Day 21 – Malachi 2:13-16

¹³ Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. ¹⁴ You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. ¹⁵ Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. ¹⁶ “I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel, “and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,” says the Lord Almighty. ^[1]

I grieve to write about this subject, just as I know its occurrences grieves the heart of God. There is no way to get around it: God hates divorce. As a pastor for more than thirty years I have counseled my share of couples that have faced it. I have wept with them, prayed with them, and have done my best to encourage them. In my marriage I have come dangerously close to walking that road myself. It has become too easy to divorce today. Divorces are so commonplace that most people, even in the church, have become cavalier about it. But there is no mistaking how God feels: He “hates” divorce.

If we could feel about divorce the way God feels, perhaps some that move too quickly would hesitate and consider the path they are contemplating. The truth of the matter is that divorce does happen, and perhaps in our minds, for good reasons. It takes two to make a marriage work and only one to tear it up. A believer cannot have a marriage that pleases God and that He blesses alone. As a believer, first of all, then as a pastor, I counsel couples to work through their problems with a godly counselor. I ask them questions about their own attitudes and actions. Have they done all they can do? What will they say to Jesus when they enter His presence and He asks them that question? Are they taking the easy way out or is this something over which they have no control? Now I know there may be legitimate reasons in some people’s minds for divorce and the Bible provides scenarios when a divorce is perhaps justified, but that does not change How God feels about it. If God hates divorce, then we should also. Let those then who are married covenant to take divorce off the table as an option, and those contemplating marriage be more discerning about whom they marry so we will bless God.

Dear heavenly father, my heart breaks, even as I know Your heart breaks, for those who have either chosen or have been presented divorce as an option for their marriage. Only You know the pain they have suffered and the actions they have taken to either reconcile the marriage or to further destroy it. Forgive us for even contemplating something you abhor. Teach how to love our spouses. Show us how to repair the brokenness we have caused. Make our marriages divorce proof, and for those who have been through the pain divorce causes, bring them forgiveness, healing, and restoration, in Jesus’ name. Amen.