Malachi – Part 3 of 5

God’s Unsevered Union

Malachi 2:10 – 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?

The nation of Israel is God’s chosen nation and their covenant with him was to remain pure and holy. They had been instructed to make no covenant with the people of the land that the Lord was giving them:

You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. (Deut7)

Israel and Judah broke the covenant and profaned the sanctuary of the Lord. Worse than that, they were being unfaithful to their wives within the covenant; marriage that God himself had blessed by making them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union. This echoes the message of Hosea and the nation’s unfaithfulness to God. God wanted a pure people, not a defiled people, but their eyes wandered and so did their feet. They looked for fulfillment in all the wrong places and enjoyed the temporary pleasure of their sin.

God does not reward sin which meant that the offerings brought to the altar were not accepted. The people, in their ignorance, covered the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because they did not receive his favour. This was another example of Israel wanting to do their own thing but still expecting all the blessings of God. The Lord may have withheld his blessings from time to time but he never stopped pursuing his people in order to restore the union between them. Their sin would often blind them to God’s love and faithfulness and they didn’t appreciate the importance of being a holy people. They had certainly drifted a long way from the teachings of Solomon – Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart(Prov3:3).

Do our lives reflect the holiness of God or do our own desires take precedent over His? We honour the holy union with the Lord through steadfast commitment and by returning the faithfulness that he shows us every day.