Malachi 2:10 Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
If you have a dollar handy, take it out and look at it. Wave it around in front of you. You might take it in both hands and snap it open a couple of times. How much is that dollar worth? If we are talking free market and supply and demand, there is definitely supply of that dollar and there is definitely demand for that dollar. But, beyond that, what is it worth? I’m not talking about how much it took to create and print the dollar or about the paper on which it is printed, but how much could you actually get for it?
If you go to another country right now, you would exchange your dollars for the currency of that country. Maybe you give one dollar and you get back a thousand of some other denomination. You think, “Wow, I’m rich!” Are you really? No. The dollar ultimately has no intrinsic, innate value. You can’t eat the dollar. At the end of the day the dollar is a promise, a promissory note. It is a promise made and a promise we trust will be kept.
Now it is important to know that God is a covenant-keeping, promise-keeping God. This truth is the backbone of Malachi 2. God talks about the covenant, a covenant to Levi the priest, the covenant to the nation, and a covenant between a man and his wife. The bottom line is a promise. Is the Abrahamic covenant, for example, a promise to one person or to a million people? God made it to Abraham, but it affected millions of people. We call them the children of Israel because there is a connection from the individual to the family that he produced and the nation that came from them. Israel is both a man and the name of a collection of families that are a nation.
In short, there is a connection between the micro and the macro. In a sense, there is a connection between the promises you keep and the president keeps. A healthy society is built on trust and promises kept. That was not happening in Judah. The Bibles says in verse 11 that “Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem.” That included the marriage of individual people. “You’ve married the daughters of a strange god,” God says. Then, in verse 16 God says that “he hateth putting away.” He hates divorce. And later, “Take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.”
Now there are a number of points that could be made, but the bottom line is that a healthy society is built on trust. Verse 10 says, “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?” God is a covenant-keeping God. Are we covenant-keeping people?
You can’t scale what you won’t start. So stretching the truth with an associate, breaking your promise to a child, or lying to a friend may seem innocuous at the moment, but it is the same as a nation that lies, just on a smaller scale. You can’t scale what you won’t start. So, there are two takeaways.
First, remember that God is a covenant-keeping God and that you can take Him at His Word. I don’t know what promises you have seen broken in your life, but don’t attribute that to God. God will keep His promises. Not every promise in the Bible is yours in the sense that you and I are not Abraham, but the same God that kept His promise to Abraham will keep His promise to you. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” is one of hundreds of promises that God has made that apply to you. So, take heart and confidence today that God will keep His promises to you.
Second, make sure that you channel God’s character to others. Make sure that you keep your promises to others. Society is built on trust and on promises kept. If we are like God, we will keep our promises and make society better for it.