As we read the Bible, there are moments when we read a verse and not totally understand it. One of these difficult verses is found in Romans 9:13, it reads “Just as it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’”Before we tackle this question, remember this was written in around 557-525 B.C., thousands of years after Jacob and Esau were born. Was God saying that before Esau was born, He disliked Esau? No God actually showed love to Esau in many ways. As we read the Bible, we must remember that it was not written in English like we know. The translators are doing their best to communicate the words of the original authors.
It is important to ask some questions. First, is this love and hate as we typically think of it? Or is this love and hate in another way? Jesus spoke in Luke 14:26 saying, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not [n]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.” The NASB has a footnote which says, “by comparison for his love for me.” Jesus’ great two commands are to love God and love others as we love ourselves. So we are not called to hate anyone. This is used as an illustration for us to understand that we are to love God the most.
Genesis 29:31 tells us, “And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, H8130 he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.” (KJV). The NASB translates this word for hated as, “unloved”. The next Scripture reads, “So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with [i]Laban for another seven years.” (Genesis 29:31). This passage in Genesis uses the same word for hate that Romans uses because Romans is quoting the Hebrew book of Malachi. Pastor Mike Winger brings this us by saying, “This is not saying that Jacob despised and hated in the sense that he wanted to ruin her life and mess her up in every possible case. This was simply a selection of one over the other. In the modern English language, we do not use love and hate in the same way that they may have used it during this time.”
Remember Jesus died for the descendants of Esau. He loves them. If you are a descendant of Esau, God does not hate you. He loves you. In fact, through Christ we are all now chosen to be saved. Romans 9:25-26 tells us, “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”What is Paul’s conclusion? His point was that the Gentiles who were chosen also for salvation. Paul wants us to know that God can choose whom he wants. If he wants all to be saved, that is His heart. Not everyone will be saved, but that is the heart of God.
Why does it say that God loved Jacob and Hated Esau? Our use of the word hated can mean something different than what the author intended. It could be better to translate the phrase; God choose Jacob and did not choose Esau. It also shows us that God is going to what He wants. He can choose whom He wants to choose, and He can love whom He loves. What is Paul’s conclusion? God loved the Gentiles. Thankfully He loves us all. Did God choose some to be saved and others to be condemned? No, God, “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4). God choose Jacob to bring the savior of the world, into this world and show God’s ultimate love to all creation, including the descendants of Esau.
God’s sovereignty does’nt cancel our rsponsibility to receive God’s gift of eternal life, in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ
That’s right!
The predestination, and the free will of man, are reconciled in the cross. God offers free salvation to all who come by way of the cross.
Amen!
Your explanation was very goods , Because you had kept all explanation with the word. Thanks for the understanding of Romans 9:13 and the word HATE.
i stated in ignorance that my favorite men are Jews: Matthew, Mark, Peter, John, and the rest of the Apostles and disciples. No, although some might have been Ioudaios Judeans, those men they are Israelites. I really grasped this as I am reading this: https://truth-over-tradition.com/2020/10/01/the-fundamental-flaw-in-dispensational-theology/
Also, i used the term “Jews” when I should have also said “the Jews and Israelites” in the explanation as to why the rabbis deflated 1,250 years from their Scripture; they did control it, but not the Peoples Bible which the Christians kept; the Eastern still but the Westerns being permanently deprived of it since the Middle ages due to Jews beginning to infiltrate the Western Church in the West’s Dark Age aided by the centralized power of office of the Pope.
You won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t post my comments/replies or remove any or all of them or would like to use parts of them and edit them. What i care about is you being helped by my sharing of Truth.
Dear Caleb, i retract my statement : “My favorite men are Jews: Matthew, Mark, Peter, John, and the rest of the Apostles and disciples.” because it was said in ignorance, those men are Israelites. The word “Jew” is an invention to obfuscate the Greek word which translates as “Judean.”
i relearned this and much more in : https://truth-over-tradition.com/2020/10/01/the-fundamental-flaw-in-dispensational-theology/
a great write-up on the subject, read : Jews Admit They Are NOT Israelites https://truth-over-tradition.com/2020/03/06/jews-admit-they-are-not-israelites/
The Master says: Be ye wise as serpents and harmless ad doves.
Think: who did He call serpents? And how learned they are. Truth is often also the not apparent and secret(s).
God Bless.
Esau is called Edom in Genesis 36:8.
“Just as it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” Romans 9:13
After reading the below, read Obadiah, it’s only 21 verses and mostly about the destiny of Edom.
“from then on [Edomites] constituted a part of the Jewish people, Herod being one of their descendants”, The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, 1966 Doubleday & Company, Inc , Garden City, New York, Pg. 592.
“EDOM IS IN MODERN JEWRY.” The Jewish Ency. 1925 Ed., Vol. 5, Pg. 41.
‘the [non-Israelite] Edomites became a section of the Jewish people. “EDOM,” Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem, Israel: Encyclopaedia Judaica Company, 1971) Vol. 6, p. 378
“They [the non-Israelite Edomites] were then incorporated with the Jewish nation…. “EDOM, IDUMEA,” The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York & London: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1904) Vol. V, p. 41
“ … from then on they [the non-Israelite Edomites] constituted a part of the Jewish people, Herod [King of Judea] being one of their descendants. “EDOM (Idumea),” The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977) p. 589
“ … they [the Edomites] were hereafter no other than [non-Israelite] Jews.” Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews (Grand Rapids, MI: Dregel Publications, 1960) Book XIII, Chapter IX, Verse 1, p. 279
These are who are known and identified as International Jewry today who also carry the Nephilim seed line also:
Ezra 9:1 Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.
Hello Ted thanks for commenting! What are your thoughts on that.