Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 6th, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill
City and Custer, SD
Jacob I Loved, but Esau I Hated:
Good News, for You!
Today we have heard and get to ponder what I am sure is a favorite passage of Scripture for many of you. “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
What? You don’t like “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”? Were you thinking perhaps I was going to say: "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Yes, that’s a great verse, wonderful, free, life-giving food and drink, from the Lord’s hand to our our hungry mouths and souls.
Or, maybe you really like this promise from the LORD: Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. I can listen to those words all day, especially that last bit that names names.
Or, perhaps the Word of God which made your heart sing this morning is the feeding of the 5,000. The disciples suggest it’s time to send the crowds on their way, but Jesus says: "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." That’s crazy, of course, because they “have only five loaves … and two fish." But Jesus takes over and says, "Bring them here to me... Then He ordered the crowds to sit, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing, that is He gave thanks, and then He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples. That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Almost like a dress rehearsal for another dinner, an even greater meal to come. But back to our text; the joyful miracle that day was that they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. I can certainly see how that might be your favorite bit of God’s Word before us this morning.
But maybe you’re not so comfortable with “Jacob I loved, but Esau, I hated.” And I get it; that doesn’t seem very “Gospel-y.” Where’s the good news in “Jacob I loved, but Esau, I hated”? We rightly recoil from the word “hate.” Perhaps, because we have felt the hate of others. Being hated is bad, almost as bad as being loved is good. Or, perhaps we have ourselves struggled with hatred for others. There is nothing more caustic to the soul than to hate a fellow human being.
Christians will have enemies, and there are
proper and right ways for us to resist and oppose people who seek to harm us or
our loved ones. But, we ask God to help
us not to hate. Indeed, because of what
Christ has done for us, we even pray for our enemies, that the Holy Spirit
would turn their hearts, to convert them with His love.
The word ‘hate’ throws us off. Then there is another problem with this verse: “Jacob I loved, but Esau, I hated.” You see, some Christians start with this text to establish their notion that in matters of salvation, God arbitrarily chooses for some people, e.g. Jacob, and arbitrarily chooses against other people, e.g. Esau. That’s mistaken, and a terribly dark spiritual turn to take, which can lead one down the road to doubt and despair. Because if the Lord God is willy-nilly choosing against some people, how do I really know if He has chosen for me?
Thankfully, this is not what Paul is teaching us with this text. Now, our Epistle reading from Romans chapter 9 is certainly heart-wrenching, dealing as it does with the sad fact that people very dear to us may cut themselves off from Christ. This is what the unbelieving Jews had done, those of Paul’s own people who rejected Christ and His Gospel. We all could share similar examples from our own lives, of people we love who reject Jesus. This is a difficult burden for Christians, and a reason for our constant prayer, and for patient love and witness to these folks.
But, with the sentence: “Jacob I loved, but Esau, I hated,” Paul actually means to encourage us with the good news that our election, God’s choosing of us for salvation, does not depend on our works, but rather on His call. That is to say, your salvation does not depend on you and the goodness of your works, but rather salvation depends solely on God’s gracious Word of forgiveness and salvation, the free reconciliation to Him that is delivered to unworthy sinners like us, through the Gospel. “Jacob I loved, but Esau, I hated” is good news, although it takes a bit of spiritual spade work to grasp it. So let’s dig in.
The first thing to clear up is what the Lord is not saying with “Jacob I loved, but Esau, I hated.” Jacob and Esau are the twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca, Esau being the firstborn. As the firstborn, Esau was expected to be the favorite, the inheritor, and the son of Promise, through whom the plan of God for the descendents of Abraham and Isaac would be worked. But this was not God’s plan.
Despite being the younger brother, and despite not being a very nice person, Jacob was freely chosen by God to be the son of Promise, the one in the line of salvation. And so the patriarchs of Israel are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not Esau. This does not mean that Esau was cut off from God. More on that later. For now, understand that the Holy Spirit does not intend for us to think “hating” Esau means God arbitrarily chose against him, certainly not that God eternally condemned Esau before he was born.
Listen again carefully to what Paul does say: though they, [Esau and Jacob], were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad - in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call - [Rebecca their mother] was told, "The older will serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." This reversal serves to show us that salvation is not by works, but rather is God’s gracious gift, a free call of God, despite what we sinners deserve.
“Esau I hated” is hard for us to hear, but we should understand that the word ‘hate’ is used here not as an utter rejection, but rather having to do with priority. Like when Jesus says: “whoever does not hate his mother and father cannot be my disciple,” (see Luke 14 and Matthew 10). Jesus doesn’t want you to literally ‘hate’ your mother and father, or anyone else in your family. That would contradict the 4th commandment, and dozens of other commands to love your parents, and all your family, and even your enemies.
