We are continuing our study in the book of Malachi. Last week we discussed how God’s people were drawn into sin by the daughters of foreign gods. I encourage you to go back and read that post first if you haven’t already done so! 

As we continue on in our passage we read in Malachi 2:13-16 (ESV), “And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, “Why does he not?”

Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

They Messed Up

These men, who have broken their covenant with God and married women who were devoted to false gods, find themselves in a mess and what do they do? They come to the altar of God and cry and groan because their lives are a mess. These guys want God to come in like a superhero and clean up the mess they’ve made. They don’t want to acknowledge that they have any part in the mess they find themselves in. They were tricked, they say. 

According to Chuck Smith these guys divorced their God given wives to marry these daughters of foreign gods. 

This leads me to wonder if these evil women used witchcraft to entice these men to leave the ways of the one true God to follow after demons. 

Who Do You Worship

Let’s face it, people either worship the true God or not.People who worship things like themselves, money, and power are really being influenced by demons to lust after those things. Just like Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭24‬ (‭ESV)‬‬

The word for money in this verse literally means mammon, which is indicative of possessions. You can not serve both God and material possessions. Again, you are either devoted to serving the one true God or you are devoted to serving yourself and that makes you your own idol. Who do you choose to serve? Who would your friends and family say you serve? What would your bank account say you serve? 

The guys in our passage chose to abandon serving the one true God to serve the demons behind the false gods of the pagan people who lived near Israel. 

When we choose to stop serving God and have a rebellious heart toward him, he will take his hand of protection off of our lives. 

Jacob and Esau

Do you recall our lesson on Jacob and Esau? Do you remember what God said would happen to those who chose to disobey his commands? Bad things would happen such as disease, destruction of their land, panic would plague them, and all sorts of other really bad things.

These Men Were Attacked

When these guys chose to follow after false gods and devote themselves to the demonic entities these demons went on the attack. 

God was no longer free to protect these guys from the rotten fruit of their choice and when they felt the effects of their choices they came crying to God asking why God turned his back on them. What does God say? He shows them the reason for these attacks. God then goes on to explain why it is so important for these guys to be faithful to the wives God gave them. He says it’s his desire for them to have godly offspring. 

Family Is Important To God

Why is family so important to God? Because it is through family that whole nations are changed. When we spend time disciplining our kids in the ways of God two things happen. 

1. We are changed because we are continuing to search out the ways of God to teach our kids. I need to know what the Bible says about things in order to teach those principles to my kids. How am I to teach them what God says about the issues of our day without knowing what the Bible says? 

2. We change the direction of our nation. Think about it. If I teach my kids how to live a Godly life, and they teach their kids, and their kids teach their kids, we soon have a huge group of people who know who God is and know how to follow God with all their hearts. 

We Can Change The World

My grandparents started out with 4 kids. Each of those kids got married and the next generation is 10 kids.

 Now think about if each member of your family takes discipleship seriously. If each of us taught our kids to walk with God, and they taught their kids and so on. In a short amount of time we could change the spiritual landscape of our neighborhoods, cities, states, and even countries.

Now think about if each of us discipled just one other family. If each of us had one other family we took under our wing and taught them how to live a God centered life. Do you see why discipleship is so important? 

Evil Is Good???

The next section of our text says, “You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” ‭‭Malachi‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬ ‭(ESV‬‬)

“Everyone who does evil is good…” Boy do those words sound like Malachi is talking about our world! It seems no matter where we go there is a message of “sin is good and you must affirm sin to be a good person.” Here’s the thing, we as followers of Jesus can not affirm sin. Jesus never affirms sin and if we are truly his disciples then we need to be like Jesus, even when it’s socially unacceptable. 

The question becomes; what do we do when we are faced with the demand to approve of sin in our culture? We recognize the people who say evil is good have been deceived by demonic influence. There are strong demonic entities that still seek power of nations just like we read in the Bible. We tell the truth in love just like Jesus does. 

Three False Gods And Their Job

Jonathan Cahn has a book called Return of the Gods. In it he talks about the destruction of Israel and how this same destruction is happening to the United States today. He points to three different false gods in the Bible and what their jobs were in the destruction of Israel. The first is Baal. He calls Baal The Possessor. According to Cahn The Possessor’s job was to turn the people away from God, drive God out of the nation, and make people forget God. 

The next god is called Ashtoreth, whom Cahn calls The Enchantress. Her job is to promote sexual immorality in the culture, promote divorce, gender confusion, and generally destroy the family. 

The last false god is Molech, The Destroyer. His goal is for people to sacrifice their children or give the children over to him for destruction. 

I think we can see all three of these in our culture in the United States and in many other countries around the world. 

How do we fight back

The question becomes, how do we fight back? What do we do to cause the fall of these false gods and lead a nation back to the one true God, Yahweh? 

1. We take our children back and teach them how to love and follow God with all their hearts. We teach them the Bible. This may mean taking them out of toxic schools and homeschooling them yourself. Whatever the cost, it will be worth it to have children who know who the true God is, what he says, and how to stand for his truth no matter what. 

2. We stand for truth in love. We stand for the Biblical definition of marriage and identity. We first learn what our authentic identity is and learn to 
3. stand firm in our true identity. Then we can stand with others and help to draw out their authentic identity. We speak truth in love to those who are confused about who they are.  

4. We turn ourselves back to God wholly. Then we can lead others to turn back to God too. One person, one family, one neighborhood, one county, one state, and one nation at a time. 

5. We fight hate with love. We fight lies with truth. We fight destruction with building up. We fight fear with trust in God. 

What About You?

I leave you with these questions:

1. What are things in your life that have become idols?
2. What can you start doing today to lead those around you to love and serve the one true God? 
3. What is the Holy Spirit asking you to do right now?

It’s not too late. We can turn our families, and even our nations back to the one true God. Remember what Romans 16:20 (ESV) says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”