Malachi 2:10 - Meaning and Application

Corrupt actions are the true fruit of corrupt beliefs. The evil in people’s hearts and lives often comes from loose, unbelieving ideas that they follow. That is what we see here. These people were dishonest with each other because they were thinking wrongly about God.

In general, they were dealing treacherously, or acting in betrayal, against one another (Malachi 2:10). We should not expect a person who is false toward God to be faithful to a friend. They had already been false to God in the matter of tithes and offerings, and that had damaged their conscience. Once conscience is weakened, the door opens to all kinds of cheating and injustice. Even family ties and natural affection then break down.

Some think this refers to the oppression and extortion reported to Nehemiah around this time (Nehemiah 5:3-7). In that case, they had forgotten the God of their fathers and the covenant made with their fathers, and their offerings became unacceptable (Isaiah 1:11). But it seems more likely to point to what was wrong in their marriages, which is also complained about in Nehemiah 13:23. They were guilty of two things that deeply offended God. They married foreign wives from pagan nations, and they mistreated or divorced the wives they already had from their own nation.

First, they broke the covenant God made with Israel, his chosen people, by marrying foreign wives. This was plainly forbidden in that covenant (Deuteronomy 7:3). They had strong reasons to stay faithful to God and to one another, and not make such marriages.

They were specifically bound by covenant not to do this. God promised to do them good if they stayed separate from the nations around them. This was the covenant of their fathers, the covenant made with their ancestors, which gave that nation its standing and identity. They were under every obligation to keep it, yet they treated it as if it did not matter. People profane the covenant of their fathers when they live in disobedience to the command of the God of their fathers.

They were also a distinct people, joined together as one body, and should have worked to protect that special calling. “Have we not all one Father?” If this is taken of all mankind, it reminds us that God created us all, so we are all brothers and should not deal falsely with one another (Ephesians 4:25). If it is taken of the Jews, then it points to their common ancestry in Abraham or Jacob. They boasted, “We have Abraham as our father,” yet here that same claim becomes part of their shame, because they were dishonoring their nation by marrying heathens. God had formed them into a people set apart, and that should have moved them to guard the dignity of their calling. In the same way, the unity of the church in Christ, its founder and Father, should lead us to protect its purity and guard against corruption.

They were also dedicated to God and separated from the surrounding nations. Israel was holiness to the Lord (Jeremiah 2:3). God had taken them into covenant with himself, set them apart for his own name and praise, and loved them for that reason. His sanctuary among them was something he called his rest forever. But by marrying foreign wives, they dishonored that holiness and threw away the honor of being set apart for God. Those who belong to God should care about keeping their integrity, so they do not lose the honor or purpose of their dedication to him.

They acted treacherously even in the very matter that was meant to preserve their special calling: “Judah has married the daughter of a strange god.” The main issue was not simply that she came from another nation, since God made all nations. The deeper issue was that she belonged to another god, was raised in false worship, and was shaped by that service. As some rabbis put it, a man who marries a pagan woman is like one who makes himself the son-in-law of an idol.

This kind of corruption had appeared long before, when the sons of God married the daughters of men (Genesis 6:2). It is the same sin here, only stated in a more striking way: the sons of God married the daughters of a strange god. Judah had acted treacherously because they had betrayed their own honor and dishonored the holiness of the Lord that they should have loved. It was an abomination in Israel and Jerusalem, hateful to God and completely out of place among those who bore his name. It is a terrible thing for people who claim to belong to the holy Lord to profane that holiness, especially by joining themselves unevenly with unbelievers.

God would deal with them severely for this sin. The Lord would cut off the man who did this, the man who marries the daughter of a strange god (Malachi 2:12). In effect, he had already cut himself off from the holy nation and joined himself to foreigners and outsiders, so that would be his judgment. God would cut him off, along with everything that belonged to him. He would be cut off from Israel and Jerusalem, and his name would not remain among the living there.

The Lord would cut off both the master and the scholar, the teacher and the one taught. The blind guide and the blind follower would fall together into the pit. The one who wakes another and the one who answers him, in other words, the leader and the one led, would be cut off together from the tents of Jacob.

