Malachi 2:10-11 | The “Unholy Union” | Pastor Daniel Banna

Let's bow our heads and pray one more time. Glory to you, our god. Glory to you. Lord, we have come and we found pleasure in worshiping you, Lord, and we will continue to worship you now and forever. And, Lord, we pray that you also might find pleasure in us as we serve you and commit our lives to you and live faithfully day by day.

And, lord, as we come before your word, lord, we know the great and enormous responsibility we have as we open the word to teach it, being led by the Holy Spirit. Lord, we want to speak today words of God, not the words of man, not the interpretation of man, but God's own meaning. Lord, we pray that you speak to us today through your word. And help us, lord god, not just be hearers of the word, but also doers of it. In Jesus name, we pray.

Amen. The book of Malachi chapter two. We're continuing in our study in the last book of the Old Testament. And before we, begin tonight's message in verse 10, I want to remind you of the first words of this book. Chapter one verse two.

I have loved you, says the Lord. I have loved you, says the Lord. It's easy to forget God's love when we read this book. We have seen God's legitimate anger with his people, and it's seen that there is no end for his anger. And some who listen only to these messages about Malachi, they might think we have nothing else to talk but God's anger and God's judgment.

This is not the case at all. This book begins with God's declaring, God's statement to the people of Israel. I have loved you. I have loved you with an everlasting love. This message is to Israel.

This message is to his church today. This is the unchanging and the eternal love of God toward his people. And because I love you, I rebuke you. Because I love you, I chasten you. Because I love you, I chastise you at times.

Because I love you with so much love, I'm jealous for you. And I'm angry with a holy anger. When I see people that I love so much and I cherish so much, they are not so faithful. We must keep this in mind. God's love and his holy jealousy is the main reasons why we see his anger in this book.

He's angry with the holy anger, holy jealousy. I have loved you, yet you are being unfaithful. What would you expect from someone who loves when his bride being unfaithful? He must become angry or not. He must become angry.

Here we see the holy anger of God. Let's continue now to verse 10. Have we not all one father? Has not one god created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Again, to remind you, this is a bible study, so we go verse by verse. And by God's grace, we'll go through verse 10 to 12 this evening. We've been looking at God addressing the priest of Israel From the beginning of verse six of chapter one to verse nine of chapter two, the priest who have caused Israel to stumble. How did he do that? By their own instruction, their own interpretations of God's word, of God's law.

They have corrupted the covenant of God. They have corrupted the law of God. What was the purpose of God's law? To guide the nation, to lead the people into righteousness, into holiness, to make people know of their sins, to seek God for mercy and forgiveness, and to reveal God's glory and character to his nation, Israel. The priests have failed miserably miserably in their duties.

They taught the people they taught the people their own traditions. They caused people to stumble. They did all of that for their own interests. The words of the apostle Paul in Philippians three nineteen fit them very o very well. Their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things.

Listen to the words of Hosea In chapter four verse one, he speaks saying, hear the word of the Lord, oh children of Israel, for the Lord had a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land. There is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery. They break all bounds and bloodshed follows. In verse four, yet no one contend.

And let none accuse, for with you is my contention, God says, oh, priests. My contention is with you, oh, priests. Then verse six, he says, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. To the Sadducees, he just says in in Matthew 22, he tells them, you error. You are wrong.

You are mistaken because you do not know the scripture or the power of God. And then he says, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge. I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. So God holds above all the priests, the shepherds of his people responsible for a decline of the state of the people.

That's why we must emphasize the important the important of the importance of the responsibility of the shepherds, first of all, to teach God's law more than anything else. That, well, apostles, they didn't want to get entangled with anything unspiritual. That's why they appointed seven deacons to take care of everything else, but they committed themselves to what? To teaching the word and of prayer. So that is the duty of a shepherd, to focus on teaching God's word and the prayer.

