October 7 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Malachi 2:1-17

¹And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
²If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.
³Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.
⁴And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
⁵My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
⁶The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.
⁷For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
⁸But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
⁹Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.
¹⁰Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
¹¹Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
¹²The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
¹³And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
¹⁴Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
¹⁵And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
¹⁶For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
¹⁷Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

Devotional:

The leaving of God for false gods was the sin of the Israelites generation after generation. Malachi addresses himself to this in a general way. Here at the beginning of this chapter he warns the priests against causing men to stumble at the law.

Then the prophet takes up God's favorite imagery and says that Judah has married the daughter of a strange god (2:11). In the fashion we have grown used to, he interweaves closely the heavenly and the earthly, swinging over from a statement of the sin of the people of Judah as a whole to sin in specific personal relationships. He condemns roundly the man who leaves the godly wife of his youth and marries another, an unbeliever, as He condemns the nation for forsaking its God.

Commentators vary in their handling of verse 15, but obviously it is underlining the divine requirement for God's people: one man and one woman who serve Him and who in their marriage provide the context for a godly seed.

In verses 15 and 16 notice the repetition of the word spirit. Not only is the outward deed of forsaking the wife of your youth (or the God of your youth) sinful; the very attitude of mind must be that of fidelity. The lustful look condemned by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is sin. God is concerned with the life of the spirit.

One God, one people. One husband, one wife. The same theme from Genesis to Malachi and on to Revelation! Any variations are an affront to the Creator and spell havoc in the lives of the offenders as well as in the generations that follow. Infractions of God's perfect law have repercussions which are felt throughout society.