UNFAITHFULNESS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?”

“Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.”

“Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because He no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.”

“Has not the one God made you? You belong to Him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.”

“The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty.

“So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.”

Malachi 2:10-16

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Unfaithfulness.

It’s something almost everyone has to deal with in life at one time or another, an experience that is usually unpleasant and painful for the victim. It’s also something that the Lord dislikes immensely as we see in our scripture passage today and our continued study of the second chapter of the Book of Malachi. Look again at these words here:

“Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?”

“Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.”

“Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because He no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.”

“Has not the one God made you? You belong to Him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.”

“The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty.

“So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.”  Malachi 2:10-16

Unfaithfulness always creates separation between one who trusted and the one who betrays that trust. This is why we find the prophet Malachi open up the discussion on infidelity with words of unity with the best unifying factor possible mentioned, God the Father, the Lord God Almighty.

Indeed, God was the Father and Creator of all the Israelites. He was the one common denominator amongst them and yet the people had become divided because the unfaithful chose to do their own thing and profane the covenant established by God with their ancestors. You’ll remember that the priests were especially called out for this already in this book.

In the end translation, Malachi sums it up by calling Judah out for its disloyalty to the Lord.

In what ways were the Judean Israelites unfaithful?

Malachi gives us one.

“Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god.”

Part of the covenant agreement God made with the Israelites involved them remaining faithful to the laws He gave them, laws that strictly forbade them from marrying Gentile women, women who worshiped pagan gods. Look at these words from the Book of Exodus:

“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.” Exodus 34:15-16

The law had been laid down well before the time of Malachi and his Israelite peers but it was just as important to uphold that law then as it was when it was first administered. Unfortunately, that wasn’t happening as Malachi calls out the Judeans for desecrating the Lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worshiped foreign gods.

What was the prescribed penalty for such unfaithfulness to God and His precepts?

Malachi tells us.

“As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.”

Basically, the punishment was banishment. If one chose to abandon God by partnering with someone who did not believe in Him at all, then they need not be in the presence of the Lord anymore.

Did I mention that unfaithfulness leads to separation?

Well, Malachi wasn’t finished in his indictment of the Israelites in Judah. For there was a second example of unfaithfulness happening in their culture, one just as despicable to the Lord as turning to other gods. Malachi shares the following:

“Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because He no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.”

“Has not the one God made you? You belong to Him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.”

“The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty.

If you think infidelity in marriage is only a present day problem, you would be wrong. For as we see in this second indictment, the Israelite men were cheating on their wives and violating another special covenant, the sacred covenant of matrimony, matrimony witnessed by none other than the Lord Himself. And note that in being unfaithful to his wife, the Israelite husband was also unfaithful to the God who made him, the God which he belonged to in body and spirit.

Thus infidelity resulted in not just a broken marriage and covenant but also a broken spouse and a broken relationship with God Himself.

In other words, unfaithfulness equals separation which equals brokenness so I think I can clearly say in the context of this message that nothing good comes from unfaithfulness.

It’s why Malachi urged the Israelites (and us as well today) to do the following:

“Be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.”

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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