Guard Your Heart

Day 208: Malachi 1-4

I find it interesting that here at the end of the Old Testament, God talks about divorce. This topic is not a common one in the OT, and bringing it up here at the end of the OT is much like bringing up a new topic in the conclusion of an essay--you shouldn't do it. I'm sure the placement of this narrative is probably more interspersed in the life of Israel than it appears to be something at the end of the journey before the New Testament begins, but I do find it interesting.

The book of Malachi is where the Lord says, "I hate divorce," and "To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty" (2:16, 17). These statements indicate that God does not like divorce. What's interesting here is that God wants us to be proactive in our marriages so that divorce never even comes up. God tells us, "Guard your heart; do not be unfaithful." He doesn't say here, "Guard your body," even though it is the body that is inherently involved in sex outside of marriage. Instead, he reminds us to guard our hearts. If we guard our hearts and protect them from getting emotionally attached to someone other than our spouse, God seems to say that we will be protected from divorce. Guarding our heart is a way to protect ourselves within the confines of marriage. If we never put ourselves in situations where we might become emotionally attached to someone else, then we won't be tempted to be in relationships that we shouldn't be.

I think that this concept of guarding our heart can actually be applied to our relationship with the Lord, too. When we let our hearts have other gods, we have not guarded our hearts as God as asked us to do. As we go out today, let's all protect our hearts so that they are reserved for God and for our spouse alone.