{"id":37295,"date":"2022-09-13T13:32:32","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T18:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/god-is-love-no-doubt-but-why-did-he-commit-himself-to-hating-esau-a-human-being\/"},"modified":"2022-09-13T13:32:32","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T18:32:32","slug":"god-is-love-no-doubt-but-why-did-he-commit-himself-to-hating-esau-a-human-being","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/god-is-love-no-doubt-but-why-did-he-commit-himself-to-hating-esau-a-human-being\/","title":{"rendered":"God is love no doubt, but why did He commit Himself to hating Esau, a human being?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>Malachi 1:2, 3, &ldquo;I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.&rdquo; This is a Hebrew idiom. The concept of <strong>&lsquo;<\/strong><strong>hated<\/strong><strong>&rsquo;<\/strong> <strong>means loved less<\/strong>. Jesus used the same idiom in Luke 14:26, &ldquo;If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters &#8211; yes, even their own life &#8211; such a person cannot be my disciple.&rdquo; But Christians are to love all people, even our enemies. So, the word hate needs to be softened &#8211;&nbsp; recognizing it should mean loved or preferred less.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Actions have consequences<\/strong>. It is entirely proper for God to discontinue favors to those who would not use them, and to extend them to others who will. This is not a violation of God&rsquo;s Divine love, but a wise and loving response. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Esau did not properly value his birthright and sold it to Jacob who desired God&rsquo;s chief blessing meant for the firstborn. (Heb.12:16) The consequence was more of God&rsquo;s love and favor given to Jacob. Less love and favor was Esau&rsquo;s portion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The birthright blessing continued through Jacob to his sons who became the nation of Israel.&nbsp;&ldquo;You (Israel) only have I known of all the families of the earth.&rdquo; (Amos 3:2) Yet God did give Esau a blessing.&nbsp;God told Israel in Deuteronomy 2:4-7, &ldquo;You are about to cross the border of your relatives the descendants of Esau, who inhabit Seir. . . Do not be hostile toward them, because I am not giving you any of their land, not even a footprint, for<strong> I have given Mount Seir as an inheritance for Esau<\/strong>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, in Christ&rsquo;s Kingdom, Esau and his family will be blessed through Israel. God said to Jacob; &ldquo;In you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.&rdquo; (Gen. 28:14 NKJV) The abundance of God&rsquo;s love provides for Esau&rsquo;s family while rewarding Jacob&rsquo;s family for his exceptional faith and loyalty.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Wise parents know that they are not always at liberty to show love in a way pleasing to the child.&nbsp; And wise parents raise their child with discipline.&nbsp;Sometimes love means withholding or removing a blessing until the child is trained and experienced enough to benefit.&nbsp; In a very small way, this is an example of why God has a due time (1 Tim. 2:6) to reveal the fullness of His perfect love after he &ldquo;judges the world in righteousness&rdquo;.&nbsp;(Acts 17:31) God&rsquo;s righteous judgment is the tool needed so that each of us &ldquo;grow up&rdquo;. Then, the fullness of God&rsquo;s gifts of love will be fully appreciated.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In summary: God&rsquo;s perfect love promises salvation to Esau and his family and to all mankind. <strong>&ldquo;<\/strong><strong>Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the LORD<\/strong><strong>&rsquo;<\/strong><strong>s,<\/strong><strong>&rdquo;<\/strong> Obadiah 1:21(NIV) The Lord has arranged in His plan of salvation a time and a way when all the race shall be delivered and God&rsquo;s love fully revealed. (Isa. 35:8-10)&nbsp; &ldquo;Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.&rdquo; Rev. 21:3-5<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malachi 1:2, 3, &ldquo;I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.&rdquo; This is a Hebrew idiom. The concept of &lsquo;hated&rsquo; means loved less. Jesus used the same idiom in Luke 14:26, &ldquo;If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters &#8211; yes, even their own &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/god-is-love-no-doubt-but-why-did-he-commit-himself-to-hating-esau-a-human-being\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;God is love no doubt, but why did He commit Himself to hating Esau, a human being?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}