“God’s goodness and grace repeatedly overrules His fairness.”[1] I read a version of that statement in a commentary on Malachi in preparation for this sermon. The story of Esau and Jacob reveals how true that statement really is. This is also one of the reasons Jacob and Esau are used as an example throughout Scripture in the way their story is used in Malachi to highlight God’s prerogative to love whom He wills.
When God told Abraham that he would bless him, He promised that through his descendants, a child would be born who would bless the nations. To Abraham and Sarah was born Isaac. After Isaac and Rebecca were married, they wanted children together, but for some time Rebekah could not get pregnant; out of desperation Isaac prayed that God would allow his wife to become pregnant, so this is how God answered: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:21–23). God blessed Isaac and Rebekah with Esau and Jacob.
God told Isaac and Rebecca specifically that the child whom God would choose in the same way that He chose Abraham and Isaac would not be the older son, but the younger. When Rachel gave birth to her two babies, we are told: “The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob” (vv. 25-26). Jacob literally means “heel grabber.” Yet, regardless of what God said of Jacob, Isaac favored Esau more while Rebecca favored Jacob; in fact, we are told in Genesis 25:28, “Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.”
The sad thing about the way Isaac and Rebekah treated their sons is that Esau grew up to be a willful, proud, self-centered man who exercised little self-control, while Jacob grew up to be a self-centered deceiver and manipulator. We see Esau’s lack of self-control and the manipulative skill of Jacob in the last paragraph of Genesis 25; one day Esau was hungry and exhausted so he asked Jacob for some of what he was cooking that day: “‘Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!’ (Therefore his name was called Edom.) Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright now.’ Esau said, ‘I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?’ Jacob said, ‘Swear to me now.’ So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright” (Gen. 25:29–34).
Esau cared more about his stomach than he did his identity in Abraham; he was willing to trade in what was eternal for what was temporary—a bowl of stew! Jacob was no better, for he manipulated his brother in a moment of weakness. Jacob’s lying, deceiving, manipulating character reached its climax when he and his mother conspired together to deceive Isaac after he planned to give Esau the blessing of the firstborn, even though God said it would be Jacob who would receive it:
When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.” (Genesis 27:1–4)
After Esau went out as instructed by his father, Rebekah pulled Jacob aside and plotted against both her son and husband by telling Isaac to do the following: “Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” Because Esau was so hairy, Rebekah told Jacob to cover his arms and neck with the skins of the goats so that his nearly blind father would think it was Esau he was blessing (see Gen. 27:5-13).
So, Jacob did as his mother instructed, deceived his father into blessing him while Esau was hunting, and Esau hated his brother for it and even planned to murder Jacob after their father died (see Gen. 27:30-45). Anyone who reads Jacob and Esau’s story will discover that Jacob was a deeply flawed man, and that God’s love of complacency had nothing to do with his moral character.
Why Did God Love Jacob?
What was it that inspired God to choose Jacob over Esau? Was there something about him that God liked more than Esau? Was it because Esau was a man’s man and Jacob wasn’t? Did God look down the corridors of time and see how he would grow tenderhearted towards God or that he would have a wrestling match with Jacob all night because the “heel grabber” wanted God’s blessing more than anything else? Did God choose Jacob over Esau because He thought Esau was too difficult, and that Jacob was easier to work with? The answer is no to all of these questions.
What we know of Jacob’s life is that it would mirror the life of the Hebrew people throughout the ages. When we compare Jacob’s life with what we know of Esau’s, Jacob looks worse morally. Most of Jacob’s life is characterized by a lack of trust and a compulsion to use deception to get what he wanted. Jacob deceived his father and lied to him to his face in order to rob his older brother of what culturally belonged to the firstborn. However, before he lied to his father, he conned Esau into selling him his birthright for a bowl of stew. The birthright was something Jacob wanted all along, although God had told his parents that he was to receive the blessing instead of Esau, he took matters into his own hands to get what was only God’s to give. Jacob would spend a lifetime living with the consequences of his own actions.
What were the consequences of Jacob’s sins? Although he received the blessing from Isaac, he was driven from his home and forced to live in exile away from his family with his uncle Laban because his brother wanted to kill him. One of the reasons Jacob lived with his uncle is because his parents told him to seek a wife from one of his daughters.
When Laban learned that his nephew had come to see him, he “ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house” (Gen. 29:13). Jacob stayed with his uncle for a month and fell in love with Rachel, the younger daughter of Laban (v. 18). Why did Jacob love Rachel? We are told why in Genesis 29:16-18, “Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.”
