Questioning God’s Love

The Lord has placed on my heart the title of the sermon to be Questioning God’s Love. We are going to begin our sermons through the book of Malachi. If you do not know where it is, find the New Testament book of Matthew and turn left. Or, you can look in the table of contents as well. The book of Malachi is the last book in the old Testament and the last of what we call the Minor Prophets. They are not called the minor prophets because they are of less importance but because they are shorter in length than the major prophets.

Before I begin sharing with you the background of the book of Malachi, let me share a word of prayer and read our text for us.

Malachi 1:1–5 ESV

1 The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. 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!”

The book of Malachi was written somewhere between 450 and 430 BC. God had dealt with the sinfulness of Israel by letting their enemies have their way with them. All up to the point where they lost their home. Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed and they had to leave their home. The book of Malachi takes place about 100 years after those events. The Israelites had returned from Babylonian captivity and the temple had been rebuilt. So the people had returned, began to rebuild their lives, had been living in Jerusalem for some time now, but things just weren’t where they needed to be.

This book deals with many things that should hit home with us today. The book is broken up into what we call disputes. These are when God makes a claim and the people disagree and God responds. These disputes deal with the corrupt priesthood, half-hearted worship, marriage, money, a belief that God is pointless, and as we will see today, a question of God’s love for them. But what it all begins with is the messenger.

The name Malachi literally means “my messenger”. Now, some believe this is just a title but I believe that Malachi was a real person that God was working through. In a culture that had fallen away and questioned God, Malachi was a voice to bring people back to the truth. The people and the culture probably would have told you that things were going well. They were back home, the temple was rebuilt, and they were back to offering sacrifices once more. But was this what it was all about? Malachi will be the voice that points them to where they are still falling short.

Malachi has an oracle for the Israelites. The word oracle means burden. He has a burden for the people of Israel and today, God has put a burden on me for you all today.

God’s love never waivered, yet Israel still questioned

If you have been joining us on our Wednesday evening bible study, you will know that Israel, much like us, seem to cycle with their devotion to God. Recently, we looked at the book of Judges and the entire book was a documented spiral of Israel’s falling away and returning to God. God continued to love them. Even though he let them give into their desires of wanting a king, even though he let outside forces come in and take them captive, his love still remained the same. Yet they still questioned.

That begs the question for us today. Where have I been questioning God’s love instead of trusting His promises?

Do you truly look around and see all that God does out of his love for you or do you question God about if he even loves you like Israel did. We will see this play out in verses 2-5 in our text today. Through this, we will see the question, the example, and the promise.

The Question

I am sure that many of you heard growing up that there is no such thing as a dumb question, but the older that I have gotten, there are some people who flirt with that line. Questions are a good thing. We learn from questions. I love when Peighton asks me questions because I can teach her something. More often than not, in the upcoming teenage years, the questions are getting much shorter and consist of one word. What? But what I do is I try to jumpstart her brain by asking her questions that will bring on substantive questions.

Sometimes though, we can hear a question and know that the heart behind that question is not one that is really looking for an answer but is looking for an argument. That is what we find here in our passage today.

Malachi 1:2 ESV

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

I have loved you says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?”

We can see the heart of the Israelites with this rebuttal. What do you mean you have loved us? This is such an Israelite question. The people, who God had set apart, are questioning that God has even loved them.

Thankfully God isn’t like a guy I used to work with. One guy I used to work with was telling me one day that his wife asked him if he still loved her. He told me that he answered her by telling her that he told her he loved her at their wedding and if that changed, he would let her know. Praise God that His love for his people is nothing like that.

God has shown his people his love in great ways. Part of what Malachi is doing is he is preparing the heart of the Israelites. They needed to be ready for the greatest showing of God’s love, not only towards them, but towards all people when he sends his son.

That is why we gather today. We gather because God sent his son, Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect life in our place. He was executed in our place. And, because he is truly God, he rose from the grave. He brought a way for us to go back to God because our sin had separated us.

Malachi is preparing the people of Israel for this. But, even more than just the people of Israel, Jesus came for all. It does not matter our heritage or nationality. Jesus brings in all kinds of people to him to be his followers.

