Chapter 2

Chapter two has as its subject, What causes a nation to be destroyed? This is the pattern of national disaster, and in this particular case we have national disaster on two counts: verses 1-9, the indictment of the priesthood; verses 10-17, the indictment of the people. Three principles must be remembered regarding the priesthood: a. What was the responsibility of the priests? Their responsibility was to communicate doctrine but it had to be doctrine that was written — doctrine from the written Word only. They did not have anything to do with doctrine from the spoken Word, that was the job of the prophet; b. They functioned in spiritual things, namely in the most fantastic series of training aids for the communication of doctrine such as the Levitical offerings, the Levitical feasts, the various articles of furniture in the tabernacle and later on the temple, and even the priestly garments. So they administered a tremendous system of ritual, but it was ritual designed to teach doctrine; c. They operated under a special covenant known as the covenant of Levi.

Israel is a special nation, special from five standpoints. It is a special nation under the dispensation of Israel. It has three parts to its dispensation: the period of the patriarchs, the period of the law and, finally, the Tribulation. In this dispensation Israel was the custodian of the Word and was responsible for its dissemination — evangelism and doctrine. They set the pattern for divine institution number four — nationalism. Codex #3 of the Mosaic law was designed to show how a national entity should function. Let us look at the Mosaic law. Codex #1 was a perfect standard to prove that man was a sinner and needs a saviour, Codex #2 was a complete Christology, but Codex #3 is divine institution #4.

Verses 1-9, the indictment of the priesthood. The priesthood was responsible for disseminating doctrine, doctrine pertaining to salvation, doctrine on the operation of phase two, and general principles on the function of a national entity made up of believers and unbelievers. Remember that Codex #3 of the Mosaic law is for unbelievers as well as believers, anyone who was within the bounds of a national entity.

Verse 1 — “And now, O ye priests [the Levitical priesthood]” — Remember, we live in the Church Age and in the Church Age every believer is a priest. The Levitical priesthood pertained to a previous dispensation when they had a specialised priesthood based on physical birth, the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron.

“this commandment” — the Hebrew word is not commandment. It should be translated “this threat of punishment.”

“is for you” — the punishment hasn’t come yet, it is still in the threatening stage. This is the warning stage. The word actually means threat of punishment and the principle of doctrine: grace precedes judgement. God has never judged without first giving the opportunity of grace.

Verses 2-3, the discipline of the priesthood.

Verse 2 — “If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart.” One thing should be clear from these two phrases: You can’t teach doctrine until you know doctrine; you cannot teach what you do not know. We live in a day when people know nothing and they are trying to communicate it to others! You have to learn doctrine before you can communicate doctrine. These priests aren’t even born again, how are they going to learn doctrine?

The word for “lay it to heart” is the Hebrew word sum, and it means to put, to place, to place it in your soul. If you don’t hear it you can’t put it in your soul.

“to give glory to my name” — “my name” is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ must be glorified for a national entity to have the repercussions — the prosperity, the stability, the freedoms, etc.

There is an alternative to all of this: “I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings” .Notice they have already had blessings in the past, so He says , “I will send a curse upon you … Yea, I have cursed them already” — this means they are already under one of the cycles of discipline. Why? “Because ye do not lay it to heart [put it in your soul]” .Put what? Doctrine. You can’t put doctrine in your soul unless you are born again. After you are born again you have to learn doctrine.

The thing that is very important here is the technical word which is used for the word “curse” .It is the word which is found throughout Deuteronomy 28. It says: “I will send a curse.” This is the concept of national discipline. There is such a thing as national blessing and there is the taking it away. The technical concept of the word “curse” is found in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 — statutes have to do with spiritual life and commandments have to do with national life. The unbeliever can follow the principles of national life, they are just the basis for human freedom.

Deuteronomy 28:16 — has to do with loss of privacy, whether you are on the farm or in a city. Verse 17 — “thy basket and thy store” refers to economic downturn, the selling end and the producing end. Notice: The rejection of Bible doctrine affects your personal freedom and the rejection of Bible doctrine affects the economy of the nation.

Verse 18 — “Cursed be the fruit of thy body” is a Hebrew idiom for children, and it means that when this curse begins it begins with your personal volition and privacy, it moves into industry, and it affects your children. It means the children are going to start acting like kooks.

“and the fruit of thy land” — the personal income principle.

Verse 19 — this means that your social life is curtailed, that you cannot have freedom of choice in social life. The “coming in and going out” is an idiom for social life.