I am not sure exactly what is meant by Leah’s eyes being weak; some commentators think that she was cross-eyed, others think that they were sunken, baggy, or even bulging. I think that compared to Rachel; Leah was average while Rachel was gorgeous. Laban recognized the difference in his daughters by the names he had given to them; the Hebrew meaning for Leah can mean “wild cow” or “gazelle” while the Hebrew meaning for Rachel is “ewe” or “lamb,” which was more of a term of endearment? Leah was average at best, and Rachel was beautiful; Jacob wanted Rachel and would do anything to have her.
Jacob agreed to work for Laban for seven years in order to have Rachel’s hand in marriage, then when he finished his seven-year commitment to spend a lifetime with what he hoped would be the love of his life, Laban threw a wedding party, and gave Jacob his older daughter Leah when it was dark and her face was veiled. Listen to what happened: “So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her…. When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me” (Gen. 29:22–25, NIV)?
What was Laban’s excuse for deceiving Jacob? This is what he said: “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years” (vv. 26-27). Laban manipulated Jacob to serve another seven years of free labor for Rachel’s hand in marriage. So did the three live happily ever after? Hardly! After only a week of being married to Leah, Rachel was given to Jacob and so we are told: “Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years” (Gen. 29:30, NIV). The deceiving “heel-grabber” was deceived, and for the rest of his life Leah and Rachel would fight for Jacob’s attention. Right after we are told that Jacob received Rachel and loved her more than Leah, we hear the broken heart of Leah in the verses that follow and the two words used in Malachi 1:2-3; listen carefully:
When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, “Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.” She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon. Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi. And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah.” (Genesis 29:31–35)
Isn’t it interesting that Leah used the same word for “love” and “hate” that Malachi used to remind a used-up, beat-up, ragtag Israel that he loved them! Leah would go on to have three more sons, but notice that although Leah was “hated” by her father, her husband, and even her younger sister, God loved her, God saw her, and God blessed her. He didn’t just bless her with children, of the seven biological children she mothered, Levi would become the father of the priestly tribe in Israel and Judah would become the father of the tribe where the line of the kings would come through leading ultimately to Jesus!
But wait, there is more! Malachi specifically addresses the former exiles at the beginning of his book as Israel, but in God’s explanation for how he has loved Israel, Jacob’s birth name is used: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” The question remains unanswered. Why did God love Jacob? The best answer we have is the one that is repeated of God’s redeemed throughout the pages of Holy Scripture; it may not be satisfactory to you, but it will have to do! Here is the answer he gave to Jacob’s descendants… the Twelve Tribes of Israel: “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deut. 7:7–8).
The reason why Malachi uses Jacob’s birth name, in my opinion, is because the exiles were aware of Jacob’s jaded past as a very flawed man. Malachi identifies the exiles whom God preserved through both the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, all with the second name that Yahweh gave to Jacob, which was “Israel.”
How Did God Love Jacob?
Between the day Jacob deceived his father into giving him the birthright and his reunion and reconciliation with Esau was about twenty years. For twenty years, Jacob lived in exile, in fear that Esau would one day kill him. Within those twenty years 14 years were spent as an indentured servant—some may even interpret his years under Laban as a type of slavery. Jacob was deceived into a covenant with Leah he never wanted to be in and robbed of the life he was promised with Rachel.
There are two very significant events in Jacob’s life that will help you feel the weight of Malachi’s words: “I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.” The first event happened just after Jacob was sent into exile where God spoke to him through a dream in the midst of his failure, fear, and loneliness:
And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” (Gen. 28:12–17)
Just before Jacob entered into a difficult 20-year detour from the life he thought he would have as a result of his father’s blessing, God reminded him of something that he would hold close to his heart throughout the years, and that something was the faithfulness of God and the assurance of his promises.
There was no way Jacob could have known that he would be the victim of a master manipulator such as himself for a good part of his 20 years with his uncle. He planned for one wife, but was deceived into marrying the older daughter of Laban who would long for the kind of delight of her husband that her younger sister took for granted. Although Jacob did eventually get the woman he wanted, he would have to live with the dysfunction of his family until the day of his death.
Leading up to his second and most significant encounter with God, He spoke to Jacob and told him to, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you” (31:3), but to do that Jacob would need to break free from his bondage to Laban. The other problem in going back to the land promised to him, Jacob would need to encounter the brother he spent a lifetime hiding from out of fear. After Jacob is freed from the tyranny of his uncle and just before he encounters his brother, Jacob encounters a man while alone and fearful and entered into a wrestling match that lasted all night and into the morning hours (see Gen. 32:22-32).
