JACOB I HAVE LOVED, BUT ESAU I HAVE HATED

The statement God made concerning Jacob and Esau (Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated) occurs twice in the Bible, once in the Old Testament (Malachi 1) and once in the New Testament (Romans 9). I saw a "debate" on a friend's FB page where he was defending the teaching that God actually hated Esau. Those who disagreed were saying it wasn't really hate, but just "preferred" Jacob over Esau.

"Preferred" is like someone offering me the choice between Strawberry jam over Pineapple preserves to go on my toast or biscuit. I LIKE both of them, but I PREFER the Pineapple over the Strawberry. Or between honey and apple butter. I like them both, but I prefer honey. In the Hebrew translation, the word "hate" is sane (SAW-nay) and it doesn't mean "preferred", it means "hate, hateful, to hate an enemy". In Greek, the word "hate" is miseo (mis-eh'-o) and it means "to hate, pursue with hatred, to detest". If I detest something, I'm going to avoid it. In Malachi 1:2-3, it reads, "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.” The Book of Obadiah is just one chapter, and that entire chapter is the story of how God wiped the Edomites (Esau's people) off the face of the earth because of how they treated Israel. Do you think the events in the Book of Obadiah and the verses in Malachi 1 are the actions of someone who just PREFERRED one group over another?? Why would God totally destroy one group if He didn't hate them? The Edomites were God's enemies because they were Israel's enemies. God's election of Jacob was due to His CHOICE, not because of anything Jacob and Esau did because He revealed His choice of Jacob before the twins were born as it says in Genesis when He said the older will serve the younger. There are some hard things in the Bible, but people who dislike the doctrine of election go around and say, "Oh, that's not what God really meant," and they do all kinds of grammatical gymnastics to twist what Scripture says to make it say what THEY prefer it to say. Stop trying to change God's Word just because you're afraid of hurting people's feelings or offending them because God isn't afraid of offending anyone. He's not afraid of hurting anyone's feelings. He's Sovereign LORD and if you have to make excuses for what God meant in His Word, it's you who are offended by God's Word. True biblical study involves looking up the Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek texts since that's what the original Scriptures were written in. We can't interpret Scripture based on the English language when there are some words in the original languages that have no English equivalent. If you want a great resource for looking up Bible verses and having them in the English and Hebrew/Greek side by side, go to Blue Letter Bible and do word studies there. You can get a much better understanding of what a text means when you can look up the definitions in the original languages.