Treachery, Tears, and the God Who Hates Divorce Text: Malachi 2:13-16
Introduction: Worship That God Rejects
We come now to a passage that lands with the force of a battering ram against the flimsy doors of modern evangelicalism. The book of Malachi is God's final word to His people before four hundred years of silence, and He is not wasting it on pleasantries. The people had returned from exile, rebuilt the temple, and re-instituted the sacrifices. On the surface, things looked religious. They were busy with church activities. But underneath this veneer of piety, a spiritual rot had set in. They were going through the motions, but their hearts were hard, their worship was contemptible, and their lives were shot through with covenant-breaking. And they couldn't figure out why God seemed so distant.
They were suffering from a spiritual malaise, a sense of divine absence, and they were baffled by it. This is a profoundly modern problem. People fill the pews, they sing the songs, they give their money, and then they wonder why their lives are not working. They wonder why there is no power, no joy, no sense of God's manifest presence. Malachi's diagnosis is that you cannot separate the altar from the home. You cannot cordon off your "spiritual life" from your family life. God sees it all as one piece. What you do in your house echoes in God's house. And here, God puts His finger on the precise point of their hypocrisy: they were dealing treacherously with their wives while expecting God to accept their worship. They wanted covenant blessings from God while they were actively demolishing the covenant of marriage at home.
This passage is a divine exposé. It reveals that their tears at the altar were not the tears of repentance, but the tears of frustrated self-pity. And God was having none of it. He pulls back the curtain to show them, and us, that covenant faithfulness in marriage is not a secondary, "family life" issue. It is a primary worship issue. God will not accept the offerings of a man who is a traitor to his own wife.
The Text
"And this is a second thing you do: you cover the altar of Yahweh with tears, with weeping, and with groaning because He no longer regards the offering or receives it as acceptable from your hand. But you say, 'For what reason?' Because Yahweh has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But not one has done so, even one who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly seed? Be careful then to keep your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce," says Yahweh, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with wrong," says Yahweh of hosts. "Be careful then to keep your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously."
(Malachi 2:13-16 LSB)
Crocodile Tears at the Altar (v. 13-14a)
The charge begins with their emotional, yet hollow, worship.
"And this is a second thing you do: you cover the altar of Yahweh with tears, with weeping, and with groaning because He no longer regards the offering or receives it as acceptable from your hand. But you say, ‘For what reason?’" (Malachi 2:13-14a)
Notice the scene. The altar is wet with their tears. They are weeping, groaning, putting on a great show of religious fervor. But these are not the tears of godly sorrow that lead to repentance. This is the weeping of frustration. This is the cry of a religious consumer whose transaction has been denied. They are weeping because the divine vending machine is broken. They are putting in their coins of sacrifice and song, but the blessings are not coming out. Their worship is entirely man-centered. It is a performance designed to manipulate God, and when it doesn't work, they break down in self-pity.
Their worship is rejected, and this is a terrifying reality. You can do all the external things. You can show up, sing loudly, and even weep with emotion, and God can look at the whole display and say, "I do not regard it. It is not acceptable." Why? Because God does not just look at the offering; He looks at the hands that bring it. And their hands were dirty with covenant-breaking.
And what is their response to this divine rejection? Utter confusion. "For what reason?" They are genuinely clueless. This is the classic sign of a seared conscience. They have lived with their sin for so long that it has become normalized. They have compartmentalized their lives so effectively that they cannot see the glaring contradiction between their behavior at home and their expectations at the temple. They think God is being unreasonable. This is the blindness of hypocrisy. They can see the speck in God's eye, but they cannot see the log of treachery in their own.
The Divine Witness (v. 14b)
God answers their clueless question with surgical precision.
"Because Yahweh has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant." (Malachi 2:14b)
God says, "You want to know why? Because I was there." God is the third strand in the cord of marriage. He is the primary witness to the vows that were made. When a man and a woman make a covenant of marriage, they are not just making promises to each other in front of witnesses; they are making a solemn oath before the living God. And God does not forget.
He identifies the victim: "the wife of your youth." This phrase is intentionally tender. It is meant to sting their conscience. This is not some stranger. This is the woman you pursued, the woman you loved, the mother of your children, the one with whom you have a shared history. You are betraying the one who should be dearest to you.
The crime is identified as treachery. The Hebrew word is bagad. It means to be a traitor, to be faithless, to break a treaty. This is not about having a bad day or a disagreement. This is treason. And God defines the relationship they are violating. She is your "companion", your partner, your friend, the one who walks alongside you. And she is your "wife by covenant", this is not a contract based on performance or a relationship based on feelings. It is a blood-sworn oath, a covenant. To break it is to commit perjury before the Judge of all the earth.