Verse 20 — “wickedness of thy doings” — human good — “whereby thou hast forsaken me” — human good is outside the plan of God.

Verse 21 — loss of health.

Verse 22 — military failure, “with the sword.”

Verses 23-24 — economic disaster moving along, depression conditions.

Verse 25 — the fifth cycle of discipline.

Verse 28 — “blindness", the inability to see the issues and solutions — “astonishment of heart” — shock at this great country going down, etc.

Malachi 2:3 — “Behold I will corrupt your seed,” the Levitical priesthood.

The corruption of the seed

1. The Levitical priesthood was appointed on the basis of descent from Aaron — only Aaron, not the whole tribe of Levi.

2. Part of the discipline to the priesthood will be the inability of the Levitical priests to trace their lineage when they are under the fifth cycle of disciple. Once the 5th cycle hit in AD 70 the priests could not trace their lineage. Therefore, there were several things missing in all Jewish synagogues. One of them was the sacrifice of Levitical offerings. Also they now have a rabbinical system as a substitute for their old priestly system because no one knows for a certainty who was descended from Aaron.

3. Therefore they function on a system of apostasy which we call today Judaism, but they do not fulfil the ritual because it requires the function of a Levitical priest. They have to apostatise to take up the slack for their ritual.

4. Therefore the function of the priesthood is set aside and today wherever Jews are gathered together under their religion they function under a rabbi. The rabbinical system replaces the Levitical system.

5. The priests since 70 AD have dung in their faces. There is no Levitical priesthood today and there hasn’t been since the fifth cycle of discipline began. Their whole spiritual framework which is declared in the Old Testament is for our example for our understanding, and neither they nor we practice the ritual of the Old Testament. Why? Because we have the New Testament, we have historical documentary information categorically presented to replace ritual. And ritual is not the order of the day for born again believers on this earth in the Church Age. Ritual is confined to one item: the Lord’s table.

Note: Wherever you find a group of people meeting, a church, a religious organisation, and they have any kind of ritual apart from that one factor they are apostate and they advertise their apostasy by the use of ritual. Today ritual is apostasy.

“and spread dung upon your faces” — the word spread doesn’t mean to spread. It is the Hebrew word zarah, which means to scatter. It should be translated, “I will scatter dung [the Hebrew word for animal excrement, the excrement of the animal sacrifices].”

Seven points on “dung on the face”

1. The word “dung” means animal excrement. Part of the animal sacrifice was assigned to the priests for eating but for the excrement there was a specific order.

2. The dung was to be taken outside of the camp — Leviticus 4:11,12; Exodus 29:14; Leviticus 8:17; 16:27; Numbers 19:5.

3. Since the dung was to go outside of the camp the “dung on the face” of the priest means the priest was outside of the camp instead of ministering and functioning as a spiritual entity on a spiritual spot, the temple. How can they teach doctrine when they themselves are outside the camp? In other words, they are unbelievers. No one can minister in spiritual things until at least he is a believer in Jesus Christ.

4. There is another principle here: the priests will be taken out of the land of Israel and scattered like dung. The priests are going to share the curse with the people. Today, all over the world the descendants of these priests are scattered, as it were, like dung all over the world. To be scattered is one thing but to be scattered “like dung” means that wherever the Jew goes throughout the world he is regarded just like dung. It means to be scattered and disliked; it’s a part of the curse.

5. This occurred numerous times during the 400 years between the two testaments but this verse three, written by Malachi about 420 BC, anticipates the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline which began in 70 AD.

6. “One shall take you away” — “one” refers to the Romans. The Romans would administer the “dung in the face” prophecy.

7. “With it” — “it” refers again to the animal excrement. One shall take you away with the excrement. It was taken outside of the camp and scattered, you will be taken outside of the camp and scattered. So point 7 is to clarify the last word in verse three — “it.”

When you do not have communication of doctrine on the part of whoever is authorised to communicate then the people fall apart and the national entity begins to fail.

Verse 4 — The “covenant” is the authorisation. Think of covenant as a contract. That is the way it was used in the ancient world. Here we have the Levitical covenant [or contract] in which in the nation Israel God took one tribe and gave them a special contract. Here is how it happened. Reuben was the eldest son of Jacob, therefore Reuben had three things that belonged to him: he was the family priest, the spiritual leader of the family as the eldest son; he was the family ruler; he held the purse strings and had the double portion. All the money and all the farms belonged to him, all the other sons had to go elsewhere. Reuben lost these things, and when he lost them he lost the priesthood to Levi, specifically the family of Aaron, he lost the rulership to Judah and specifically the family of David, and he lost the double portion to Joseph, and specifically Ephraim became the beneficiary, although Manasseh is in it in part.

