Through My Bible Yr 02 – August 29

Malachi 2

Instruction From the Prophet:
The Covenant Is Broken by Divorce

¹⁰ Don’t we all have one Father? Hasn’t one God created us? Why then do we violate our vows to each other, polluting the covenant of our fathers? ¹¹ Judah has acted unfaithfully. A detestable thing was done in Israel and in Jerusalem when Judah polluted the holy place ^[1] of the Lord, which the Lord loves. Judah is married to the daughter of a foreign god. ¹² May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any man who does this, both the one who is awake and the one who answers, ^[2] even if he brings an offering to the Lord of Armies!

¹³ This is the second thing you do: You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and crying, because there is no longer any favorable response to your offering, and God is not pleased with anything from your hand. ¹⁴ So you ask, “Why is this happening?” This is why—because the Lord is a witness in the case between you and the wife you married when you were young, because you have betrayed her—though she was your partner, the wife with whom you made a covenant! ¹⁵ No one has done this who has a remnant of the Spirit. ^[3] And why one? He is seeking offspring from God. ^[4] So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not act unfaithfully against the wife you married when you were young. ¹⁶ He hates divorce! That is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. He hates it when a person wears violence as a garment. That is what the Lord of Armies says. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be unfaithful.

¹⁷ You have made the Lord weary with your words. You say, “How have we made him weary?” Whenever you say that anyone who does evil is good in the Lord’s eyes or that the Lord takes pleasure in evildoers. Or whenever you say, “Where is the God of justice?”

An Oracle From the Lord About the Messiah

Malachi 3

¹ Look! I am sending my messenger! ^[5] He will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord, whom you are seeking, will come to his temple! The Messenger of the Covenant, ^[6] in whom you delight, will surely come, says the Lord of Armies.

² But who can endure the day when he comes? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, like launderers bleach! ^{[7] 3} He will be seated like a refiner and a purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and like silver. They will belong to the Lord and bring him an offering in righteousness.

⁴ Judah and Jerusalem’s offerings will be pleasing to the Lord as they were in the days of old, in years long ago.

⁵ I will approach you to judge you. I will be quick to give testimony against those who practice occult arts, those who commit adultery, those who swear false oaths, those who cheat workers out of their wages, those who wrong a widow and a fatherless child, those who turn away a resident alien—all those who do not fear me, says the Lord of Armies.

⁶ Certainly I, the Lord, do not change. That is why you, sons of Jacob, have not come to an end.