“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.” Malachi 1:3
God loved Jacob and hated Esau. What exactly does this mean?
Malachi 1:3 is quoted in Romans 9:10-13:
“Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” Romans 9:10-13
How could God “hate” Esau even before he was born?
God is all wise, all knowing, and everywhere present. He is the only one who can be called good:
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone,” Mark 10:18 Luke 18:19
Of course, Jesus is good because He is God.
God is love:
“…God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins…God is love…” 1 John 4:8-17
He loved mankind so much that He sacrificed His Son to pay the penalty for our sins.
None of us deserved this sacrifice:
“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:7-8
He is pleased to forgive anyone who asks.
God gives every person a free will, and He wants everyone to choose Him:
“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:3-4
Speaking about God’s promise of coming back, the Apostle Peter explains His supposed delay:
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
Why, then, does the Bible say that God hated Esau?
For God love and hate are action words, not describing a human emotion. In this instance, it means that God chose one man and his descendants over another man and his descendants.
God chose Abraham, the grandfather of Esau and Jacob, to be a mighty nation:
“No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations…you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.” Genesis 17:5-9
Abraham’s son Isaac was chosen to carry on this promise:
”But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” Genesis 17:21
Then God confirmed His chose of Jacob after an intense night of prayer when God blessed him and changed his name to “Israel” which means “struggles with God” or “triumph with God”.
God referred to Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 50:24 Exodus 2:24 3:6, 15-16 4:5 6:3, 8 33:11 Leviticus 26:42 Numbers 32:11 Deuteronomy 1:8 6:10 9:5, 27 29:13 30:20 34:4 2 Kings 13:23 Jeremiah 33:26 Matthew 1:2 8:11 22:32 Mark 12:26 Luke 3:34 13:28 20:37 Acts 3:13 7:8, 32).
Many times He calls Israel his/my “treasured possession” (Exodus 19:5 Deuteronomy 7:6 14:2 26:18 Psalm 135:4 Malachi 3:17).
He didn’t choose Israel because it was great by human standards:
“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” Deuteronomy 7:6-9
We cannot fully understand why God chose one people over another, but it shows, as the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 9 that “God’s purpose in election might stand”
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God chose Abraham and his decedents to “keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just” so that “all nations on earth will be blessed”. Israel has not always done this and so has suffered the consequences. However, God had made a covenant with Abraham and God always keeps His covenants:
“Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” Genesis 18:18-19
God knows that when Jesus returns “…only the remnant (of the Jewish people) will be saved.” Romans 9:27 It seems they are the only Jews alive at that turbulent time because “…all Israel will be saved…” Romans 11:26
It seems God chose the descendants of Abraham because Abraham worshiped God when almost everyone else worshiped idols. He traveled to a land he knew nothing about because God told him to leave his home. He believed God would provide him with a son even though he and his wife Sarah were very old. He even would have obeyed God when God told him to sacrifice Isaac if God had not intervened:
“Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:6
Sarah, Abraham’s wife, to whom Isaac was born, also knew God and was obedient to Him:
“For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, 6 like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord…” 1 Peter 3:5-6
Isaac also knew God:
“Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.” Genesis 25:21
Of course, none of these men was perfect. Especially Jacob had glaring faults. However, although Jacob (his name means “grabber, supplanter, deceiver”) was a liar, deceiver and manipulator”, he wanted the things of God. Esau did not and gave up his birthright (the right of the first born to a double blessing) for a bowl of stew.
Jacob changed when God brought him to a crisis. After the time his name was changed, there is no evidence of the qualities of deception being in his life. At the end of his life, he gave each of his sons the blessing that God directed him to give. He had a relationship with God while Esau did not.
God chose Israel as a nation to bless other nations:
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:2-3
It was not only for Israel’s sake that God blessed them so abundantly. It is for “all people on earth”. Blessed are the nations who recognize this fact.
Israel’s blessings are abundant:
“…Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” Romans 9:4-5
The greatest blessing for all people is that Jesus was born, and Israel had the privilege of having Jesus born from their nation. Ultimately, to make Jesus known to the nations was God’s reason for choosing Israel.
God’s blessings are abundant for everyone. Even though God chose Isaac and His descendants, He blessed Esau:
“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.” Hebrews 11:20
Although Esau missed out on the abundant blessings of Jacob/Israel, he also became a nation of peoples. And his descendants have the same privilege as do Jacob’s descendants, of becoming sons of God by believing in God’s Son Jesus Christ.