God's Work with Planet Earth

How differently these two sons of Isaac, Jacob and Esau, turned out! These were the grandsons of Abraham, who God made promises to about an inheritance of land and descendants. One thing that throws people when they only read one verse is the impression that God hated and cursed Esau, and that Esau was treated unfairly by God.

Backstory

But before we take a close look into that, we should cover some background. In Genesis 25, Rebekah, was barren and Isaac pleaded to God for her to be able to conceive. God heard Isaac’s prayer and Rebekah had twins. But even in the womb, they were fighting. Rebekah was seriously concerned because she could feel it.

“But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.

And the Lord said to her: “Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.” Genesis 25:22-23

When they were born, Esau came out first, and so even though they were twins, he was considered to be the eldest. In their culture, this meant he would take Isaac’s place as head of the family. The twin boys grew up and developed different interests, just as Abel and Cain did (verse 27). Esau was a hunter and a man of the wilds, while Jacob was more interested in taking care of domestic animals and staying closer to home.

Esau came back from venturing into the wild lands very hungry. Jacob was cooking a stew. Esau wanted Jacob’s stew, so Jacob proposed to Esau that he give his birthright (to lead the family) to Jacob in exchange for the food. Esau appears to be rather flippant about it and agreed. Verse 34 says “Esau despised his birthright”, meaning he didn’t really care about it.

“Helping” God keep His promise

Time passed and things happened in the meantime in chapter 26, and then in chapter 27, Jacob, convinced by his mother, Rebekah, deceived his blind father Isaac into believing that he was Esau, by wearing Esau’s clothes and putting hairy skin on his hands and forearms (Esau was very hairy from birth). As a result, Isaac gave Jacob the birthright blessing, which was from God, through the father, to the son.

Evidently, this blessing could not be taken back or transferred, once given. Because when Esau came back, Isaac could not give him the same blessing he had been tricked into giving Jacob.

Remember that Abraham, persuaded by Sarah, took Hagar her servant to help God keep His promise of an heir, which gave rise to a 4,000 year blood feud between Arabs and Israelites. Now Rebekah, even though God already told her the older would serve the younger, persuaded her son Jacob to gain the birthright through deception, in an effort to ensure God could keep that promise. Humans jumping ahead of God. And all the trouble that resulted!

The Fallout

First of all, God already knew what Jacob and Esau would do before they were born. He made predictions about the long term outcome of these two tribes/nations, not because He approved of deception or the actions of either of them, but because He was working through and around those actions to accomplish His purpose and keep His promises.

But despite the blessing Jacob had received from his father, Isaac, his brother Esau vowed to kill him. As a result Jacob had to flee back to Haran, where Abraham had lived after leaving Ur, and where Rebekah’s brother Laban’s family lived. Haran is in modern Turkey, close to the Syrian border. So Jacob had to leave the family he was supposed to lead.

Not only that, but as Jacob deceived his own father, his uncle Laban tricked Jacob into marrying his daughter Leah, instead of Rachel, who Jacob loved and had been promised. This was Laban’s scheme to keep Jacob working for him longer, because he recognized that God blessed everything Jacob did. Jacob worked 7 years for the Rachel, married Leah, then worked another 7 years (total of 14) for Rachel. We suffer the consequences when we make mistakes, but God can still bring something good out if it. Romans 8:28

Esau and Edomites

Between selling his birthright to Jacob, and Jacob gaining that birthright by deception from their father Isaac, Esau married two Hittite women.

“When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.” Genesis 26:34-35

“Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.” Genesis 28:8-9

This was how the Edomites began as a tribe and a nation. You can read about Esau’s descendants in Genesis 36. They lived in the mountain range between the southern tip of the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. God said He gave Esau this land.

“To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave the mountains of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.” Joshua 24:4

400 years later, God delivered Jacob’s descendants from the Egyptians who had enslaved them. And when they wanted to pass through Edomite land to get back to Canaan, the Edomites showed up in force and blocked them. Because Jacob and Esau were brothers, the Israelites looked for another way and did not fight them. (Numbers 20, Deuteronomy 23:7)

After the 12 tribes of Israel settled in Canaan, the only times they had peace with the Edomites, Amalekites, and Idumeans (Esau’s descendants) was after these nations had attacked them and been subdued or brought under control (as in David’s time, 2 Samuel 8:14).

When Saul, Israel’s first king, turned evil and commanded his men to the kill the all priests of God after Ahimelech helped David, his own men refused to harm the priests. When he ordered Doeg the Edomite to kill them, Doeg killed not only 85 priests, but their families, women and children, as well. (1 Samuel 22:16-19)

Generations later, when Judah became so wicked that God allowed the Babylonians to conquer Jerusalem, the Edomites joined in the attack and plunder of the city and surrounding land. They even rejoiced and celebrated Israel’s last tribes being taken to Babylon. (Obadiah 1)

Another 500 years go by, and King Herod, an Idumean (descendant of Esau) killed all the babies under two years old in Bethlehem in an attempt to stop Jesus from becoming King of the Jews. This is a demonically inspired act, in which humans are prompted to protect selfish interests at all costs, even with the slaughter of innocents.

God’s Response to Edom’s actions

Because of this, God said that Edom would be destroyed. (Ezekiel 25 and 35), and here are the reasons He gave:

“Thus says the Lord God: “Because of what Edom did against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and has greatly offended by avenging itself on them,” therefore thus says the Lord God: “I will also stretch out My hand against Edom, cut off man and beast from it, and make it desolate from Teman;” Ezekiel 25:12-13

“Because you have had an ancient hatred, and have shed the blood of the children of Israel by the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, when their iniquity came to an end,” Ezekiel 35:5

And today if you go to the area south of the Dead Sea, around the areas of Petra and Paran (the center of ancient Edom), you’ll see that it is desolate and relatively uninhabited, compared to areas around Amman and Jerusalem.

To bring us back to the original question, what did God mean in Malachi 1:2-3 (which Paul quoted in Romans 9:13), by saying “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated”? Did He hate Esau the man? Or did He condemn the actions of Esau and the Edomites throughout their history?

But really, the point in Malachi 1 is that God blessed and cared for Jacob’s descendants, even when they fell into idolatry and did wicked things. Abraham’s descendants were very stubborn and corrupt at times, but God still worked in spite of this to keep the promises He made to Abraham, to bless all the nations and families of the world through them.