God will no longer count them as belonging to his nation. Even the priest who brings an offering to the Lord, if he marries a foreign wife, as many priests did (Ezra 10:18), will not escape judgment. His offering will not make up for his sin, and he will be cut off from the temple of the Lord, just as others are cut off from the tents of Jacob. Nehemiah even drove away from both himself and the priesthood one of the high priest’s sons, whom he found guilty of this sin (Nehemiah 13:28).

Second, in contempt of the marriage covenant, which God set up for the good of all people, they mistreated and put away the wives they had from their own nation. They likely did this to make room for foreign wives, since it had become fashionable to marry them (Malachi 2:13). This is the second part of the charge. One sin leads to another, and the road of sin always goes downhill.

Here is what they are accused of. They did not treat their wives as they should have. They were harsh, moody, and difficult, and they made their wives’ lives bitter. When these couples came to worship God at the solemn feasts, which should have been a time of joy, the men were in a foul temper. Their poor wives were close to breaking under the pain, and since they dared not tell anyone else, they brought their grief to God. They covered the Lord’s altar with tears, weeping, and crying.

This is seen in Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, who was upset because her husband had another wife. Though Elkanah was otherwise kind, the trouble it caused made Hannah weep whenever they went up to the house of the Lord to worship. She was bitter in soul and would not eat (1 Samuel 1:6-7, 1 Samuel 1:10). It was the same with these wives. This was the opposite of the joy God asks of those who worship him, and it made their worship unacceptable. God is a good Master, and he does not want his altar covered with tears, but surrounded with songs.

This also condemns those who left God’s worship for idol worship, where women were found weeping for Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:14), and the worshipers’ blood was flowing on the altar (1 Kings 18:28). It is also a wicked thing to disturb others so they cannot worship God with cheerfulness. Even if people make themselves unfit for duty by their own fussing, it is still far more the fault of those who provoked them. That is why husbands and wives should live together in holy love and joy, so their prayers will not be hindered (1 Peter 3:7).

They also dealt falsely with their wives (Malachi 2:14-16). They failed to keep their promises, cheated them out of support or marriage gifts, or took concubines, women kept in addition to a wife, to share the affection that belonged to their wives alone. They put their wives away, gave them divorce papers, and sent them off, perhaps even without following the law of Moses (Malachi 2:16). In all this, they hid violence under a garment. They hurt their wives and treated them badly, yet they still acted in public as if they were loving and gentle. It is common for those who do wrong to cover it with some fine-sounding excuse.

The charge is fully proved by God himself. “The Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth” (Malachi 2:14). He saw the marriage covenant between them, because they had appealed to him about their honesty and faithfulness. He also saw every broken promise and every act of treachery, and he is ready to judge between husband and wife. This should move us to be faithful both to God and to everyone we deal with, because God himself witnesses both our promises and our breaking of them. He is a witness no one can challenge.

The sin is made worse by who was wronged. “She is your wife,” your own flesh and blood, the one closest to you of all your relations. You are to leave father and mother and cleave to her. “She is the wife of your youth,” the one who had your love when it was strongest, your first choice, and the one you have lived with for many years. Do not let the darling of your youth become the object of your scorn in old age. “She is your companion,” one who has long shared your cares, sorrows, and joys. A wife is not to be treated like a servant, but like a companion and friend, someone with whom a husband may freely talk, take counsel, and find delight. “She is the wife of your covenant,” one to whom you are bound by a lifelong promise. Married people should often remember their vows and think seriously about what they promised to do.

There are also strong reasons why husband and wife should stay together in holy love and peace to the end of their lives, and neither quarrel nor separate. God joined them together (Malachi 2:15). Did he not make one, one Eve for one Adam, so Adam would not take another wife to vex her (Leviticus 18:18), or put her away to make room for another? It is a great sin to complain that marriage is restrictive, when Adam, even in innocence, honor, and Eden, the garden of pleasure, was limited to one wife. Yet God had more than enough Spirit to make another Eve just as lovely as the first. But since he meant Adam to have a helper suited to him, he made him one wife. If he had made more than one, they would not have been a fitting help.

Why did God make only one woman for one man? It was so he might seek godly offspring, that is, children who belong to God. These children should bear God’s image, serve him, and live for his glory and honor. So each man was to have his own wife, and only one, according to the law (1 Corinthians 7:2). In that way, husband and wife could live in pure and holy love under God’s law, instead of living like animals ruled by lust.