And then he begins the anniversary and again saying, have we not all one father? Have we not all one father? Who are the we he is referring to? Couple of years ago, this one father thing, one god thing was very popular thing. We have one god, the Muslims, the Buddhists.

One god. God says here, who are the we? When he speaks have we all one father? Go back to Malachi one one to see who are the all that he's speaking to. The oracle or the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

He's addressing a specific nation here. Israel, not all mankind. The apostle Paul in in Ephesus or Ephesians chapter four, he uses similar language in verse six four six. This is what he says. He says, one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Again, who is Paul referring to? The all and the all and the all. I think we need to look a little bit closer. We can find exactly what Paul is referring to. Look back to verse four.

Listen to what he says in verse four, the same chapter. He said, there is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Then he says, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. He's clearly speaking to the followers of Jesus Christ that have the same faith, who are baptized, who are members in the same body, baptized into the one spirit, identified with Christ by baptism, have one God who is a triune God and one father.

We are adopted into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ. All the all those who received him, did he give them the right to become the children of God. Now the idea in this verse, you know, that we read, have we not one father, is different from the idea in chapter one verse six. If you look there, chapter one verse six, he speaks about the fatherhood of God there too. What does he say there?

God asked there this question. If then I am a father, where is my honor? If then I am a father, where is my honor? The point God is making here is what? His fatherhood.

Being a father to his people. If I'm a father, what is the honor due to a father? What is the respect? What is the reverence? This is the point in verse six of chapter one.

But the point we have here in chapter two verse 10 is not his fatherhood. But I believe is, listen to this, the unity of Israel. What he is saying here, if we have one father, then we are a family. If we have one father, we are brothers and sisters. Then he says, has not one God created us?

I see here two thoughts. The the first thought is that we have one faith. You see, all the other world, all the pagan world believes in many, many god, but we live in one god who created us. We have one faith in one god, Jehovah, who has created us. The first idea is one faith, but the second one is there is equality.

We are brothers and sisters. We are a family. We have one father, and in the family, there is equality. There are differences in roles. There are differences in appearance.

But in Christ Jesus, there is no male or female. There is no Jew or Greek. There is no black or white. We are equal in his eyes and in his sides. And if God does not see a difference, we should not see the difference either.

Then he asked this question, why then are we faithless to one another profaning the covenant of our fathers? If we are a family, if we are brothers and sisters, if we have one father, God, why then we are so faithless to one another profaning the covenant of our fathers? We have talked previously about the covenant of Levi that we read about in verse four and verse eight of this chapter, the covenant of God, that God made with the with the Levi because of their defense of the truth. They stood for the truth. But here he speak of the covenant of our fathers.

Part of the covenant of our fathers, we read this evening from the book of Exodus 22, relates to how the people of Israel should treat each other. You should treat fairly the widow the widows and the fatherless. You should never mistreat them. And if you lend the poor money, you should not take any interest from them. Don't you wish this is the law of the land?

I don't think it would work. I think some interest is legitimate, but some interest, I believe, it's it's probably evil. Correct? So and in the book of Nehemiah, by the way, as we have mentioned many, many times before, the book of Nehemiah, I I mention it here often because Nehemiah was a contemporary to to Malachi. Listen to what we read in the book of Nehemiah, which is very often very similar to what is in the book of Malachi.

In chapter five verse one, Nehemiah writes, he says, now there arose a great out cry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. They were dealing treacherously with each other. Why this cry? Look to to to verse five, and and he summarize it there. He say, now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children, yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves.

And some of our daughters have already been enslaved. But it's not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards. The gulf between the rich and the poor had widened. The poor had been driven to the last extremity. Their rich brothers, the Jews, had taken their lands from them.

They're taking their children, boys and daughters, as slaves. They took advantage of their poverty, of their need. They have lost everything. And the money lenders, when the poor Israelites could not pay the interest, they took their children as slaves for that interest. And there was a great cry.

