Mal 2:14 | KingComments | STEP | The people ask about the “reason” of the rejection of their offering. The answer that follows is an unparalleled powerful protest against the evil of divorce. Divorce is a sin that powerfully calls to God. Even then, they dare ask why God does not accept their offering. As they embrace strange women, they send their own wives away. So deep can a people sink that turns away from God and His Word! God is Witness to every marriage, not only at the wedding, but also afterwards ( ). Wherever a marriage bond between a man and a woman is formed, it is God Who does so, for He has instituted marriage. That is independent of whether the man and the woman involve God in their marriage. It is about the institution as such. God wants it to be maintained. Then He wants to see that both husband and wife act in faithfulness to that bond. Unfaithfulness in marriage is the greatest unfaithfulness a person can show. He who is unfaithful in marriage cannot be trusted in any other area. God addresses the husband here in a serious way on his unfaithfulness. God was there when the husband married the wife of his youth. Now He has to conclude that the husband acts unfaithfully against her. He tells the husband that the wife he married is his “companion” after all! From the day he married her, he shares everything with her until the day of his death: joy and sorrow, hopes and fears, desires and dangers, money and goods, body and soul ( ; ). She is also “your wife by covenant”. Marriage is a covenant ( ; ). Spouses promise each other faithfulness, in good times and in bad. How awful it is when a husband becomes unfaithful, when he breaks his promise of faithfulness. Of course it also applies to the wife, but here the husband is addressed. He is primarily responsible for the faithfulness in his marriage.

‏ Malachi 2:14

God Is Witness to Every Marriage

The people ask about the “reason” of the rejection of their offering. The answer that follows is an unparalleled powerful protest against the evil of divorce. Divorce is a sin that powerfully calls to God. Even then, they dare ask why God does not accept their offering. As they embrace strange women, they send their own wives away. So deep can a people sink that turns away from God and His Word!

God is Witness to every marriage, not only at the wedding, but also afterwards (Gen 31:49-50). Wherever a marriage bond between a man and a woman is formed, it is God Who does so, for He has instituted marriage. That is independent of whether the man and the woman involve God in their marriage. It is about the institution as such. God wants it to be maintained. Then He wants to see that both husband and wife act in faithfulness to that bond. Unfaithfulness in marriage is the greatest unfaithfulness a person can show. He who is unfaithful in marriage cannot be trusted in any other area.

God addresses the husband here in a serious way on his unfaithfulness. God was there when the husband married the wife of his youth. Now He has to conclude that the husband acts unfaithfully against her. He tells the husband that the wife he married is his “companion” after all! From the day he married her, he shares everything with her until the day of his death: joy and sorrow, hopes and fears, desires and dangers, money and goods, body and soul (1Cor 7:3-4; Mt 19:4-6).

She is also “your wife by covenant”. Marriage is a covenant (Pro 2:17; Eze 16:8). Spouses promise each other faithfulness, in good times and in bad. How awful it is when a husband becomes unfaithful, when he breaks his promise of faithfulness. Of course it also applies to the wife, but here the husband is addressed. He is primarily responsible for the faithfulness in his marriage.