First Tuesday in Advent

A Love/Hate Relationship

Remember Sarah and Abraham, that elderly couple who bought Pampers and Depends in the same season of their lives? Well, Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac had two sons—Jacob and Esau. And Esau’s descendants came to be called “Edomites.” And the Edomites were those relatives who became Israel’s enemies.

 In the conversation between God and Israel recorded in Malachi 1:2–5, we read, “‘Esau was Jacob’s brother,’ the Lord explains, ‘yet I chose Jacob and rejected Esau.’” More literally, Malachi quotes God using a Hebrew idiom (“Jacob I have loved; Esau I have hated”). The contrasts of “love” and “hate” are perhaps better understood in English as “loved” and “loved less.” Or “chosen” and “not chosen.” Think of selecting a puppy (loving) from a pet store and by default not choosing (not loving) the others. The passion for the one “loved more” makes the one “loved less” appear hated in comparison. We see a New Testament example of this kind of thinking where we read that anyone who does not hate his or her relatives and love Christ is unworthy (Luke 14:26). The idea is not that God wants us to hate people (we are, after all, called to love even our enemies). Rather, it’s about the intensity and demonstration of love. The idea here is that God has shown love to Israel by continuing to reject their enemies and foil Edom’s plans. 

It happens all the time in elementary school gym class: the least desirable kids get picked last. Yet in God’s upside-down economy, he often picks the least likely people first. God said that he chose Jacob instead of Esau (1:2). And to us such a statement about a younger brother being exalted over an older one may not raise an eyebrow, but in the ancient Near East choosing the younger over the older brother would have made people’s jaws drop. Such a choice went against the tradition of primogeniture (“first birth”), the custom which granted the firstborn male the right to inherit the entire estate. It would be like handing Harry the British throne instead of William. God loves to turn upside down the world’s way of doing things. So, he tends to pick the least-expected people first. Centuries later, the apostle Paul will explain that God does this so that no one can boast in his or her own merits, but rather in him alone (1 Cor. 1:26–31).   

 In Malachi, the ones whom God loves, the Israelites, doubt God’s love because they have spent seventy years in captivity. And although God has continued to grant them his undeserved favor, even miraculously returning them to their homeland, they have continued to focus on the time they spent in captivity.

 What has the Lord done for you that gives you reason to believe he will continue to show you love and faithfulness? Remember and meditate on those acts of faithfulness with gratitude. Let them build a confident hope that he will continue to care for you in the future, just as remembering the first coming of Christ gives us hope for his return.   —Sandra Glahn

Prayer:

Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Thy glory above all the earth. By Thy ascension, O Lord, draw us too after Thee, that we savor of what is above, not of things on the earth. By the marvelous mystery of the holy Body and precious Blood, on the evening of this day, Lord, have mercy. –Lancelot Andrewes, 16th century   

He will come again in glory

to judge the living and the dead

And his kingdom will have no end.

Photo credit: Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash