Malachi 1:2-5
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“How have you loved us, Lord?”
“How have you loved us, Lord?”
How do we know if God loves us? God do we know if God is really “good”?
If we are honest with ourselves, we often base our sense of God’s love for us on our circumstances. If we feel blessed, healthy, prosperous, secure, and so on, we feel that God is being good to us, so he must love us.
SATS is a case study of this. We have enjoyed an extended season of blessing, favour, peace, and prosperity. As a result, we feel secure in God’s love and blessing.
Maybe you have enjoyed an extended season of peace and prosperity in your life. Your family life, business life, health, and so on are well. Your world is in equilibrium. God is good. He loves you. It all makes sense.
Do you realise how inadequate it is to base your belief about whether God is good and whether he loves you on how well things are going at the moment?
This week we prayed for a friend of one of our staff, a missionary whose daughter was carrying twins. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 Leukemia 10 days ago, and five days later she and her babies were dead.
In our staff team of about 50 believers, all of whom love Jesus, about five are struggling with chronic health conditions. Two of our ladies are separated from abusive husbands.
Is God still good when our worlds fall into disorder? Does he still love us when we are hurting?
This was the exact question that the people of God were struggling with in . Take a look at the opening verses.
A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi. “I have loved you,” says the Lord. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob,
The opening sentence is the introduction to the book. The book describes itself as “a prophecy.” The word translated prophecy denotes a burden that the prophet bears, usually a word of correction or warning to God’s people
The book itself is written in the form of a disputation. Each section opens with God’s announcing a truth. Next the people dispute God’s claim, the question its truthfulness. Then God explains himself. This is what you see in verse 2.
The Claim: “‘I have loved you,’ says the LORD.”
The Dispute: “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’”
To understand their retort, we need to understand their circumstances. The Jews had returned from exile in Babylon about 60 or 70 years earlier, but their circumstances were challenging. They knew the stories about God’s power and blessing upon their ancestors, but they were under the rule of the Persian Empire. Life was a daily struggle to survive.
Against the backdrop of daily struggles and disappointments, which had continued for decades (just think of Zimbabwe), they were asking, “Where is the evidence of God’s love for us?”
So when the prophet announce’s God’s Word: “I have loved you!” they retort with a sceptical, doubting, “How have you loved us?”
In response God offers two proofs of his love for them. The two proofs are applicable to us, but we need to contextualise them into the NT reality. (The heavy theology is all in point 1, so we shall spend most of our time on it.)
1. God’s redemption proves his love
1. God’s redemption proves his love
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ “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.”
The language of election; not about “Jacob” the man and “Esau” the man, but about the two peoples who would come from them.
The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
God chose the descendants of Jacob rather than the descendants of Esau to be his people. The Israelites came from Jacob, while the Edomites descended from Esau. God chose the Israelites to be his people, to receive his revelations, to experience his redemption, and to enter into his covenant. Although Jacob and Esau were brothers, only one of the two nations they fathered was singled out by the Lord to have these special privileges—Israel!
What is the nature and purpose of this election?
In nature, it is corporate election. God chose a people to be the special beneficiaries of his revelation and redemption. Not every Israelite was saved, and not every non-Israelite was condemned. Indeed, only a remnant of Israel was ever faithful to Yahweh, and there were non-Jews who had faith and were redeemed (Ruth, Nineveh, etc.).
In purpose, it is election unto service. God chose Israel to know him so that they could make him known, to be blessed in order to be a blessing. They were the beneficiaries of his redemptive work, not because they were superior, but because they were to be agents of his mission to the world.
The election of Israel was not about God arbitrarily predestining certain individuals to be saved while bypassing all the rest to be damned. It was about God choosing a people to whom he could reveal himself, so that they in turn could make him known to the world.
What do we make of this language of God loving Jacob while hating Esau?
In Scripture, “loving X, hating Y” is used in two metaphorical senses.
Firstly, to love someone can mean to choose them.
Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.
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.
To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.
Secondly, to hate someone can mean to love them less, that is, to prioritise them less.
Secondly, to hate someone can mean to love them less, that is, to prioritise them less.
Example from Deut.
Secondly, to hate someone can mean to love them less, that is, to prioritise them less.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
In these verses, God loved Israel by choosing to set his affection on them in a way that he chose not to set it on Esau’s descendants.
Matthew 10:37
If we turn to the NT, in what sense does God love (choose) some, but hate (reject) others?
Our passage is actually quoted in , which lies at the centre of the debate between Calvinists and Arminians.
