WHY GOD HATED ESAU
Romans 9:13
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
This has got to be one of the most difficult verses in the Bible. This verse seems to totally contradict the very nature of God.
There's a book called, 'The hard sayings of Jesus' and also one called, 'The Difficult Sayings of Jesus'. Well, if I was looking for 'hard or difficult sayings of the Bible' surely this one would have to be included. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Love just seems to primarily be the theme of the life of Christ.
1 John 4:8
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
1 John 4:16
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
God's very nature is described as LOVE.
The reason Jesus Christ was born is because of God's love for mankind.
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
He loved us when we were unloveable.
He loved us when we were still sinners.
1 John 4:19
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
1 John 3:16
16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us
To the ones whom ask, "How do you know God loves you"?
Do you have any proof of His love?
I point you to a hill called Calvary and say, because of this, I KNOW God loves me?
If there isn't anything else we can look at to see His love manifest, look at Calvary.
Look at the cross
See him hanging there beaten, bleeding from every orifice of His body, yet pleading for our forgiveness.
That's LOVE!
He first loved me, not in word only but also in deed.
He showed me love so in return I should show Him love.
The love of God is limitless.
God loves and loves and loves and when people stop loving, God continues to love even more.
Jeremiah 31:3
3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
An everlasting love - indefinite or unending future, eternity.
That's a long time and that's a lot of love.
I don't deserve it, but I'm thankful He extends it to me.
Then amidst all this we have said about The Love of God, we find these startling words, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
What hard words to grasp.
What a hard verse to even imagine being in the Bible.
Why would God love one and not the other?
We know that, God is no respecter of persons, but never forget, God is a respecter of principles.
He proves to the church that this gospel is for whosoever will in Acts 10.
Acts 10:34-35
34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
God doesn't have favorites.
God doesn't choose one person over another person.
If we are chosen or rejected of God it's because of our choices.
In Acts 10 Peter has been called to preached to Cornelius.
Cornelius tells him about the angel that appeared to him while in prayer telling him to send for Peter.
Peter has had a vision on the roof top as these men are coming for him and now everything is starting to make sense to him.
He has the revelation that it isn't about your natural blood which flows through your veins but rather the love for God that flows through your being.
If you love God and have a heart for Him then you will be accepted of Him.
So HOW CAN and WHY WOULD this God whom is so NONDISCRIMINATORY say that he LOVES one yet HATES another?
Let's compare and contrast the 2 and see if we can understand this a little better.
Both are children of Jacob and grandchildren of Abraham.
One would almost automatically assume that both would have Abrahamic Covenant Rights.
Yet only one walks in the covenant of Abraham.
Esau is the first born and by virtue of being the first born he has certain rights.
He is the receiver of the birthright.
He gets a double portion of the inheritance.
But also, the one with the Birthright, was put in the line of the spiritual patriarchs of the family.
Esau’s birthright, however, meant more than an ordinary first-born son’s privilege. He was in a unique position, He was born to an inheritance which all the world’s wealth would not buy.
To be part of the patriarchs, Abraham and Isaac
to be the recipient of great and precious promises
to be the founder of a holy nation
to be the minister of a covenant by which all the families of the earth were to be blessed—this was within his reach.
But Esau despised the birthright.
He seen it as worthless.
Everything we listed could've been his because of the birthright but he seen it as something worthless.
So he sold it for a bowl of beans.
In forfeiting his birthright to his younger brother, Esau gave up 3 things I want to focus on
1. The right of priesthood inherent in the eldest line of the patriarch’s family;
2. The promise of the inheritance of the Holy Land;
3. The promise that in his race and of his blood Messiah should be born.
Esau parted with all this because, “He did not see the good of it all.”
He even asked, “What good shall this birthright do me?”
What Esau couldn't or didn't realize is this, The birthright was Esau’s by God’s gift, not by his own merit.
It symbolized eternal blessing.
He traded eternal blessing for temporary satisfaction.
Esau was only concerned with what satisfied him, right now. He never wanted Spiritual things.
Esau’s rejection of the unseen and intangible (spiritual things), for the sake of immediate self-gratification, is largely a symbol of humanity today.
