The Greatness of God's Electing Love

By John Piper

Malachi 1:1-5

Israel's Question
When God said in verse 2, "I have loved you, says the Lord," the Israelites respond skeptically, "How hast thou loved us?"

Now test yourselves here. How would you answer that question in your own life? How would you describe God's love to you. Is your life and family in such a shambles that you feel as skeptical about it as the Israelites did? Do you want to say, "How hast thou loved me?"

I don't doubt that there is a little of that in all of us. And so it will do us all good to listen to God's answer which is almost never heard today. How hast thou loved us? Answer: "Is not Esau Jacob's brother? says the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau."

God's Answer

Now what sort of answer is this? The descendants of Jacob have asked, "How hast thou loved us?" How is it an answer to say, "Jacob I loved, Esau I hated"? Isn't that just a repetition of what he already said in the first part of verse 2, "I have loved you, says the Lord"?

No it's not, because of the little question, "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" What does that mean? Why did God ask that? He asked it because he knew that the answer to that question contained the key to the essence of his love.

What is the answer? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? The answer is yes. In fact as every Israelite knew, Esau was not only Jacob's brother, he was his twin brother, conceived in the womb of Rebecca by their father Isaac. Jacob and Esau were not like the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. They had different mothers and one of them wasn't even an Israelitess. But Jacob and Esau were twins. And not only were they twins, Esau was the elder, which means that by all customary rights and privileges he would be the main heir of the father's blessings.

Now what is the point of saying, "Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" The point is this: Based on what you and Esau were in yourselves I could just as easily have chosen Esau as you. Isn't he your brother? Weren't you twins? Isn't he in fact your elder? But I chose you, and passed him by.

What then is God's answer to the question, "How hast thou loved us?" His answer is, I have loved you with free, sovereign, unconditional, electing love; that is how I have loved you.

My love for you is electing love because I chose you for myself above your brother Esau.
My love for you is unconditional love because I chose you before you had done anything good or evil—before you had met any conditions—while you were still in your mother's womb (Genesis 25:24).
My love for you is sovereign love because I was under no constraint to love you; I was not forced or coerced; I was totally in charge when I set my love upon you.
And my love for you is free because it's the overflow of my infinite grace that can never be bought.

Now I ask you, if you are a Christian here today, and if you say to God, "How have you loved me?" can you answer the way God answered the Israelites? Do you look at your sister or brother living in sin and tremble that you have been chosen? And that your election is not because of anything in you? And that your faith and hope are owing wholly to God? Do you look at that childhood friend or college roommate who took a turn away from God when you stayed on the path, and tremble at the awesome thought that God chose you?

Four Aspects of God's Hatred of Esau
But what about Esau?

Probably the most striking thing about this text is that in it God chooses to highlight his love for the descendants of Jacob by contrasting it with his hatred for the descendants of Esau, the nation of Edom.
If we ask, what does God mean by saying (in verse 3), "Esau I hated," the answer is spelled out for us in some detail in verses 3 and 4:
I have hated Esau; I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert. If Edom says, We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins, the Lord of hosts says, They may build, but I will tear down, till they are called the wicked country, the people with whom the Lord is angry for ever.
Notice four aspects to God's hate of Esau.

1. God Opposes Them
First, it means that God opposes their prosperity and brings their land under judgment. "I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert."

2. God Will Continue to Oppose Them
Second, it means that God will continue to oppose them when they resist his judgment. His judgment will not suffer resistance. Verse 4: "If Edom says, We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins, the Lord of hosts says, They may build, but I will tear down."

3. They Will Be Given Up to Wickedness
Third, God's hate for Esau means that they will by and large as a nation be given up to wickedness. Verse 4b: " . . . till they are called the wicked country." This is the most devastating of the judgments and the one that makes all the others just. God does not bring judgments on an innocent people. He is just in all his dealings. When he passed over Esau and chose Jacob, there was no decree that an innocent Esau would be judged. Rather what God decreed was to pass Esau by, to withhold his electing love and to give him up to wickedness.
Now there is great mystery here, and I do not claim to solve all the problems that our little minds can think up. There is much we are not yet ready to know. We see through a glass darkly. But this much we are surely to believe: God did not choose the descendants of Esau; rather he passed over them and withheld his electing love; as a result Esau gave rein to wickedness and deserved the indignation of God. Which leads to the fourth aspect of God's hate.

4. God Will Be Angry with Them Forever
Fourth, at the end of verse 4 it means that the Lord is angry, or indignant with them forever.
Why Does God Inspire Malachi to Open This Way?
Why does God inspire Malachi to begin his message to these worldly Israelites, and to us, with such a revelation as this? "I have loved you, says the Lord. How have you loved us? Is not Esau Jacob's brother? Yet I have loved you and hated Esau. How have I loved you? I have loved you with free, sovereign, unconditional, electing love."

That He May Be Feared
"Why do I tell you this?"
To humble you.
To take away your presumption.
To remove every ground of boasting in yourself.
To cut the nerve of pride that boasts over Esau as though your salvation were owing to anything in you.
To put to naught the cavalier sense of self-reliance that lets you dally in my presence as though you were an equal partner in this affair.
To make you tremble with tears of joy that you belong to God.
As the psalmist says, "There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared!" (Psalm 130:4).

That We May Know He Reigns Over the Whole World
But that is not all. God has another purpose in revealing the greatness of his electing love for Jacob and his judgment upon Esau. He tells us in verse 5:
Your own eyes shall see this [you shall see the terrible judgments on Edom] and you shall say, 'Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!'
In other words, part of what it means to be loved by God is to know that God reigns—that he is great and mighty—even beyond the people called by his name. He reigns in Edom. His purposes are not ultimately frustrated by the wickedness of any people. "Great is the Lord, beyond the border of Israel!" Yes, even in Edom—in Albania.
So let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Let us give him the glory—all the glory—for our salvation. And let us never grow weary in savoring and strengthening and spreading the vision of our God, for "Great is the Lord beyond the walls of this church!"