in them." Or you might say, "Where is the God of justice?" (Malachi 2:16-17)

So here's a different fault to the priest. So this verse 17 could have been the start of a new chapter. In my opinion, that would have been a better place to start it. They were attributing the prosperity of the evil nations around them to God giving them blessing. And they seem to be saying God's not punishing the wrongdoers. You know, we'd say God is setting them straight on that because He's calling them out for doing wrong that they didn't realize.

But it's intriguing. At the end of the chapter here, it says, "Where is the God of justice?" God is going to answer that. I'll give you a prelude. If you look for me, it's on the other side of the page in chapter 3 verse 5.

God says, "I will come near you for judgment." That word that's translated "judgment" in my New King James could be translated justice. So some people among the priesthood in particular are saying, "Oh, it's a weariness to serve God," you know, and people who do evil are well treated. "Where's the God of justice?" God is saying, hold on right there. I'm coming. And they might not like what happens when He arrives, but He's going to give an answer to that. The God of justice is coming.

But with that, let's take a break. We're going to have to finish this up in the next section.

Least to my credit, I'm not going as fast as I have some other times. So thank you. Bear with me, and we'll pick up next time to finish the book.