13 And this is the second thing you do:
You cover the altar of the LORD with tears,
With weeping and crying;
So He does not regard the offering anymore,
Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.
14 Yet you say, “For what reason?”
Because the LORD has been witness
Between you and the wife of your youth,
With whom you have dealt treacherously;
Yet she is your companion
And your wife by covenant.
15 But did He not make them one,
Having a remnant of the Spirit?
And why one?
He seeks godly offspring.
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.
16 “ For the LORD God of Israel says
That He hates divorce,
For it covers one’s garment with violence,”
Says the LORD of hosts.
“ Therefore take heed to your spirit,
That you do not deal treacherously.”
At the altar of God, there is to be praise and worship but the priests have gone forward and covered it with their tears and weeping. Because they think that God is too severe and too rigid with regard to His commandments towards them and His expectations of them. God again repeats His judgment on them and the Jews. He will not accept their offering or look on their offering with favour.
God draws attention to the divinely instituted covenant of marriage. He says they have dealt poorly with the wives they have married when they should have been faithful in keeping to their marriage vow. In marriage, two become one, and this is the divine order and the perpetual law which God has laid down.
Malachi warns his people against polluting the sanctity of marriage through means such as polygamy. He sets out God's position on divorce, and also God's strong line on those who mistreat their wives as well as those who marry many wives.
He called on the people to check their spirit and to avoid sinning in what God viewed as one of the most sacred of his covenants. There is a similarity drawn here between the marriage covenant and the Jews' covenant with God. The exhortation and the warning is for faithfulness and purity.
God does not condone His people dealing treacherously when it comes to marriage, or when it comes to His covenant with them.
References:
1. Matthew Henry's Commentary of the Bible
http://www.ccel.org/h/henry/?show=worksBy
2. John Calvin's Commentary of the Bible
http://www.ccel.org/c/calvin/?show=worksBy
You cover the altar of the LORD with tears,
With weeping and crying;
So He does not regard the offering anymore,
Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.
14 Yet you say, “For what reason?”
Because the LORD has been witness
Between you and the wife of your youth,
With whom you have dealt treacherously;
Yet she is your companion
And your wife by covenant.
15 But did He not make them one,
Having a remnant of the Spirit?
And why one?
He seeks godly offspring.
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.
16 “ For the LORD God of Israel says
That He hates divorce,
For it covers one’s garment with violence,”
Says the LORD of hosts.
“ Therefore take heed to your spirit,
That you do not deal treacherously.”
At the altar of God, there is to be praise and worship but the priests have gone forward and covered it with their tears and weeping. Because they think that God is too severe and too rigid with regard to His commandments towards them and His expectations of them. God again repeats His judgment on them and the Jews. He will not accept their offering or look on their offering with favour.
God draws attention to the divinely instituted covenant of marriage. He says they have dealt poorly with the wives they have married when they should have been faithful in keeping to their marriage vow. In marriage, two become one, and this is the divine order and the perpetual law which God has laid down.
Malachi warns his people against polluting the sanctity of marriage through means such as polygamy. He sets out God's position on divorce, and also God's strong line on those who mistreat their wives as well as those who marry many wives.
He called on the people to check their spirit and to avoid sinning in what God viewed as one of the most sacred of his covenants. There is a similarity drawn here between the marriage covenant and the Jews' covenant with God. The exhortation and the warning is for faithfulness and purity.
God does not condone His people dealing treacherously when it comes to marriage, or when it comes to His covenant with them.
References:
1. Matthew Henry's Commentary of the Bible
http://www.ccel.org/h/henry/?show=worksBy
2. John Calvin's Commentary of the Bible
http://www.ccel.org/c/calvin/?show=worksBy
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