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Malachi 2 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
God starts with the priests and then works His way down to marriage and divorce in this heavy-handed chapter. Rather than speak to the details, I want to look at the bigger picture. We know that it has only been a short time since Israel has returned to their land and rebuilt their temple. The people in positions of leadership and authority were not that far removed from the punishment of their previous rebellion. But as we read, they went right back into the same sin struggles as before.
“But now you priests have turned away from the right path. Your teaching has led many to do wrong. You have broken the covenant I made with you. 9 So I, in turn, will make the people of Israel despise you because you do not obey my will, and when you teach my people, you do not treat everyone alike.”
Malachi 2:8-9 GNB
What this speaks to is the fact that under the old covenant, the people could not resist a sinful pattern of life. They fell back into it consistently. They operated in the flesh. Their obedience was short-lived as they quickly forgot how God had faithfully rescued them throughout their history. Does this describe your life currently?
What is the difference today? We have freedom in Christ. We have the Holy Spirit to convict and encourage. We have God’s power to choose life instead of death. With every decision we make, we are either choosing to give more of ourselves over to God or more of ourselves over to self.
What is the same today? We, like Israel, will always fall back into sin when we operate in the flesh. It’s guaranteed. When we read the Old Testament, we get a picture of what life looks without a Savior. It is frustrating, debilitating, and impossible. The question for today is who are you giving your life to? What direction are you headed with each decision?
“People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, “If you keep a lot of rules I’ll reward you, and if you don’t I’ll do the other thing.” I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before.
And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.”
C.S. Lewis