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Israel Doubts God’s Love
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob,
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“Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the Lord Almighty.
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Breaking Covenant Through Divorce
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?
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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.
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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.
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“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.
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Breaking Covenant Through Injustice
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?”
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“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings.
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Israel Speaks Arrogantly Against God
“You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’
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“You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty?
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But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’”
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And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
