We already addressed whether this verse refers to Jacob and Esau as individuals or as representatives of their respective nations (Israelites and Edomites). This post will address the word ‘hate’ in Romans 9:13: As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
This Greek word that all the major Bible translations render as ‘hate’ carries the idea of preference. In other words, it communicates that the object is preferred less than someone else. So in this case, it might mean that God loved Jacob in some way more than Esau, rather than that God had animosity toward Esau.
This makes sense in light of Jesus’ use of the word in Luke 14:26: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” What is Jesus demanding here? That his disciples must project emotional disgust toward their closest family? No, they must love Jesus more than their family. This is confirmed by the parallel account in Matthew 10:37: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” For another example, read Luke 16:13.
So Romans 9:13 doesn’t mean that God hated Esau in the emotional sense that we often use the word ‘hate’. It means that God chose to pour his love on Jacob in a way that he did not choose for Esau. But what does that mean practically? The verse is a quote from Malachi 1:2-5, in which God says to Israel:
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. 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, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’” Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”
The preferential idea is there, but also some specific ways in which it works itself out for Esau:
1. God laid waste his hill country
2. God left his heritage to jackals
3. God is committed to tear down what they try to rebuild
The result of God’s hatred toward Esau is that his nation would always be known as “the wicked country” and “the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.”
I want so badly to interpret Romans 9:13 this way: God loved both Jacob and Esau, but he chose to love Jacob in a special way that Esau did not experience. But there is obviously more to it than that. He wasn’t neutral toward Esau/Edom, loving him and the nation that would come from him in the same way he loves all people. God set himself against them.
In the context of Romans 9, verse 13 reinforces Paul’s big idea that God exercises his unrestricted sovereignty through choices about who receives mercy and who is hardened, who is chosen and who is rejected, who is saved and who is not. God is God.
But how can this be? What about our choices? Paul addresses this question in Romans 9:19-26, the passage we’ll begin to study this Sunday.
(What are your thoughts on all of this? I’m certain that many questions and concerns will continue to bubble to the surface as we stay on this burner. Share them in the comments section. We’re working all this out together.)