The priesthood came from the line of Aaron and these people had a primary function. There was a lot of function that was described in ritual but ritual was not their primary function. Their primary function was the communication of doctrine. To communicate Bible doctrine you have to be born again, you have to study, and you have to speak. That was the job of the priesthood and that was where they failed.

The Levitical contract

1. Levi was faithful during the golden calf incident — Exodus 32:25-29. Aaron failed but the tribe of Levi did not fail. The golden calf incident was the first religion to hit the Jews after the Exodus. If the golden calf incident had succeeded there would have been no nation. Religion will destroy a nation. In other words, Satan tried to keep the Jews out of the land by infiltration of religion at the golden calf incident. During that time the Levites were with doctrine all the way, believers with doctrine, and they had a great impact (Moses himself was a Levite). The great impact of the Exodus generation came from the people who had doctrine and the people who had doctrine were in the tribe of Levi. And when the attack of religion came it was Levi who was faithful because knowledge of Bible doctrine is the only antidote to religion.

2. Aaron had a grandson by the name of Phinehas who eventually became the high priest. He was especially faithful during the wilderness journey — Numbers 25:10-13.

(These first two points are to show that when the contract first operated it operated with born again priests who studied and communicated doctrine. So they started out properly under the contract.)

3. The actual contract had repercussions on the land. If the contract was fulfilled the land would have prosperity, if the contract was not fulfilled the land would have cursing — Deuteronomy 33:8-11. The prosperity of the nation Israel depended upon Bible doctrine, just as today the prosperity of our nation depends upon Bible doctrine.

4. The content of the contract in summary is given in Numbers 3:5-13, Numbers 8:14-19.

The priesthood in Malachi’s day is under maximum discipline — 2:1-3, the “dung in the face.” How did it happen? Now we start to recap, and when you recap in the Hebrew you start with the contract — verse 4. And the, under the contract what should you do? Function, verses 5, 6. Finally in this section there is failure under the contract, verses 7-9.

Verse 5 — When Nehemiah returned from Babylon the second time he restored the priesthood to its former purity. Remember, Malachi stepped in as a prophet and took up the slack while Nehemiah was gone. When Nehemiah came back this message had such an impact that Nehemiah walked into Jerusalem and got the priesthood cranked up, cf. Nehemiah 13:28-30, and the nation’s stability continued even though it was in great jeopardy in 420 BC.

“My contract was with him of life and peace” — the contract had two characteristics: life and peace. “Life” is eternal life, which means that they had to be born again. “Peace” was the reconciliation by which it was possible — doctrine of reconciliation. The point is: you have to be born again before you can communicate spiritual things.

The rest of verse 5 is very poorly translated in the King James version. “Him” is the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron. The word for “fear” is nachach, and it means to reverence. It is a piel stem, which is intense, and in the piel stem it means occupation with Christ. “Life” and “peace’ is salvation, phase one. Now the priest is going to function in phase two, nachach, occupation with Christ. So, “the fear wherewith he feared” is nothing more or less than occupation with Christ.

“was afraid” — the niphel perfect of the verb chathat, which is worship in the sense of loving God. The niphel is passive voice. Notice: We have two different verbs, one is piel and refers to occupation with Christ; the other is a niphel stem (passive) and refers to occupation with Christ causes you to worship. When you know Bible doctrine you have the capacity to love God; without Bible doctrine you do not have the capacity to love God. The niphel stem of the second verb: When you have Bible doctrine you receive (niphel is passive voice) from doctrine a love for Jesus Christ, the capacity to love God. These two verbs are not the same.

Once you learn Bible doctrine you receive the true capacity for worship, and “was afraid” in the English text is true worship which is expressing your love to God — from your capacity to do so.

“before my name” — “name “ refers to the person and it means face to face with the person. He had the capacity to love face to face. It is possible to express worship “face to face” and it means nothing (it is just a ritual); it is possible to express worship “face to face” and it means something.

We should see from all of this that the physical health of a national entity depends upon the spiritual relationship of the believers to God.

