“And now, O priests, this command is for you. 2 If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. 3 Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. 4 So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. 5 My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. 7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 8 But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, 9 and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.”
Judah Profaned the Covenant
10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!
13 And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. 16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
The Messenger of the Lord
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” Malachi 2 ESV
Malachi 2 I Will Curse Your Blessings
If you will not listen - He is calling them to repent, as they have offered forbidden sacrifices and not honored or feared God as mentioned in the prior chapter.
If you will not take it to heart - Listening is more than just hearing, they need to understand and they need to change their minds, altering the present pattern and direction they are going in.
And spread dung on your faces - When you killed an animal for sacrifice it would still have dung in it's intestines, and so these parts, along with the hide were to be burned outside the camp as a sin offering. He is basically telling the priests that He is going to put that dung on their faces, which would be marking them as unclean, and making it necessary to send them outside of the sanctuary, a pink slip, saying you are not fit for duty.
…13Take all the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar. 14But burn the flesh of the bull and its hide and dung outside the camp; it is a sin offering. Exodus 29: 13-14
MacArthur - This very graphic language shows how God viewed unfaithful priests as worthy of the most unthinkable disgrace. As the internal waste of the sacrificial animal was normally carried outside the camp and burned (cf. Ex 29:14; Lv 4:11, 12; 8:17; 16:27), so the priests would be discarded and suffer humiliation and loss of office. The Lord’s purpose in such a warning was to shake them out of their complacency. (MacArthur Study Bible)
My covenant with him was one of life and peace - Very much like the covenant God demands between children and parents, those that were God's children under the law enjoyed both long life and peace through obedience to the Father.
…44Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 45“Take the Levites in place of all the firstborn of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites in place of their livestock. The Levites belong to Me; I am the LORD. Numbers 3: 44-45
He feared Me - Levi, whom the Lord speaks well of, this is the father of that tribe, the one to which Aaron also belonged. The fear of the Lord is foundational, and the priest then, or preacher now, who fears the thoughts and actions of men more than God, He wears the dung about his face, but has lost the mirror that would tell him as much.
…27What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.… Matthew 10: 27-29
He stood in awe of My name...true instruction was in his mouth - He knew the word well, and he believed it.
1Of David. I give You thanks with all my heart; before the gods I sing Your praises. 2I bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your loving devotion and Your faithfulness; You have exalted Your name and Your word above all else. 3On the day I called, You answered me; You emboldened me and strengthened my soul.… Psalm 138: 1-3
He walked with me in peace and uprightness - This is the integrity desired of the office, necessary to it even, otherwise we pretend.
He turned many from iniquity - He was zealous for the Lord. What use is priest or pastor that does not preach repentance, who does not make known that God is not speaking just to hear Himself, that when He says He hates sin and that He is just, He means every bit of it.
…11“Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the Israelites; for he was zealous for My sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in My zeal. 12Declare, therefore, that I am granting him My covenant of peace. 13It will be a covenant of permanent priesthood for him and his descendants, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”… Numbers 25: 11-13
You have caused many to stumble by your instruction - The priests of Malachi's time have violated the approach, have not kept sacred the doctrines of Holy Scripture.
…5we have sinned and done wrong. We have acted wickedly and rebelled. We have turned away from Your commandments and ordinances. 6We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, and fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel near and far, in all the countries to which You have driven us because of our unfaithfulness to You.… Daniel 9: 5-7
You do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction - There are many today who do the same, but hearing they do not understand. An example is given, that you show partiality in your instruction. You tell the rich differently than you tell the poor, your ear is for him who increases your purse, and so you are not just. Many now take God's word so lightly that they adjust the message according to the desires of the audience. Who will warn those that seek teachers that do not warn, that do not fear God?
45In the hearing of all the people, Jesus said to His disciples, 46“Beware of the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, and they love the greetings in the marketplaces, the chief seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets. 47They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”… Luke 20: 45-47
10-17 Why then are we faithless to one another - We all come from Adam and Eve, and so there is no good argument for racism. These, Israel, even shared this plus the heritage of being Abraham's seed. They were brought out of Egypt together, yet they deceived and mistreated one another. Herein is a great difficulty, the other side of the tablet, our relationship to those that are made, as us, in God's image. What we do against each other is against the God Who made all, and Who has also given us instructions otherwise.
