Title Why are you doing this?
There are many things we want to ask God about in our lives. What did I do wrong to cause this to happen, especially when I was faced with an unfair situation? Why? while I want to ask. There are many such questions in other Bibles, but especially in the book of Malachi, there are many such questions. First, how did God love us when He said that I love you? Is this what it means to love you? It's a question to ask.
Second, when it is said in 1:6-2:9 that you despise me, when did we despise God? that was asked. In fact, it is a question rather than a question. They did not despise God, they made sacrifices and kept feasts, so why do you despise God? Regarding this, it is whether God has a Levitical covenant with God in the content of their offerings. How troublesome it is to offer sick, lame, and blind things. Therefore, he is saying that he wants someone to close the door of the temple.
Today's Word also says that we will not accept your offerings. Then why are you saying that? Why don't you accept our offerings? This is how you ask. What is the difference between the gods of many religions in the world and the God of the Bible? The religion and god of the world is Gamcheon if it is intellect. It is said that if you give your sincerity to the fulfillment of human wishes, your wishes will be granted. However, the God of the Bible is not speaking of human devotion, but of covenant. Therefore, in today's Word, he continues to talk about the covenant.
Look at verse 10. Israel has one father and one God. Deuteronomy 32:6. “O foolish and ignorant people, do you repay the LORD in this way, is he not your Father who obtained you? He made you and established you.” 1 Corinthians 8:6. “But we have one God, the Father, from whom all things are born, and we are for him, and there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are through him, and we are through him.”
How can those who have one father and one God like this, can deceive their brothers? To commit deceit is to betray and rebel. In other words, the act of betraying and rebelling against the covenant is fraud. It is said that to practice deceit against one's brother is to dishonor the covenant of our ancestors. The covenant that our ancestors received was that God made them the covenant people. Therefore, deceit against the brother becomes deceit against the father.
What did Jesus say in Matthew 25 when he divided the sheep from the goats at the last judgment? When Jesus was cold, hungry, sick, and imprisoned, he divided those who cared for him and those who did not. I can't see Jesus, what do I do? He said that whatever you did to the least of these you did to Jesus, and if you didn't do it, you did not do it to Jesus. Therefore, it is a lie to say that you do not love your brother whom you can see and that you love God who is invisible.
Verse 11. It is said that Judah practiced deceit, and an abomination in Israel and in Jerusalem. Not only did he commit deceit against his brothers, but he also committed abominations. In the Old Testament, an abomination is an abomination when you offer an unclean thing. The idolaters and the land are detestable. Adultery between a man and a woman is also an abomination. The abomination in today's verse is talking about marrying someone who worships an idol. So Judah profaned the holiness of the Lord, whom he loved, and married the daughter of a foreign god.
The people of Israel are God's holy people. Holiness is to be in the covenant of God. However, marrying someone who worships a foreign god is an act of betraying the covenant. Just because you're a foreigner doesn't mean you can't get married. Even Gentiles can marry if they are incorporated into Israel. A woman like Ruth was a Moabite woman and a widow from a Gentile country, but she confessed the God of Israel as her God and entered Israel and became part of the people of Israel. Therefore, it was forbidden to marry the daughter of a foreign god.
However, if you look at the history of Israel, this problem does not always go away. I saw it last week, but after the Exodus, I was deceived by the Midianite women in the wilderness and became a subject to Baal. Even after they entered the land of Canaan, marriage with those who always worshiped foreign gods was a problem. Marriage to a foreigner is to serve a foreign god. As a result, they were taken captive to Babylon, but even after returning from there, marriages to Gentiles continued. In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we find reforms on these issues. These things profane the covenant and profane holiness.
The middle of verse 13. So the Lord says that he will never look at the offering again, nor will he be willing to take it out of your hand. Then immediately follow up. how is it? In other translations, what happened? Why are you doing this? Why are you here? It's a problem because we don't give to God. Why is it that we don't accept our offerings? This is how you protest.
Did God tell you to make a sacrifice because you were hungry? No! What are you lacking? no. Everything under the heavens belongs to the Lord. Then why did you ask for a sacrifice? Because of the covenant with Levi that we saw last week. The covenant was made by sacrifice. He said that he would give him life and his peace through the covenant. Instead, it was to show the Levitical covenant that life and peace are given through sacrifice. However, the people of Israel considered this sacrificial ritual to be defiled. So, how are you going to receive them?
After all, the reason that God did not accept it is because the Israelites betrayed the covenant. Last week, the sacrificial covenant was disregarded. Today, the marriage covenant is being disregarded. Ignoring and betraying these covenants is ultimately an act of ignoring and betraying the God of the covenant, so God does not accept their offering. So, why did you do that when God said that you would not accept your sacrifices? Why don't you accept our offerings? Answer those who do.
The middle of verse 14. It is that the LORD testified earlier with the wife you had taken since you were young. I am the wife you made an oath to, but you have acted deceitfully. He abandoned his wife who was drunk when he was young because he did not want to see him. And who did you bring as your wife? They brought their daughters who worshiped a foreign god. The interests of the daughters of foreign gods are only worldly. They are those who seek the beauty that can be seen. They were deceived by their outward appearance, so they abandoned the wife they had taken on the covenant of God and married a foreign woman.
However, the people of Israel are those who say that they did according to the law even though they abandoned their wives they had taken when they were young. He lived by interpreting and applying according to his own advantage with the article (Deuteronomy 24:1) that Moses told him to write a certificate of divorce in order to divorce. Even though this is a minimal device to protect the weak, they interpreted it to their advantage. Indeed, people hear only what they want to hear, see only what they want to see, and believe only what they want to believe. All these things are fake, but they firmly believe that it is the truth.
In Matthew 19, Pharisees come to Jesus and test him. It is asking questions with the law to catch you as a snare. They are really stupid people. It is the same as the test taker testing the test taker. He asks if it's okay to abandon his wife for whatever reason. Jesus answered, "Have you not seen the saying that the one who created man created man and woman and left their parents and said that the two should be joined to become one flesh?" Therefore, he said that man cannot divide what God has put together.
Then, didn't Moses say that if you give us a certificate of divorce, we can get a divorce? Jesus' answer is that he allowed you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts, but it was not originally so. If he liked a woman other than his wife, he continued to harass his wife, and if she just left her, she could not be protected, so she was given a certificate of divorce so that she could remarry, so that she could be protected.
However, the hard-hearted people have been able to divorce at will without any connection with fornication with this law. When the Pharisees heard this answer, they said it would be better not to marry. Human beings are so stubborn. Therefore, it is now that the prophet Malachi betrayed God's covenant and rebuked him for abandoning the wife he had taken as a child and marrying the daughters of a foreign god.
Verse 15. It is said that the Lord has made only one, even if the spirit is granted. He could have given Adam several wives, but why would he have given one? It is said to be in order to obtain godly descendants. Therefore, he tells me to watch over my spirit, and not to deceive my wife who was married when I was young.
Verse 16. It is said that the God of Israel hates those who cover their clothes with divorce and abuse. Therefore, he tells you to watch your hearts so that you do not practice deceit. But we are always cheaters. How often do you want to get a divorce, bully the weak, and look down on your brothers and sisters? And yet, God, how can this be? These are the people who are chasing after you. They deserve to be cut off from Israel. But what keeps it from breaking?
Hosea 2:19-20. “19 I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in favor and compassion; 20 I will betroth you to me in truth, and you shall know the Lord.”
Through this Lord's unwavering love, we have been saved. As long as our eternal Bridegroom does not change, we have hope.
So now the response will be like this. How can you give such love to a sinner like me!