Malachi
“I have loved you,” says the LORD.“Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated.” Malachi 1:2-3
The prophecy the Lord spoke through Malachi was the last message for His people until the coming of the promised Messiah. Malachi wrote about four hundred years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The people in that interim were much like you and me today, who await the unknown day of the Messiah’s second advent.
Much of the Lord’s message for us in Malachi has to do with love. Sadly, most of it involves the lack of love shown by sinful man toward the God whose love remains steadfast throughout all generations.
It is all too common for people to question God’s love. “If God is so loving, then why . . .” Why do I suffer? Why do other people suffer? Or, as a reader of Malachi might ask, “If God is so loving, how can He say He hated Esau, but loved Jacob?” Does God love only certain people?
Two things can be true at the same time: God is love, and He shows His grace and mercy to all people. God is also righteous and holy. He hates sin and punishes sinners. What He really hates is when people who have known and experienced His love (like Esau and Satan) spurn that love and turn away from Him. Those who refuse God’s love deserve His wrath.
Yet the Lord of love shows His love in an amazing way. Though some returned His love and some rejected it, Christ died for all. Jesus died to forgive even the sins of those who hated Him. That is the way He has loved us. As you wait for your Savior’s return, do not let your love grow cold. Bask in the love of your Lord. Make that love known to those for whom He died to save.
Come, Lord Jesus, and forgive the hatred we have shown to You and others. Come, Lord Jesus, and fill our hearts with Your love so we are prepared to meet You. Amen.