… but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals. – Malachi 1:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 28, 2014): Malachi 1

Does God hate? It seems to be a question that I am having to deal with recently. Obviously the Hebrew Bible in several places talks about God’s hate, but the question is what does hate really mean when it is applied to God? The New Testament is absolutely adamant that the God of Israel is a God of love. Personally I am convinced that an honest evaluation of the Biblical evidence leads us to the understanding that love is the central characteristic of God (although I also understand those that disagree with me.) But if this is true, then we have to deal with the passages of the Bible that also speak of God’s hate.

One way of understanding the hate of God is simply by understanding that the Hebrew Bible deals with a partial revelation of God. It is possible that Israel did not fully understand the God they served, and therefore we see a revelation that is tainted by human expectations. The revelation grows as we see Israel move forward through time – and more and more God seems to be characterized by love. But the revelation is only full and complete in the life of Jesus, so therefore it is only in Jesus that we see the full story of the revelation of God. And if this is true, then we would expect that the overwhelming understanding of God’s love is only available to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This might be true, but there is something else that we need to understand playing in the background of this (and other) passage of hate.

The hate of God in the Bible should always be understood in a comparative manner. So as Malachi begins his prophecy, he says that God has loved Jacob, but that he has hated Esau. And in the passage the comparison and contrast is obvious. But hate in the Hebrew Bible should never be seen as an active hate. The verse should be interpreted as “I have loved Jacob so much that the way I love Esau must look like hate.” I set Jacob into a lush and fertile land and left Esau in a barren wasteland. I gave Jacob my inheritance, and Esau received my leftovers. The biggest problem with my love of Jacob is that it is totally undeserved.  Jacob was not the elder brother, Esau was. Jacob was the deceiver, Esau seems to be the one who responded honestly. If we are honest, we may not understand what God means when he says that he hates Esau, but our struggle over God’s hate of Esau is nothing when it is compared to our struggle to understand why God has loved Jacob.

But it is Israel’s doubt of God’s love that is the focus of the opening verses of Malachi. And when we understand that, it reveals that the purpose of the comment that God hates Esau is only to stress the phenomenal love of God for Jacob – a love that Israel was struggling to understand – and a love that Israel had never earned or deserved in any way.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Malachi 2