Malachi

At the beginning of the last book of the Old Testament, the people of God are foot-stomping, fist-pounding, voice-raising mad. They feel that God had failed them and not loved them. In fact, in Malachi 1:2 they poke God in the eye and ask, “How have you loved us?”

Rather than beating them up, God the Father builds them up by reminding them, “I have loved you” (Malachi 1:2). And, He reminds them that He has been loving their often ungodly, ungrateful, and undeserving family for generations. “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated (Malachi 1:2-3).” Jacob and Esau were twin brothers, both bad guys, and God chose to bring Jesus through Jacob instead of Esau and bless the nation of Israel that descended from Jacob in a way that He did not bless the nation of Edom that descended from Esau.

The issue is, regarding salvation, if God chooses some people and not others, does that make Him unloving? In the broadest sense, the Bible speaks to this issue with a constellation of words such as choose, chosen, elect, appointed, God’s plan, purpose, and predestined.

Perhaps the most thorough treatment of this issue is Romans 9. There, Paul quotes Malachi 1:2-3 saying, “…when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad — in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls — she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!”

Did you catch the connection between being chosen by God and being loved by God? God is not obligated to choose, love, or save anyone. The fact that he chooses to save some shows how loving he truly is. For the Christian, knowing that God chose us is evidence of His love. This is exactly what Ephesians 1:4-5 teaches saying, “In love he predestined us”.

There are at least six ways that God choosing some for salvation is loving:

One. In love, God saves people from all nations. In most religions, their “god” only cares about people like them. The God of the Bible chooses people from all nations to form His Kingdom.

Two. In love, God can save the unborn. With miscarriages, abortions, and other lives lost in the womb through tragedy, it is comforting to know that God can choose to save a baby in the womb.

Three. In love, God can save the mentally limited. Some people do not have the capacity to fully understand the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as their Savior for their sins. But, if God can choose who to apply the work of Jesus to, then there is hope for those who could otherwise be hopeless.

Four. In love, God can reach the unreached. There are reports in closed Muslim countries where missionaries cannot gain access that numerous people are becoming Christians. Jesus is apparently showing up to them in visions and dreams and saving them because He has chosen to do so.

Five. In love, God can save the worst people. Perhaps the Bible writer who speaks the most about predestination is the Apostle Paul. You may remember, he was an awful man who murdered Christians before God chose to save him. If there was ever anyone who was chosen by God, it was Paul who would have never chosen God.

Six. In love, God is not obligated to save anyone. I think of it like a massive suicide pact where numerous people chain themselves in a home, set it on fire, and decide to kill themselves. This is basically what humanity has chosen to do through sin. I see Jesus coming like a firefighter who runs into the burning building to carry numerous dying people out until he dies of smoke inhalation. How anyone could look at that firefighter and accuse them of being unloving because of who they did not save is to miss the entire point.

Which of the six ways that predestination is loving do you find most compelling? Why?

Romans 9:10-14: “…when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad — in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls — she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger’. As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!

On the first day that my parents tried to teach me to drive, I had barely gotten out of the driveway when someone ran in front of the car and I had to slam on the brakes. The book of Malachi is like that. Only a few sentences into the book, God says he hated one brother named Esau, but loved another brother named Jacob. This statement is quoted by the Apostle Paul in his treatise on election and predestination in Romans 9. So, we need to slam on the brakes and take a look at this issue before we keep rolling along in Malachi.

The story of Abraham is this: He’s a godless man. He comes from a godless family. We read in Joshua 24:2 that his dad was a godless man. Abraham’s family is listed in Genesis 10–11. Generation after generation of the men in his family are godless sinners stacked up like cord wood for the flames of hell.

Then, God shows up and says, “I pick Abraham.” He’s not a great guy. God doesn’t pick us because we’re great; God picks us because He’s great. God is saying, I’ll start with Abraham, and I promise to give him a son. And through that son, I’m going to bring a nation. And through that nation, I’m going to bring Jesus.

Abraham is a Gentile, not a Jew. He’s saved by faith. He trusts in the promises of the God of the Bible. He circumcises himself and the nation is born. The Jewish people begin. The promise was given that he would have a son, even though his wife is barren and they’re elderly. This is going to take a miracle. But if God needs to pull off a miracle to give you a legacy, He’s glad to do that. Abraham and Sarah had a son. What was his name? Isaac, which means laughter, because God always gets the last laugh, right? That’s how it works. And then Abraham dies, and he leaves a son and grandsons, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob had a brother named Esau.

These are both bad boys. See, religion teaches, “God loves the good people.” Well, then God doesn’t love anybody. Say, “God loves bad people. Yay, there’s hope for me.” So, God chose to work through the bad guy Jacob instead of the bad buy Esau so that Jesus could come as the good guy who saves bad guys.

What would you be doing right now if you were not chosen and saved by God?

If you were to ask the average person to pick one word to describe the character of God, which word do you think would likely be the most common?

Holy? Maybe.
Powerful? Perhaps.
Loving? Likely.
When most people think of the God of the Bible, the first verse that comes to mind is 1 John 4:8 which says, “God is love.”

