ROMANS 9:13

“Just as it is written: ‘JACOB I HAVE LOVED, BUT ESAU I HAVE HATED.’”

We’ve all said it. “I hate…” The comment could be directed at something or someone. I’ve said it many times. For instance, I hate brussel sprouts, lol. But I have also said that I hate certain people. Now, let me say quickly that happened mostly when I was a child. But I have to be honest and say it has slipped out of my mouth as an adult also. I have confessed that as sin and asked for forgiveness. So, when you see the word “hate” in Scripture, it can give you pause.

Paul quotes in today’s verse from Malachi 1:2-3. “2 ‘I have loved you,’ says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have You loved us?’ ‘Was Esau not 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 given his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness.’” Don’t think for a second, though, that God actually hated Esau. This was a common Hebraic expression of “lesser love.” You can find other examples of things God hates, but Esau wasn’t one of them.

APPLICATION

One good example of this expression is found in Proverbs 13:24. “He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.” Withholding the rod and spoiling the child can look like hatred, in that it does not teach the child right from wrong. I’ve seen parents do that with disastrous consequences. They really loved their child but failed to train them properly.

Even Jesus used this comparison in Luke 14:26. “‘If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.’” Jesus wasn’t implying we should hate our family in order to follow Him. That would be the furthest thing from Jesus’ mind. But in comparison to the love we should have for Him, our love for our family would look like hate.

Barnes explains this “hatred” this way. “It was common among the Hebrews to use the terms ‘love’ and ‘hatred’ in this comparative sense, where the former implied strong positive attachment, and the latter, not positive hatred, but merely a less love, or the withholding of the expressions of affection.” Do you love Jesus so much that all other love relationships you have appear as hatred? Hmmm. Let’s all examine ourselves in this manner.

Father, help me love You so deeply that all other relationships look like hatred. Nothing compares to You.

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