God Doesn't Choose Everybody

Malachi 1v3-5

23^rd October 2020

The book of Malachi begins with these words::

Malachi 1v1-3
"I have loved you," says the Lord.
"But you ask, 'How have you loved us?'"
"Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the Lord says, "Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."

We've seen how God loved Jacob, whom He renamed "Israel", and his descendants, who are called the children of Israel. We've seen how the greatest proof that God loved Israel is that God chose Israel, and the greatest proof that God loves every Christian is that God chose us.

But the fact that God made a choice between Jacob and Esau, choosing Jacob but hating (rejecting) Esau, also demonstrates that God doesn't choose everybody. This is an unpopular doctrine, because most people would like to believe that God is fair. But the doctrine of election, which we've been studying, is that God chooses some people, and it's inescapable that to choose some is not to choose others. God is just, but He is not fair. We make a mistake when we think fairness and justice are the same thing. We read two weeks ago:

Romans 9:10-16
…Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad – in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls – she was told, "The older will serve the younger. Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy.

The book of Malachi continues:

Malachi 1:4
Edom may say, 'Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.' But this is what the Lord Almighty says: 'They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord.

When the Bible talks of hating people, it doesn't mean the same as when people use the word today. Perhaps we need a different word. It means "not loved". In the Bible, it doesn't mean that God – or anybody – actively seeks another person's harm, which is what we tend to mean by the word "hate"; it's that he doesn't choose to do the other person good.

God didn't hate Esau in the sense of wanting to harm him, but in the sense of not choosing him to be one of the chosen people. God hated Edom – the descendants of Esau – not in wanting to do them harm, but in the sense of not blessing them as His people.

In the same way, many in our generation are not chosen by God. He doesn't wish them harm, he just hasn't chosen them.

Simply put, some people are chosen and some are not. Jacob was chosen, Esau was not. Israel was chosen, Edom was not. We Christians are chosen. Some are not. God presents this to us as proof that He loves us. There is no greater love than for God to choose us to be His people, and for Jesus to die so we could become His people. Let us rejoice that God has chosen us, and let us be eternally grateful. We know we don't deserve God's special favour, but He chooses to shower His grace upon us.

But there is no forgiveness of sins for those who are not God's people. God goes on to say that He has brought suffering and destruction on Edom, and that he will continue to do so.

Sometimes we can look at our non-Christian neighbours, as ancient Israel looked on their godless neighbours, and wonder why they prosper while we suffer. The truth is that just about everybody suffers sooner or later, but there's a difference. God forgives our sin and disciplines us for our good (Hebrews 12:10) but He punishes our godless neighbours for their sin, to their everlasting destruction. As we saw earlier, it's not that they deserve eternal damnation and we don't. We all do, but God has chosen us. Not because we're better; we're probably not, but because He chose to choose us. Everything they make will be demolished, but everything we do in God's name will stand for ever.

Malachi 1:5
You will see it with your own eyes and say, "Great is the Lord – even beyond the borders of Israel!"

We will see God's deliverance for us. We will witness God's faithfulness to us. We will be welcomed into His eternal dwelling. And we will see the destruction of the wicked, often on earth, and inevitably on the Day of Judgement.

Our history proves God's love for us. And our destiny will demonstrate God's love for us in all its fulness. We will see His coming. We will stand on the Day of Judgement, and for all eternity we will witness His perfect love for His chosen people.