Malachi 2:1-17
1 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
2 If 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.
3 Behold, I will corrupta your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.
4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
5 My 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.
6 The 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.
7 For 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.
8 But 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.
9 Therefore 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.
10 Have 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?
11 Judah 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,b and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
12 The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the masterc and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
13 And 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.
14 Yet 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.
15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residued 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.
16 For 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.
17 Ye 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?
Malachi 2:1. Oh ye priests if ye will not hear the Lord will send a curse upon you. Sins in the sanctuary are always put among the most grievous sins. Eli's sons lost the ark, the Hebrew priests filled the temple with idols, and the Lord sent the Chaldeans to burn it. I was in France at the beginning of the revolution, and heard strong words uttered against the clergy. They had sixty priests in St. Maloes; they were accused of strutting about in robes and silk stockings, from one house of infamy to another. They lost their altar, for “men abhorred the offering of the Lord.” A nation must become infidel when the priests are infidel.
Malachi 2:7. The priests' lips should keep knowledge. The Lord here speaks not of what the priests were, but of what they ought to be; for instead of keeping knowledge for the people, they were grossly ignorant, and negligent of their duty. He would therefore make them contemptible and base before all the people, as in Malachi 2:9. No man is so much despised as an ignorant and profane minister. The pastor of a christian church ought to be a regenerate man, of holy conversation, and “mighty in the scriptures.” He should have a fountain of eloquence in his own breast, should be possessed of talent and of science, able to instruct the ignorant, and face an ungodly world. He should ever have his eye on his ministry, and make the care of souls his sole delight.
Malachi 2:11. Judah hath dealt treacherously. The prophet here gives a full stroke at the sins of Judah, in putting away their wives for pretences, and consorting with heathen concubines. To divorce a woman for infirmity is a greater affliction added to a less.
(1) Has not the husband and the wife one Father and Creator?
(2) Did he not make them one flesh in paradise?
(3) Did he not breathe into man a living soul, and breathe the residue of the spirit into the woman?
(4) Are not the children ruined, branded, and alienated, by such divorces?
(5) Will not God himself be a witness against the wretch who divorces his wife on slight pretences? Yes, he will testify against the breach of covenant.
(6) If this cunning man think to build a patriarchal house by such divorces, God here says, that he will cut him off, and drive him from the tabernacles, or the cities of Jacob, as the Chaldaic reads.
REFLECTIONS.
Marriage must be without spot, else our children are unclean. The promises of the residue of the Spirit are to us and to our children. We must therefore seek a holy seed, and train them up and present them to the Lord.
God is offended when the sacred laws of marriage are broken, either by divorce or polygamy, or in any other manner whatever, as well as when we marry persons guilty of idolatry. Malachi shows that all those disorders are contrary to the first institution of marriage, since God created but one man and one woman at the beginning; and this point our Lord settles still more plainly in the gospel, where he proves, by the first institution after the creation, that marriage is a holy state, and an indissoluble bond, which equally binds the wife and the husband.