By Stuart Briscoe | Minister at Large for Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wis., and a contributing editor of Preaching
How did Malachi begin to address the issue? He said, “Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?” (
Mal. 2:10). So Malachi was very clear: they had broken faith with their marriage partners; they had abused or profaned the covenant that God had made with them!
But notice that the prophet didn’t start off talking about the people and their problem; he started off talking about God. Here is a simple rule: When we have a human problem, don’t try to solve it by starting with the human problem. Instead, start with God and work from who He is and what He is saying. In other words, when you have a practical problem, start solving it by getting your theology straight!
Notice also how he stressed the word “one.” “One Father.” “One God.” “One another.” Then when he talked specifically about marriage in verse 15, he said, “Has not the Lord made them [that is, a man and a woman] one? In flesh and in spirit they are his. And why one?” So you’ve got “one, one, one, one, one!” Five mentions of the word “one.” You know, if a word is repeated over and over again in Scripture, that’s probably the dominant theme of what you are reading! Malachi’s unmistakable theme was “one-ness”!
Malachi was addressing a major problem in Israel! He reminded them, first of all, that they were a unique people who worshiped one God as opposed to many gods. That was a unique distinctive of the people of Israel. So he said, “Did not one God create us?” He saw God, the One God, as the Creator of all people! If you were to go to a Jewish worship service this day, one of the major themes of that worship service would be a quotation from
Deuteronomy 6:4: “The Lord our God is one”!
That is the foundational statement of Judaism. “The Lord our God is one”! That means He is the one and only—He is utterly unique. It means He is totally different. He is One. He is the Alpha (beginning) and Omega (the end of all things). He is numero uno!
The Old Testament Scriptures start very simply by saying, “In the beginning God.” No preamble, no introduction, no apology, no index, just, “In the beginning God,” because that’s where you start! God is the unique One! He is the unique Creator!
What that means, of course, is that every human being who ever existed was created by the same One who created you! Which means that’s there is a “solidarity” to the human race; which means there really is something called the brotherhood of man. If human beings began to believe that, they would stop treating each other the way they do! If they believe that because they are created by God they are special, why then don’t they believe that the other people, created by the same God, are equally “special”? Believing in one God has all kinds of ramifications.
