Questions and Answers
QUESTION:
Please explain Malachi 1:3, “I hated Esau.”
ANSWER:
There are two different views regarding God’s hatred of Esau,
Malachi 1:3 (NASB) 3but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.”
Romans 9:11-13 (NASB) 11for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12it was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.” 13Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.”
The one is that the term “love” and “hate” are used comparatively, that is, God’s love for Jacob was so great compared with His love for Esau was as hate. Examples of this are:
Genesis 29:30-31 (NASB) 30So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years. 31Now the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
Deuteronomy 21:15-17 (NASB) 15“If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, 16then it shall be in the day he wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn. 17“But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; to him belongs the right of the firstborn.
Luke 16:13 (NASB) 13“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other…. (Jesus’ Words in red)
Luke 14:26 (NASB) 26“If anyone comes to Me, and does not £hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. (Jesus’ Words in red)
Matthew 10:37 (NASB) 37“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. (Jesus’ Words in red)
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The other view is that the words “love” and “hate” must not be “watered down” into loving less, but that “we must bear in mind, that with God anything arbitrary is inconceivable, and that no explanation is given here of the reasons which determined the actions of God. (Keil-Delitzsch).
When someone said to Spurgeon, “I cannot understand why God should say that He hated Esau,” Spurgeon replied, “That is not my difficulty, madam; my trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob!”
See Romans 1:21-32; 5:10; Ephesians 2:3; Colossians 1:21