Malachi 2:1-16 Be Faithful to God

Theological Proposition/Focus: God’s standard for faithfulness is very high.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: We need to take seriously our responsibility to pass faithfulness onto future generations.

Introduction:

Image: Listen to the lyrics to the song "Find Us Faithful" by Steve Green

We're pilgrims on the journey Of the narrow road, And those who've gone before us Line the way. Cheering on the faithful, Encouraging the weary, Their lives a stirring testament To God's sustaining grace. O may all who come behind us Find us faithful, May the fire of our devotion Light their way. May the footprints that we leave, Lead them to believe, And the lives we live Inspire them to obey. O may all who come behind us Find us faithful. Surrounded by so great A cloud of witnesses, Let us run the race Not only for the prize, But as those who've gone before us. Let us leave to those behind us, The heritage of faithfulness Passed on thru godly lives. After all our hopes and dreams Have come and gone, And our children sift thru all We've left behind, May the clues that they discover, And the mem'ries they uncover, Become the light that leads them, To the road we each must find.

Body

Greater responsibility, greater expectations (1-9)

God may punish those who don’t honor His name. (1-2)

The priests were warned to resolve to honor God's name.

The phrase the NIV translates as "resolve to honor my name" is actually the Hebrew phrase "place it on your hearty to give glory to my name."

The heart was the center of one's being, the place where knowledge was collected and store, the place where decisions were made, and the place where plans were constructed. god's call here is really a call to put God on the forefront of the mind. The priest of God was a representative and intermediary between God an man. As such the priest was expected to have God front and center!

Image: James 3:1 is a sobering verse.

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

God has an incredibly high standard for those who teach and I think we should take this standard seriously!

MTR: Consider your responsibilities to preserve knowledge of God and ask if you are meeting expectations.

As Christians we know better. In fact, we are described as priests!

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Greater responsibility, greater faithfulness (10-12)

Previously, we saw Malachi giving an initial statement followed by questions of feigned innocence. Here we instead see a series of three questions coming from Malachi in rapid fire succession. The point of these questions really seems to be that faithfulness to one's brother is an expectation that God holds for each of us.

Be faithful to your God in your obligations. (11-12)

One major source of unfaithfulness after the return from the exile was unfaithfulness to God in relationships.

The problem is not that these women are foreign, it is that they are committed to a false god.

In fact, the Hebrew, here matters a lot. The Hebrew phrase וּבָעַ֖ל בַּת־אֵ֥ל נֵכָֽר \r חִלֵּ֣ל יְהוּדָ֗ה קֹ֤דֶשׁ יְהוָה֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָהֵ֔ב would be literally translated as he has profaned the holiness which Yahweh loves he has married the daughter of a foreign god.

As a Christ follower you have a greater responsibility and so you must exercise greater faithfulness, this may involve making hard relationship decisions.

What if you are already married to someone who does not follow Christ? I am going to cover this more in a bit but for now let me say this. 1 Cor. 7:12-14 states "If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13 And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy." If you are married to an unbelievers then a significant portion of your time, your life, should be devoted to praying for the salvation of that individual!"

Greater responsibility, greater impact (13-16)

Past: Your past commitments matter. (13-14)

Our faithfulness is extremely important to God and he expects us to keep our commitments.

1 Samuel 15:22

But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

Future: The next generation is the future. (15)

The Hebrew of verse 15 is incredibly challenging to translate and so our translators have made some decisions in translation.

Let me read to you what one commentator wrote about the verse.

One can paraphrase v. 15a as follows: “But no one does it (as a rule) in whom there is a remnant of spirit (intelligence, sound judgment). Yet what does the one (do)? He is seeking godly offspring.” In other words the person who seeks a godly offspring has spiritual insight and does not violate the marriage as a divine institution. Such a person will not send his legal wife away in order to marry a heathen girl, because he has consideration for the elevated character and purpose of marriage. His marriage is one within “the covenant with the fathers” (v. 10), and serves to procreate citizens not only for the kingdom of Israel but above all for the kingdom of God. This significant purpose is frustrated when the wives of their youth are being divorced in favor of mixed marriages. Therefore Malachi urged his people to take heed to themselves and not to be faithless to the wives of their youth.

Present: You have a responsibility for faithfulness. (16)

Now for just a little controversy

The Hebrew of verse 16 is slightly challenging. The verse begins with כִּֽי־שָׂנֵ֣א (for he hated - a conjunction כִּֽי followed by the qual perfect third person שָׂנֵ֣א for hate.) However, the words are attributed to Yahweh, God of Israel (אָמַ֤ר יְהוָה֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל) so it stands to reason that "he hated" should really be I hated. In fact, if the words כִּֽי־שָׂנֵ֣א were originally אנכי שָׂנֵא and שָׂנֵא is taken as a participle then it becomes "I hate" or more properly probably "I am hating" Hence, combining both context and possibility for a simple dropping of two consonants it really makes sense to write "I hate divorce" as NET Bible does and as is implied in the KJV (he hateth putting away). Now, some translations, including the NIV take a slightly different translation. The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew (with a little Aramaic). By the time of Christ a Greek translation, known as the Septuagint (LXX), of the Hebrew was completed. Like all translations, the translators had to make certain decisions. In the Malachi 2:16 of the LXX we see ἀλλὰ ἐὰν μισήσας ἐξαποστείλῃς, λέγει Κύριος ὁ θεὸς τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, καὶ καλύψει ἀσέβεια ἐπὶ τὰ ἐνθυμήματά σου (but if hating you divorce says the Lord God of Israel, and he covers ungodliness upon your thoughts) which seems to justify divorce in the case of a man hating his wife (essentially we would smooth out the literal word by word of the Greek and say "if you hate your wife and divorce her"). In fact, this appears to be similar to the argument that the Pharisees are bringing to Jesus in Matthew 19 when they ask if it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason. In human terms makes sense that the translators of the LXX might choose a translation that better supported their doctrinal position. So, the short answer, I do think God hates divorce and I think Malachi 2:16 teaches this fact. The text does not teach that God hates those who have been divorced, and the text does not teach that nobody can ever get divorced. God is capable of hating something even when it is permitted (cases of adultery for example). One other note: you do not need to know Greek and Hebrew to study the Bible, but you also do need to be willing to dig into your translations and know when to ask someone who does know the original languages.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the passage from Malachi 2:1-16 calls us to be faithful to God in all aspects of our lives. We have a greater responsibility as believers, and with that responsibility comes greater expectations. We must remain steadfast and prioritize faithfulness to God, to our relationships with fellow believers, and to the generations that follow. Our faithfulness can have a lasting impact, shaping the lives of others and glorifying God. Let us heed the call to be faithful disciples, preserving and passing on the knowledge of God for the benefit of present and future generations.