Malachi 1:2-5, Yahweh’s Major Contention

If God sent you a message saying, “I love you,” would you receive it? Or would you question it?

² “I have loved you,” says Yahweh. “But you say, ‘How have you loved us?’ “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares Yahweh. “Yet I have loved Jacob, ³ but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

⁴ Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.” But this is what Yahweh Almighty says: “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called the Wicked Land, a people forever under the wrath of Yahweh. ⁵ You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is Yahweh beyond the borders of Israel!’

Despite the fact that Israel is acting abominably toward Yahweh, Yahweh declares His love for His people. He has never stopped loving them. But Israel is questioning this. Here they have been back in the land for nearly a hundred years, but they are still a subject people and not experiencing the thriving they would like to experience. “So God, if You really love us, why aren’t things going better than they are?”

Yahweh humbly gives the proof of His love for His people. They are in their land. When Israel’s ancestor Jacob was born, right after his twin brother Esau, Yahweh had told their mother Rebekah that the older would serve the younger (Genesis 25:23). Yahweh chose Jacob, the younger, over his brother Esau, the older, to carry on the promise given to Abraham and Isaac. In terms of outcome for the two men, Yahweh hated Esau (did not choose him) and loved Jacob. The account of Genesis makes it clear that Esau did receive blessing from Yahweh, and he prospered greatly, becoming a great nation (Edom), so this wasn’t something personal. In fact, Jacob was much less lovable than Esau. But God made Jacob the people of God, his twelve sons forming the twelve tribes of Jacob/Israel.

So here was Israel’s proof of God’s love. God did not give permanence to Esau’s nation (Edom), but had turned them into a wasteland. Even if Esau/Edom tried to rebuild their nation, Yahweh would tear it down. Their wickedness had been great (so had Israel’s) and they deserved to be under Yahweh’s wrath forever, but Israel had been restored from their rebelliousness and would be a nation forever. The fact that they were back in the land when they should have ceased to exist as a nation, was proof of Yahweh’s love for them.

What reason would we have to question God’s love for us? What would be the proof that He does love us?