Minor Prophets Study: Malachi Study 3, from Malachi 2:10-16
In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (part of the beloved Chronicles of Narnia series), C.S. Lewis tells the story of young Eustace, a disagreeable little boy who wants the best for himself and scorns the love of his cousins, who he deems “beneath him.” In a slump of self-pity, Eustace wanders away from his cousins and fellow adventurers, and finds himself in a dragon’s lair, enticed by the jewels he finds. Greedy for gold and with the hope of becoming the envy of his kinder cousins, Eustace begins to gather all the diamonds and gold trinkets he can hold: in his pockets, and even on his person. But, as avid Narnia fans will remember, the result of Eustace’ greed is that dragon’s treasures are not as precious as they first appear. In his gluttony for treasure, the treasures take hold of Eustace, and he finds himself hopelessly transformed into a hideous dragon. Only Aslan will be able to rescue Eustace not simply from his dragon’s skin, but also his greedy, unsatisfied heart.
C.S. Lewis had an incredible gift of illustrating sin, the struggles of the human flesh, and the grace of God in story form. And here, in this fragment from the story of Eustace, we find a warning of what happens with hearts that forget love, in order to pursue selfish desires, or idols of riches, self, and self-satisfaction. This is precisely what the psalmist warns of in Psalm 115, in speaking against idolatry, warning that “those who make them become like them;/so do all who trust in them” (Psalm 115:8 & context). And it is this same problem that we find the LORD addressing in Malachi, through His Messenger, as He finds His messengers (the priests), and the people along with them, forgetting His love for them and seeking after their own pleasures.
Even as we have seen already with the priests, they seem to believe their own innocence, finding fault not in their own half-hearted sacrifices, but in the LORD who will not accept them. Even as Eustace must see his own reflection to recognize that he is, in fact, a hideous, hopeless dragon, the LORD’s message is a message of warning and rebuke to show the people who they have become, and how different that is from who the LORD had called them to be. But just as Aslan comes to tear the dragon skin off a repentant, dejected Eustace, the LORD promises that, as they repent, there is hope of full and perfect redemption, even for those who have strayed so far! Indeed, as we find in Malachi 2:10-16, the LORD’s harsh messages of warning for Israel, and for us, are meant to bring repentance, and point towards the perfect Messenger who alone is able to peel back the hardened, ugly dragon skin from our hearts, and show forth His image in our lives.
A Message of Warning: Don’t Forsake Your Beloved! (Mal 2:10-16)
As we have seen, the LORD begins this final Old Testament message through Malachi with an appeal to all Israel to remember: “I have loved you, says the LORD” (Mal 1:2). He has indeed loved Israel; He has been with His people from the beginning; He has led them through Egypt, through the desert, into and out of exile, and now longs for them to remember His love as they rebuild their lives in Judea. But God’s people have forgotten His love, forgotten His promises, and while they continue to perform lip-service to the LORD, their hearts are far from Him. And as the spiritual leaders of God’s people, the priests have the greatest responsibility for allowing “polluted offerings” and neglecting their life-giving task as the “messenger[s] of the LORD of hosts.” And indeed, the neglect of the priests in reflecting the LORD in their service has negatively affected not just their own lives, but the lives of all of God’s people. In forgetting the LORD’s great love for them, not only their sacrifices, but their lives as well have become polluted. The LORD’s message now turns to address not just the priests, but all of His people. The priests are insufficient messengers, but the LORD speaks through His messenger, Malachi, and his message of warning is clear: do not forsake your Beloved!
Certainly, the priests have not kept the LORD’s ways, even “show[ing] partiality in your instruction” (Mal 2:9); they have favored their own teaching, their own ways, their own pleasure, over the Message of the LORD, and this has trickled down to the people. Now, rather than acting as one, unified, restored “Israel” (cf. Mal 1:1), God’s people have utterly neglected their calling as the LORD’s set-apart, holy nation and “people for His treasured possession.” Malachi continues with the LORD’s disputations then addressing the disunity of the people (one from another) and with God: “Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?” (Mal 2:10). Recall that the LORD’s covenant with His people was one of life, grace, favor, hope; yet in forgetting His love and pursuing their own self-interests, they have become faithless covenant-breakers, before God and man. It is striking that, whereas the LORD had addressed them as a restored, unified “Israel” at the beginning of the book, the destructiveness of their sin is evident in once-again disunified terms of “Judah” and “Israel” and “Jerusalem” in verse 11. Moreover, the LORD is making it abundantly clear that the problem of disunity and covenant breaking is not limited to any one party (or just the priests), but to all of those who have forgotten His love for them and despised His commandments.