This passage is describing the deterioration and the destruction of a nation from internal causes. In principle there are two ways in which a national entity is destroyed. The first of these has to do with internal destruction and the second has to do with external destruction. Internally a nation is destroyed by the violation of the divine institutions. These are basically set up with other laws to preserve a national entity and when these laws are violated over a period of time by a maximum number of people then you have disintegration. These laws deal with economics, politics, social relationships, principles of recognition of authority, and so on. Secondly, a nation is destroyed by military conquest where an outside military force conquers the nation.

In anticipation of what we are going to have in this passage and in the rest of this chapter, we will list some of the things that we are going to find. First of all, the great enemy as far as national disintegration and internal destruction is concerned is religion. Religion is the greatest enemy of a nation — e.g. the rise of the National Council of Churches and the social gospel. Religion destroys the thinking of the individual in terms of freedom. Following this, once you begin to attack through religion then you begin to attack the divine institutions. Divine institution #1 is human freedom, and all of the other divine institutions are designed to protect that freedom. The breakdown of divine institution #2, marriage, leads to the breakdown of divine institution #3, the family. The result is that divine institution #4, with its law and order, its economic stability, and its spiritual prosperity, suffers the elimination of these things. Religion is the great enemy of the divine institutions.

Israel, under a specialised priesthood, had a partial canon of scripture. In the Church Age we have a completed canon of scripture. In the dissemination of Bible doctrine to Israel — which must protect the nation as well as the individual spiritually — the doctrine was in shadow form. In other words, you had the anticipation of the cross. In shadow form there were several types of communication or teaching aids: a. The canon as it existed at any point in Jewish history — and the priests taught the canon of scripture; b. Ritual. All of the doctrine of soteriology was actually taught in ritual — the Levitical offerings; c. The parents teaching the children, as per the instructions of Deuteronomy. Now, in chapter two of Malachi there is going to be an indictment of the priesthood because they failed to communicate Bible doctrine in the prescribed manner and, therefore, because they failed eventually this went to the parents. And we will see why the parents failed.

This is just the antithesis of the Church Age in which we now have an historical doctrine for the completed canon of scripture. There is prophecy in it but the cross is historical, the incarnation is historical, the dispensation is now an historical reality, and we have a completed canon of scripture. And at the beginning of the Church Age, before the canon was completed, we had apostles. Now we have pastors and again we have the same concept: pastors are responsible for teaching only what is found in the Word. Ritual is eliminated because we now have an historical Christology. So the pastor must execute and communicate Bible doctrine and one other part remains the same: born again parents must train their children in spiritual things.

So in function if a nation is going to be prosperous it must come from the spiritual factor, it must be Bible doctrine. This much in principle we have in common: in the Old Testament dispensation we have the communication of Bible doctrine by the priests, we have the communication of Bible doctrine by the parents; in the New Testament dispensation we have the communication of Bible doctrine by pastors and the communication of Bible doctrine by parents. The specialised priesthood was to Israel what the pastor should be to our country. When that is true then we have parents communicating doctrine, so this means that the children come up under a spiritual heritage which winds up in blessing for Israel in the past and blessing for our country in the present.

Notice that in verse 6 all of the things mentioned had to do with the priesthood when it was functioning properly — “did turn many away from iniquity” meant the Jews were evangelised. That passage leads to the responsibility of the priesthood in verse 7. The priesthood was specialised and had certain responsibilities, like learning doctrine (you cannot communicate what you do not know), and this is brought out through the phrase: “For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge.” The words “keep knowledge” means to guard knowledge. The word “lips” is used for a very simple reason: you must have doctrine in the mind before it can come out through the lips. In other words, the words that are formed by the mouth are actually formed in the brain. The priest also learned from the ritual, and as he was performing the ritual he was communicating to those who were observing it.

Someone has to communicate doctrine but doctrine must be communicated so that people are free to choose, and a person who listens to the teaching of doctrine must have his freedom protected. This means that the person who listens to the Word must have privacy. The objective in teaching doctrine is not to intrude upon a person’s privacy but to communicate information that he can take before the Lord and use, so doctrine must be communicated under conditions where volition exists. The enemy of a national entity is religion; the solution is doctrine, doctrine must be communicated, but you cannot legislate away religion because when you do you destroy human freedom. And you can’t destroy it by violence because, again, you destroy human freedom. And so the only way you can meet this great enemy is with Bible doctrine communicated under conditions where freedom is intact.

In 420 BC the Jews were down. Yet, from that time until 323 BC they were up again. What made the difference? Freedom protected by Bible doctrine. Freedom for the unbeliever: divine institutions; freedom for the believer: Bible doctrine.