This question towards God is a very direct question. They are basically telling God that he needs to prove to them how he has shown them his love. And he is going to do that.

The Example

Whenever you are making a point, it is a good practice to give an example. Many leaders and politicians feel like they need to come up with something new to help explain things. But we are people who learn very well by looking at things that we already know. That is part of the illustration process in a sermon. To paint a picture of something you potentially know and bridge it over to the point that is being made.

God is wanting to make the point that he has loved Israel. We can call this an invisible claim. It is invisible because just with the claim itself, it doesn’t show anything. I can tell Brittany that I love her all day long, but it is just words if I cannot point to an action to prove that I actually love her. God takes this invisible claim and points to a visible explanation.

God says that “I have loved you”

give examples

Malachi 1:2–3 ESV

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.”

God is going to use 2 individuals, who would have been very well known to the people of Israel, to show how he has loved them. We have Jacob and Esau. These 2 were twin brothers. If you know the history of Israel, you will know that they are the sons of Isaac. God had spoken to Isaac’s wife, Rebekah and warned her that inside of her womb was 2 nations.

Genesis 25:23 ESV

23 And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”

Esau was the older of the 2. They did not get along. All the way to the point where they were fighting inside of the womb. During birth, Jacob was grabbing the heel of Esau on his way out. This continued as they got older. Esau was greatly loved by his father because of his love for game and hunting. And Jacob was greatly loved by his mother. There was this divide between them.

Have you ever known a pair of siblings growing up where they get a little older and you just think to yourself, how in the world were they raised in the same house? They had the same mother and father, they were disciplined the same way, they experienced the same events, yet they grew up and were completely different. That is what we are dealing with here with Jacob and Esau.

The difference between these brothers is what God tells Israel here in these verses. The difference is that God has loved Jacob and he has hated Esau. I want to slow down some here because I know that this is not an easy pill to swallow.

When we are dealing with this verse, we must see that this love was shown to Jacob before he was even born. God’s love for Jacob is not because he was a good person. No, in fact, he tricked his brother into giving him his birthright because he was hungry. That story doesn’t just show us the trickery of Jacob but it also showed us the dramatics of Esau. That’s another story for another day. But it wasn’t because Jacob was a great leader or was a good man. Jacob rebelled against God over and over. Jacob literally fought God in the middle of the night one night. So it isn’t because he is such a good man. No, God loved Jacob because he chose Jacob.

Just like God had chosen Abraham out of all of the people in the entire world to set apart. Just like God chose Isaac instead of Ishmael. God chose Jacob. And through Jacob would come Jesus Christ. God is not a spur of the moment kind of God. He didn’t chose Jacob because as they grew up, he just couldn’t see Esau leaving a good legacy. No, before time began, God laid this plan out to bring the Messiah through the lineage of Jacob. God loved Jacob.

What many of us might be thinking though is this language here that God hated Esau just doesn’t sound right. You mean to tell me that God hated someone. We aren’t going to dance around this. There are people, and you may be one of them, where you have a hard time dealing with this verse. I heard a story where someone once said that they have a big problem with Malachi 1:3. The pastor responded to them that he had a bigger problem with verse 2 where God said that he loved Jacob.

When you put these 2 men side by side, one does not stand out as more lovable than the other. They are both wretched sinners. Yet, God chose Jacob and not Esau. Neither one of these men are more worthy of God’s love than the other, yet God chose Jacob and not Esau. Romans 9:15 “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.””

God uses the example of him choosing Jacob and not Esau to prove to the Israelites that he had loved them before their parents were even around. He says, “I have proven that I love you because I chose Jacob, your ancestor, instead of his brother Esau. That is how I have loved you”.

God goes on to explain to them his relationship to Esau. The Edomites are descendants of Esau. God tells them how he has dealt with the Edomites.

Malachi 1:3 ESV

3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.”