Who was doing it? If foreigners were doing it, we understand it, but it was Jews doing it against fellow Jews. Oh, the merciless heart of man. This is what we saw in the days of Nehemiah. This is what we see in the book of Malachi.

And that's very often also bothers me, brother and sister, when I really often see, rich, filthy rich, I would say, preachers who take advantage of poor poor believers, promising them things. They rob them for the little we have to become richer and richer and richer. Here he says we are a family. We are a family. We should not be treating each other this way.

We are a family. We are a family. Have we not all one father? One father has created us. Why we are being unfair with each other.

And then he asked him again in Malachi 10, why then are we faithless to one another profaning the covenant of our fathers? Why do we betray each other? Why do we deal treacherously with one another? Why we cheat and despise each other? Don't you get it?

He's saying we are a family. We are brothers and sister. This cannot happen in a family. It should not happen in a family. How much more in a family of God?

How much more in a church? I must stop a little bit here and thank God for this church that I do see the love of God. I do see the mercy of God. I do see the compassion of God manifested through the brothers and sisters who love the truth, who are committed for the truth, to defend the truth. But we are not there yet.

We still have way to go. We're never to be content in our spiritual condition. We need to be better and better to pursue holiness, love, sacrifice for each other, to be followers of Jesus Christ in everything. We need to be a better as family. Now verse 11, Judah has been faithless.

An abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god. Now when I read this this, this verse, I must get or dig deeper a little bit in the Hebrew. This verse and the following verse because I see when you dig deeper in the Hebrew, you get things that probably you cannot get by just reading it in in English or any other language. The word faithless here is translated as treacherous in the King James for those who have the King James. And it's quite interesting the word is being used here in the Hebrew.

Say, Judah has been faithless, acted treacherously. And the Hebrew word here says, And that's the word. Baghdad. Baghdad is a feminine word from the word. And that's quite interesting word translated to deal treacherously in the King James, to be faithless in the ESV other translation.

This word, it's used today in Hebrew for the word, which means a traitor. One who commits high treason. Someone who works against his own country, someone who takes sensitive information and give it away for money or for favor. This same word come from the same word, same root, begid, which means a garment or clothing, something you put on to cover something that you want no one else to see. A traitor is someone who puts a garment of deception on himself.

He steals information and hide it under cover in order to deliver it to an enemy state. This is the worst kind of treachery and faithfulness. That's the word God uses here today, has committed high treason, being a traitor. Now what is the penalty of such a crime, of high treason? In most cases, is execution.

It is death. This is the word God uses here. It's not just any word. But we have another word. The second word, abomination.

Abomination. Jews has been faithless, committed high treason, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. And the Hebrew word here for abomination is toiva. Toiva. The Bible use different words for sin.

Sin is a general word, describes an act of missing the mark or an act of rebellion against God. A sin or all sin is equal in one sense, that it is rebellion against God. But not all sin is equal in regard to severity or consequences. That's very clear from all of the scripture. Now the Bible uses different words to describe different kinds of sin according to their severity and penalty.

I just want I just want you to pay attention to just couple of words from the Old Testament where God uses some words for sin that has the penalty of execution or death. Leviticus eighteen seventeen. We have a word there. It translated wickedness in English or debravity that's in relation to incest. The word in Hebrew, zima.

Zima, the first word word, is used in English as debravity or wickedness. Leviticus eighteen twenty three, another Hebrew word which we see here, to eva, translated abomination in regard to the sin of homosexuality and bestiality. Abomination to evil. There's another word used in Leviticus twenty twelve, table. And there, the English word translated is perversion.

And that's in relation to the sin of someone sleeping with his daughter-in-law. Now, all these sins have one single penalty. What is it? Death. Death.

Now, there's a third word God uses also here in this in this verse. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord. Committed treasury, then we have, then we have now the word profaned, the sanctuary of the Lord. Profane, and the Hebrew word is Hillel. Hillel.

