Mal 2:13-16
13 And this is the second thing you do: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying; So He does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.
14 Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant (vows).
(Does Jesus treat you the way you treat your wife? You are His Bride, preparing for His return, (or your departure), to be with Him. Selah.)
15 But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring (the next generations). Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.
16 “For the Lord God of Israel says That He 1. hates 2.divorce, for it covers one’s garment with 3. violence,” Says the Lord of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit that you do not deal 4. treacherously.”
Malachi 2:13-16
OT:8130 <START HEBREW>an@c* 1. hates
KJV – enemy, foe, (be) hate (-ful, -r), odious,
utterly.
***odious.
-If something is odious, it’s hateful. If you become a historian of slavery, you’ll learn all the details of that odious trade. Odious is from the Latin noun odium, which means hatred.
Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com
OT:7971 <START HEBREW>jl^v* 2.Putting away/divorce
–to send away
KJV – cast (away, out), forsake, give (up), leave
let depart ***push away, put (away, out), send (away
OT: 2554 <START HEBREW>sm^j* 3.violence
-to be violent; to maltreat:
KJV – make bare, shake off, violate,
do violence, take away violently, wrong, imagine wrongfully.
***mal·treat·ment
/malˈtrētmənt/ noun
Cruel or violent treatment, mistreatment.
Similar:
–ill treatment
-mistreatment
-abuse
-ill use
-ill usage
-misuse
OT:898 4a.treacherously
;-to cover (with a garment); figuratively, to act covertly, to pillage:
KJV – deal deceitfully (treacherously, unfaithfully), offend, unfaithful (man), very.
KJV -very [treacherously]
Here’s a thought:
Would you want God to trust you in the same manner you are trusting your wife? You are the Bride of Christ. Why wouldn’t you have God treat YOU the same way YOU treat your bride? What you do to others will return to you again. Or…what goes around comes around (2Sam 22:26-28)….can God trust you with this woman whom He knew before the foundation of the world, who is made in His image, whom He has a plan for; the same as He has a plan for you? Remember Adam blamed Eve for his failure to obey. He blamed Eve for his disobedience. Are you blaming your helpmate for your temptations and disobedience?
Are you a faithful man? A man is called to love his wife as himself and lay down his life for her just a Christ has done for the Church. Eph 5:25
We ARE ALL THE BRIDE OF CHRIST. Selah!
YOU ARE THE BRIDE OF CHIRST. Now you have the opportunity, as the Bride of Christ, to view Jesus’ ways from your perspective as a man AND your wife’s perspective; both as the Bride of Christ. Here is an analogy: My husband spent 25 years in the private business sector before he became a public practitioner. When he decided to move into the public sector, he had developed an amazing ability to see his client’s needs from an internal perspective and an external perspective.
Our hearts, souls (minds) and strength (wills) are tested through our most intimate relationship and we are readied for our eternal life with Christ.
If you will decide divorce is not an option for you, I promise you, you will find a productive and healing alternative that when you come to the end of your time on this earth you will hear Him say, “Well done.” As much as it is on your part—make a home of peace. Having done all—stand. If you faithfully do all that you know to do (obeying God’s Word and ways) then stand and let God do the rest. If your helpmate chooses to leave her family, there is nothing more to be said, providing you have not provoked her to leave—treating her in such a way that she would not want to stay—manipulating her desire to go….
Stress. stress and more stress,,,,
It takes persistent stress to divide a couple from their destiny together. It likes to blindside you. There is an enemy that you can not see that loves to make surprise attacks when you least expect it. Everyone is at peace, loving and intimate and then bang! He comes in like a sledgehammer, hoping to take you out before you can catch on that he’s at work. Sometimes you need to just step over the mess, regroup, stop blaming each other and keep moving toward your God given mark. Amen. Remember Satan told Jesus that he would return at a more opportune time. He’ll be back!
Constant problem solving is destructive. (I recommend my book Voices Crying in the Wilderness, Chapter 22 The Art of Problem Solving for how we now deal with problem solving.)
1. Occupational stress
***I recently researched Canada’s divorce rates by occupation. The one thing that I noticed, was not the occupation itself, but the degree of stress generated by the profession or job. It didn’t seem to matter what the occupation was, the stress level was the dividing factor. Stress is stress and takes the same toll whatever the occupation. Take for example: the oil field lay-offs, the coronavirus that’s turned the world upside down… Job stress: traffic control, prison guards, police force, military, nursing and so on. Even my husband’s job is very stressful, pushing him to work 10-12 hour days, 7 days a week for half the year.
2. World stress
-plagues (coronavirus), disasters, political shifts, wars
-Banks
-loans,
-mortgages
-enough savings?
-overdrafts
-borrowing for business
-borrowing for survival
-credit cards
-Government control
-collecting UIC
-oil field closures
-forestry closures
-higher taxes
-schooling
-promised support never realized
-medical provision
-service providers
3. Family stress
-immediate family
-extended family issues
-aging concerns
– forced retirement: (make room for the
next generation. You have had your turn.)
4. Health stress
-any health issue that demands ongoing attention
-wife’s health issues (in sickness and in health)
-children’s health issues
-your own health issues
-extended family health issues
-PTSD, OCD…
5. Junk in your trunk stress.
-Recommend reading: Your Junk in My Trunk. The author’s testimony of deliverance from generational bondages. (Soon to be posted on this site)
6. Children
-issues imposed on families in this era, concerning the raising of children. (You are responsible for the shaping of the generations to come. A man’s authority and effectiveness is diminished by divorce. The world will step in and usurp your God given authority and power to shape and direct your children.)
Ps 127:3-5
3 Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them
They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.
This is not an all-inclusive list. Just so that you get the idea. You might think of others that are not mentioned here, including your own situation. Again, I highly recommend my book Your Junk in My Trunk, depicting 28 years of my crying out to God for help to be set free from a bondage that was so contrary to who God created me to be, passing from generation to generation. He finally sent a woman of God from the other side of the world and in a moment I was free. Hallelujah!
OK. I think I have provided you with all that God would have you pay attention to and be aware of regarding the temptation to divorce your helpmate. There are several sticky issues yet to come, but if you accepted God’s instruction on the divorce issue, it will only go up from here. Relax and look forward to some answers to your ponderings. Much of our answers come before we ever take our vows…the engagement. Thus book 2.
AN ENCOURAGING WORD NOW FROM YOUR FATHER FOR YOU TO MOVE FORWARD FROM HERE.
Eccl 9:7-9
7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; For God has already accepted your works.
8 Let your garments always be white, and let your head lack no oil.
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun.
GOD LOVES YOU AS HE DOES HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. HE CARES ABOUT EVERYTHING CONCERNING YOU. HE HAS THE ANSWERS. IF YOU FOLLOW HIS WAYS, ONE DAY YOU WILL GLANCE BACK OVER YOUR SHOULDER AND SAY, “MAN, AM I THANKFUL I DID IT HIS WAY.” YOU WILL BE MIGHTY PROUD OF YOURSELF…AND SO WILL YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER.
(All definitions: Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)***Unless otherwise noted.
(To view extended definitions please go to the
INDEX at the back of this book.)