Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

--Parallel verses:
‭‭Malachi‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬-‭16‬
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.
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.
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.
“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.

What if someone came along and told you, “If you just do these things, you will have a career like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs, you will be wealthy beyond your wildest dreams?” If your goal was wealth and power, then this would seem like a great pact or partnership, right?

God made a covenant (more comprehensive than a promise) with his people, Israel, through Abraham. The basis of this covenant was that he would be their God and they would be his people. Being his people is likened to being his tribe, his kin, or his family. And the agreement from God was that he would provide for, protect, and prosper them. The agreement from the Israelites was they would be faithful to him, obey his commands, and love him, and seek him first. In the New Testament this covenant is compared to marriage, because collectively, those who follow God are The Bride of Christ, also known as The Body of Christ. Therefore the marriage covenant is, like God’s covenant with Abraham, beyond a promise. We honor God by keeping it and we dishonor him by contaminating it.

I have met with and counseled many people on how to pray and connect with God. And this involves listening and hearing their heart’s desire for this relationship. Usually the breakdown in communication with God involves a disappointment in life that they blame on God, either consciously or subconsciously. My counsel is usually centered around: 1) be honest about your anger with God, 2) read his word, 3) spend more time in prayer with him, 4) fellowship with other Christ-followers, and 5) serve others throughout the week with your spouse and God’s people.

I think the same applies for a healthy marriage. We must view the relationship through the “commitment eyes” of a covenant. It cannot be broken. We must remain faithful. Then we work this out in how we treat each other in good times or bad, in prosperity or hardship. We are called to be sexually faithful in marriage, but also faithful in so many other ways.

For those who break this covenant, which is a reflection of the covenant God makes with us, God will not hear their prayers for help with their sin. Why? It is because they ask for help in working out their sinful schemes of unfaithfulness. God does not honor sin or participate in it. (He will hear their cry for repentance, though.)

Also mentioned here is the production of Godly offspring. The implication here is that by doing the evil things in your mind, heart, and life that lead to sexual immorality and contaminating the marriage bed and to divorce; we impact the model of faith passed onto our kids. This is so true. We see this played out all around us. Kids from divorced homes, or homes where one or both parents are unfaithful, are damaged by this sin.

And so God, being a loving God full of truth, calls out this sin as evil. And we should do the same in boldness and love.

Lord, thank you for your heart of love that keeps us on the right path. May you convict me of sin and continue to help me to see that following you leads to the richest life possible!