Matins Devotion: September 25, 2024

Malachi 1

When God tells His people through the prophet Malachi, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated,” He’s not really speaking about the individual sons of Isaac, but of the nations that those men’s offspring have become. God passed over Esau, the firstborn, and would not permit him to be the father of the Messiah. And so his descendents, the Edomites, would fall away from the one true God. God chose Jacob to be the father of the Messiah and from Jacob came the Israelites, the Jews. And out of love for His people, God poured out hatred upon the Edomites. He crushed them so that they would no longer afflict His people, so that the plan of salvation could be brought about. God’s hatred of Esau, of the Edomite nation, therefore, was not so much a condition of His heart but a tool He used to manifest His will of loving Jacob’s descendents.

But in return, the nation of Jacob’s sons hated their God, the God of their father who was their Father. They offered him polluted food upon His altar. They offered Him blind animals as sacrifices instead of pure ones. They would not offer pure, spotless animals as the Law of Moses commanded. And in all of this, they revealed that they had lost faith in the promise of God’s love, in His promise to send His sinless, spotless Son who would be the true Passover Lamb, the Lamb who would take away the sin of the world. 

But the Lord’s name would be feared among the nations. And to show that His name was worthy to be feared, and worthy of praise, God would pour out His love upon the nations. He would send His Lamb to forgive the sins of those offering worthless sacrifices, to forgive the sons of Jacob who despised Him. That same Lamb, through the same blood, would forgive the sins of Esau’s sons. That blood would wash them clean, and grant them the right to be grafted back into their uncle’s tree. That same blood would wash over those of every nation, everyone torn apart by the wrath of God, all of us in every nation ripped to pieces because we refused to know the peace of God. And that same blood has washed over you, healed your blindness, cured your pollution, and welcomed you into the family of God.

Jacob God loved. Esau He hated. But now His love of Jacob extends to Esau, to all who were outside of His arms. Through the blood of Christ, He has brought them near and given all the right to rest in His hands forever.