Loving Jacob, Hating Esau

Malachi 1:1-5

September 7, 2003 PM

 

Complacency and indifference present great dangers to those in manufacturing and technical jobs that require utmost attention.  Employers go to great lengths to post "Be alert," "Pay Attention" signs, and meetings to produce to same effects.  One careless moment can take an arm in a machine or cost an eye to a splash or claim a life by a misstep.

 

We're familiar enough with these things for it seems that life is filled with warnings:  Dangerous curve, Hidden intersection, Trucks entering roadway, Ice on bridge, etc.  Yet those familiar signs are often ignored out of complacency.  But even greater are the warnings of Scripture:  Be alert, your adversary walks about as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.  What, can you not watch with Me one hour?  Watch and pray that you will not enter into temptation.  Be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.  The night is almost gone, and the day is near.  Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

 

Somewhere around 450 BC, the returned exiles of Israel had grown complacent.  They were part of a second and third generation that had returned from exile in Babylon.  Their temple, though not of the grandeur and majesty of Solomon's, had been rebuilt fifty years earlier.  They had not regained the prosperity of David or Solomon or Hezekiah's times but they were no longer "dirt poor" either.  Life was pretty good for them.  No wars loomed, no invading nation surrounded them, planting and harvest times were respectable, the troubles of pre-exile days were long passed. 

 

Enter Malachi, a rather anonymous prophet whose name means, "Messenger."   Indeed, he lived out his name as 47 of the 54 verses of his prophecy contain some reference to the divine name he represented.  He delivered an "oracle" which might be better expressed as a "burden."  The complacency of God's people and the serious understanding he had of the Lord left him with a divine burden for this nation.  So, in a series of questions and assumed responses, he seeks to shake the slumbering people out of their spiritual lethargy and complacency, and back to passionate obedience to the Lord. 

 

Malachi's burden is definitely contemporary for is there any generation in the history of Christianity that is coasting in complacency more than the present one?  Perhaps we need to feel the shock of Malachi's burden like never before lest we be swept away by the rising tide of postmodern godlessness that owns the day. 

 

Nothing shocks our system any more than grappling with God's electing love.  Many run from this doctrine in fear, that it will dismantle their ivory towers of marshmallows theology.  Others do not want to come to terms with the fact that God distinguishes according to His eternal purpose.  Yet to see the greatness of His loving, electing grace is to have the passion of our hearts renewed in devotion to Him.  Consider with me how this is developed in the open verses of Malachi.

 

A Few Considerations

 

We are immediately confronted by the preliminary concepts of divine love and divine hatred.  Let's try to get a bit of perspective on these terms from God's viewpoint.  "God loves you" is met with singular skepticism and scoffing in our day.  At root, the struggle to accept God's love is multifaceted:

1. Love is not natural to the enmity between God and men.

2. Men war with themselves and find is difficult to imagine pure, unalloyed love by God.

3. Material prosperity is seemingly interwoven in the way men think love must be manifested, so  

   when material possessions decline so too does one's concept of divine love (especially true with 

   Israel at this point due to the problems associated with rebuilding).


On the other hand, many in our day meet with surprise to think that God would not love us: 

1. We consider ourselves lovable and deserving love, unaware of the baseness of our sin and its 

   offense to God.

2. We expect God to be favorable to us because of the high view of ourselves and law view of God.  

   "It is a mournful proof of human depravity that the love of God is often least acknowledged, where is it most manifested" (T. V. Moore 342).

3. We have an added egalitarian view in our day that strips any notion of God's sovereign, free, 

   purposed displays of love or any other affection or gift.  In a word, God must love us or we will not 

   acknowledge Him.


What is the nature of God's hatred for Esau?

1. We judge love/hate by our imperfect, sin-infested practices of both.

2. The hatred spoken of is sovereign and purposeful just as the love.

3. Hatred makes a distinction "against" just as love makes a distinction "for"

4. Hatred is personal, just as is love

5. Hatred has consequences in the divine action just as does love


I. God's Electing Love as Motivation for Obedience

 

1.  Declared

 

"I have loved you" - verb shows a past, present, continuing of divine love; love shown at the beginning of Israel's history:

- Call of Abraham

- Selection and provision of patriarchs

- Deliverance from bondage in Egypt

- Sustained and often delivered in period of Judges

- Tasted delights under David and Solomon

- Periods of reviving under Joash, Hezekiah, Josiah


Deuteronomy 4:37,40, "Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendents after them.  And He personally brought you from Egypt by His great power...So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am giving you today..."

 

This love is not a mere emotion or feeling but decisive, purposeful action.  For God to love, as here described, is to sovereignly elect for His own display of kindness. He tells them of His love as a reminder that would cause them to tremble and fear and obey.  It is the needed reminder that we did not choose God but He chose us, e.g. John 15:167 - that's electing love.

a. His love is unconditional - Jacob was not known for his great performance, moreso, his election 

   took place before he was born (Romans 9:10-11). 

b. His love is sovereign in that He is under no obligation to show His favor to anyone.

c. His love is purposeful in that God desired to pour out His rich grace upon an undeserving people to 

   display His kindness and reproduce sons and daughters in the image of Christ.


