“And now, you priests, this warning is for you. ² If you do not listen,and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.

³ “Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. ⁴ And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may continue,” says the Lord Almighty. ⁵ “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. ⁶ True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.

⁷ “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth. ⁸ But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,”says the Lord Almighty. ⁹ “So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

¹⁰ Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?

¹¹ Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. ¹² As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.

¹³ Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. ¹⁴ You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.

¹⁵ Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.

¹⁶ “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty.

So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.

¹⁷ You have wearied the Lord with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”

I see this whole chapter as a call to the true practices that God asks of us, namely, love and faith, starting with our leaders.  Priests, of course, meant exactly that: the religious leaders of the day.  But today I think this message can apply to ministers, reverends, and really any thought leaders in and out of the church.  Don’t we want all our leaders “to preserve knowledge” and be someone from whom we can “seek instruction” (2:7)? The fact that leaders, by their very nature, are responsible for other people, makes it extra-important for them to be examples of love and faith, like Levi.

I love the palpable fondness for Levi in this chapter.  Honestly, I don’t know much about him, other than his tribe was the one selected out of all of Israel to be priests.  But the way he is written about here is so lovely.  I really want to have him over for coffee.  He walked with the Lord in “peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.” (2:6) Not only that, he had a holy “covenant of life and peace.” (2:5) So, he was peaceful and a good influence.  Sounds like the makings of a great friend.  Wouldn’t you want someone level-headed and helpful with whom you could discuss whatever may be troubling you?  Something about the way this passage is written just emanates a genuine love for the guy.  Described like this, he’s definitely a minister I’d listen to, and someone other leaders can live up to.

Now, when this chapter was written society was a lot different than it is today.  Back then, religion dictated what you ate, what you wore, what you were allowed to do and when. Yes, this is technically still true today, and more so for some than others, but not to the same extent as it was back then.  For example, lots of people work on the Sabbath (or Sunday) and also go to Church.  Most people do some form of business with others outside of their faith and see no conflict.  Marriage is another example, one that is the focus of most of this chapter.

Now, in case you haven’t read the “About Me” page yet (which I suggest you do, so you know all my biases), I am in a dual faith marriage myself. Well, if I am to take Malachi at face value, by being in this dual-faith marriage I have “desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying a [man] who worship[s] a foreign god.” (2:11) If I was living in the 5th century BC he’d probably be right.  Just as an aside, it wouldn’t happen, because I’d have little to no say in who I married, hence the masculine skew of this admonition, but I digress.  Back then, it was nearly impossible to maintain your faith without the cooperation of your whole household.  There were rituals that had to be followed, like clean and unclean food and clean and unclean times of a woman’s menstrual cycle, that, honestly, are so complicated that even someone with good intentions but no background in the faith would probably mess up.  And there is definitely the chance of a spouse influencing the other towards their own religion.  People convert all the time for marriage.

But I like to think that we, collectively as a species, are growing in the right direction in our Faith. I don’t think I’m in danger of committing a mortal sin by marrying my non-Christian. Let me tell you why by telling you a little about him.  What attracted me to my husband (besides his gorgeous green eyes and 6’3″ stature) was his discerning nature.  He sees through people’s bullshit. He does not offer false praise nor is taken in by flattery. He genuinely cares about things, and his actions support his feelings.  This is big reason why we quit what we were doing to become farmers – so we could be part of the solution in what we see as a dangerously flawed food system, one that, if left unchecked, will contribute to the ruin of the earth for our children.  At the risk of sounding totally sappy, his passion and heart were what drew me to him.

I’ll be the first to admit, it would be a LOT easier if we shared the same faith.  It is an issue we have to face on an ongoing basis in our marriage. Of course I’d be thrilled if my husband decided Christianity is for him, but neither of us are trying to convert the other, or, probably just as importantly, subvert the other’s faith. So, would I like it if he was a Christian?  Absolutely.  Do I believe God sees the love in his heart and claims him as His own? Even more so.

Hoping, as I do, that we are evolving in the right direction spiritually, I also think that it is also now safe to see all the talk about divorce in this chapter more allegorically than literally.  I don’t think God wants us to suffer in a miserable marriage, but I do think he wants us to love and cherish one another, hence all the condemnation of divorce here. When Malachi writes “the man who hates and divorces his wife…does violence to the one he should protect,” it is a call for all of us to treat those nearest to us a little kinder, even when it is hard.

Again, using my own marriage as an example, being kind to each other can be really damn hard sometimes.  I know I am not very lovable when I’m sick.  I’m a needy, whiny, uncooperative patient that tends to prolong an illness by starting full steam again too soon.  We’ve had many a fight over me feeling like I’m not getting enough help because (surprise!) my husband thought I was all better because I was doing everything I normally do.  A strong faith-even if it’s not one shared by your spouse but even more so if it is-can help you love and cherish one another. Knowing that God loves both me and my husband, knowing that we are both God’s own children, makes me want to do better when small emotions get a hold of me.  That’s not to say I don’t sometimes (okay, a lot of times) fall prey to being petty, annoying, or sometimes downright mean.  But when I do, I feel a spiritual need to apologize, to make right with my husband so I can be right with God.  And that, I think, is the takeaway: love and faith go hand in hand with kindness. So, I will spend this week seeing where God calls me to be kinder, not just to my husband, but to all those around me.