Not surprisingly, there is a verse in Malachi that is among the most confusing and controversial in the entire Bible. Speaking of twin brothers born to Isaac, God says in Malachi 1:2-3, “I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.”

Words are like colors in that they have differing degrees of shading and intensity. Just as the color blue can be so soft that it appears nearly white or so dark that it appears nearly black, so too words can have a range of meaning. The academic types with more degrees than Fahrenheit have spent a lot of hours debating the meaning of the original Hebrew word that we translate into English as “hate”. It is commonly said that the word can mean things like pass over, not to choose, work through one person and not the other, prefer one over the other, or have one hold priority over the other. Here are some ways that various English translations state Malachi 1:3:

“rejected” (The Living Bible, Contemporary English Bible, Jubilee Bible, New American Bible Revised Edition, New English Translation, New Living Translation)
“did not accept” (Easy to Read Version)
“chose Jacob instead of Esau” (New International Readers Version)
If this is the case, then the point made in Malachi is not that God has capricious, unwarranted, emotionally-intense hostility toward someone much like a raging, violent thug. Instead, God promised that Jesus Christ would be born through the family line of either Jacob or Esau. God chose Jacob and not Esau.

Perhaps another Scripture will help clarify the best way to maintain the integrity of Malachi’s words without making God into an ogre. Jesus, the most loving person in the history of the world, also used the word hate. In Luke 14:26, Jesus said, “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.”

We know that Jesus loved his mother, as well as his siblings and godly dad. We know that the Bible says that a husband should love His wife like Christ does the church. The Bible also says that we should honor our mother and father. So, in context, Jesus’ words regarding hatred are about preference. We are to value our relationship with Jesus above every other relationship and hold our loyalty to Him above all else. In this regard, Jesus uses the word “hate” to speak of priority and preference much like Malachi did.

What would your life be like, honestly, if God had not chosen to save you and bless you?

Malachi 1:2b-4: “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever’.”

Imagine that you were having a rough day and told God in prayer, “I don’t feel like you love me”. That is precisely the context of Malachi chapter one. God’s response is not likely what we would have guessed.

Going back to Genesis 25:19-34 many, many years prior, God reminds His people of the story of Abraham their father in the faith. The promise was made that through that family would come Jesus Christ. Abraham’s son Isaac had twin sons – Jacob & Esau. Like many families, the boys are polar opposites. Esau is older, daddy’s favorite, tough, drives a truck, wears boots, eats what he can kill, likes country music and cage fighting, and was apparently a hairy redheaded kid as the prototype for Elmo.

Jacob is younger, a momma’s boy, got ‘most huggable’ in high school, drives a hybrid, wore Crocs, ate devoutly vegetarian cuisine grown through sustainable farming, and likes Disney Broadway musical soundtracks.

The boys started fighting in their momma’s womb and the battle still rages. From Jacob came the nation of Israel. From Esau came the nation of Edom. These nations have always warred against each other and, to some degree, their descendants still do. Jesus came from Jacob, and King Herod, who tried to kill Him, came from Esau.

When the descendants of Jacob asked God in Malachi 1:2, “How have you loved us?”, God reminded them that He had loved their family for generations. Unlike Esau, who was not chosen to carry forth the promise of the Messiah, their family was the chosen one.

The truth is, both boys were bad. Jacob’s name means “trickster” and he and his mom were known to manipulate and fool dad for the family blessing. Esau was an impetuous, uncaring man who traded his rights as the firstborn son in the family for a mere bowl of stew. The descendants of Esau became a godless nation judged by God. They got what they earned. The descendants of Esau became God’s nation blessed by God. They got grace that they did not earn.

For us who are, by faith, God’s people, the lesson is simple. Rather than looking up to heaven and wondering why we are not living there today, we should look down to hell and thank God that we are not living there today.

How has God blessed you and your family in ways that are simply not deserved?

As you prepare for the Christmas season and celebration of the coming of Jesus, one book of the Bible might be the most helpful. Tucked away at the end of the Old Testament, the little book of Malachi had a big purpose – to prepare people to receive Jesus when He came into the world through the womb of Mary. This was the last book of the Bible written for roughly four hundred years as people waited for the coming of Jesus. In some ways, to the people at the time, Malachi was like Revelation – the last book God wrote that tells us what happens next as we wait for Jesus to show up.

Very little is known about the author mainly because He focuses all the attention on God and none on himself. He tells us both his name and ministry as a mouthpiece for God in Malachi 1:1, “The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.” In 3:1 he is simply called by God, “my messenger”. Curiously, the name Malachi literally means “messenger” as God had chosen his name to reflect his mission to be God’s mailman.

As we study Malachi together, it will be most helpful for you to simply read it for yourself multiple times. You can read the entire book quickly in maybe 15 minutes. As you read it, you will notice that of the 55 verses, 47 of them are God speaking to His people. This is an action-packed book where God does most of the talking. If you have ever wished you could just sit down with God and have Him speak to you, this is precisely what will happen as you read Malachi. The entire book is a conversation that God had with His people and wants to have with you.

Find some time to read all of Malachi at least once this week.