This third oracle deals with unfaithfulness. This oracle opens with the people of God being unfaithful in three areas:
- Unfaithful to each other/brothers (2:10)
- Unfaithful to God (2:11-12)
- Unfaithful to Wives (2:15-16)
Unfaithfulness is the agent of destruction socially, spiritually, and personally. Unfaithfulness is a lack of integrity and failure to meet social, personal and spiritual obligations. It is not holding to trust. Unfaithfulness is being untrustworthy.
The key word in this oracle is “treacherously” (v. 10, 11, 14, 15, 16). It is the Hebrew verb bagad, meaning to break faith. It describes violating a covenant (Judges 9:23) and an act of betrayal or treachery in a relationship. It is an act that disrupts the fabric of relationships. It is a source of contention or trouble in a relationship. Notice he describes unfaithfulness in the strongest terms possible: abomination and profanity (v11). Unfaithfulness ruins lives, collapses hope, and is an act of betrayal.
In Malachi’s time trust (faithfulness) had largely eroded away, as it has in ours. One sign of it is the erosion of marriage in society evidenced by the increase of divorce. Divorce rate today is around 50% of all marriages. Unfaithfulness in marriage has been estimated as high as 80%. The increase is a symptom of a general increase of unfaithfulness in all types of relationships. Question: Do we take faithfulness too lightly? Israel did and it cost them greatly.
The warning of Malachi is just as applicable to us as it was to Israel: “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously” (v16).
“It is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy (faithful)”—1 Corinthians 4:2.
People often justify the casual way in which divorce is viewed today by arguing that there can be no objection to it when both parties want it. However, Dr. Walter Kaiser once pointed out in class that this thinking is fallacious. Divorce still remains a sin against God even if both parties want the divorce.
ReplyDeleteI've always liked the way Dr. Kaiser paraphrased what the Lord says in 2:14: "Why is divorce a sin? Because I was a witness. I heard those vows you made that day."
Broken vow. Broken promise. Broken marriage covenant. That is why the Lord says, "I hate divorce."
Ken