Edom and Israel have a tumultuous past. During the Exodus, Edom refused passage to Israel. David, in his reign as King, subjugated Edom by killing 18,000 of them and making them his servants. Then, when Babylon came and destroyed Jerusalem, Edom was nowhere to be found to help out Jerusalem. Instead, we find them celebrating the fact that Jerusalem was destroyed. This is more than just a disagreement. This was brother against brother. Hostility due to the fact that God chose one and not the other.

After Jerusalem was destroyed, Babylon moved its attention to surrounding areas. It was then that Edom was laid waste. Their land was overrun by Arab traders(jackals of the desert) and they had no place. Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. Israel still had a home, Edom didn’t. Israel still had God with them, Edom didn’t.

In our soft and sensitive culture that surrounds us today, we cannot understand this sort of injustice or rather justice. We have it preached to us continuously from the temple of the media that we need equality, equality, equality. Well let me tell you, when it comes to eternity, there is no equality. You are either chosen or you are not. You are either loved or you are hated. There is no other example of the love that God had for the people of Israel needed other than the fact that he chose them over anyone else. What more do you need?

We have seen the question, we have seen the example. Now let’s look at the promise.

The Promise

I nearly titled this “the warning”, but I believe that it is deeper than just a warning. This is a promise that we see in verses 4-5.

Malachi 1:4–5 ESV

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!”

Most people are fans of comebacks. And most of us can relate a comeback to a sports game or team. Back in 2013, the Auburn Tigers football team were coming off of a 3 win season and actually did not win a single conference game that year. They fired the entire coaching staff and the football program did not seem like a rebuild but more of a broken system. The next year, they brought in an entirely new staff, they created a new culture in the program. They went from not winning a single conference game to narrowly winning several of the conference games to the point where they were conference champs.

They made it to the national championship game against Florida State. They led the game 21-3 at one point and continued to have a lead deep into the 4th quarter. The story seemed to be writing itself. The comeback story of the Auburn Tigers. That was until Florida State scored with 13 seconds left in the 4th quarter to take the lead and secure the win in the national championship. The rebuild was real, the momentum was real, the victory was not.

God tells Israel that even if Edom creates some sort of Cinderella comeback story that they will still fall short. They can try to rebuild the ruins, they can maybe even secure some proverbial wins, but God will strike them down.

This language here that God uses is very specific. He will tear it down. This is a promise. You and I may fail at keeping promises, but God does not. God always keeps his promises. When God promised to make of Abraham a great nation, he did that. When God promised that he was going to send a messiah to save the people, he kept that promise too.

And so, when God tells the Israelites that they will see how much he loves them by how he strikes down their enemies, that will happen. When God says that they are going to say that the Lord is great even beyond the borders of Israel, that will happen. And how true that is. Especially for us as we read this today.

God has proven how loving his is and how great he is even beyond Israel. He did this through Jesus. Jesus didn’t come just to die for Jews, but he came and he died for all kinds of people. He came to die for white, black, asian, mexican, and indian people. He came to die for rich, poor, blue collar, white collar, people that seem to have their lives together and people who are hooked on drugs and are homeless. He came to die for all kinds of people.

Conclusion

Israel has questioned God’s own love for them even though he chose them. They wanted to place blame on God for their problems when instead they should have been looking at themselves. How often are we guilty of that?

We question God’s love for us because of the situation that we are currently in instead of looking in the rearview mirror to see how God has been constant with us. We try to do it on our own. Like Edom, we believe that it is in our power to rebuilt, to get to a point where we can take care of ourselves. If we can just try a little harder, then we can get to where we want to be.

But, what we see here in our passage is that restoration does not come from trying harder, but it comes from God’s love. If you are a follower of Jesus, then it is because God chose you. Just like he chose Jacob before Jacob was even born, God chose you.

Maybe today is the day where you put that stake in the ground that you are dedicating your life to Jesus because you know for a fact that God has chosen you. You are turning to Jesus for everything in your life because you finally see that you cannot do things on your own.

For the rest of us, I want to leave us with a question. And take this question with you this week. This is not a question that I can answer for you, but you can pray to God to use the Holy Spirit to answer it.

Where have I been questioning God’s love instead of trusting his promises?