Malachi 2:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Malachi 2:10

Comments

Here begins a new section and it is a very sad one. This is about faithfulness or treachery, and the people are addressed. We are finished with the priests for the moment. ‘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?’ As you read this you wonder what it is about for a verse or two, but at the end of verse 11, it becomes clear: ‘For Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.’ That is what they were doing. Verse 12 says that the people were marrying pagan wives, and adopting their gods, letting them bring pagan gods into the home. The question is asked: ‘Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?’ The point is that treachery – the breaking of a covenant promise – violates the purpose for which God created that one nation, through their father Abraham. He set them apart from the other nations in order to preventing the corrupting influence of those who worshipped idols and plunged themselves into a morass of iniquity. Why then were they fracturing that oneness by their treachery? This is not just any treachery, but treachery in marriage, where human loyalty count more than in any other area of life. What is happening is that Jewish men or at least very many of them are growing tired of their wives, perhaps their wives have reached middle age, and these men are so carnal that they have grown tired of their wives. The evidence of this is that the passage talks about ‘the wife of thy youth’ (verse 14). ‘You have forsaken the wife of thy youth’, he tells them, ‘because she grew a little older and in your contempt for order and in your lack of love for her, you have found yourself another wife. But, even worse, you collected this second wife from among the heathen. You aligned yourselves with those I have deliberately separated you from.’ This second wife was an idol worshipper and she wanted to bring an idol altar into your home, and so you said, ‘Yes, that is perfectly alright’. So God condemns them for this conduct.

Application

This passage, of course, applies to literal divorce, but there is also a spiritual application for that. Consider what is happening among evangelical churches at the present time, things that never happened in time gone past. Churches that want to do worldly things to please themselves, and to enjoy themselves and turn their churches into places of entertainment and bring the world in, bands and the pop groups. Isn't it exactly the same, you could almost apply the same passage of Scripture. You grew tired of the wife of thy youth, you were maybe saved in wholesome evangelical circles, but you did not love them, and you did not appreciate them, so you grew tired of it and you decided to have another wife, another form of worship. You would take that wife from among the idolaters.

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Malachi 2:10 Commentary and Bible Study