The marriage of Olivia L. Langdon to the American writer Mark Twain is a tragic case in point. Olivia Langdon had been raised in a Christian home by devout parents and she professed Christianity. But when Twain, an open critic of religion, came calling, she eventually accepted his proposal, no doubt secretly cherishing the hope that he might in time be converted to Christ by her example. At first this seemed to be happening.

The first point Malachi makes in this passage is that God has created marriage. It is his idea. It was God, not man, who made the race male and female (Gen. 1:27). It is God who looked at the man in his singleness and judged, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him" (Gen. 2:18). It was God who brought the first man to the first woman and, as it were, performed the first marriage ceremony (Gen. 2:22). It was God who said, "Be fruitful and increase in number" (Gen. 1:28). It is to this original creation of man and woman and of God uniting them in one permanent marriage that Malachi refers: "Has not the Lord made them one?"

The teaching of Malachi 2:10-16 contains some of the most forceful teaching in the Bible on divorce and remarriage. This is why so many contemporary books on marriage, which want to move the church to a more permissive attitude in this area, ignore the passage. But ignoring Malachi's teaching is part of the problem. In Malachi's day there were clearly many divorces - and mixed marriages of God’s people with unbelievers, which is a matter related to divorce.