…4“Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander. 5Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity. 6You dwell in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD.… Jeremiah 9: 4-6
…19Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” 20On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.… Romans 12: 19-21
Has married the daughter of a foreign god - So much of the dietary laws, the ceremonial laws, were to keep Israel separated to their God. They were to be the beacon of truth, worshiping the only true God, and demonstrating the approach. Judah was the lineage of the kings, from whence would come Messiah, but just like Levi's offspring, he is reproved for going after relationships that leave him unequally yoked, and a poor model for the people. Solomon had many foreign wives and idolatry was rampant in his time. The women themselves were idols for Solomon.
T V Moore - The greatness of the sin (of marriage "to the daughter of a foreign god") arose from the fact that it tended to defeat one of the purposes of the Mosaic economy. God isolated the Jews from all other nations (Ex 19:6), that they might be a nursery for the great ideas of religion that were to be elaborated in the history of the world, and a stock from which he would bring forth the Messiah. All mingling with other nations who had not been trained in this way and preserved for this purpose, tended to defeat this design. Especially was this true of matrimonial alliances. Heathen women retained a natural longing for the indulgences of their own religion, and easily led their husbands into guilty compliances. The women of Moab and Philistia, and the wives of Solomon, furnish mournful proofs of this fact. They led their infatuated husbands and paramours into the grossest idolatry. Hence these connections were grievous sins against God; but as they led to cruel treatment of the Jewish wives, they were also sins against humanity. The prophet strikes at once at the heart of the sin, and shows that it is want of fidelity to God that lies at the root of it all. Whoever violates the theocratic law, rebels against God who made it. They, therefore, who chose heathen wives, thereby rejected the God of Israel. (Malachi 2 Commentary 1856) - Precept Austin
Did He not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union - Wow, now we are back to the earlier paragraphs, where the priests showed partiality in their instructions. Men left their wives, looking for loopholes in the law, but was this how God saw the union? Marriage is an institute of God, He invented it with Adam and Eve, He made them male and female, to fit together, the two becoming one flesh. Your relationship with your wife is a reflection of your relationship to God, a covenant, under His institution. It even appears here, to be sealed by His Spirit. How many hold marriage in so high regard today? We have turned to the culture for the definition of marriage, yet God invented it, and prizes it highly, so much so that we here do not begin to comprehend.
You cover the altar of the LORD - Who is "you?" Is it the divorced wives? That seems less likely because why would God cease to regard their offering? More likely as Phillips says "It seems that the guilty parties thought that an offering or two on the altar would square accounts with God." They were wasting their time for the Word says "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination (same strong word used in Mal 2:) to the LORD." (Pr 15:8-note) There offerings were external and were unaccompanied by internal change - no brokenness, no contrition, no repentance. David understood clearly the "sacrifice" Jehovah desired from a sinner writing... - Precept Austin
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. (Ps 51:17-note)
17But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. 18Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;… 1 Corinthians 6: 17-19
For the man who does not love his wife...but divorces her - He is breaking a serious covenant, one that God did not take so lightly. Culture never trumps God.
…24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her 26to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,… Ephesians 5: 24-26
…7“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses order a man to give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hardness of heart; but it was not this way from the beginning. 9Now I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman, commits adultery.”… Matthew 19: 7-9
Everyone who does evil - They always twisted these things around, applying spin as they needed it. They thought ritualism paid for evil, then they slacked in their ritualism, hypocrites. Job's friends insisted upon his evil as the cause of his suffering, and erred in this and thinking that their wealth was the evidence of their being just and good.
…18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ 19The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated by her actions.” 20Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.… Matthew 11: 18-20
Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD - Verhoef explains that Israel had been clearly "prohibited to do evil in the eyes of the Lord and to provoke him to anger (Dt. 4:25; 9:18); they were charged to do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight (Dt. 6:18; 12:28). On the basis of their own “experiences” the speakers have come to the blasphemous conclusion that God now has contradicted His own injunction: in His eyes, that is, according to His perception and evaluation, it is good to do evil!" - Precept Austin
Woodrow Kroll comments on their wearisome words - "Where is the God of judgment?—the Lord must not exist, or He would judge the evildoers instead of prospering them. All three complaints are familiar. Jehovah graciously answers their complaint in the opening verses of the succeeding chapter by showing that One is coming Who will indeed right all wrongs—including those in the priesthood and the people of Israel!" - Precept Austin
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