“the priest’s lips should keep knowledge” — notice that his lips should guard knowledge. He speaks with his lips but he thinks with his mind. In our day people speak with their lips while their minds are in neutral! You have to have something in the mind to communicate and the priest was responsible for communicating Bible doctrine.

“they should seek the law at his mouth” — “they” refers to the Jews, “the law” is Bible doctrine, and “his mouth” is a teaching situation. The priest had to teach or communicate doctrine. Unless it is available they won’t seek it. And freedom is the issue — “they should seek.” No legalism. You cannot teach grace when it is clothed in legalism. If the priest is going to learn doctrine he therefore sets up the framework of grace. Then, when he communicates doctrine, he communicates it to a free will.

“for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts” .The word “he” is not found in the original. The word “messenger” is malak, (from which we get Malachi). The priests have failed to communicate doctrine. Now God raises up a prophet to communicate doctrine; he is doing what the priests should be doing; the priests should be Malachi; this man is Malachi. Malachi [my messenger] is a pseudonym and is not the prophet’s real name.

Here are the ingredients: a. You must have people who know doctrine. Today it is the pastor, then it was the priest; b. There must be free will on the part of the people to seek doctrine; c. There must be the communication of it.

What is missing in our country today? We do not have people who know doctrine and we do not have pastors who know doctrine. Our freedoms are being destroyed so that communication is becoming increasingly difficult. This is where the nation goes down. The teaching of doctrine is where the tide turns.

In verses 8-9 we have the failure of the priesthood.

Verse 8 — “But ye [the priests] are departed out of the way.” The word “departed” is a qal perfect of the verb sur, and it means that at the time this prophet was raised up they had departed. And the word sur means to turn aside, to deviate. They had deviated from the norm of the previous verse. They have failed to learn doctrine, they are operating in an area where there is no freedom, and therefore they are not communicating doctrine.

“ye have caused many to stumble” means that by failing to communicate the Word they have made it impossible to operate within the framework of the angelic conflict and make a decision for the Lord.

“ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi” — the word “corrupt” is the key word here. It is the Hebrew word shachath and it is a piel stem, and it means that you have infiltrated with something false that spreads. The infiltration is legalism. Even though they still have the Word they have the framework of legalism and therefore this neutralises the possibility of orienting to grace and neutralises the possibility of understanding the doctrinal issues. The “covenant of Levi” is described in Exodus 32, Numbers 25, and Deuteronomy 33, and it was the basis for the function of the priesthood in communicating doctrine.

Verse 9 — Because they have failed before the Lord they have lost the respect of people: “Therefore have I also made you contemptible.” In other words, God has set up a law to protect grace. If the communicator of grace operates within the framework of legalism, destroying human volition, then there is a divine law that says God will neutralise him. Why? Because the angelic conflict is involved. Grace surrounded by legalism, destroying human volition, neutralises the individual who is then punished by God. The punishment is, first of all, “I will make you contemptible before the people” .This is the attitude of the people toward the Levitical priesthood. The priests have departed from doctrine and therefore God makes them contemptible. When a nation has no confidence in its spiritual leadership and its spiritual communicators it becomes apostate, and therefore God must raise up some other system. That is why God raised up this prophet.

“ye have not kept my ways” — they have rejected the Word of God, they have rejected the Son of God. Then they also have another function: judgement within the framework of Israel — “but have been partial in the law.” The Hebrew word for partial is nasah. It is a qal active participle and it means to have respect for persons. Principle: By catering to people spiritual leadership loses the respect of people. They should be occupied with doctrine but being minus doctrine they cater to people. They emphasise people and therefore people despise them. If they had been occupied with the Lord then the people would love and respect them for the teaching and communication of Bible doctrine. Spiritual leadership must live by the Word and must not cater to people.

“Ye have been partial”

1. This is the qal active participle of nasah, and it means to be partial, to have respect for persons. This is their problem. Once they de-emphasised doctrine they had no respect for people.

2. By catering to people spiritual leadership loses respect of people.

3. Spiritual leadership must never cater to people.

4. To cater to people is to be flattened by people; they walk all over you.

5. To love the Lord is to be helpful to people.

6. The Levitical priesthood failed because in the interpretation of the administration of the law they had respect for people and not for the Word.

7. The false interpretation of the law and respect for people was suppressed by doctrine at this time, but later it came out under the corban gimmick — Matthew 15:5; Mark 7:11. The priests went along with this corban gimmick later because they did not know the Word, they did not teach the Word. They had respect for a rich person; they did not have respect for doctrine.

