Today’s passage is Malachi 2:10-15. Malachi says that God condemns those who marry unbelievers, breaking the covenant. He also condemns those who weep at the altar wondering why their sacrifices are not accepted. It’s because they are unfaithful to their wives and do not give birth to godly offspring.
Why do the Israelites marry foreign women?
Why are they unfaithful to their wives?
“The wife of your youth”(14)
I got married when I was 25. My wife was six years older than I.
I committed adultery with her and lived with her for two years before she divorced her first husband and married me.
Twenty-five years later I committed adultery again, a few months before my wife died of alcohol related causes.
I broke covenant with her, failed to raise godly offspring, and was cut off from the tents of Jacob for many years.
When I look back at my broken life, I wonder what went wrong, just like the adulterous men in verses 13 and 14.
How I remember weeping at the altar, crying to know why the Lord wasn’t helping me find a job, get out of debt, and give me some happiness.
At Wooridle I’ve learned to see that the cause of my grief has been myself and my steady commitment of sin in the pursuit of happiness through instant gratification.
I’ve learned to read the Bible and interpret my life through God’s word.
Over and over I see myself in the sinful, ignorant, and conniving characters depicted in the Bible, like today’s.
I ask myself why I take so long to learn the simplest lessons of restraint, self-control and patience?
Why am I so bent?
Why do I keep throwing my cross down instead of persevering in my spiritual walk?
Application: Repent again of my treachery against my first wife.
Lord, let me not be a hypocrite but see my sins clearly, repent and bring my offering to you with gratitude for my undeserved salvation.