But while the LORD accuses the priests of offering “polluted sacrifices,” how has this disunity and covenant abandonment (cf. Mal 2:11) occurred among Israel as a whole? Indeed, there is no unity among them because they are not seeking the LORD first and foremost; they are seeking their own satisfaction, and this is divisive both vertically (between men) and horizontally (with the LORD Himself). More specifically, the LORD answers that “Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god” (Mal 2:11). And so heinous is this act that the LORD is ready to “cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts!” (Mal 2:12).
Perhaps, in reading this, the question is why? What is so detrimental and even abominable about intermarriage for God’s people? The problem of intermarriage was not new to Malachi; in fact, it was one of the main issues addressed by the post-exilic leaders and Malachi’s recent predecessors, Ezra and Nehemiah. But it also reflected a pre-exilic problem as well, and one that had played a large role in the reason for the judgement of exile. The point of remaining “pure” in marriage by not intermarrying was in order to remain pure to the LORD. Indeed, God’s command for not marrying foreigners was not about racial “purity,” but about covenant purity before the LORD; about reflecting HIM and loving HIM. The LORD knew how easily swayed and deceived His people could be, and in marrying foreigners who followed after foreign gods, He knew their hearts would be turned away from Him.
In fact, as they enter the Promised Land, the LORD warns the people of exactly that regarding the inhabitants of Canaan: “You shall not intermarry with them…for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods” (Deut 7:3-4). Not only would the marriage itself fall short of Godly standard, but the covenant relationship with the LORD would also be defiled. Even the great King Solomon was not immune to this type of temptation. Though he served the LORD through much of his life, and the LORD prospered him with unprecedented wealth and blessings, eventually his numerous foreign wives and concubines became his downfall. “For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God” (I Kings 11:4, & see context). And the result was the LORD’s judgment in allowing the fracturing of the Kingdom into Israel (in the north) and Judah (in the south). Yes indeed, forgetting the LORD’s great, covenantal love in pursuit of self-interest has far-reaching, catastrophic results. While it may feel individual, it inevitably brings disunity among the body, and with the LORD Himself.
This fallout effect is clear, even as Malachi brings yet another related disputation against the people:
And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, ‘Why does he not?’ Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. (Mal 2:13-14)
In seeking their own satisfaction and pleasure, the people have become arrogant. They have allowed themselves to think that the title of “Israelite” should automatically guarantee them the LORD’s favor, regardless of their behavior. They have failed to realize that their actions have in fact defiled their relationship with God. In their behavior, they do not reflect a holy, set-apart people for His treasured possession. Rather, the LORD reminds them that, not only have they set their eyes on foreign women serving foreign gods, but this has come even at the abandonment of their own wives! Injustice reigns in their lives. Carelessly, they are casting off, abandoning, and neglecting women and children (whom the LORD loves!) to satisfy cravings that will only lead them further from the God who loves them. Sin of self-pleasure, which perhaps seemed innocuous at first, has indeed corrupted the hearts of God’s people without their even recognizing it, much like the scales of the dragon where Eustace finds himself caught.
Without their covenant faithfulness – in marriage, and before Him – these set-apart people are indeed not acting as the messengers of Truth, reflecting His message of love and repentance. In covenant marriage and faithfulness, God was seeking not only unity among His people and with Himself, but “Godly offspring” (Mal 2:15): that is, a perpetuation of His name and His fame throughout the generations, and to the watching world! God’s people were to raise their children to know and reflect Him; to grow His Kingdom and His witness–His message of truth! (cf. Deut 6:7; 11:19). They were to testify to the foreigner among them of His goodness, thereby expanding and growing His presence among all peoples (cf. Exod 12:48-49; Num 15:14-16). Like the priests who were the messengers of the LORD, God had given His people the privileged opportunity to be a part of growing His Kingdom, and seeing His justice and His mercy spread among the generations, and among the nations. Yet in forgetting His love, in abandoning His commandments, they were not only defiling their witness, but not experiencing the LORD’s love and blessing as they might have expected. And in His grace, the LORD sends His messenger to bring this message of self-reflection, that they might repent!
A Message of Love for the Beloved (Mal 2:16)
It is little wonder that the issue of marital infidelity comes to the forefront in Malachi, when it is a reflection of how God’s people value their covenant relationship with Him. But indeed, even as He calls them out, the LORD invites His people to “guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless” (Mal 2:16). By His grace, theirs is not a lost cause; yes, they must see the depths of their unfaithfulness to the LORD in order to repent. But in repenting, they will experience the depths of His covenant faithfulness.
