Malachi 1:2 KJV
I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
I remember telling my son one time that I was proud of him and his response was, "Why?" It took me aback because I was not fully prepared to answer. I have already told my grandson, Joshua, that I love him and he has responded, "Why?"
But this text has a different spirit to it. In this text the Lord is challenging them because they did not believe He loved them. JFB has insightful comments on the passage.
"In painful contrast to the tearful tenderness of God’s love stands their insolent challenge. "The root of their sin was insensibility to God’s love, and to their own wickedness. Having had prosperity taken from them, they imply they have no tokens of God’s love; they look at what God had taken, not at what God had left. God’s love is often least acknowledged where it is most manifested. We must not infer God does not love us because He afflicts us. Men, instead of referring their sufferings to their proper cause, their own sin, impiously accuse God of indifference to their welfare…"
How important it is to forever remember God's love; even in the midst of affliction. The marks of God's love are not good things and ease in this life. The marks of God's love have to do with His efforts to bring us to Christ and to Christian perfection.
I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
I remember telling my son one time that I was proud of him and his response was, "Why?" It took me aback because I was not fully prepared to answer. I have already told my grandson, Joshua, that I love him and he has responded, "Why?"
But this text has a different spirit to it. In this text the Lord is challenging them because they did not believe He loved them. JFB has insightful comments on the passage.
"In painful contrast to the tearful tenderness of God’s love stands their insolent challenge. "The root of their sin was insensibility to God’s love, and to their own wickedness. Having had prosperity taken from them, they imply they have no tokens of God’s love; they look at what God had taken, not at what God had left. God’s love is often least acknowledged where it is most manifested. We must not infer God does not love us because He afflicts us. Men, instead of referring their sufferings to their proper cause, their own sin, impiously accuse God of indifference to their welfare…"
How important it is to forever remember God's love; even in the midst of affliction. The marks of God's love are not good things and ease in this life. The marks of God's love have to do with His efforts to bring us to Christ and to Christian perfection.
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