We get so consumed with what our flesh wants and what makes our flesh happy that we forget all of this which we see here is temporary.
Nothing here is eternal!
Esau would again one day be hungry, no matter how large or how good the bowl of beans were.
But he's clouded in his mind by his present condition.
Genesis 25:29-34
29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:
30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
I know what it is to work outside in the heat and feel the energy drained form you.
To come home so hungry that waiting even 5 minutes on some food feels like an eternity.
But to be in that condition and sell your spiritual blessing just isn't worth it!
Esau was so consumed with fulfilling his fleshly desires that he willingly sacrificed his spiritual inheritance for what would satisfy right now.
The gratifying of the sensual appetite is what has left thousands of lives in ruins.
Sensual simply means - Pertaining to the senses, being devoted to the gratification of our own pleasures.
Jude speaks of a people who are sensual, not having the Spirit.
They are people consumed with the fulfillment of self.
Hear me today, God hated Esau not because he wanted a bowl of beans but because he despised spiritual things.
God loved Jacob not because Jacob was so holy and righteous but rather because there was something in Jacob that wanted God.
Jacob became a patriarch instead of Esau because he had a desire for those spiritual things.
He didn't always get it right but He always knew where to turn, he always turned to the God of his fathers.
Something in him always brought him back to Jehovah.
I've come to preach to some people in this house that it's time to check and see where your motives are.
What consumes you?
2 Peter tells us that we have some EXCEEDING GREAT and PRECIOUS promises.
But we can sacrifice them if we aren't mindful of them.
God hated Esau simply because Esau loved carnal thing more than spiritual things.
What are we wrapped up in?
God is calling for a people who will be consumed with what fulfills His will and not there will.
Child of God, you are called to be different.
You have a dual citizenship.
As Flesh you're a citizen of this Earth but the Eternal part of you is a citizen of an unseen realm.
Romans 8:5-8
5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
I know that this is different than normal for my preaching but God is reaching for someone to check and see what consumes us, take inventory of our lives.
Are we so filled with sensual pleasure that we've nearly silenced the voice of the Spirit inside of us?
Are we so consumed with things and pleasures that the things of the spirit are neglected in our lives?
Paul said that if we are carnally minded or to constantly thinking of things that gratify the flesh is death, a spiritual disconnection.
No wonder Paul said, "I die daily" 1 Corinthians 15:31
I must daily put to death the old man.
I must daily conquer the desires of this flesh.
YOUR CAR WILL NEVER LEARN TO DRIVE NOR WILL YOUR FLESH EVER LEARN TO LIVE HOLY.
Galatians 5:16-21
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
God is wanting to transform you.
You've struggled with secret sin
You've wrestled with the desires of your flesh.
How long will you allow the flesh to rule?
How long will you allow the old man to be in control?
I'm preaching to saints of God with calls and anointing in their lives yet you've filled yourself with things of this life.
It may not be sinful things but it's things that keep you from fulfilling the calling and destiny of God on your life.
Your carnal desires have been first.
The fulfillment of your will have been the forefront of your motives.
God is calling looking today for people upon whom He can bestow birthright privileges on but we are selling it for our own pleasures.
There's power for you
There's anointing for you
There's a ministry for you
There's a God ordained destiny waiting on you.
Don't be so filled with what you want that you can't sacrifice your desire for His!
Abraham is given a son, a son of promise no doubt.
God asks him to sacrifice Isaac.
Abraham takes him and they go 3 days journey before he sees the place God is leading him.
When he sees it, he leaves the stuff and the servants to go to the top of the mountain to sacrifice his son.
He gets the altar built and Isaac laid on the altar.
He's about to do what God asked him to do.
Why would God do this? Well he tells us the answer.
Genesis 22:10-14
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
In other words, Abraham, I now know you love the GIVER more than the gift GIVEN.
Abraham loved the eternal more than the temporal, Esau loved the temporal more than the eternal.
Which are you today?
Are you more concerned with
your will
Your way
Your desires
Your ambitions
Or are you ready to turn loose of those things for what He desires and what He wants?
TAKE THIS WHOLE WORLD BUT GIVE ME JESUS!
I HAVE DECIDED TO FOLLOE JESUS, NO TURNING BACK, NO TURNING BACK!