Because, as unfaithful as God’s people are in their covenants with one another and before God, the LORD Himself is a faithful Husband, even to the most unfaithful of brides. Throughout Scripture, the LORD refers to His relationship with His people as that of a marriage, of a husband with his bride. The prophet Isaiah had spoken that “your Maker is your husband; the LORD of hosts is his name” (Isa 54:5). But not only is the LORD the husband of His people, but a husband who pursues after His bride to redeem her shame. Isaiah continues that “the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit”; and through His love of her “you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more” (Isa 54:6, 4).
Though the LORD has been faithful to His bride, like in Malachi, the bride has been faithless over and over. In defiling the marriage covenant with her maker by running after self-interest and other gods, the LORD says through Jeremiah that “You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me?” (Jer 3:1, & context of vv.1-20). Even so, the LORD’s message in Malachi through His messenger is to remember His love; to repent; to turn. Like the LORD demonstrates through the prophet Hosea, He is the faithful husband who pursues after His wayward bride, time and again, and who purifies her, such that the LORD declares,
you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth… I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. (Hos 2:16-20)
Indeed, though God’s people have broken their covenant with the LORD “though I was their husband,” the LORD in His unending love, promises a new covenant, where “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer 31:32, 34, and context).
Pursuing foreign wives, abandoning the “wives of your youth” in pursuit of foreign women and foreign gods is an abominable practice not only for the destruction it creates among the people, but because of the destruction it creates between God’s people and the LORD Himself. But the LORD, who has always pursued after His faithless bride, speaks a final time through His messenger, Malachi, to show His people the depths of their unfaithfulness, and to invite them to once again see that “I have loved you,” and to live accordingly! The invitation to “guard yourself in spirit, and do not be faithless” is a merciful reminder: turn back to the LORD, and experience once again HIS steadfast love! Know HIS love that foreign gods and fleshly pleasure can never offer. And reflect HIS love among His people, as His messengers!
Perhaps you are not in marital infidelity, or seeking after foreign gods. Yet as we have seen, the message of Malachi here speaks to a greater reality of the heinousness of sin that so quickly blinds our eyes to reason. Malachi speaks to us, even as he speaks to post-exilic Israel, by pointing out how our seeking after anything but the LORD mars our relationships with others, our witness as His messengers, and our relationship with Him. Malachi holds up a mirror here to help us examine where we are “covering the altar with tears,” blinded to our own behavior, and expecting to receive blessing from the LORD in our own terms. “I have loved you, declares the LORD,” to the point that He will pursue His bride and call after her in her faithlessness, time and time again. Will we listen? Will we turn? Will we see and know His love?
The LORD is the faithful Husband for His wayward bride. Will she see it? Will she understand that she is indeed, the LORD’s beloved? Will she return? Will she know His love and find delight in the faithful, steadfast, overflowing love of her husband? Even in their turning away and forgetting Him time and again, the LORD has certainly not forsaken His people. Indeed, the LORD is so committed to His beloved bride (and to her purity), that (as we will see in the next study) He promises to send His Messenger to purify His covenant with her finally and fully. Though it will be painful, He will come to remove the dragon scales once and for all. Will His bride see His love and return to Him? May we humbly recognize our own faithlessness as we look at Malachi, but may we also learn to see the depths of His love for us, inviting us to turn, to guard ourselves, and to know His covenant love! Amen.
Questions for Reflection and Prayer
(Suggested: Either individually, or in a study group, Read through the Scripture passages referenced in this article, and discuss or reflect on what you have read. Reflect on these questions, and then bring your thoughts before the Lord in prayer).
In what ways is it easy to become blinded to our own sin? How does pursuing after our own desires pull our hearts away from the LORD? How do these things begin to hinder our witness and “godly offspring,” even before we realize who we are? What do you think it looks like to “cover the LORD’s altar with tears,” when our hearts are not right before Him? Why can this action be harmful to us, spiritually speaking? Why is it harmful to others? To our witness? In what ways, practically speaking, does the LORD allow us to see our lives in the mirror of His law and His grace? Where do you maybe need more mirrors in your life? Where do you need to remember the LORD’s offer of repentance and turning? Where do you need to remember HIS perfect, faithful love to you? How does remembering and reflecting on HIS perfect love for us help to dissuade us from selfish desires? Where do you desire to grow in reflecting more of the LORD in your life, as a messenger of His Truth and grace?
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