The Purpose of Marriage (v. 15)
This next verse is notoriously difficult to translate, but the central thrust is clear. God is laying out the purpose of marriage and the standard of godly behavior.
"But not one has done so, even one who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly seed? Be careful then to keep your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth." (Malachi 2:15)
God's point is that a truly godly man, one who has even a "remnant of the Spirit," does not do this. He does not act like a traitor to his wife. This is a direct assault on their self-righteousness. They thought they were the faithful remnant, but God says their actions prove otherwise.
Then He gives the high purpose of marriage: "seeking a godly seed." Marriage is a theological institution before it is a romantic one. Its central purpose is to be the nursery of the covenant, the place where the next generation is raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord. It is the primary discipleship structure God created. When you deal treacherously with your wife, when you introduce strife, bitterness, and divorce into the home, you are poisoning the well. You are destroying the very environment in which a godly seed is to be cultivated. You cannot expect to get godly offspring from a chaotic, treacherous home. The mission is sabotaged by the treason of the parents.
Therefore, the command is intensely personal and internal: "Be careful then to keep your spirit." Guard your spirit. Treachery does not begin with the act of leaving; it begins with a bitter, discontented, lustful, and selfish spirit. The battle for marital faithfulness is won or lost in the heart. You must stand guard over your own soul, because that is where the treason begins. And the command is repeated: do not deal treacherously.
The Divine Hatred of Divorce (v. 16)
God concludes this indictment with one of the most blunt and forceful statements in all of Scripture.
"For I hate divorce," says Yahweh, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with wrong," says Yahweh of hosts. "Be careful then to keep your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously." (Malachi 2:16)
There is no ambiguity here. God hates divorce. He does not say He is disappointed by it or that it is a less-than-ideal outcome. He says He hates it. Why? Because God is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God. His entire relationship with His people is one of covenant. Marriage is meant to be the earthly picture of this divine reality, the relationship between Christ and His Church. Divorce attacks the very heart of God's character. It is a slander against Him. It tells a lie about who He is. Every no-fault divorce is a piece of public relations work for the devil, suggesting that God might one day do the same to His people.
The imagery that follows is graphic and violent. The man who does this "covers his garment with wrong." The word for "wrong" here is the Hebrew word hamas, which means violence. The man who treacherously divorces his wife is walking around as though he is clothed in a garment spattered with the blood of a violent crime. He thinks he has moved on to a new life, a new wife, a new start. But God sees him as a man wearing his violence. He cannot wash it off. He brings that blood-stained garment with him to the altar, and he dares to expect God to accept his offering. It is an abomination.
And so, for the third time, the warning comes: "Be careful then to keep your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously." The repetition is like the striking of a great bell. Guard your heart. Do not be a traitor. This is the fundamental issue.
The Husband Who Was Not a Traitor
As we read this, we must see that in our natural state, we are all the treacherous party. We are the adulterous bride who has broken covenant with our true husband, the Lord. We have dealt treacherously with Him, chased after other lovers, and then had the audacity to come to Him with tears of self-pity, wondering why our lives are not working.
Our garments are covered with the violence of our sin against a holy God. And what does He do? According to the law, He had every right to issue a certificate of divorce and send us away forever. He had every right to hate what we had done and to hate us for doing it.
But this is the gospel. God hates divorce, and so He refused to divorce us. Instead of casting off His treacherous bride, the Lord Jesus Christ, our faithful husband, came for us. He did not cover His garment with our violence; He covered Himself with our violence. On the cross, the hamas of our sin was laid upon Him. He took the treachery, the betrayal, and the curse that we deserved.
He is the husband who was not a traitor. And because He was faithful unto death, we who are faithless can be forgiven. He washes our blood-stained garments and clothes us in His own perfect righteousness. He does not just forgive our treachery; He gives us a new heart, a new spirit, a spirit that is able to be faithful. He gives us the remnant of His Spirit, and indeed, the fullness of it.
The solution to the treachery in our hearts and homes is not to simply try harder to be faithful. The solution is to be overwhelmed by the covenant faithfulness of the husband who bought us back from our whoredoms with His own blood. It is His faithfulness that makes us faithful. Therefore, let us guard our spirits, not simply as a matter of grim duty, but as a joyful response to the one who refused to deal treacherously with us.