So we see that God uses very strong words, language to describe the sin of Judah. Now we must ask ourself, what is the sin that God is describing with this language? What is the sin? We have the answer in the second part of verse 11. He married the daughter of a foreign god.

He married the daughter of a foreign god. Is this possible? It is possible that God calls this sin with such language. Marrying a daughter of a foreign god? Is it Hillel to Iva, bakatah, abomination, wickedness, perversion?

There must be some misunderstanding. No. There's no misunderstanding at all. How could God look at such marriage? How could you look at such marriage between an Israeli man and a daughter of a foreign god, which I would explain in a minute, as an abomination and as a high treason.

I think the following verses make this point very, very clear. Let us look first at couple of other scriptures to make that point even clearer. How did God command his people regarding the relationship with the pagan world, with the non Jews, with the people who are not belonging to him. Look at the Deuteronomy chapter seven verses three and four. Deuteronomy seven three and four.

God is very, very clear, instructing his people. He tells them, you shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons. Why? For they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods, then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. The Old Testament and the New Testaments both teach that believers cannot marry unbelievers, period.

Period. There is no exception. But often, I hear the argument, you know, he believes or or she believes. Believe what? Believe believe what?

You know, he is so close. He is not so far. I will win him to Christ. Right? Listen.

I have seen believing women winning their husbands to the Lord and the other way around. I have seen it. God, in his grace and mercy and love can do and does do that. He saves husbands through their wives and wives through their husbands. He does it.

But the principle is this, a believer in no circumstance can marry an unbeliever. This is the principle. Now if a believer is already married to an unbeliever now both were unbelievers when they got married and one came to know the Lord, then the believer should never seek divorce, but rather to pray and seek God for the salvation of her spouse or his spouse. And we believe that God is merciful. God is good to answer sometime these prayers.

But that is in the case of already married couple. But if you are single, you cannot break God's law, God's clear command, and marry an unbeliever and expect God's blessings. You cannot expect happiness. You cannot expect that God would save them. Let me tell you something.

In most cases, the marriage will end this way. Deuteronomy seven four. For they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods. That what would be the result. They would turn away your sons from following me to serve others.

God. They will turn you away from God. Don't deceive yourself otherwise. I have seen it. Maybe you have seen it many times.

Many times. But pay attention to the words that are used here. That's interesting. He married the daughter of a foreign god. He does not say he married a daughter of a worshiper of a foreign god.

No. But he married a daughter of a foreign god. That's quite interesting. Now contrast this to verse 10. Have we not all one father?

Has not one God created us? And here he says, he married a daughter of a foreign god. Do you see the contrast? In verse 10, he says, we are the children of God. Jehovah is our God.

But the one who you have married, the unbeliever is the daughter of a foreign god. Who is this foreign god? I must say, it's Satan. That's what he's referring to. For there's no other god but god, and all those who are claiming to be gods are none.

This is the truth that is here that we cannot ignore, and that is a person is either a child of the living god or a child of a foreign god, one or the other. If you are a child of god, I want to ask you this question. Do you want to live the rest of your life with a child of a foreign god? Is gonna be very difficult. But you might say he's a good man.

You she's a good woman. And we try to create a third category of people, believer and unbeliever. He's somewhere in between. There's no such thing. Does not exist.

But there's a second point I like to make here. When you marry, you marry into the family. You marry a daughter of foreign god. You are marrying into the family. When you marry, especially in those old days, you become part of the family.

They invite you to their celebrations, to their weddings, to their holidays, to their feasts. And what happens? You partake with them, you participate with them, and you slowly slowly become one of them. What happened to king Solomon, that great, powerful, and wise man? He married a daughter of pharaoh followed by many, many, many, many other women whom he loved.

And the consequences of his marriages were what? How did Solomon, who god appeared to him twice? How did he end his life? It's very sad, isn't it? It will read for you.

You don't have to open there from first Kings eleven four to eight. For when Solomon was old, his wife turned away his heart after other gods. And you cannot say, oh, he wasn't a wise man. No. He was very wise.