Verses 10-17, the indictment of the people. This is a part of the story of how to destroy a nation — the pattern of national disaster. The whole point is that when in a national entity you have a maximum number of people who begin to disintegrate with regard to the divine institutions you no longer have a nation. And you are destroyed from within unless someone on the outside making a reconnaissance sees the situation and moves in on it. So when we study Malachi, which was written in 420 BC, we are studying situations which are explained in history: what happens to nations. And while Malachi was written in 420 BC and staved off the destruction of the southern kingdom at that time, we find that concept occurring in recent history.

The people involved here in this passage are the Jews who have just had 100 years of prosperity and are about to blow it. The reason is the breakdown from the standpoint of Bible doctrine which we have already studied in the verses. Now there is a breakdown in the divine institutions — verses 10-17.

Verse 10 — “Have we not all one father?” Remember that the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. This passage belongs to the Jews and when it says “Have we not all one father?” this is addressed to Jewish believers only. This is to show that there are two protections against internal disintegration. One is Bible doctrine, for believers only, and the other is the divine institutions for unbelievers and believers. The question says that all believers have the same father. In other words, there is at this time in the land a born again nucleus, the salt of the earth, and this is actually the defense, the only defense the Jews have at this time. Malachi is addressing himself to believers and he is saying: “Here is our only defense, here is our only hope. Everything else is hopeless.” They had only one thing going for them and that was the fact that they have one father. In other words, there is a nucleus of believers. And this is what is so surprising. This nucleus of believers are obviously minus doctrine because they have no impact on the general situation.

“hath not one God created us” — “one God” is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. One Father, one God. Here are two members of the Trinity taught. The word “created” goes back to the beginning of mankind but it is used here is a different sense, it means coming into the world. The point is that Jesus Christ is there when they came into the world, the Father had a plan for them through Christ, and some of them have now been born again. They all have one Father but Christ is their saviour and He is also their creator. Therefore the point is: How do you get from the point of coming into the world to the point of the cross? You couldn’t make it without divine protection, and divine protection is the divine institutions. He starts out addressing believers but he is going to hit the divine institutions. There are two protections for the human race: a. the salt of the earth — but the salt loses its savour unless the believer has Bible doctrine. And even though they have personally believed in Jesus Christ they have forgotten that Christ is also the creator and that man was created to resolve the angelic conflict, and every person who comes into the world comes in as an unbeliever and there is an elapse of time before he becomes a believer. So one Father and one creator shows us the lapse of time between the time we are born into the world to the time we are born again, and in order to get there, first of all our volition has to be developed, our volition has to be protected, and the divine institutions are designed to protect the volition of mankind from birth to the new birth. Therefore the basic structure of the human race demands that the divine institutions function. “One Father” means that they have already past the point of propitiation, they are saved, and “one creator” means that when the human race originally started it started with the idea of extending the angelic conflict into the human race and now it simply refers to birth, but in both places it links up Christ. You meet Christ as saviour but Christ was creator of man in the first place. And when Christ creates and what Christ saves there has to be an elapse of time in between, and there must be protection for mankind during that elapse of time. And God has set up laws to protect man between the time of his birth and the time of his salvation. That protection is found in the divine institutions. God is not the Father of all members of the human race but of believers only. The whole point of this verse which eludes us in the English is the fact that everyone of us who has accepted Christ as saviour has been kept alive to get to the point of the cross. There are laws which say that if you go on positive volition at the point of God consciousness then God must keep you alive and provide the gospel for you so that you can express positive volition by faith in Christ at the point of gospel hearing. How can He do it? Well He does it through the divine laws, and these divine laws are found in the divine institutions. (Everything which the National Council of Churches and communism stand for are opposed to the divine institutions — if they had their way there would be no protection between birth and the cross) This verse shows us that there were believers in Judah at the time of writing and that they were not always believers but they were protected by a series of divine laws until they came to the cross and accepted Christ.

“why do we” — notice that the writer includes himself in the sense that he is setting up — “deal treacherously every man against his brother [fellow man, in the sense of being in the same nation]?” The word “treacherously” is a qal imperfect of the verb bagad. Bagad actually means to be deceitful, to deal falsely with someone. And it means in this particular passage that it is still going on and it refers to all four of the divine institutions. Two will be selected here but actually there is deceit in all of them. There is the self-deceit of accepting religion which is in the form of idolatry. There are repercussions because the people who accept religion are going after foreign women and, of course, that destroys the stability of the family, and eventually it is going to knock out nationalism. “Every man” means everyone in the area. And notice that it is against others in the same nation.

