Malachi Chapter Two, Marriage

 

Malachi 2:10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers?

 

After addressing the corrupt priesthood expressly and the covenant of Levi they endangered, Malachi turns his attention to another covenant, one far more ancient. The prophet begins by asking if all of Israel does not have one Father, see Malachi 1:6. God said of Israel that he was the firstborn son amongst the nations. Also, He already inquired of the people that if He was a Father, why He did not receive the reverence due His name. Some argue that here, at the beginning of verse 10, Abraham is being considered, not Yahweh. Abraham is perhaps the most important historical figure in Israel. In Christ’s day the rich man in Hades addressed him as “Father Abraham,” Luke 16:24. The Jews likewise claimed Abraham as their father in John 8:39 when they were defending their lineage and its supposed privileges to Jesus. Yet they were not timid in also claiming that God—Yahweh, their covenant God—was their Father, John 8:41.

The context does not seem to necessitate Abraham being alluded to since he isn’t mentioned by name and the covenant God speaks of isn’t circumcision or the promise of Canaan: it is the primeval institution of marriage, Malachi 2:11. Malachi frames the first and second questions to achieve identical answers. To paraphrase: “Is not God our Father? Did He not create all of us?” See also Isaiah 63:16. God deserves filial piety and the glory due His role and position as the Creator. Understanding this, the prophet wonders about the basis for the Jews’ treacherous behavior in regards to a covenant that began with their ‘fathers,’ or the patriarchs. Of course this covenant travels history’s course far past Abraham, or Eber, or Shem. It goes beyond Noah and the time of the Flood back to Eden. God created Eve as a helpmeet for Adam, Israel’s (and our) first patriarch. “He brought [Eve] to the man. And Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh…therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh,” Genesis 2:22-24.

 

Of course the covenant (marriage) was amended in the days of Isaac. It was not that the covenant had been altered, but rather refined while Israel was still in embryo. Isaac, upon Jacob’s departure, commanded him not to take a wife from the daughters of Canaan, Genesis 28:1, 6. Israel’s lineage was not to be mingled with a people relegated to destruction due to their extreme idolatry, sexual deviance and lawlessness. Moses was the instrument God used shortly before the conquest of Canaan to reiterate the stigma that remained upon Canaan and its people, Deuteronomy 7:1-3. Explaining His reason behind this injunction, God says, “For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly,” Deuteronomy 7:4. The covenant of the fathers then, created in the beginning and expanded through future patriarchs, was marriage. Malachi refers to breaking this covenant as treachery, and that treachery being twofold, which we shall observe shortly.

 

Yet a third covenant was ratified in Ezra’s day regarding the sanctity of marriage as God defined it for Israel. Chapter 10 of Ezra details rampant profligacy in regards to post-exilic Judah. While Ezra the priest mourned for the enormous trespass the people committed, a huge gathering came to him and confessed their sins; upon confessing they suggested entering into a covenant. It was to be between God and the men of Israel to put away their pagan wives, Ezra 10:2, 3. Then they told Ezra, “Arise, for this matter is your responsibility. We are with you. Be of good courage, and do it,” Ezra 10:4. The remnant people largely concurred when confronted with their sin, thus making a binding covenant, Ezra 10:12. If Ezra is a predecessor to Malachi and not a contemporary, then the prophet may also be directly making inference to this particular covenant, which would have been established within about one century of Malachi’s prophecy. Having had less than a full century transpire, he accuses Judah of “profaning the covenant of the fathers.”