Genesis 25:30
And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
Malachi 1
1 The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
The Lord’s Love for Israel
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord.
But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord.
“Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated.
I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” 4 If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’”
5 Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”
Great is the Lord beyond all borders and barriers of time and circumstance.
Oh how those faithful to the Lord God of Israel have been to speak of the glory of the Lord even beyond the border of Israel. Take Paul’s letter to the Romans, for example:
Romans 9
God’s Sovereign Choice
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Why did God hate Esau? Esau rejected his blessing in favor of his desires of the flesh (a single meal). Later, Israel rejected God. Jacob denied Christ Jesus, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world.
Is the Lord not a God of love? Has he not adopted even the descendants of the nations into the family of Christ Jesus? How could a God of love hate a man? Why?
Do you also, in your own desires to feed your worldly flesh reject Christ Jesus your Savior?
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”
8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring… 3 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
Are you a child of the flesh, like Esau? Or are you a child of the promise, adopted through Christ’s grace into the mercy, compassion and love of God our Heavenly Father?
The world continues to hate Israel. The world continues to reject God. The world hates Christians and the world still hates Jesus Christ.
God IS love. God rejects those who will not bow down to Christ Jesus. He IS and was and will return!
Jesus encouraged us with the knowledge that those who oppose Christians oppose God:
Matthew 10:22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Endure to the end, beloved of God, for the sake of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
Why did God hate Esau?
Esau rejected God’s blessing. Do you?
