Love Jacob Hate Esau?

Romans 9:13 CSB

As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.

I had some more thoughts about our love hate conversation. this verse is a quote. It is not from Genesis though. That turns out to be a very important clue as to what Paul is trying to communicate here.

The quote is from Malachi 1:3

Malachi 1:2–3 CSB

“I have loved you,” says the Lord. Yet you ask, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” This is the Lord’s declaration. “Even so, I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau. I turned his mountains into a wasteland, and gave his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

You see this reference was to the nations of Israel and Edomites.

So when God says he loves Jacob in this quote he is saying that he loves the nation of Israel. That is the plain interpretation of this passage. God has blessed and preserved the nation of Isreal. He has blessed them as stewards of the Laws of God. In them is the seed of salvation. That is why God loves Jacob.

In that context then when God says “Esau I have hated” is is referencing that the Edomites have been diminished and removed as a nation. Continuing on in Malachi 1:4 “Though Edom says, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of Armies says this: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called a wicked country and the people the Lord has cursed forever.” God has cursed them as a nation because the have become a “Wicked country.”

In Amos 1:11 “The Lord says: I will not relent from punishing Edom for three crimes, even four, because he pursued his brother with the sword. He stifled his compassion, his anger tore at him continually, and he harbored his rage incessantly.”

So we see that God is righteous and did not arbitrarily hate Esau.

It is important that we understand scripture in the context of the whole of scripture. When we isolate passages (especially passages that are quotations) we can end up with a wrong interpretation. In this case we end up thinking God arbitrarily hated an individual without cause before he was born. That would not be an accurate statement in light of the passage that Paul was quoting. It turns God into a monster. It is more likely that Paul is talking about the election of the Nation of Israel to be the stewards of God promise and the election of Edom for destruction because at every point they fought against the purposes of God.

God bless you,

~BJ