Jacob would not let the man go unless the man blessed him. The man then asked Jacob: “What is your name?” (v. 27) The “heel-grabber” answered: “I am Jacob.” Here is what happened next:
Then the man said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.” (Gen. 32:28–31)
Jacob wrestled with a man who was also God, and the two things he walked way with is a limp that would forever remind him of the other thing, and that other thing is that he received a new name. The name Jacob received was Israel, which literally means: “He strives with God.” Jacob received a new identity as a result of having a face-to-face encounter with God who appeared to him as man! As a changed man, Israel was able to meet his brother and was reconciled to him.
Conclusion
So, how did God love Jacob? God pursued Jacob, found him, disciplined him, and wounded him deeply for the purpose of using him greatly before he could enter what was promised to him. Sound familiar? Jacob’s story reminds me of something we read in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament:
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? (Heb. 12:3–7)
How did God love Israel? Throughout her history as a nation, her sins that were many and great, and in her exile… God remained faithful to his promises to her, He was with her in the midst of her suffering, and He was sustaining Her through it all. However, Israel did not get away without a limp, but even the limp was evidence that He loved her. Just as Jacob’s exile and suffering was not the end of his story, so Israel’s exile and suffering was not the end of her story.
Esau’s descendants were Edomites. During Israel’s exile and suffering Edom allied themselves with Babylon for the destruction of Jerusalem, but this was not the end of Edom’s story, for her destruction would eventually come. Edom’s comfort and security was only for a season, just as Israel’s suffering and exile was only for a season. Because of the promises of Yahweh and His faithfulness to Israel a redeemer would eventually be born through the tribe of Judah, and redemption would be made available beyond the borders of Israel to all the nations! Just as God proved his love and faithfulness to a heel-grabber like Jacob, he will bless the nations through Israel: “Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, ‘Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”
The promised seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was born to a young teenage girl by the name of Mary, who was a descendant of Abraham. To Mary was given the following promise: “…behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:31–33).
Jesus was born, he then lived a life in perfect obedience to the Law of God, died for our sins on a cross, was buried, and then rose from the grave on the third day. Because of Jesus, the Christian can look beyond the sufferings of this world and claim with the apostle Paul: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18). How can we say that? Because of the truth of Romans 8:28-32,
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Rom. 8:28–32)
Listen, just as it was true of Jacob whose name was changed to Israel. You have been given a new identity that is wrapped up with the same Man who wrestled with Jacob and gave him a limp to remind him of who he was and to whom he belonged. Your name is wrapped up in that Man… the God-Man who is the Lord Jesus Christ! Whatever form you limp comes in, you can claim with absolute confidence what every Christ-redeemed saint has been able to say before you:
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword…. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:33–39)
Amen.
Group Questions:
- Ask your group members to take turns reading Genesis 28:1-10 and have them answer the following questions:
a. What significance do you think there is in the women Jacob and Esau married?
b. Why do you think Isaac told Jacob not to marry from the Canaanite women?
c. Ishmael was Abraham’s firstborn son (see Genesis 25:13), but not the son of promise like Isaac; why do you think Esau decided to marry a daughter from Ishmael’s descendants?
d. Do you find it ironic that Esau, in an effort to gain the approval of his parents, married a descendant of the firstborn son of Abraham that God passed over in favor of Isaac?
- Jacob was sent into exile away from his home, family, and the land promised to him to live with Laban; during his time in exile God visited with Jacob through a dream. Read Genesis 28:10-22 and discuss the following:
a. What parallels do you see with Jacob’s story and the story of Israel in Malachi’s day?
b. Based on what you know of Jacob’s story in the Bible, did God keep his promise to Jacob even though he was once exiled from his home, family, and land due to his own sins against Esau, his father, and ultimately against God?
- Read Genesis 33:1-11. What did Jacob attribute his prosperity to? What did Esau attribute his prosperity to?
- How does the example of God’s love and faithfulness to His promises in Jacob’s life assure Israel in Malachi’s day that their exile would not be the end of their story?
- Read Romans 8:18-39 and discuss the following questions as a group:
a. How do you know that your sufferings are not the end of your story?
b. According to verses 28-30, how do you know that God is working all things (even the bad things) out for your good?
c. Paul states that God, “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all…” (v. 32). According to John 3:16, why did he do that for you?
- What significance does Malachi 1:1-5 have for you as a Christian who is experiencing God’s love of complacency through Jesus Christ?
[1] Iain M. Doguid; Matthew P. Harmon. Reformed Expository Commentary: Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing; 2018), p. 104.