Similarly, when God chose to work out salvation through the younger Jacob rather than the rightful heir, the firstborn Esau, He was choosing Jacob for a special calling, but He was not utterly rejecting Esau forever. In the Malachi chapter 1 passage from which Paul quotes, the prophet is actually speaking of Jacob and Esau as peoples, as the nations-in-history which grew from their descendants. From Jacob came the people of Israel, forever favored by God for salvation’s sake, while Edom, the nation that came from Esau, and which frequently opposed Israel, would never prevail.
This did not and does not mean that Esau, nor all the people of Edom, were eternally condemned from conception. All who trust in the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all those who trust in the Christ, the coming one who would be their Seed, their Descendent and Savior. All such faithful souls are members of the true Israel, no matter if they are Hebrews or Gentiles.
The man Esau himself is not even rejected by God in his lifetime. Certainly he sinned in his disregard for the value of his birthright, which Esau sold to Jacob in a moment of hunger, for the price of a bowl of stew. Jacob equally sinned in cunningly taking advantage of Esau in a weak moment. And of course Jacob and Rachel sinned in deceiving blind Isaac into bestowing his blessing on Jacob. You remember the scheme, how with his mother’s help and some animal skins, Jacob pretended to be hairy Esau, fooling Isaac and stealing the blessing intended for his older brother. Like you and me, all of these people are prime examples of poor, miserable sinners.
So, it’s a very good thing that our election, our salvation, is by God’s grace, and not based on our works. And, if you keep reading in Genesis you will see that Esau and Jacob, though for a long time bitter enemies, ended up reconciling and patching the family back together. Even more, the Lord granted that Esau should become the father of a great nation, (see Genesis chapters 33 and 36) God’s ‘hating’ of Esau is not to be understood as an arbitrary and eternal choice against him. The promise of the Gospel is for Esau as much as for Jacob, although salvation history would be lived out through the Descendent of Jacob.
To close our meditation this morning, there’s another level of Good News in the sentence “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” For this insight, I am indebted to Pastor Nathan Dudley, an LCMS pastor in Kansas whom I am blessed and privileged to call my friend. Pastor Dudley, (or Pastor Do-Right, as I like to call him), showed me that the story of Esau and Jacob is also an icon of the Gospel in a more specific way: namely, that Esau foreshadows Jesus Christ. If we zoom out our lens a bit, we will see some familiar contours in the story of these brothers.
Esau is the firstborn, and so according to custom the rightful heir of his father. Indeed, Esau is his father’s beloved son, his favorite. Younger brother Jacob is a momma’s boy and a grasping schemer. He was clinging to Esau’s heel at birth, seeking from the beginning of his life to trip Esau and steal his rightful place. Jacob achieves this with the stew-for-birthright extortion, and then again when he disguised himself to steal blind-old-Isaac’s final blessing.
Without doubt, in many and various ways, Jesus is different and greater than Esau. This is the case with every Old Testament Christ-figure: Isaac, Moses, Joshua, Samson, Elijah, David were all sinful, and yet they were also icons of Christ. And of course, Jesus outshines them all, by far. For He is the eternal image of His Father, God forever. And yet, Jesus’ work of salvation shares many touchpoints with their stories, and with Esau’s.
Jesus is the eternal firstborn Son, not of Isaac, but of God the Father. For a time, Jesus gives up His rightful place, His birthright as the King of Glory, not to fill His hungry belly, but rather because He hungers and thirsts for righteousness. Jesus gives up His birthright because He hungers and thirsts to win righteousness for us, His younger brothers and sisters. You see, the eternal Son of God made Himself our brother, our truly BIG brother, in order to change places with us. Like our first parents in the Garden, we sinners naturally scheme to take Jesus’ place, to break with the will of our Father and make ourselves like God and steal every blessing. But instead of wiping us out for our scheming rebellion, Jesus accepts His destiny, His path.
Like Esau, only infinitely more so, the eternal firstborn Son of God goes down, all the way down, to the depths of Hell, in order that we, the sons and daughters of Jacob by faith, the New Israel, might be lifted up, all the way up, to the place of Christ’s glory. Because of Jesus’ acceptance of God’s hatred of sin, because of our Savior’s humiliation and suffering, the Father now looks at us, who are covered in the skins of Christ’s righteousness, and gives us His blessing. Covered by Christ, we are a pleasing aroma to God the Father, and so we share in His eternal blessing for His beloved Son.
Finally, there is this happy and eternal difference between Christ and Esau. For Esau in his lifetime missed out; he never rose to fully return to the place of his birthright and blessing. But Jesus did. Jesus sank lower than anyone ever has, but He did not stay down. Jesus rose from the dead, having vanquished Hell, sin and Satan. Jesus rose, and He brought Jacob, that is, Israel, with Him. In the resurrection, ascension and eternal heavenly enthronement of the crucified Jesus, the future and place of God’s chosen has been secured, for today, and forever and ever.
Come, let us eat and be satisfied, and rejoice in the Father’s blessing, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment