Marital Faithfulness
We are to marry only fellow believers
and commit to a permanent
one man -- one woman relationship.
Here's Gene:
Now from Genesis to Revelation,
that's God's ideal.
That's God's perfect will.
Marriage was established in the
Garden of Eden.
God created Adam and then He created Eve.
He brought them together
to become one flesh.
And so consequently God's will was that
what God has joined together,
let no man put asunder.
We know that right from the beginning
of the story of creation.
But Israel, once again, had failed.
And there are two basic things that
Malachi addressed related to marriage.
The first had to do with marrying pagans--
marrying those who were idolaters
and worshipers of Baal.
And gods of wood and stone.
Now this takes us back, you see,
to a clear warning that God had given Israel
even when they came out of Egypt.
Before they entered the promised land.
They were perched on the
edge of the promised land
after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years
because of their disobedience.
And in Deuteronomy, God
actually reviewed the law.
That's what Deuteronomy really means.
It's a review of the law.
And this is what God said through
Moses in chapter 7 of Deuteronomy:
Do not intermarry with them. ...
That pronoun, that plural pronoun,
refers to the Canaanites.
If you look at the context,
He actually lists all of the Canaanites
who were idolaters.
...Do not intermarry with them.
Do not give your daughters to their sons
or take their daughters for your sons,
because they will turn your sons
away from Me to worship other gods.
[And] then the Lord's anger will burn against you,
and He will swiftly destroy you.
That was a warning that God had given
before they ever entered the promised land.
Now here they are
back from Babylonian captivity.
And one of the reasons they went
into Babylonian captivity is because
they violated this principle.
There were many other things that they did
but idolatry was one of the worst things
that they did.
Which led to judgment that caused
the northern tribes to go into captivity
because of the Assyrians.
And then the Babylonians later
took Judah into captivity.
Here they are back from captivity
a hundred years later.
And the same thing is happening.
They're intermarrying with pagans.
And so Malachi has to address this.
And this is what he says:
Judah has acted treacherously...
That word 'treacherously' is used five times
within this paragraph--dealing with this sin.
It's interesting when you think of the synonyms.
It really means to be disloyal,
to be unfaithful, being a traitor.
And so God is saying:
Judah has acted treacherously,
horribly unfaithful to Me,
God says, as their God.
And of course, God in other places said:
When they depart from Him,
He considers that spiritual adultery.
That's how He viewed the nation of Israel
in following false gods.
Then it says:
...and a detestable thing has been done
in Israel and in Jerusalem. ...
And that word 'detestable' really is
a strong word.
Another English word is abhorrent.
It's abhorrent. It's hateful.
It's abominable. It's repulsive.
Those are the words, the synonyms,
for being detestable.
This is how God viewed what was
going on in Israel.
And then God goes on to
explain through Malachi:
...For Judah has profaned the LORD's sanctuary,
which He loves, and has married
the daughter of a foreign god.
And there He generalizes from the individuals
to the fact that this has become
a national sin.
Together Israel is guilty of this spiritual adultery.
And we see Malachi pronouncing God's judgment.
Malachi chapter 2, verse 13:
And this is another thing you do:
you cover the LORD's altar with tears,
with weeping and groaning,
because He no longer respects your offerings
or receives them gladly from your hands.
In other words, they're boo-hooing
because God's not blessing them.
And they don't stop to think in terms of
what they've been doing.
And God goes ahead and He reminds them.
It's amazing that He had to remind them
of this particular situation.
And so here's what He says:
And this is another thing [that] you do:
you cover the LORD's altar with tears,
[with] weeping [and] groaning,
because He no longer respects your offerings
or receives them gladly from your hands.
And He's dealing with another
aspect of their sin.
And that's divorce.
Malachi chapter 2.
Not only are they marrying pagans
but they're actually divorcing
their own wives to marry pagans.
Which was just complicating the situation.
And so God says:
Yet you ask, "For what reason?"
[am I not blessing you?]
Because the Lord has been a witness
between you and the wife of your youth.
You have acted treacherously against her,
though she was your marriage partner
and your wife by covenant. ...
That tells us what God thinks about
marriage as well as divorce.
..."If he hates and divorces his wife,"
says the Lord God of Israel,
"he covers his garment with injustice,"
says the Lord of Hosts.
