Join host Steve Schwetz on a contemplative journey Through the Bible as we delve into the book of Malachi. In this episode, we draw comfort and guidance from scripture, exploring the commitments inherent in marriage. With insights from Dr. J. Vernon McGee, we unravel the ancient truths of Malachi 2 and highlight the significance of love in marriage, beyond legal contracts and obligations.
The firm of foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
SPEAKER 03 :
If you’ve known the disappointment of a failed marriage, you’re in the right place. I’m your host, Steve Schwetz, and today on Through the Bible, I hope that you’ll find comfort and conviction. The Old Testament prophet Malachi spends a good part of his book talking about the commitments of marriage, and so does our Bible teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, as he unpacks the truths from Malachi chapter 2 today. But first, here’s an introduction to our study.
SPEAKER 01 :
We have been, for the past few days… talking about the subject of marriage and divorce as Malachi presents it. Of all the books that we have seen today by this new crop of theologians and Christian psychologists on marriage, the passage in Malachi is ordinarily left out. And we have spent a great deal of time dealing with it to show the importance of it. Now, marriage is definitely a love relationship. It’s not any other kind of a relationship. Now, it is true to get married that it becomes a legal arrangement, a contract. You go and buy a marriage license from the government. whether it be local or county or state or United States government. It’s a government contract, since that you have agreed to live together. And that contract that’s made by the government is not based on love at all, just an agreement of two people that agree together. that they’re going to live together and fulfill certain obligations. But marriage is more than that. At the very beginning, there was no marriage license for Adam and Eve to get. The marriage was made in heaven, and it was a love relationship. And every marriage is a love relationship. Or actually, it’s no marriage at all. And that’s the point that we’ve been emphasizing. And that’s the reason that I have insisted that the problem today is not a divorce problem. It’s a marriage problem. And it’s very easy today to tell married couples how they ought to live together. But they ought to be taught at the very beginning Unless there is love between them, and I mean more than a physical love. We’ll talk about that today. And I’m getting ahead of my subject, by the way, but this is such an intensely important subject. May I say to you, we have letters here. Oh my, I’ve got a whole sheaf of them from young people. And it’s this group I’d like to speak to today before They get married and not wait till after they get married and then try to set up a few rules. And you think if you keep those rules, you’re going to save your marriage. You better be sure that God’s in the wedding at the very beginning.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, marriage and family are too hard to manage on our own, and we definitely need the Lord. But before we start, it is Letter Month, and that’s really a special time that we set aside to hear from you, our valued listeners. So here’s a quick voicemail from Al.
SPEAKER 02 :
I live near Fort Wayne, Indiana. I’m going to be 74 years old this month. And back when I was a young Christian back in about the mid-70s, My wife came home one night and said, there’s a man with a distinctive voice teaching on the radio here. It was Dr. McGee. So I listened to him for five years, the five-year study. And in fact, he used to love to come to Winona Lake. That’s in Warsaw, Indiana. And I actually got to see him live when he spoke there. I actually, once he started repeating the Bible study, I fell off the Bible bus, but Here, probably a few years ago now, I got back on the Bible bus and I’m really, really enjoying Dr. McGee’s teaching. He’s made a big difference in my life. Just learning about the 66 books of the Bible going through each one. So he has blessed my ministry. His ministry has blessed my life. And I’ve been married for 52 years to a wonderful wife. God has blessed us with five children. and has extremely blessed us with 10 grandsons and 10 granddaughters. So I’ve been a particular investment, nothing that I’ve done particularly, but it’s all the Lord. So thank you again for your ministry. Take care. Bye now.
