Malachi 1:2-5
Is this a strange assertion for God to make? He seems to be saying that He chose to favor Jacob and to curse Esau, doesn't He? Scary thought, this!
Paul brings this up in Romans chapter 9. He explains in verse 11-12: "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.'" Paul compares it to a potter. If a potter decides to make one lump of clay into a vase for the mantle, and another lump of clay into a chamber pot, how is the clay going to complain to the potter about what He made it to do?
Peter accuses Paul of writing things that can be hard to understand in his Second Letter, and whether he had this passage in mind when he wrote that or not, I've cetainly found the truth of that statement in this reference from Romans.
On the other hand, this is not a new concept Paul is interpreting. His quote is from Malachi, but he also quotes the prophet Hosea in verse 25:
"As he says in Hosea:
"I will call them 'my people' who are not my people;
and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one," and,
"It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
'You are not my people,'
they will be called 'sons of the living God.' "
and he goes on to quote from Isaiah in verses 26-29. Jesus is talking about Israel's rejection of its prophets in Luke 4:25-26 when He says, "I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon," but the idea is along similar lines. In the last half of Isaiah 6, God commands Isaiah to tell the people of Israel to ignore Him and harden their hearts, so they won't come to Him for healing.
This is the same God of Whom Paul speaks in I Timothy 2:4, "who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth," and of Whom Peter speaks in II Peter 3:9, "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." It's the same God Who said through His prophet Ezekiel in 33:11, "As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live." This is the God that conceded in Hosea 11:8-9,
"How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
How can I make you like Zeboiim?
My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion is aroused.
"I will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.
For I am God, and not man—
the Holy One among you.
I will not come in wrath."
In Isaiah 56:4-8, God declares:
"To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant-
to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will not be cut off.
And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD
to serve him,
to love the name of the LORD,
and to worship him,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
and who hold fast to my covenant-
these I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations."
The Sovereign LORD declares—
he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
"I will gather still others to them
besides those already gathered."
This is YHWH God of the Old Testament, and the Holy Father of the New Testament. This is the God of Abraham and Isaac, and the God of Cephas and the sons of Zebedee. He said He chose Jacob and cursed Esau, but He also says that He wills not that any should perish, and that He does not delight in the death of the wicked man. (These are only a few of the myriad of verses from the Old and New Testaments that talk about God's grace!)
This is God, the Righteous One.
If we accept that everything God says is true, and I do, then we have to reconcile these statements, even though they appear at first glance to contradict each other. How can God wish for all men to be saved, and wait patiently for all men to come to know the truth, if He creates some men to be saved and others to be damned?
One of my favorite stories of all time is the story of the centurion in Luke 7. Suffice it to say that he is dedicated, and that he trusts in Jesus' ability to save his servant--but my very most favorite part of the story is this verse:
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel."
Even now, when I read this verse, my eyes can't help but tear up. How amazing is it that a man, and a Gentile at that, could amaze the Son of God? Jesus was impressed by this Gentile, and He honored him for his faith.
God's election, I say to you, is not an election of Jewish people, nor of dark-skinned people. In Romans 2:28-29, Paul says, "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code." Rather, God knows who loves Him. He knows who will love Him. His election is of those that love God, and it's an election only He could make, because only He knows. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts," God says in Isaiah 55:9. God knows a lot more than we do, and He knows a lot more than we give Him credit for--even on our good days!
This is God we're talking about. This is not a judge, nor a congressman, nor a president, nor even a king. This is the God Outside of Time, Who sees all things and knows the hearts of men, and He's the One Who is performing the election we're discussing. He is the only one that could.
If I tell you, "I love my son Jacob, but I hate my son Esau. I'm going to do everything I can to help Jacob do well, but I'm going to hold Esau back and do everything I can to mess up his life," then you can go report it to Child Services, because that makes me a bad father. CPS agents would come and investigate me and find out that I really am a bad father, and then they would try to protect poor Jacob and Esau from my bad influence.
If God says to us, "I love Jacob, but I hate Esau, and I've cursed Esau and his family, and I'm going to keep them from getting their land back," then we might also be tempted to assume that God is a bad father. But when the CPS agents start investigating our call, they're going to find what we already know: God is not a bad father. He's proved it in many ways.
Think about God's statement, and compare it to the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11. The father in this story gave his son his share of the estate, as he requested. The son's request was brazen and stupid, and anyone that hears the story know it, but the father doesn't say anything about it--he just gives the son what he asks.
Is the father in this story a bad father?
We could certainly argue that he should have denied the son's request--it was certainly his right. He certainly knew that his son would squander the money. Still, he gave the foolish son what he wanted.
Esau had the same chance this son had. It's the chance God gives to all of us: the chance to do whatever we want with His gifts, which He gives to us. Esau may not have been a bad guy, but when the children of Jacob came wandering through the wilderness and needed to walk through the land that belonged to Esau's children, (in Numbers 20) Esau's children refused to help their cousins, and said so with a large army.
I don't know much about Esau, but I do know that this is the kind of children Esau raised: children that forsake their relatives and that refuse hospitality to wanderers in the desert. We could make excuses for them, but this is still true: they should have helped their blood-relations, and they did not. (Bear in mind that God commanded the Israelites not to abuse foreigners among them in Exodus 22:21 and 23:9)
God allowed Esau to make his own choices. Esau chose poorly. For those choices, God cursed Esau and his descendants. God did not enjoy the death of wicked Edomites, but He didn't allow their wickedness to continue.
God allowed Jacob to make his own choices. Jacob did stupid things, but he did try to follow God. For this, God blessed Him. Just as Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, (Genesis 15:6; See also Romans 4:3) Jacob's faith was rewarded, and that of his sons.
What then? God loves the man that puts his faith in Him, but He hates the sinful man that refuses to repent. He knows our hearts, He is wise and knows all things. Who among men can know the heart of a man except the spirit within the man? But God knows.
In Romans, Paul follows his scary statement by advising his readers to humility, and to thankfulness for God's grace. In Malachi, the prophet uses the statement as the foundation for God's relationship with his readers: "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the LORD Almighty." (1:6)
So then, if we do believe in God's grace and do acknowledge Him as a Father and as a Lord, let us strive to honor Him in our lives!
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