This also means children would be born within holy marriage, which is God’s own appointment. In marriage, natural desires are kept within the boundaries of God’s command. Then children may be raised as a people set apart for him, born under his care and trained under his rule. One great purpose of marriage is the raising of a godly seed, a family that belongs to the Lord. That is also a strong reason to keep the marriage bed clean and the marriage bond unbroken.

So husbands and wives must live in fear of God, if they want their children to be godly. Otherwise they are unclean. But when they live faithfully, their children are holy as children of the covenant, meaning the marriage covenant. That covenant points to the covenant of grace, God’s saving promise. And when husband and wife stay faithful to each other, their union pictures the bond between Christ and his church, in which he seeks and secures a godly seed (Ephesians 5:25, Ephesians 5:32).

God is also deeply displeased with those who try to separate what he has joined together (Malachi 2:16). The God of Israel says that he hates divorce. He did allow it among the Jews because their hearts were hard, or rather, he restricted and burdened it (Matthew 19:8). Still, he hated it, especially when people divorced their wives for every reason at all (Matthew 19:3).

Let wives who leave their husbands and put themselves away, husbands who are cruel and turn their wives off, or husbands who set their love on others, and even husbands and wives who live apart by mutual agreement because they no longer love each other, let all such people know that the God of Israel hates these practices. It does not matter how lightly people speak of them.

From all this comes the warning twice repeated, “Take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth” (Malachi 2:15), and again in (Malachi 2:16). Those who want to keep from sin must watch their spirits, because sin begins there. They must guard their hearts carefully, keep a close eye on them, and stop the first movements of sin. We act according to the spirit we have. So if we want to guide our actions, we must think about what kind of spirit we are showing.

We must also pay attention to our spirits in our relationships. We should be rightly disposed toward those near us and keep a good temper toward them, or else we may deal treacherously. If our own hearts can be false to us, then whom will they not be false to? That is why the heart must be watched closely.

Now we see how corrupt their principles were, because those false ideas produced these false actions. We should trace the stream back to its source (Malachi 2:17). “You have wearied the Lord with your words.” They tried to escape the conviction of God’s word and justify themselves by arguing against God’s dealings. But their defense became their guilt, and their attempt to clear themselves only increased their sin. They insulted the Lord with their words so often and so stubbornly that they wearied him. See (Isaiah 7:13).

In effect, they made him tired of doing them good, as he had done before, and blocked the flow of his favor. Or they acted as if he were weary of governing the world and ready to step aside from it. It is a wearying thing, even to God himself, to hear people insist on justifying their corrupt and wicked behavior while using godless ideas to defend it.

They asked, as if God’s prophet had wronged them, “Wherein have we wearied him?” What words were so upsetting that we wearied him? Sinful words are more offensive to the God of heaven than people usually think. But God had his evidence ready. They had said, at least in their hearts, two things that wearied him, and thoughts count as words to God.

First, they denied that he is a holy God. They said something completely opposite to what his holiness teaches. Since God is holy, he hates sin, and he is too pure to look on evil with approval (Habakkuk 1:13). He does not take pleasure in wickedness (Psalm 5:4). Yet they boldly claimed, in direct contradiction to this, that everyone who does evil is good in the Lord’s sight, and that God delights in them.

They drew this wicked idea without reason from the success of sinners in their sinful ways, as also noted in (Malachi 3:15). They acted as if God’s love or hatred could be judged only by outward success, and as if the rich must therefore be good in the Lord’s sight. Or they said this because they wanted it to be true. They were determined to do evil, but they still wanted to think God approved them. Under the excuse of making God seem less severe than people said, they shaped him to match their own desires and thought he was just like themselves.

Those who think God is friendly to sin insult him and deceive themselves.

Second, they denied that God is the righteous ruler of the world. Even if he did not delight in sin and sinners, they were willing to believe he would never punish either. So they said, “Where is the God of judgment?” That is, where is the God who is supposed to call us to account for what we have said and done? They asked as if he had left the earth and paid no attention to what happened there. He had said he would come in judgment, but where is the promise of his coming? We may do as we please, they said, because he does not see us and will not care.

This is a challenge to the Judge of all the earth. It is a direct insult to his justice and, in effect, a dare for him to do his worst. There were such scoffers in the later days of the Jewish church, and there will be such scoffers in the later days of the Christian church. But their unbelief will not make God’s promise fail. The day of the Lord will come. The Judge is standing at the door, and the God of judgment is near.