Malachi 2

From the very beginning of the Covenant, there at the foot of Mount Sinai, the priests and Levites understood their position. At the very least, their meal ticket was in sincere and strict adherence to holiness and respect for God’s glory. We struggle in our day to grasp the Ancient Hebrew mind of sincere commitment and personal devotion to God as a Person. They were equivalent to the royal bodyguard for Jehovah; the more literal Temple Guards were drawn from the Tribe of Levi. This was a high privilege, all the more so in God’s personal covenant with the priests beginning with Phinehas (Numbers 25:12-13). Their divine appointment included the mission of teaching to Law to the rest of the nation (Deuteronomy 33:8-11).
Malachi warns that all their privileges would be taken away if they continued this creep toward what eventually became the Sadducees, a cynical and worldly elite who abused the people for their personal benefit. Their blessings would become curses. While some of the text here is in dispute, the thrust is obvious. They had turned their offices upside down and God threatens dire punishment for it. So He raises once again the image of the faithful man of Levi who, in every dispute, took God’s side. This current crop late in the Restoration had not simply abandoned their duties, but took advantage of the situation to actively lead the people astray.
From at least as far back as Noah, God’s fundamental requirement for mankind was social stability. The Law Covenants explained how to obtain that. Those covenants all assumed a tribal cohesion, considering disloyalty to kin one of the highest crimes possible. All the more so with Israel, because God had adopted the entire nation as His own children. They were so blasé about this, it was incomprehensible. The Covenant of Moses was not a matter of mere DNA, but of commitment to the Laws of God. Anyone from any race of men on this earth could become a full member of the Nation of Israel upon following the procedures and giving evidence of a sincere personal commitment to the Covenant. The people had been following the cynical attitude of the Levites by marrying foreign women still in their pagan commitments. This profaned the entire nation. It was the same careless flouting and flaunting grotesque sin that caused Phinehas to take action to stop the plague during the Exodus. It’s the sort of sin that drags demon hordes inside the very camp of Jehovah’s people.
If that weren’t bad enough, the leading men were divorcing their first wives, trading them in for these sexy young pagan brides. While this seems heartless enough from our Western viewpoint, we miss something more important. This is more than simply abusing the old wife, but a slap in God’s face. Once again, it brings in demonic presence that afflicts the entire community. This hardly promotes social stability. God treats divorce as a form of senseless violence. For this reason, He was rejecting their prayers and emotional displays at His altar.
Again we have an assertion from God that the people question. They don’t understand how it is possible they have wearied God with their profligate violence to His name. Their complaint suggests they see heathen sinners and reprobate Jews alike receiving shalom from the hand of God. They have blinded themselves to the real difference, refusing to see the long term results of violating the Covenant. They are silly enough to dare asking: “Where is God’s justice?”