Malachi 1:1-5 1 An oracle: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi. 2 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’
The people in Malachi’s day were way off base with the love of God to the point where they were willing to accuse God of not loving them. He had to set them straight in order that they could see He really did love them. This Word from God had to be heard and received if they were going to make the necessary adjustments in their minds about the love of God and go on to experience it again as they once had.
God’s Word is the evidence for God’s love.
In verse 2 God reveals the burden that is on His heart. He says to them, “I have loved you.” It was true then regarding the Israelite people, and it is true for us today. God always loves. It is His essence. I John 4:8 tells us, “God is love.” He is just and His justice might not feel like love in the moment. He is a disciplinarian, which may not seem warm and fuzzy at the time, but Scripture helps us understand that God disciplines those He loves. (Hebrews 12:6) If God says He loves us, He loves us.
“I have loved you” in the Hebrew means, “I have loved you, I do love you, and I will love you.” It is an unconditional love. It is a love that is unending. God is in a covenant-love relationship with us. Do you really believe God loves you? If you don’t, you are rejecting His Word, which is the basis for everything we know about Him.
Perhaps you have doubted God’s love because He hasn’t answered your prayers the way we have wanted. God hasn’t met your demands. God not meeting our demands? That is a hostage situation isn’t it? That isn’t the stuff of a love story, the kind God wants to write on our lives. That isn’t a Heavenly Father to earthly child relationship, is it? That is us playing God. That is us calling the shots. That is us in the driver’s seat.
When we question God’s love, we have elevated ourselves above God to the point where we put Him in a position that He has to answer to us or we will cry, “foul.” God cannot be measured by the yardstick of our desires. The problem is that we measure God’s love for us by the conditional love we experience in the world. In our minds, God loves us only when He meets our expectations. That isn’t love. We want God to love us unconditionally, as He does, but we want to love Him conditionally. We want to love Him if He meets our ransom demands disguised as prayer. Amen or ouch?
Well, God actually took the time to answer the question. What a kind and loving God. Scripture teaches that God is patient, and it is a good thing, because they were testing God’s patience for sure.
Verses 2-4 are tough to weed through. Let’s re-read verses 2-4: 2 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” the LORD says. “Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
What God did was set up a comparison between Jacob with Esau to reveal how much He loved Jacob. Jacob was one of the patriarchs. God began this covenant or chosen relationship with Abraham, who fathered Isaac, who fathered Jacob and Esau. Jacob represented the nation of Israel and Esau represented Edom. You want to talk about love? Really? Let’s go there, God said. Who are the ones I have chosen? Who are the ones I have set apart from birth? Who are the ones I have covenanted myself with in relationship?
The idea of the word “hated” here is better translated as “rejected.” Jacob had been chosen by God while Esau had been rejected. Now, that may not sound much better, right? Being rejected isn’t fun either. Hold on. However, this passage isn’t meant to be a commentary about the rejection of Esau, but it is about the fact that God had chosen Jacob. The boys were actually twins, and it was prophesied by God to their mother by God that the older one would serve the younger one. God had made that decision because He can because He is God.
The culture said Esau should have been chosen to be the next patriarch through which God’s blessing to Abraham would flow. That’s the way it was. The first-born got the privilege. But God chose Jacob because he wanted the Israelites to see a picture of God’s grace, which flows from His love, and He wants you and I to see it as well.
Every good Jew who knew their Torah Scriptures understood what Jacob had done to merit being chosen over Esau. It was nothing. There was nothing Jacob did that made him better than Esau. It was the sovereign grace and choice of God. Jacob was chosen even before he was born. Esau had technically been the older brother. The cultural norm dictated that he should have been the privileged one. He should have been the blessed one. But Jacob had been chosen by God in sovereign love to be the one through whom the covenant promises would continue.
This is why God used this illustration of Jacob and Esau. It is to illustrate the nature of God’s love. It is to explain that we have done nothing to earn God’s love. It is a gift. It is the grace of God. It is a “just-because” kind of love. Jacob represented all of Israel and ultimately, Jacob represents all those born again in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, when God was accused of not loving the Israelites He reminded them that He had chosen them in love to be His special people. To say that He didn’t love them was more than an insult. It was blasphemy. When they were weak, He would empower them. When they were destitute, He would provide for them. When they wandered, He would discipline them. When they were in Babylonian captivity, He made a way for them to return to their homeland. He dwelt with them. He loved them in a way no other nation could claim. It was special.
If God’s words don’t do it for you, take a look at His actions toward you!
God’s actions are proof of His love.
God so loved you and me, that He saw us in the pit of sin, He saw us in the misery of our shame and guilt, He saw us in our bondage to the things that could never satisfy, He saw us spinning our wheels looking for hope, peace, contentment, and love, and He knew that we could never manufacture those on our own. We could never move from a sinful state to a sinless state on our own, but because He is God, He knew He could execute a plan that would save us from sin, that would save us from ourselves, and that would save us from Satan who has tried to steal, kill, and destroy every person who enters this world.
His plan? He would come to earth in the form of a human, teach us about God’s love, teach us how to love other people, and then would lay down His life on a cruel Roman cross to pay the price for our sin, satisfying the list of accusations God had against us, paying the price for us to become children of God who are transformed and empowered by the Holy Spirit, and paying the price for us to escape eternal punishment in Hell and to enjoy the splendor of Heaven forever with Him. Can you think of a greater love?
Romans 5:8 tells us that while we were still sinners, when we had nothing we could bring to the table, when we were repulsive to God because God abhors sin, He took our place and paid the penalty for our sin. That is amazing love.
Do you know the love of God? Have you experienced it? Are you searching for a love that bows down to you and your desires, or are you seeking a relationship with the only One who is worthy of your love because of what He has said and done for you?
Where do you find yourself? How is your heart with God? Your passion to know and spend time with Him? Are you disappointed with your earthly life or spiritual walk? Are you discouraged because you don’t see God moving the way you have prayed? Are you divided in your loyalty to God, giving your heart some to things of the world as well? In what way do you need to return to the love of the Lord?
Resting in the Love of God!
Pastor Melissa