“by profaning” — a piel infinitive. The Hebrew word is chalal, which is a word that means to mentally desecrate, to mentally despise. You can mentally desecrate or mentally despise and eventually it may manifest itself in some way. The manifestation here will be despising doctrine, despising the truth, turning to idolatry and, in connection with idolatry, the phallic cult which was in full operation in the nations surrounding Judah at that time.

“covenant” — the word here actually means a contract. The “contract of our fathers” is expressed in the Word, the Old Testament canon: operation grace, the declaration of the divine institutions, etc.

Verse 11 — “Israel and Jerusalem” refers to the southern kingdom. They key to this verse is “ “the holiness of the Lord” or the sanctuary of Jehovah. This refers to the temple, the second temple, which was a basis for teaching Bible doctrine to the Jews and it has been “profaned” which is negative volition toward Bible doctrine. Negative volition opens up a vacuum in the soul into which is drawn religion and, as a result of religion, the phallic cult.

“abomination” — the word is used in connection with idolatry, and notice, it is said to be “committed,” which is the niphel perfect of nasah, meaning to make something out of something. What they are doing is making something out of religion. Something has to exist and the something is religion, and they get into religion by going on negative volition toward Bible doctrine.

“married the daughter of a strange god” — So, let’s trace it. First of all they go on negative volition toward Bible doctrine. As a result a vacuum is created in the mentality of the soul and into it is drawn religion. Religion is called “the daughter of a strange god", which means we are using here operation phallic cult. In the phallic cult a part of salvation and a part of worship is the practice of fornication with Gentile women.

Verse 12 — “The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this.” This means two things: for the believer it means the sin unto death, and for the unbeliever it means the potential destruction of the nation under the fifth cycle of discipline (the believer is caught up in that too).

“the master and the scholar” — both of these are qal active participles and the word “master” means the one calling. “Scholar” means the one answering the call. Judah is hill country and up at the top of one of these hills there would be a priest of the phallic cult, and there would be a special call or a special trumpet.

“out of the tabernacles [tents] of Jacob” — tents simply means the house. In the house the husband hears this call and he knows that is the signal to go up to the grove on the top of the hill. That means that the Gentile girls who had been travelling through the country have now made it to his grove and he can go up there and become involved in that religious activity, which involved both sexual activity and ritual. This is also explained in Nehemiah 13:23-29. And Malachi exposes this for a reason. These men would do something else. At the same time as going up to the groves they were going to the temple and offering animal sacrifices as per the Levitical code. And these weren’t rebound sacrifices, they were salvation sacrifices that they were offering. So they were involved in the phallic cult and they were also using Levitical offerings — “offering an offering unto the Lord of hosts.” Therefore they were in exactly the same situation as born again believers in Hebrews 6:1-6, believers who had one foot in Judaism and one foot in Christianity — “him that offereth” is the same person.

This shows us something: on the outside there is the attack of religion — heathenistic type. This religion is also making a direct attack upon divine institution #2, the wives left behind who do not come with animal sacrifices, they come to the altar with tears.

Verse 13 — “And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping.” This is the weeping of the wives. (This can’t be dug out of the English translation) The wives cover the altar with tears, the husbands were just there with a sacrificial animal to cover their activities in the grove. Religion attacking from the outside and the disintegration of divine institution #2 from the inside.

“and with crying out” — this is screaming — “in so much [introducing a result clause] that he regardeth not the offering any more, nor receiveth it with good will at your hand.” In other words, the whole system of learning doctrine, the whole system of worship in the Levitical offerings, is broken down because of the attack of religion and the attack upon divine institution #2 which results from it.

Verse 14 — The other side of the picture is the covering of the tracks. Here is where the man is going up to the groves but is trying to cover his tracks dishonestly by saying he was down at the temple! — feigned innocence. But the Lord exposes this. “Yet ye say, Wherefore,” i.e. the one who is involved in the phallic cult. “Wherefore” is, literally, For what cause?

The Lord answers: “Because the Lord hath been a witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously.” In other words, verse 14 is merely explaining what this man is doing. The Lord is saying He recognises the hypocrisy of this.

“wife of thy youth” is an idiom for your wife.

“she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant” — this again refers to divine institution #2. Here is a verse which deals with divine institution #2 and here is the principle behind this indictment, verse 15: “Did not he [God the Son] make them [Adam and Eve] one [one breath]?” literally. He didn’t provide four Eves, just one.

