HE LOVES US NOT
Opening Prayer
Faithful God, I am so glad You love me.
Read Malachi 1:1–5; 2:10–16
1 A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.[a]
Israel Doubts God’s Love
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord.
“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’
“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
4 Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.”
But this is what the Lord Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord. 5 You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is the Lord—even beyond the borders of Israel!’
Footnotes:
a Malachi 1:1 Malachi means my messenger.
Malachi 2:10-16
Breaking Covenant Through Divorce
10 Do we not all have one Father[a]? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?
11 Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. 12 As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob[b]—even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.
13 Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 14 You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
15 Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring.[c] So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.
16 “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,”[d] says the Lord Almighty.
So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.
Footnotes:
a Malachi 2:10 Or father
b Malachi 2:12 Or 12 May the Lord remove from the tents of Jacob anyone who gives testimony in behalf of the man who does this
c Malachi 2:15 The meaning of the Hebrew for the first part of this verse is uncertain.
d Malachi 2:16 Or “I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “because the man who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence,”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“I have loved you with an everlasting love…” (Jeremiah 31:3, NIV). Reflect on the wonder of God’s love for you.Things don’t always live up to expectation. Israel knew all about that. Disappointed and disillusioned, they doubted God’s love. Even when he assured them of his love, they threw it back at him. So he reminds them they are his special people (Exodus 19:5). (The complex issues of how we should understand, “Esau I have hated” require more space than we have here, but it is probably a way of saying how much God loved Israel rather than that he literally hated Esau.)
God had concerns of his own. In verses we have not read (1:8, 13, 14), he challenged them about bringing second-rate animals for sacrifice. Now it’s divorcing their wives to marry foreign women and worship their gods. Marriage is not to be ended lightly or for selfish reasons.
We are in a very different position culturally and in our relationship with God. But still God wants the very best from us in terms of time, devotion, the use of the gifts he has given us, integrity, and fidelity in marriage. Israel charged God with breaking his side of the agreement but the truth was they had broken theirs. God doesn’t stop loving us when we disobey him, but we find that we can no longer fully experience that love.
Apply
Renew your love for God and ask whether there are things you need to change to demonstrate that love more fully. Then do it!
Closing prayer
Jesus, make me more like You. May my heart be truly like Yours.
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