Malachi 2:16 reveals God’s stance on divorce, stating He hates it because it represents a violent rupture of the marital bond. This passage highlights the gravity of divorce, emphasizing that while God condemns the act, He does not condemn those who have experienced it. Despite high divorce rates and their impact on families, the Bible allows divorce in cases of death, abandonment, sexual immorality, and treachery. However, it also encourages reconciliation and underscores that God’s grace is available for healing and forgiveness, offering a path forward even after divorce.
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Malachi 2:16 “For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers
one’s garment with violence,” says the Lord of hosts. “Therefore take heed to
your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”
Malachi 2:16 (MSG) “I hate divorce,” says the God of Israel. God-of-the-Angel-Armies
says, “I hate the violent dismembering of the ‘one flesh’ of marriage.” So watch
yourselves. Don’t let your guard down. Don’t cheat.
Malachi 2:16 (NLT) “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce
your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
“So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”
Statistically, 91% of us will be married at some point.
50 percent of all marriages in the United States will end in divorce or separation.
Every 16 seconds, there is a marriage in the U.S.
Every 42 seconds, there is one divorce in America, That equates to 86 divorces
There are nearly 3 divorces in the time it takes for a couple to recite their wedding
vows (2 minutes).
430 divorces happen during the average wedding reception (5 hours).
The United States has the 6th highest divorce rate in the world.
The divorce rate among people 50 and older has doubled in the past 20 years
Malachi 3:6 For I am the Lord, I do not change;
Hebrews 13:5 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
I. GOD HATES DIVORCE, NOT THE DIVORCEE.
Malachi 2:16 “For the Lord God of Israel says That He hates divorce …
Pat Conroy said, ‘There is not metaphors powerful enough to describe the moment
when you tell the children about the divorce, to look into the eyes of your children
and to tell them that you’re mutilating their family, and changing all their tomorrows.
Personally’, it felt as though I had doused my entire family with gasoline and struck
a match’.
Malachi 2:16 (KJV) For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away …
Someone has said: ‘Fifty years ago parents were apt to have lots of kids, nowadays
kids are apt to have lots of parents’…
Malachi 2:16 “For the Lord God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it
covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the Lord of hosts …
Malachi 2:16 (MSG) “I hate the violent dismembering of the ‘one flesh’ of marriage.”
Matthew 19:6 ” …. What God hath joined together let not man put asunder.”
II. GOD ALLOWS DIVORCE, FOR A FEW REASONS.
1. DEATH.
Romans 7:2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband
as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
1 Corinthians 7:39 A wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives; but if her
husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
2. ABANDONMENT OR DESERTION.
1 Corinthians 7:15 But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister
is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace.
3. SEXUAL IMMORALITY AND ADULTERY.
Matthew 5:32 But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except
Hebrews 13:4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators
and adulterers God will judge.
Deuteronomy 22:22 “If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband,
then both of them shall die—the man that lay with the woman, and the woman;
so you shall put away the evil from Israel.
4. TREACHERY.
Malachi 2:10 “…. Why do we deal treacherously with one another
Malachi 2:14 “… the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth,
with whom you have dealt treacherously
Malachi 2:16 “… He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence ….
“Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”
Ephesians 5:28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies;
he who loves his wife loves himself.
Ephesians 5:29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it,
just as the Lord does the church.
5. HARDNESS OF HEART.
Matthew 19:8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts,
permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of
counselors there is safety.
III. GOD ADDRESSES DIVORCE, BEFORE AND AFTER.
1. Christian couples don’t fall out of love, they fall out of repentance.
Matthew 4:17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to
God …”
2. God has given us the ministry of reconcilliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18 “God … has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
2 Corinthians 5:18 (NLT) “…God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.
1 Corinthians 7:10 Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife
is not to depart from her husband.
1 Corinthians 7:11 But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be
reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.
Gary Chapman (quote)
“Irreconcilable differences is such a lame and hollow phrase. That’s what you say
when you’re afraid to say anything. It’s the legalese that allows you to walk away.
From my vantage point, we had one irreconcilable difference: I wanted her to stay,
and she wanted to leave. Everything else, God could have reconciled.”
3. There still is a road to recovery, after divorce, through the grace of God
Matthew 12:31 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men …”
Adrian Rogers (quote)
God is a God of forgiveness. God is a God of grace. And if you’ve failed, and your
marriage is irreparably broken,and you’ve remarried, you’ve got a second home and
so forth, you can’t unscramble eggs, you can’t go backwards.
And one thing that really bothers me today is there are those who want to make
divorce the unpardonable sin. They want to make divorce a dead end street.
They want to treat divorced people like second–class citizens in the kingdom of
heaven, and they sit around and pass judgment.
It’s an amazing thing:that if a Christian could be a murderer or something, and he
gets saved, and they put him on “From the Prison to the Pulpit,” How wonderful
he’s a preacher of the gospel! Or somebody who has been, maybe, a whoremonger
before he got saved, and he got saved from all of this, and we say, “How wonderful!
Look what God has done for him!”
But let somebody get a divorce; let somebody get an irreparable divorce where it
cannot be put together, whether they be the guilty party or the innocent party, and
then there come those people who want with great judgment to say somehow that
they are second–class citizens in the kingdom of heaven.
My dear friend, if you have repented of your sin and given your heart to Jesus Christ
there is no such thing as a second–class citizen in the kingdom of heaven.”
1 Timothy 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate,
sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach;
1 Timothy 3:12 Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and
their own houses well.
1 Timothy 5:9 Do not let a widow under sixty years old be taken into the number,
and not unless she has been the wife of one man,
1 Timothy 5:14 Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children,
manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
1 Timothy 3:2 (NLT) So a church leader must be a man whose life is above reproach.
He must be faithful to his wife.
1 Timothy 3:12 (NLT) A deacon must be faithful to his wife, and he must manage his
children and household well.
1 Timothy 5:9 (NLT) A widow who is put on the list for support must be a woman
who is at least sixty years old and was faithful to her husband
4. Don’t run into marriage, and don’t run out of marriage.
Proverbs 19:3 (NLT) Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; Haste makes
mistakes.
Proverbs 19:3 People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry
at the Lord.
Love can still be found.
The second time around.
Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
things shall be added to you.