Illustration: The air that you breath fits your lungs, and not only that, it satisfies your lungs. Not only does it satisfy your lungs but it oxidises your body, which means oxygen in the blood which makes it possible for you to think and to function, and so on. Air and a person always fit, they always match.

“Yet he [God] had the residue of breath [not spirit].” God had enough breath left over that He could have created for Adam, woman, woman, woman, woman, … If God had so created the stabilised atmosphere called air in harem fashion we would all die. But He didn’t .Therefore this whole religious concept was contrary to the whole principle of man and woman on the earth. So He created one woman for one man, and when it is the right woman that is all that is necessary. The woman is slightly different than the man because she is the breath or the air that man breathes, but it has it be the right one. The point is compatibility. God has designed for every man the right woman.

Why did God only provide Adam with one woman? “That he [Adam] might seek a godly seed” — that is, under monogamy you come to divine institution #3 where you have one father and one mother and order in the home for the basis for training, objective training of children.

“Therefore take heed to your spirit” — that isn’t what the Hebrew says at all. It should be: “Guard the breath of your life [the right woman]” .Guarding is the whole concept of compatibility between the right man and the right woman. It is a soul compatibility, you have to guard her soul, you have to protect her body. How do you protect her body? One of the ways is sex. How do you protect her soul? Through all the compatibility facets of the soul. So, “guard the breath of your life and do not deal treacherously with the wife of your youth” .

This is just showing the principle from divine institution #2. It could have been #3, it could have been #4, but the writer at this point takes #2.

Verse 16 — “for the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away” — putting away is divorce. Why? “For one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts” — what does that mean? Violence here isn’t violence, it is hatred. In the ancient world they divorced their wives because they hated them, they didn’t like them, or they were incompatible. Only the man could get the divorce in Israel and when he wanted to get rid of a woman he threw her out. And he threw her out under a legal cloak. They had a legal system for divorce and all they had to do was to say that she was unclean, and there were numerous ways she could be unclean, like touching a dead horse, go into a house where there was a corpse, etc. So they used a legal system to get rid of someone they couldn’t stand. “Putting away” is simply a legal system for divorce. The garment is self-righteousness or to use the law. The law was designed to protect the woman; they used the law to get rid of the woman.

“take heed” means give attention to, or accept your responsibility of your breath [not spirit].

Verse 17 — this whole thing adds up to a rationalisation of sin rather than facing what sin is. “Ye have wearied the Lord” — the word “wearied” is jaga, which doesn’t mean to weary at all, it means to bore Him. This is the hiphil perfect and it is an anthropopathism, ascribing to God a human characteristic [boredom] to show His attitude. Boredom expresses a total lack of feeling of one person toward another, or one person toward a circumstance, or one person toward a thing — a total lack of feeling, a total lack of interest. But when it is used as an anthropopathism it expresses the divine attitude toward a nation or a person — to a nation when it is going under the fifth cycle of discipline, to the believer when that believer is under the sin unto death.

“with your words” — this is what they thought. Words come from thoughts, they are simply the verbal expression of what you think. You think in terms of vocabulary and then you express that.

Here is what they thought: “everyone that doeth evil is good” — this is a rationalisation of sin — “and he delighteth in them.” That is the basis of everything in this chapter and the next phrase, “Where is the God of justice?” begins chapter three. That is said by the women.

There are two attitudes here. The attitude of the man is the obvious sin but the women have a problem, a mental attitude sin called bitterness. The men rationalise sin; the women ignore sin because they think that they have a right to be bitter. Never in the history of the human race has any believer ever had the right to be bitter. Bitterness is a mental attitude sin that produces self-induced misery, and these women were so judging their husbands that God couldn’t judge them. They were putting themselves under triple compound discipline and the result was that God was not judging these men, and the women were out of line, and so since both of them together were out of line the nation was about to go under. The women were also contributing to the destruction of the nation by their mental attitude sin of bitterness. They should have been responding to the Lord, responding to doctrine, and leaving the problem to Him. But they reacted to the injustice done to them, and in their reaction two wrongs do not make a right.

Summary

In this whole chapter there are four ways to destroy a nation. In verses 1-9, lack of Bible doctrine; verses 10-13, operation treachery which actually begins with rationalisation of sin and leads to religious activity; verses 14-16, the disintegration of the divine institutions as illustrated by marriage; verse 17, the rationalisation of sin on the one hand and mental attitude sins on the other whereby the justice of God is not given free hand in a community and in a nation.