SPEAKER 03 :
How about you? What are you learning? Do you have a story to share? Well, if so, drop us a note in our app or email us at biblebus at ttb.org or write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. And like Al, you can also call and leave a message for us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, bless the teaching of your word. And then help us to gain wisdom and knowledge as your spirit speaks to our hearts. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now turn to Malachi 2 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now friends, we’ve come down here in chapter 2 to verse 10. And here now, the people are rebuked for social sins. And it had to do here with the family. Now, the past two or three days, I have dealt specifically with this subject of divorce. But now I want to deal specifically with each verse as it leads up to this great subject. And it’s great because it’s such a pertinent and pressing problem of the hour. He says in verse 10, have we not all one father? Now, there are many that try to say that he means Abraham because he’s speaking specifically to Israel and definitely to Judah. And since that is true, there have been those, and maybe with some justification, they have said it’s Abraham. But I think the next question makes it clear that he’s speaking about God. Hath not one God created us? Now, he also makes it clear how God is the Father. God is a Father by creation. But man lost that. Adam was the son of God. But after the fall, he begat a son in his likeness, not the likeness of God, but in the likeness of his fallen nature. And so when you come to the nation Israel, you do not find God speaking specifically of individual Israelites as being sons, but he speaks of the corporate body that’s in the nation. Are the nation Israel as his son? Isaiah says, Israel, my son. Well, that’s the nation, not just one individual, even of two men that were so outstanding in the Old Testament like Moses and David. It’s Moses, my servant. David, my servant. Never Moses, my son, or David, my son. We become sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Have we not all one Father? That’s by creation. We’re all human beings. Now, that is something that is being greatly emphasized in the world today, and I think properly so. We’re all human beings. I heard a man, definitely an unsaved man on TV, Play that up, that we’re all human beings and we ought to show respect one for another and consideration. Well, that’s true. As far as he went, that’s entirely accurate. You’re a human being. I’m a human being. And I should accord you the same rights and privileges and respect that I would like to have for myself. Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? We are all the creation of God. Why do we deal treacherously, every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Now, here they were, a chosen people, and they are breaking God’s covenant, and they were dealing treacherously one with another. And not right with God, they’re not right one with another. And that is certainly true of man today. I very personally have to say that a great many people that are unsaved today, I couldn’t trust them, I wouldn’t trust them. And unfortunately, I have to say, since I’ve been in the church for most of my life, there are a lot in the church that I would not trust. nor have I any confidence in them all. Why? They deal treacherously. And there is nothing that hurts the cause of Christ today more than a church fight and difficulty in the church and the fact that believers are at each other’s throats. How tragic that is. And I don’t care how evangelistic the church might be. The witness is nil when they are at each other’s in a very terrible fight. He goes on here in verse 11, and he’s very specific now. Judah hath dealt treacherously. We now know who he’s talking about, the tribe of Judah and around Jerusalem. He says, Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel. Now, that’s all the 12 tribes, and in Jerusalem, the capital. For Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord, which he loved. Now, God is holy, and he loves holiness. God doesn’t love sin. He hates sin. Now, specifically, what’s he talking about? And God will always spell it out. And hath married the daughter of a foreign god. Now, we’ve dealt with that. They were leaving their wives, and around them were these beautiful foreign girls, and they were marrying them. But these girls served a heathen pagan deity. And that brought into Israel, that brought idolatry into the nation. That’s the way it got in at the beginning. That’s the way that Balaam was able actually to curse Israel. He could not curse them. God would not permit it. But he was able to give Balak some very bad advice for Israel. He said, let the daughters of Moab marry the sons of Israel. And again, it brought judgment of God down upon them. And that, my friend, is something that carries all the way through the Word of God. And personally, I think that’s what the 6th of Genesis means. I don’t think that man and angels cohabited and produced some kind of a monstrous offspring because angels need a marriage, a given in marriage. And what you have here is a godless line. The sons of God, the godly line looked upon the daughters of man. And again, it’s the same old story. And it’s the same old story today. I’ve been saying it in Southern California since 1940. And I get out of breath saying it, but I keep on saying it. And divorce keeps building up. Nobody’s paying any attention to me, but I keep saying it. A believer and an unbeliever ought not to get married. Any girl or any boy that flies in the face of God’s very definite, specific instructions and command in this connection is just flirting with trouble. And believe me, problems will be coming his way. And it always happens that way. It cannot be otherwise. Now, verse 12. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, doesn’t make any difference who he is, out of the tabernacles of Jacob and him that offering an offering unto the Lord of hosts. You see, it doesn’t make any difference whether he’s going through the ritual. If he continues to live in sin, that’s the reason that the prodigal son was a son and not a pig. He one day said, I’m going to go home to my father. My father’s not a pig. My father’s up yonder in that beautiful white house. And I want to go home, have the nature of my father. And a child of God won’t live in sin. I have a startling letter. It says I’m an officer in the church and I can’t give up adultery. My brother, whoever you are, if you are God’s child, you’re going to get out of the pig pen. And if you don’t get out of the pig pen, there’s just one conclusion to come to. You just have to be one of the pigs because nothing but pigs love the pig pen and are satisfied to stay down there. You’ll get out of it. Now, notice verse 13, “…and this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out.” insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with goodwill at your hand. But what was happening? The wives of these men that were divorcing them and going and marrying these foreign girls, these wives came to the altar weeping and in tears and shed them upon the altar, you see. God said, I heard them. I listened to them. And then when you came along later and very piously, and you brought your offering and put it on that same altar where the tears of your wife was, then you expected me to accept it. God says, I want you to know something. I didn’t pay any attention to it. And I would say this, I have a notion that this man that says he’s an officer in the church and he commits adultery, I have a notion he takes up the offering. He may be the treasurer of the church. You may be the head deacon. But God is paying no attention to your work. It’s no good in his sight. Be better if you stayed home and stayed out of sight. God makes it very clear here. God says he will not receive it at all. God says, I will not receive it with goodwill at your hand. I know you’re a hypocrite and I will not accept it. Now, will you notice as we move on here, verse 14, yet ye say, why? Oh, will you listen to him? With feigned, injured innocence, with pretended ignorance, offense. Oh, God is so offensive to even suggest that, because why wouldn’t he accept it? Why, I brought a lovely, nice little fat lamb to offer, but God says you’re rotten in your life. And may I say that when they ask the question why, now God spells it out so you can’t misunderstand. He puts it in neon lights. Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant. Now, she’s the one that you stood before the priest and took a covenant that you would be faithful and true unto her. And verse 15, “…and did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the Spirit, and why one?” Now, as I said last time, that this takes you back to creation. Malachi takes you back to creation. And the Lord Jesus in the 19th of Matthew took them back to creation. Paul took them back to the creation of man and woman. There you find God’s original purpose. The woman was a help that was to be fit for the man. She’s to be one that’s part of him. He’s not a man without her. Adam didn’t know he was a man till Eve was brought to him. Then he knew he was a man. And he knew she was a woman. And she knew he was a man. And she knew she was a woman. They were one. Each was a half of the other. And when a man and a woman can reach the place and say, as you have it in the Song of Solomon, I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. My friend, when a man and a woman can say that, they’ve arrived. That’s a happy home. That’s a glorious relationship, and that is God’s intention and God’s purpose. Now, let me continue on here. God said he made them one. He made them one. Made them one in the child, you see. Adam is a half, and Eve is a half, and together they made one. And believe me, before they got through, they had pretty much populated one spot on this earth, let me tell you. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the Spirit? And why one? That he might seek a godless seed. You see, she had to be a help to him. She had to be like his. And that’s the reason, young lady, you ought not to marry that young man unless he believes as you do. Because actually, you’re supposed to go his way. And you’re going to find going rough if you’re a child of God. And young man. And our young woman, you may think you can win them over after you get married. Don’t you know that before you get married, that’s when you have your greatest influence? I tell you, a young fellow in love, he’ll just do anything to please the girl he’s going to marry. But you wait till after he’s married a while, he may not be so anxious to please her. so that if you can’t win him before, you won’t win him afterward, and you’re in trouble, and I mean deep trouble. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the Spirit, and why one that he might seek a godly seed?” For the sake of the family, in a home where there’s divorce or where there was polygamy in the past, it’s not a fit place to raise children. It’s a difficult place. Therefore, take heed to your spirit. Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. Now, God says, that was the one that I honored, and you have no right to break it on sinful grounds. That is, marrying these foreign women. To begin with, God had forbidden that. God specifically had put down his word, the law. They were not to marry out among the heathen. And you remember Nehemiah, when we studied Nehemiah, Nehemiah, after he’d built the walls of Jerusalem, he had to return to his job back down in Mediapersia, the capital. He served the king down there as cupbearer. But after he’d been down there for a while, he got a vacation. He came up. And he found that old Tobiah, the enemy of God, had moved into the temple. They’d cleaned out a storeroom. And the high priest had made an apartment for him because his son had married the daughter of old Tobiah. And you know what Nehemiah did? Nehemiah went in and pitched out all of his belongings and even the furniture and told him to take off. You say, that’s pretty rough and not very polite. No, but it sure did cleanse the temple. I wish to God we had laymen today that stood for the Word of God like that. This is terrific, friends. Now, verse 16. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith… that he hateth putting away. For one covereth violence with his garments, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. One of the loveliest things in the Old Testament was that when a man married a girl, why, he took his garment, outer garment, and put it over her. That meant that he was going to protect her. You remember that lovely thing in the book of Ruth? Ruth was a widow. And according to the Mosaic law, she had to claim Boaz as her kinsman redeemer before he could act. He could not ask her to marry him. She had to claim it. And so Naomi, who was a regular matchmaker, sent her down there to the threshing floor. Says, now you go down there. And when that man… Together, the whole families were there. They’d had a big religious ceremony. Says when he lies down, his feet sticking out from the wheat and all the other men lying around like spokes in a wheel protecting that pile of grain that was there that they’d thrashed. She says to her, you lie down there. And then when he waked up in the morning, he was cold, that desert country. He won’t know who in the world it was that was way down at her feet, stuck down toward his feet. And his cloak was gone. And she said to him, Put your cloak over me. In other words, she’s asking him for his protection as the kinsman redeemer. In other words, to marry him. And that is what a man offers a woman in marriage, is his protection and his love. And she offers her devotion and her life to him. That’s a picture of Christ in the church. Now, verse 17. Now, we come here to something that’s tremendous. God says, ye have wearied the Lord with your words. You know, I just can’t help but laugh at that. God says, I’m so tired of those long past prayers that you pray. And I’m so tired of the testimonies that you give. God says, you really make me weary. You see, they said to God that they were weary. God says, you don’t know half of it. You just bore me to tears. by that hypocritical service that you render me. Well, we’re going to leave off right there. Until next time, and may I say to you, Malachi, I’ll keep the pot boiling. You can be sure of that. This is a tremendous book and a great book to end the Old Testament. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. And if you’re looking for a paperback version of our Bible companions, including Revelation, well, you can head over to our store at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll be here saving a seat on the Bible bus just for you. Through the Bible is a five-year study of God’s entire Word, and together we discover God’s purposes in history and our lives, found only when we believe in Jesus Christ. Do you know Him yet?
