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,
And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
I have read that a man once approached Charles Hadden Spurgeon with this objection, “I do not understand why God hated Esau.” To which Spurgeon is supposed to have responded, “I don’t understand why God loved Jacob.” This concept is repeated a few times in the Bible, including Romans chapter nine and is offered as a proof text for the Calvinistic doctrine of election.[1]
This text is not speaking about individuals, but about nations; Jacob being the nation of Israel and Esau being the nation of the Edomites. Specifically, the text references the geographical location of the nation of Edom, its mountains, its wilderness, and its heritage.[2]
Israel was placed in a land filled with good natural resources. Esau’s lot was less productive. The text has nothing to do with eternal judgment. Whether one could make an application of future eternal judgment, I think, is questionable. What I believe is certain is that God did not intend this passage to apply to individuals and that the hatred spoken of is not meant to be emotional angst against an individual, but more like the distribution of an inheritance. Because one child is given a greater portion of a parents’ estate does not imply the parents hated for the one who received less.
· Perhaps the parents recognized the skills of the one to be more capable of using the inheritance.
· Perhaps the parents recognized that the one who received less would have been injured by the greater inheritance.
· Perhaps there were circumstances involved in giving a portion of the inheritance to one or the other that others in the family were not aware of.
The people of Israel have never been any better or any worse than any other people. God did not choose to bless them because they were greater or better. God chose to bless them as the one nation that would deliver to the other nations the Word of God and the Saviour of their sins.
God did not hate Esau. He chose to save Esau (those who would be saved) through the seed of Israel - Jesus. He also chose to save Israel (those who would be saved) through the same seed.
#GodsLoveAndJustice #BiblicalElection #NationsInScripture #DivineInheritance #SovereignGrace
Divine Inheritance: Jacob, Esau, and the Heart of God
[1] There is a biblical doctrine of election. I do not believe the Calvinist’s doctrine and the Biblical doctrine are the same.
[2] I think this refers to the natural resources of the region.
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