A Covenant Before God

A Covenant Before God
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. —Malachi 2: 14
The Israelites tried. They covered their offerings with tears, but the Lord refused to accept them. When they asked, “For what reason?” God told them it was because of the way they treated their wives. They had made divorce too easy. If a man became enamored with a young, pretty girl, he could discard his wife by simply declaring, “I divorce you” three times. And then the companion of his youth, the woman who stood by him through all the lean years and made sacrifices to help him get started in life, the woman who had borne his children and kept his home, had no choice but to leave.
**God hates divorce.
God hated divorce then, and He hates it now. And I have learned that if God hates something, I had better take care that I hate it also. The Scripture tells men that we are to love our wives even more than we love ourselves. We are to love her “as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Ephesians 5: 25). There is great pressure against marriage today. May we who are married remember that we have made a covenant with each other before God, “For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part.”
Father, help us to love each other as You have loved us, and to treat one another with compassion and kindness. In Jesus’ name, amen.