SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/13/2016 9:42 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Doubting God’s Love”
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Malachi 1:1-5
Message of the verses: “1 The oracle of the word of the LORD to
Israel through Malachi. 2 “I have loved you," says the LORD. But you say,
"How have You loved us?" "Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?"
declares the LORD. "Yet I have loved Jacob; 3 but I have hated Esau, and I
have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the
jackals of the wilderness." 4 Though Edom says, "We have been beaten
down, but we will return and build up the ruins"; thus says the LORD of
hosts, "They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the
wicked territory, and the people toward whom the LORD is indignant
forever." 5 Your eyes will see this and you will say, "The LORD be
magnified beyond the border of Israel!"”
We left off
in our last SD when we were just about to look at some of the evidences of God’s
love for Israel and so we will begin to look at the first evidence in our SD
this evening.
In Malachi
1:2a we read “I have loved you,’ declares the Lord.” Now when God said through Moses on Mt. Sinai
that they were to obey God’s law because He is Holy, which does not say that He
loves them and that is the reason why they should obey the Law, but when Moses
writes in Deuteronomy “Obey the Lord because He loves you and you love Him”
that shows us that perhaps this is what Malachi is referring to. Dr. Wiersbe adds “Both motives are valid
today.”
Now we want
to move onto the second evidence of God’s love that we see in Malachi chapter
one and we will look at verses 2b-3 “But you say, "How have You loved
us?" "Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?" declares the LORD.
"Yet I have loved Jacob; 3 but I have hated Esau, and I have made his
mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the
wilderness."” Now these verses are
and have been difficult for people to understand. First I want to get the definition of the
word hate as seen in my online Bible dictionary “1) to hate, be hateful 1a)
(Qal) to hate 1a1) of man 1a2) of God.”
You see it really means hate and not as some people have said that it
means “loves less.”
Now we know
from our study of the book of Genesis that Esau was actually the older brother
of Jacob as he was the first born of these twin boys, and yet that made no
difference for God was going to pass on the blessings to Jacob and not
Esau. (Genesis 25:21-23) Esau would become the father of the Edomites
with no covenants or blessings as God did for Jacobs descendants.
Now Dr.
Wiersbe writes the following to help us understand our difficult passage: “The statement that God loved Jacob but hated
Esau has troubled some people. Paul
quoted it in Romans 9:10-13 to prove God’s electing grace for both Israel and
all who trust Jesus Christ for salvation.
But the verb ‘hate’ must not be defined as positive expression of the
wrath of God. God’s love for Jacob was
so great, that, in comparison, His actions toward Esau looked like hatred. As an illustration, Jacob loved Rachel so
much that his relationship to Leah seemed like hatred (Gen. 29:20, 30-31; see also
Deut. 21:15-17). When Jesus called His
disciples to ‘hate’ their own family (Luke 14:26), He was using the word ‘hate’
in a similar way. Our love for Christ
may occasionally move us to do things that appear like hatred to those whom we
love (see Matt. 12:46-50).
“Someone
said to Dr. Arno C. Gaebelein, the gifted Hebrew Christian leader of a
generation ago, ‘I have a serious problem with Malachi 1:3 where God says, Esau
I have hated.’ Dr. Gaebelein replied, ‘I
have a greater problem with Malachi 1:2, where God’s says ‘Jacob, I have loved.’ We certainly can’t explain the love and grace
of God, nor do we have to, but we can experience God’s grace and love as trust
Christ and walk with Him. The Lord is
even willing to be ‘the God of Jacob.”
11/13/2016 10:05 PM
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