IN OUR ANCHOR SCRIPTURE FOR TODAY, GOD TOLD the Israelite husbands of Malachi’s day, that He saw their TREACHERY against their wives. He let them know the severity of their unfaithfulness: it was an infraction or a violation of the COVENANT they had with their wives to which He, God, was a Witness.
From our anchor scripture, it’s very clear that Marriage isn’t just another lightweight relationship. It’s a covenant union in which God Himself is the Witness.
God counts unfaithfulness in marriage as TREACHERY.
What is treachery? Treachery is defined by the dictionary as: Betrayal, Treason, Backstabbing. These are moral crimes that God does not take lightly.
During weddings, couples make vows to each other publicly, part of which is to honour each other with THEIR BODIES. Those vows aren’t mere utterances but BINDING OATHS.
The implication is that on no account should a Spouse share his or her body with any other person other than their marriage partner.
Please, pay close attention. The “BODY VOW” includes the physical, tangible BODIES of the Spouses as well as the intangible and invisible parts of their love lives such as their passion, affection and erotic emotions. These also must not be shared with any other person apart from their Spouse. This is how binding the marriage covenant is.
And for those who didn’t wed in a Church, it’s no different. Every legitimate marriage has God as the Joiner and Witness and the love covenant demands that they share their body and affection with no one else.
All this means: once you’re married, you must at all cost avoid any physical or emotional entanglement or involvement with all persons of the opposite sex that are sexually inclined.
Put more plainly, it means that once you’re married, you MUST HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH AN EX LOVER or other persons of the opposite sex. Any connection with such persons is a VIOLATION of your marriage covenant and a grave transgression.
Yesterday, a friend sent me an online news of the oldest divorce in history.
A nonagenarian couple, husband 99 and wife 96, divorced after 77 years of marriage!
What must have caused such a longstanding union to come crashing down tragically like the house built upon sands?(Matthew 7:26-27). It’s this: the husband found a box of love letters written to his wife by her Ex. These letters were 60 years old!
Do a quick calculation and you’ll find that this woman’s Ex surfaced in the seventeenth year of her Marriage with Love Letters. And she, instead of sternly telling him to stop such communications since she was already married, didn’t. She allowed him to keep writing and she kept receiving, reading and storing them. All this, while she was under the roof of her husband and bearing his name. But sixty years later, her husband found the secret box of love letters! Naturally, thoughts, suspicions and feelings of betrayal must have filled his heart. Somehow, he chose the hard path of divorce when he’s 99 and she 96. This is just another instance of what marital unfaithfulness brings forth: heartbreaks and sorrows.
Today, what God regards as backstabbing, treachery and treason against one’s covenant partner, people merely call “CHEATING”. It’s like calling a suitcase loaded with bombs and warheads by some fanciful name so people would buy and keep them in their homes at the risk of their lives.
God calls marital unfaithfulness ADULTERY(Exodus 20:14). He calls it TREASON(Malachi 2:14). And in the New Testament, He firmly declares that He will surely JUDGE those who commit it(Hebrews 13:4).
If you’re committing it and don’t repent, you’ll someday, someway and somewhere be openly humiliated and thoroughly disgraced(Proverbs 6: 32-33) and eventually end up in the fiery flames of Hell.
💕❤️TONIGHT’S ONE FLESH ASSIGNMENT IN THE BEDROOM
Just before bedtime, reread this devotional piece together and discuss it.
JESUS IS LORD FOREVER! IF YOU HAVEN’T YET RECEIVED HIM, ASK HIM TO COME INTO YOUR HEART NOW AND SAVE YOU; AND HE WILL.
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ANOINTED MUSIC SECTION