The bible declared he was very wise. If Solomon got deceived in this area, oh, you're not better than him. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God as was the heart of David, his father. He he went to after Asheroth, the god of the Sidonian, and Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. In verse eight, he says, and so he did for all his foreign wives who made offerings and sacrifice to their god.

Is this possible? Yes. It is possible. This what he did. And why?

Because he married foreign women, the daughters of a foreign god. This is the devastating power of mixed marriages between believers and unbelievers. Don't you ever fool yourself otherwise. Now these mixed marriages were completely propitiated in the Old Testament for this very reason that the unbeliever will turn the believer away from God. What about the New Testament?

You might say, oh, this is the Old Testament. What about the New Testament? The same principle. God does not change his principles. He never does.

Principles are principles. We have very similar prohibition. Turn with me to second Corinthians six. I want to read from verses 14 to 16, and it's good for us to hear these words, even if you have read it many times, to be reminded again and again and again and again because we can deceive ourselves sometime. And, I know we have many singles here, so I think this message, for all of you, but also for parents to make sure to warn their children and warn them again and again and again.

Verse 14, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? What portion does a believer share with the unbeliever?

What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their god, and they shall be my people. I don't think it can be any clearer. No partnership, no fellowship, no accord, no portion, no agreement between believer and unbeliever.

Believer, you are light. They are darkness. You are free. They live in slavery. Why do you want to get yourself into such bondage?

By the way, the concept of being unequally yoked that we hear here is taken from the Old Testament, from the book of Deuteronomy twenty ten where the is Elias are told not to plow on an ox and on a donkey. An ox is a clean animal. A donkey is an unclean. They have different temperaments, different natures. They cannot plow together.

Unbeliever, an ox. Unbeliever, a donkey. They cannot plow together. There's no fellowship between light and darkness, two opposing natures with each other. And unbelief and believers who do that, I I think they don't realize that they are weaving a web for themselves that sometimes is impossible to get out of it.

And and they often look back in deep sorrow, over their actions, wishing they had obeyed god's word before entering in such or to such unholy relationship. And if anyone if anyone listening to me today thinking of marrying an unbeliever, dating an unbeliever, considering going out with an unbeliever, Consider this message as God's sent message to you today to stop to stop from making such foolish decision. It is never God's will for a believer to date or to marry an unbeliever. Never. And I would say it boldly without fear because this is the word of God.

It is never God's will for a believer to marry an unbeliever or to date an unbeliever. Never. Never. Never. Okay.

You made a mistake. You sinned. You married an unbeliever. What's now? Mistake?

Many many, many, many have done it. What is next? Number one, you have to bear the consequences of your decision. No turning back. No divorce.

And we want to pray and want to believe with you that God can save your spouse. He is merciful. He is good, and he answers prayers. God is able. God is compassionate.

He hears us and he hears our Christ. You made the wrong decision, but does not mean that restoration is impossible. No, it's not. Everything is possible for God. There is hope.

There is hope for your unbelieving spouse. There is hope for your unbelieving child. There is hope for your unbelieving brother or sister. There's hope for your unbelieving father or mother. There is a hope for your good friend.

There is hope, and we trust that God will save them. But you, be faithful. You be faithful. Recognize what you have done is wrong. It's sin.

And seek God from all of your heart and trust that he will give you the desire of your heart. Not just the salvation of your spy spouse, but the salvation of your entire household. God can do it. But if you are a believer dating an unbeliever, if you are even engaged to an unbeliever, even if you asset a date for marriage to an unbeliever, I would tell you right now, break this relationship. Am I seeing this?

Even engaged to an unbeliever, even if you have set up already the date for your wedding, even if it's within a week, I would say break it. That's God's will. That's God's will. That's God's will. There's no fellowship between believer and unbeliever in regard to marriage.

Again, this is not my word. It is God's word. Now let's look at verse 12, which is becoming more exciting. May the Lord cut off from the tins of Jacob any descendants of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts. Now I know you have other translations there.