Therefore, watch yourselves carefully,
and do not act treacherously.
And it's interesting that here we see this
definite continuity between the
Old Testament and the New
in terms of God's ideal.
Because if you go to 2nd Corinthians,
here's what we read:
Do not be mismatched with unbelievers.
For what partnership is there
between righteousness and lawlessness?
Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
What agreement does Christ have with Belial?
Or what does a believer have
in common with an unbeliever?
And obviously here, he's covering
a lot of relationships that would be
out of the will of God.
Where there is fellowship with unbelievers.
And even deep friendships
with unbelievers in a way that
there cannot be harmony
because of the belief system
of those individuals that become
a part of your lifestyle.
And of course, that includes, obviously marriage.
And so God's ideal is to marry
only those who are one in Jesus Christ.
That's His ideal.
The interesting thing is that
God recognizes sin and how it impacts us.
So even as in the Old Testament,
He had to extend grace.
And there were Pharisees that came
to test Him in terms of divorce.
And this is what Jesus said:
"Haven't you read," He replied [to these Pharisees],
"that He who created them
in the beginning made them
male and female," ...
Now let me just simply say,
if you understand the Bible,
this says male and female,
not male and male, or female and female.
There's no way we can condone anything
but a one man -- one woman relationship
as far as God's will is concerned.
...and He also said:
"For this reason a man will
leave his father and mother
[and] be joined to his wife...
Not to his significant other.
To his wife.
...and the two will become one flesh?
So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Therefore, what God has joined together,
man must not separate."
God's ideal.
But then Jesus said:
Because of sin, recognizing sin, I believe
that He has allowed an exception here.
And we see that in Matthew 19:9:
"And I tell you, whoever divorces his wife,
except for sexual immorality,
and marries another, commits adultery."
In other words, what He is simply saying here,
if you look at it carefully, is there is
consistent immorality, unfaithfulness,
just like Israel was guilty of with God.
And there, I believe God then justifies divorce.
Not as His ideal but an exception
because of sin.
But I think there's one other reason.
And I think we could
call this abandonment.
And we read about it in 1st Corinthians,
where Paul wrote and said:
But I (not the Lord)...
That is, he didn't have a direct revelation
from Jesus or get this from Jesus.
...But I (not the Lord) say to the rest:
If any brother has an unbelieving wife
and she is willing to live with him,
he must not leave her.
Also, if any woman has an unbelieving husband
and he is willing to live with her,
she must not leave her husband.
But if the unbeliever leaves, let him leave.
A brother or a sister is not bound
in such cases.
God has called you to live in peace.
And my personal opinion here is,
that's another exception that
God has built into what is His ideal--
to deal with the fact that
sin is prevalent in our society,
in our world.
But His ideal is one man -- one woman for life.
And so here's the question
for Reflection and Response:
Though there are allowances
in Scripture for divorce and remarriage,
why must we take God's will seriously,
doing all we can to keep this kind of
separation from ever happening?
And by the way, some of the people
that teach and speak most clearly
and most intensely on this subject
are people who've experienced it.
People who've experienced this and say:
I've experienced it and it's not pretty.
And they talk about all the pain that has happened,
even though they're forgiven in Christ.
And so the answer to the question is,
it's not the perfect will of God.
We know that.
The painful experiences for children.
The breakdown of the whole family structure.
Which actually leads to the breakdown
of our whole culture.
That's what brought down the Roman Empire.
One of the most key reasons was
the breakdown of the family.
Unfortunately, we see that happening
in our own culture.
But having said all that, we have to say--
and thankfully we can say--
there is always forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
from every sin.
And let me simply say,
if God forgave Paul for murder--
and he was a murderer. He will certainly forgive
the sin of divorce and adultery.
And let me simply say this.
Paul was a forgiven murderer all his life.
When he became a believer,
he didn't cease to be a murderer.
He was a murderer.
But he was a forgiven murderer.
And certainly that applies
in relationship to divorce and adultery.
There are many believers today
who are forgiven adulterers.
They are forgiven because of what has happened.
And they're under the grace of God.
But in no way should this be an excuse
for not doing everything we can
to be in God's ideal.
Here's the Principle that grows out of
this passage from both the
Old and the New Testament:
We are to marry only fellow believers
and commit to a permanent
one man -- one woman relationship.