Malachi 1
The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever.
And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel.
A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name.
And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible.
And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts.
And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the Lord of hosts.
Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.
But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the Lord.
But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.
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Esau
Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(hairy). Eldest son of Isaac and twin brother of Jacob (Gen. 25:25). Called also Edom. Sold his birthright to Jacob (Gen. 25:26-34; 36:1-10). Gave his name, Edom, to a country and to his descendants (Gen. 26,36). [EDOM.]
Concise Bible Dictionary:
A twin son with Jacob of Isaac and Rebekah, though Esau was actually the first-born. He is described as “red, all over like a hairy garment”; with this his name corresponds, which signifies “hairy” (Gen. 25:25). The first thing we read of him is the selling of his birthright to his over-reaching brother Jacob, for a mess of pottage. Concerning this he is called in the New Testament a profane person, because he valued not that which was the gift of God. He afterward sought the blessing carefully with tears, but found no place of repentance (Gen. 25:29-34; Heb. 12:16-17).
Jacob, through want of faith in God, surreptitiously obtained the blessing of his father (who, contrary to God’s election, intended it for Esau), in which Isaac said that he had made Jacob Esau’s lord, and given all his brethren to be his servants. The blessing of Esau was “Thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck” (Gen. 27:37-40). Esau hated his brother, and intended, when the days of mourning for his father were ended, to kill him. The words of Isaac were fulfilled. David put garrisons throughout all Edom (where the descendants of Esau dwelt, Genesis 36:8) and all they of Edom became his servants (2 Sam. 8:14); but later on in the days of Joram, Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah; and though Joram was able to punish them, yet Judah was growing weaker, and “Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, unto this day” (2 Kings 8:20-22). Obadiah announces Edom’s final judgment: no remnant is restored. See EDOM.
Esau had three wives (see BASHEMATH) and a numerous posterity, which increased to a powerful tribe. When he went to meet Jacob he was accompanied by four hundred men. It may be God had warned Esau, as He did Laban, not to hurt Jacob; or possibly his anger may have abated; for when they approached, “Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.” They were thus happily reconciled, and at the death of Isaac his two sons buried him (Gen. 33:4; Gen. 35:29).
In Malachi 1:2-3 Esau is referred to as having been hated by Jehovah, whereas Jacob had been loved. This is quoted by Paul in Romans 9:13, where God’s sovereignty is being enforced. It was foretold that the elder should serve the younger before they were born, and before they could have done either good or bad: this was God’s sovereignty. But it was not foretold that God would hate Esau; it is not mentioned till the close of the Old Testament, after Esau in his descendants had displayed his unrelenting enmity to Israel, and Esau personally had long before that despised the gift of God in his birthright. The passage in Malachi is thought by some to refer to the nations which descended from the two brothers."
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"The message of Malachi begins with the sublime statement,
“I have loved you, saith Jehovah.”
It is the message to Israel. This love is written large on every page of their history. A former prophet gave the message from the Lord,
“You only have I known of all the families of the earth” Amos 3:2.
And long before that Moses had told them,
“Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day” Deuteronomy 10:15.
And the man of God in his final utterance burst out in praise,
“Yea, He loved the people” Deuteronomy 33:3.
And this generation, brought back through His mercy from Babylon, the generation that had listened to the marvelous words of Haggai and Zechariah, could brazenly answer back, “Wherein hast Thou loved us?” How deep they had sunk! Greater still is the insensibility of nominal Christendom which rejects, yea, despises, the great love wherewith He has loved us in the gift of His Son.
Then the Lord in infinite patience answered them,
“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith Jehovah: yet I loved Jacob, and hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.”
This takes us back to Genesis, but in vain do we look for this statement in that first book of the Bible. Though it is quoted also in Romans 9:1-33, it is nowhere to be found in connection with the story of the birth of the twins. The late scholar, William Kelly, has expressed the whole matter so well that we can do nothing better than to quote his excellent comment.
“It is only in Malachi that He says ‘Esau have I hated.’ I could conceive nothing more dreadful than to say so in Genesis. Never does Scripture represent God as saying before the child was born and had manifested his iniquity and proud malice, ‘Esau have I hated.’ There is where the mind of man is so erroneous. It is not meant, however, that God’s choice was determined by the character of the individual. This would make man the ruler rather than God. Not so; God’s choice flows out of His own wisdom and nature. It suits and is worthy of Himself; but the reprobation of any man and of every unbeliever is never a question of the sovereignty of God. It is the choice of God to do good where and how He pleases; it is never the purpose of His will to hate any man. There is no such doctrine in the Bible. I hold, therefore, that, while election is most clearly taught in the Scriptures, the consequences that men draw from election, namely, the reprobation of the non-elect, is a mere reproduction of fatalism, common to some heathen and to all Mohammedans, the unfounded deduction of man’s reasoning in divine things.” [From Obadiah. Lectures on the Minor Prophets.]
With these good words we agree perfectly. The hatred against Esau is mentioned in this last book, because it was well-deserved, after all the opposition and defiance of God the descendants of Esau, Edom, had manifested. But the love wherewith Jacob was loved was undeserved. His love for His people had been fully manifested, as well as His displeasure against Edom by laying his mountains and heritage waste, and all their attempts at reconstruction failed. God was against him on account of Edom’s wicked ways.
Arno Gaebelein
Excerpt from Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible
Malachi 1
"God withholds the sentence of hatred till it is evidently justified by the conduct and ways of Esau, more particularly towards Jacob, but indeed towards Himself. In short, it would be quite true to say that God loved Jacob from the first, but that He never pronounces hatred until that be manifest which utterly repels and rejects Himself with contempt, deliberately going on in pursuit of its own way and will in despisal of God. Then only does He say, “I hated Esau.” William Kelly, excerpt from Malachi 1
Malachi 1
"God withholds the sentence of hatred till it is evidently justified by the conduct and ways of Esau, more particularly towards Jacob, but indeed towards Himself. In short, it would be quite true to say that God loved Jacob from the first, but that He never pronounces hatred until that be manifest which utterly repels and rejects Himself with contempt, deliberately going on in pursuit of its own way and will in despisal of God. Then only does He say, “I hated Esau.” William Kelly, excerpt from Malachi 1
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"Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath made himself very guilty, and revenged himself upon them, therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also stretch out my hand upon Edom; and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and unto Dedan shall they fall by the sword. And I will execute my vengeance upon Edom, by the hand of my people Israel; and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord Jehovah." Ezekiel 25:12-14
"...Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword, in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end;..." Ezekiel 35:5
"Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity; and his anger did tear continually, and he kept his wrath for ever." Amos 1:11
"Because of violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.
In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away captive his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day of his disaster; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; nor have opened wide thy mouth in the day of distress.Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity, nor have looked, even thou, on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither shouldest thou have laid [hands] on their substance in the day of their calamity;and thou shouldest not have stood on the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape, nor have delivered up those remaining of him in the day of distress.For the day of Jehovah is near upon all the nations: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy recompence shall return upon thine own head.For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually; yea, they shall drink, and shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.But upon mount Zion shall there be deliverance, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble; and they shall kindle in them and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau: for Jehovah hath spoken [it]." Obadiah 10-18
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