2.  Questioned

 

"How have you loved us?"

 

The baseness of their forgetfulness and ingratitude is stunning, yet their mindset is not unusual even in our day.  Many question God's love because of exaggerated self-perceptions and low views of God.  The "ME-ME-ME" of the modern man is clearly displayed in this question.  "They refuse to look at the tokens of love strewn all along their history, and dwell in obstinate ingratitude on the evils that their own sin has entailed upon them" (T. V. Moore).  Men sin and want to blame God for the consequences, thinking that He has no right to hold them accountable.  Not only were they ungrateful but their question shows a base denial of electing love and God's kindness through the centuries. 

 

3.  Distinguished

 

"Yet I have loved Jacob but I have hated Esau..."

 

1) Electing love is God's gracious action on behalf of the undeserving, but His passing over is His righteous action 

    of judgment toward those deserving it.  So it is a matter of favor and the tokens of divine favor in love - and 

    justice and the tokens of divine justice in hatred.

2) Divine hatred is not immature vengeance that humans fall prey to

3) Hatred implies rejection or choice rather than personal animosity or bearing a grudge

4) Divine hatred displayed

1. God opposes Esau and his descendents so that they did not prosper ("mountains of desolation and 

   appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness")

2. God's opposition continues in the face of Edom's defiance (v. 4a).  The Edomites had given Judah 

   over to Babylon but the Naboteans invaded them shortly driving them to the deserts of the Negev.

3. Because of the divine opposition, Edom continued in their sin and was known for their 

   wickedness.  God therefore justly judged them guilty of rebellion.


It contains a reminder of precisely where we head apart from God's gracious intervention.  After being driven into the Negev by the Naboteans, the Maccabees further crushed them in 185 BC.  And within another 150 years they were extinguished - objects of divine indignation.

 

Why does the Lord spell this out?

 

II. God's Electing Love as Foundation for Worship

 

This is not additious to historical data but salvation history - displays of God's grace for the elect.  Many argue against election, some ignore it altogether.  Yet from Genesis to Revelation, the evidence of God's electing love stands (John 6:37, 44, 10:14-15, 26-28; Romans 9:14-18; Ephesians 1:4-6

 

1.  Observation

 

"Your eyes will see this"

 

All that was prophesied of the Edomites had not transpired but it would - that's why Paul can use it in his argument on election in Romans 9.  John Piper has captured the reasoning quite well:  "Why do I tell you this? 

- To humble you

- To take away your presumption

- To remove every ground of boasting in yourself

- To cut the nerve of pride that boasts over Esau as though your salvation were owing to anything 

   in you

- To put to naught the cavalier sense of self-reliance that lets you daily in my presence as though 

   you were an equal partner in this affair

- To make you tremble with tears of joy that you belong to God (www.desiringgod.org, Malachi 1:1-5)


The language is different but the purpose is similar in I Corinthians 1:26-31.

 

For observation:

- Consider that you were chosen but perhaps not your best friend from high school or brother or 

   college roommate.

- Consider that God chose you unconditionally and that therefore nothing you've done moved God in 

   the direction of choosing you.

- Consider that God's gracious choice of you necessitated His provision for forgiveness and 

   reconciliation through Christ.  In other words, God's choice of you cost Him the sacrifice of His own 

   Son.

- Consider that God's choice of you is also the root of your eternal assurance of future grace and 

   glorification.


2.  Exaltation

 

This must lead to exalting the Lord in worship!

 

(1)  Extol the greatness of His person

 

"The Lord be magnified"

 

"God will be glorified in the punishment of sin as well as in the reward of obedience.  Hell is full of God's glory as well as heaven, and the sinner shall show it forth in his perdition not less truly than the saint in his salvation" (T. V. Moore 344).

 

(2)  Extol the breadth of His reign

 

"beyond the border of Israel"

 

No territorial god here, but the scope of His sovereign rule will be made known.  And His people shall praise Him in this.

- Consider the multiracial, multicultural, multi-linguistic, multinational scope of Christianity - then 

   worship such a gracious Lord.

- Consider how the gospel has penetrated dark regions of the world and those places that sought to 

   ban Him - then worship such a powerful Lord.

- Consider how the gospel transcends every barrier and lovingly captures even the most brazen 

   sinner - then worship such a kind, compassionate Lord.


Conclusion

 

Electing grace is true whether we acknowledge it or not.  But to glory in God's free, sovereign, unconditional, purposeful, electing grace and love will surely motivate us to obedience and worship.

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be explicitly approved by South Woods Baptist Church.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy:

Copyright South Woods Baptist Church. Website: www.southwoodsbc.org. Used by permission as granted on web site. Questions, comments, and suggestions about our site can be sent here.