And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the Spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. Maurer and Hengstenberg explain the verse thus: The Jews had defended their conduct by the precedent of Abraham, who had taken Hagar, to the injury of Sarah, his lawful wife. To this Malachi says now, 'No one (ever) did so in whom there was a residue of intelligence (discriminating between good and evil): and what did the one (Abraham, to whom you appeal for support) do, seeking a godly seed?' His object (namely, not to gratify passion, but to obtain the seed promised by God) makes the case wholly inapplicable to defend your position. Moore (from Fairbairn) better explains, in accordance with Malachi 2:10, 'Did not He make (us, Israelites) one?' Yet He had the residue of the Spirit (i:e., His isolating us from other nations was not because there was no residue of the Spirit left for the rest of the world).
And wherefore (i:e., why then did He thus isolate us as) the one (people)? The Hebrew х haa'echaad (H259)] is 'THE one.' In order that He might seek "a godly seed" - i:e., that He might have 'a seed of God,' a nation the repository of the covenant, and the stock of the Messiah, and the witness for the one God amidst the surrounding polytheisms. Marriage with foreign women, and repudiation of the wives wedded in the Jewish covenant, utterly set aside this divine purpose. Calvin thinks 'the one' to refer to the conjugal one body formed by the original pair, (Gen
2.) God might have joined many wives as one with the one husband, because He had no lack of spiritual being to impart to others besides Eve; the design of the restriction was to secure a pious offspring: but cf. note, Malachi 2:10, where it is shown that the common Fatherhood of God meant in this chapter relates not so much to all mankind in general, as being made by the same God, as it does to all of Israel in particular, as the covenant-people of God (Isaiah 63:16). One object of the marriage-relation is to raise a seed for God and for eternity. This object was especially contemplated in the election of the covenant-people to carry out the design of God, by raising a godly seed in holy marriage of one Israelite man to one Israelite woman. Malachi 2:16 confirms this view, because God is there called, not the God of all men, but "the God OF ISRAEL." Moore's explanation, moreover, gives the most probable meaning to the phrase, "the residue of the Spirit." There remained with God an inexhaustible fullness of spiritual blessing for other nations; but that was to be poured on them through God's first choosing out one godly seed to be the repository of the coming blessing against the time when, in Messiah, of the seed of Israel, all nations should be blessed (Genesis 12:3).