The word any descendant, what is in King James? Master and scholar. So it says, may the Lord cut off from the tins of Jacob any something like master and scholar or any descendant. By the way, there is no in the Hebrew language here, there is nowhere that says master and scholar. Nowhere.

Nowhere. Now my understanding, this is the interpretation of the talmud of two Hebrew words in this verse. And the two Hebrew words are interpreted by the King James master and scholar, interpreted or translated by the SV as any descendant. But it's two words, And I want I I wanted to dig deep slightly in in in in Hebrew here. The word literally means awake.

And means the one who answers. So the one who is awake and the one who answers. This is the literal translation of the word master and scholar or any descendant. This, again, this is literal meaning. What what does it really mean?

I'm going to, again, go back to the book of Nehemiah because I think I have a clue there, or we have a clue there, in Nehemiah chapter four. Nehemiah begins to restore the wall of Jerusalem. And what does he do? Verse nine. Nehemiah four verse nine.

And we prayed to our god and sit agar. What does a guard do? Exactly. The guard watches the watch as a protection against them day and night. Now the watch is awake, watching and guarding the city.

Now go down to verse 18 of the same chapter. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded a trumpet was beside me, the watch, the guard. And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, the work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there.

Our God will fight for us. So you see, we have the watch, the guard who is watching, the one who sounds a trumpet when he sees a danger, and everyone else who hears the sound must answer the call. So in a literal sense, the meaning here, I believe, is this. The one who is watching over the city and everyone else who hears the sound, the one who watches and the one who answers. In other words, what ESP puts it is correct.

Any descendant, everyone. Everyone. But I believe there is a greater spiritual meaning here. Ezekiel three seventeen. Listen to this.

Ezekiel three seventeen. Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you heard a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from the from me. Who were the spiritual watchmen of Israel? The priests, weren't they?

The priests were the spiritual watchmen of Israel. They're the one who should warn the people. They're the one who hear the sound, should let the people know. It's what God is seeing here. What God is seeing here, the watchmen of Israel went to sleep.

They went to sleep. They abandoned the wall. Spiritually speaking, the priest abandoned their duties, went to sleep. They are be in a deep coma. And now, god says, may the lord cut off or kill from the tents of Jacob the one who watches.

That is reference to the priests and to those who answer everyone else. All are guilty. All are alike. And then at the end of the verse, he says, who brings an offering to the lord of hosts. Why is that?

Because it's a pure mockery of God. It's really pure mockery of God. Hypocrisy is the worst form of mockery. The heart is so rotten and they continue to bring offerings to God. God is seeking people who bring him an offering of repentance and humility first, recognizing who they are, desperate for god, coming to his presence with brokenness, with trembling, and with thanksgiving and joy.

They don't desire anything else but to worship him in spirit and truth. May god help us to continue to be truly faithful. Those who watch and those who answer, all of us, to be faithful till the end. Let's pray. You are a faithful god.

We thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you, father. Thank you we can call you Abba Father. What a privilege. What an honor you have bestowed on us to call you father.

Not because something good we have done, but because of what Jesus has done. He's adopted us as children, and where now we can come to the throne of God with the boldness of children calling you father. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your mercy, for your compassion, and for your love.

Lord, we have been unfaithful. We have done many mistakes. We have sinned against you. Lord, we have not been right in our ways. We do things that no one else knows, but you do alone.

You see the inner parts of our hearts. Lord, all of humanity stands guilty before you, but we thank you. We thank you that the guilty has become saint by the blood of Jesus. You have washed us. You have cleansed us.

You have brought us near, and now we're children. Children, all the promises are ours. We give her the glory and the honor and the praise. Lord, we thank you for your word. Your word is a light.

Help us, lord god, continue to work in the light of your word day and night. Help us not go to the right or to the left. Continue to be faithful. In Jesus' name, amen.