What Does God Seek? Godly Offspring

IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

What Does God Seek? Godly Offspring

Date: Jun. 28, 2021

Passage

Malachi 2:10-16 (ESV)

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? 11 Judah has been faithless, and 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. 12 May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts!

13 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. 14 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. 15 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. 16 “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.”

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Daily Bread

Key Verse: 2:15

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.

1. Two rebukes for God's people (10-14)

Malachi first reminded the people of Israel and Judah that they were God's creation, and that they had entered into a covenant with the Lord. Then he rebuked the people of Israel and Judah (Jerusalem) for being unfaithful to the Lord. Their unfaithfulness was detestable and manifested itself in two ways. First, the people of Judah were marrying women who worshipped foreign gods. In doing so, they were desecrating the sanctuary of the Lord. Malachi prayed that those who did this would be thrown out of the Lord's community. Secondly, they had divorced their God-fearing wives to marry idolators, and then wept because the Lord had turned his back on them.

2. You belong to the Lord (14,15)

This is why the Lord was so angry with them. They belonged to the Lord, body and spirit. He was their creator. Their being unfaithful to the wives of their youths was violence against these women and showed them as unfaithful toward God.

Prayer: Father, help me to be faithful to my spouse and to you.

One Word: Be faithful to the Lord

Countless Saved from God’s Wrath by the Blood of the Lamb

Revelation 7:1-17

Key Verse: 7:9-10

A Great Multitude from Every Nation

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Today's Question

Are all sins equally evil?

See answer and references