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.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
To me, not only , but the whole book of Romans, indeed the entirety of the gospel, life itself, and more than that—the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Creator God—make no sense if the election about which we read there is not also corporate and missional. It is all about God choosing a new people, the church, in place of his old people, national Israel, to be the objects and agents of his special love.
I want to discuss , which quotes this verse. There too I want to make the point that election for salvation is corporate and missional. Although God can make some vessels for destruction, he does not. It is that kind of theology that led to and undergirded Apartheid.
To read it as God arbitrarily choosing to save some while ignoring the majority of human beings, thereby sentencing them to damned eternity, does not fit any understandable concept of his love or his gospel. I think it was John Wesley who said that is the kind of love that makes one’s blood run cold.
Let us look at two more verses from .
What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—
Rom 9:22-23
You need to listen closely so as not to miss the point. The verse does NOT say that God created some people as objects of wrath for destruction and others as objects of mercy for salvation. It says What if God were to have done so? Even if he had done so, he would be just, but everything we learn about him in Scripture and in Christ should teach us that he would never have done so.
Although God can make some vessels for destruction, he does not. And by the way, it is that kind of theology that led to and undergirded Apartheid.
So what is the NT parallel to “Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated”?
I think it lies in Ephesians 5:25.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
Although there is some deep theology involved in verse 2, the main point is quite simple. For Israel, the fact that God chose them and redeemed them (the Exodus was the event that defined their redemption) was the supreme proof of his love for them. For us, the supreme proof of God’s love is the fact that Jesus came to earth and died for our sins. He is it. When we question God’s goodness, we need to look at Jesus. When we doubt God’s love, we need to look at Jesus.
Although there is some deep theology involved in verse 2, the main point is quite simple. For Israel, the fact that God chose them and redeemed them (the Exodus was the event that defined their redemption) was the supreme proof of his love for them. For us, the supreme proof of God’s love is the fact that Jesus came to earth and died for our sins. He is it. When we question God’s goodness, we need to look at Jesus. When we doubt God’s love, we need to look at Jesus.
2. God’s forgiveness proves his love
2. God’s forgiveness proves his love
but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.” Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.” But this is what the Lord Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord.
What is going on here?
I will try to keep the history brief. There was long-standing conflict between the Israelites and the Edomites. For the most part, Israel had the upper hand. Do you remember the prophecy in , “one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the young”? This came to pass.
When Israel was unfaithful to Yahweh, he sent conquerors to punish them, first the Assyrians and later the Babylonians. The Edomites took advantage of their suffering, treating them brutally. In response, God punished them, turning their country into a wasteland. God decreed that they would never be able to rebuild their devastated nation, but would remain under his wrath.
So what is the point?
The point is that Yahweh dealt more graciously with Israel than with Edom. Both nations committed terrible sins against Yahweh, but he was more patient and gracious towards Israel. Both nations were punished for their sins, but whereas Edom was not allowed to rebuild, Israel was. Whereas Edom remained under the wrath of God, Israel enjoyed his forgiveness and favour.
How have you loved us, Lord?
God’s answer: I have not treated you as your sins deserved. Although you were continually unfaithful to me, I was long-suffering with your sins and I have restored your nation.
How does this apply to us?
God shows his love for us by being long-suffering with our sins. He does not treat us as our sins deserve. He forgives us time and again, and he does not reject us easily. Let’s imagine we did a transparent stock-take of our hearts this morning:
How many of us could say we were free of racist thoughts and words this week?
How many habour no bitterness and unforgiveness in our hearts?
How many did not indulge some or other lustful fantasies this week?
How many did not act out of greed or self-indulgence this week?
How many risked our comfort and reputation to share the good news about Jesus with a lost soul this week?
The OT rightly proclaims the Lord as one who is slow to anger and rich in mercy. We should find evidence of his love for us in the fact that, on a daily basis, he does not treat us as our sins deserve.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
Conclusion
Conclusion
So, how do we know that God loves us? Sometimes our world is in equilibrium and all seems well. In those times, we feel that God is good and that he loves us. But this sentimental measure is inadequate, because bad things happen to God’s people.
1. God’s redemption proves his love
1. God’s redemption proves his love
For his OT people, the election of Israel and the exodus from Egypt were the supreme proofs of God’s love. They knew he loved them because he chose them and he rescued them from slavery.
As his NT people, the supreme demonstration of his love is not the Exodus, but the voluntary incarnation, virtuous life, vicarious death, and victorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know God loves us because Jesus came, lived, died, rose, and promised to return to take us to be with him.
2. God’s forgiveness proves his love
2. God’s forgiveness proves his love
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.