Loved and Restored

DEVOTION

MALACHI

LOVED AND RESTORED

Mal 1:1-3

1:1 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?'

"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."

NIV

This may prove to be interesting as we do not think we have ever explored the prophets. Having worked through the entire New Testament as well as many of the Old Testament books, we have not looked at the prophets. Although the main theme of this book is the closing history of Israel and how it shows the dark side somewhat, it also shows the great reforms needed to prepare the way to the Messiah. We start out with these words from the Lord, “I have loved you”. This is not a past tense love. How can God have loved, which would mean he no longer loves. No, the word loved is love in the always sense. To think that God once loved us but the love is no longer would be the worst life could ever offer. How can we even live without the love of God? It is true that people can say at one time they love someone and then at a later time say they no longer love that person. We are so imperfect in our ability to love. However, God is perfect in his love, and his love has always been, is now and will always be. What Israel was experiencing regarding love, was their imperfection in loving God, but he always loved them and that proof is in the fact he sent Jesus to Israel as an Israelite. He chooses Israel to reveal His Son to the world, what greater love could he demonstrate to them? Yet, we too experience that kind of great love as God so loved the world He sent His Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Let us not question for on split-second his love for us. We should speak about this phrase Malachi uses in saying that the Lord says that he loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. What the Lord hates is sin, but not his creation, of which Esau is one of His creations. After some investigation into this idea, we have discovered the Hebrew word here is the very same word used about Jacob’s relationship with Leah. Certainly, Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, yet He laid with Leah, she provided him with sons, in fact, his firstborn son. Jacob did not hate Leah, yet it is the same Hebrew word used to describe how he loved her less than Rachel. This is how we need to see how the Lord loved Esau less the Jacob. The Lord even foretold that the older would serve the younger, and Esau was the firstborn and he served his brother, Jacob, in a sense. From a historic record, we know Jacob because Israel and Esau became that nation of Edom. God did demonstrate greater love for Israel over Edom in that he gave Israel his law, the church, temple, and prophets and subjected Edom to them. However, as God hates sin, he subjected both Israel and Edom to being taken over by the Chaldees for punishment. However, he did restore Israel but not Edom. So, the word of the Lord always speaks the truth, but we need to seek that truth out for better understanding. The greatest is in that fact, he loves us and has restored us into a proper relationship with Him through Jesus.