OK, Malachi spent most of his ammo
on the priesthood, the spiritual leaders. But in today’s passage he delivers a
verbal broadside against his entire culture, the commons sins of the common
men. In a nutshell, they were being unfaithful to the Lord and blatantly
disregarding his standards. Like today, a lot of it had to do with sex.
What was the problem? Today’s
passage deals with two main problems: Idolatry and divorce.
Idolatry was a danger to Israel’s
spiritual health and even its existence since its inception. One interesting
theory/explanation I’ve heard about the whole “Going-into-Egypt” scenario is that
Jacob and his family probably were brought into Egypt (out of Canaan) so that
they could become a distinct nation under the Lord. In Egypt there were many
(existential) dangers, but assimilation was not one of them, considering the
Egyptians wouldn’t
even eat with them. But Moses—again and again and again—warned his people
not to fall into the trap of idolatry.
Now,
we need to be careful here. There are two points to consider: 1) The people of
Israel, under their covenant, were under the marching orders
not to associate with the pagans around them, Canaanites in particular. But we're under orders
to take the Message of Jesus to the ends of the world, to share the Good News
with everyone.
Also,
we need to be absolutely clear about this: The problem with intermarriage was not
racial or ethnic. Moses married
a Cushite--very likely a black woman--and there’s no condemnation of this. The
problem was religious. Mixing worship
of the true God with worshiping anything else will only work to the detriment
of the former. This is why they weren’t supposed to marry pagan women (which brought, for example, the
downfall of Solomon).
Then
we come to the thorny issue of the next problem: Divorce. Some men were
marrying pagan women, while others were cavalierly divorcing Israelite women.
From the description of their wives as “the [wives] of [their] youth,” it
appears that these men (and I use the term very loosely) were divorcing their
older wives--the ones who had supported them and loved them and had grown old
with them--for a younger woman.
Now
I need to be completely open about vs. 16. The traditional reading of it quotes
God as saying “I hate divorce.” There are, however, some translational
difficulties with this. It is possible,
as the NIV renders it, to translate it as “The man who hates and divorces his
wife . . . does
violence to the one he should protect.” Other modern translations, like the
NASB, NET Bible, and NLT render it the traditional way, quoting God as saying
“I hate divorce.” I know this might ruin some sermons (I’ve heard multiple
sermons on how God hates divorce), but I have to be careful about what the
Scripture says, and be up front about questions like this. I have to be
extremely meticulous about this sort of thing.
But
does the alternate translation (per the NIV) change my theology at all? NO. I
thoroughly believe, based on what the whole of Scripture teaches, that God does
hate divorce. When Jesus was asked
about the supposed command of Moses to give an estranged woman a “certificate
of divorce,” he brought the whole conversation back to the original plan of God
found in the first two chapters of Genesis: One
man united with one woman for life.
That’s the standard, and the further we deviate from it, as a nation or as
individuals, the worse we’ll end up.
And
please notice how the Lord sees divorce here: Violence against women. The Lord
always has had a soft spot in his heart for the underdog, and women—yes, more
than men—usually end up with the short end of the stick in divorce, most
especially in a highly patriarchal society like in the past. There are a lot of
reasons why the Lord created marriage, but one biggie is the protection
of women, especially in a society in which they’re routinely treated
like second-class citizens (at best). As women get older and their physical beauty fades, the easiest thing in the world is for a man to "trade up" his older wife for a younger model. Valuing marriage and discouraging divorce protects women.
But let’s move past the negative
command (“don’t be unfaithful to the wife of your youth”) to the positive
command hiding behind it. To all the married men reading this, I call upon you
to cherish “the wife of your youth.” Protect her. Love her as Christ loved the
church, giving himself up for her. Listen to her. Serve her. Your Father’s
watching.
Father God, I love my wife, but not nearly
as much as I should. Please love her through me. And when my heart begins to stray,
to even move one inch towards unfaithfulness, pull me back as hard you need to.
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