Everlasting Love (Mal 1:1-5)
Hear
A Brief History
For the next few weeks, we will spend our time together looking into the prophecy of Malachi.
There is considerable dispute regarding the authorship of this prophecy. Malachi, whose name means “my messenger” or “my angel”, is not well known in the Bible. Because of this, it can be difficult to nail down his identity. Adding to the confusion surrounding the prophet’s anonymity, the Targum, an Aramaic translation or interpretation of the Hebrew Bible (OT), views Malachi as a pseudonym for the prophet Ezra naming Ezra as the rightful author. The late John Calvin agreed with this position, stating,
“I am more disposed to grant what some have said, that he was Ezra, and that Malachi was his surname....”[i]
For this reason, and others, many believe that Malachi was not the personal name of the prophet of this book, but rather a title for the author. Even the Septuagint supports this position.
However, not everyone agrees with this explanation (i.e. Joyce G. Baldwin, Merrill F. Unger). For instance, if we take the first verse at face value then it seems most-likely to understand “Malachi” as the actual name of the actual prophet who authors this book.
He introduces this book in verse one by saying,
Malachi 1:1 NKJV
1 The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
The opening verse identifies the audience to whom Malachi writes as Israel. Specifically, at the time that Malachi writes, “Israel” would have consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin with a few sprinkles from the other ten tribes who had returned after the exile. Not only does this verse identify the audience, it also identifies the true Author - Yahweh. Malachi is the Lord’s agent. He carries the word of God to the people of God. I use that word “carries” intentionally because that is the understanding of the Hebrew word מַשָּׂא (mǎś·śaw) which is translated in our Bibles as burden or oracle. Mǎś·śaw (מַשָּׂא) refers to what is carried or lifted, something that takes effort to move.[ii]
Joyce Baldwin stresses that,
The ‘burden’ which weighs on the prophet is meant to weigh on men’s consciences till they prepare for ‘that day’.[iii]
Baldwin is another one who sees no viable evidence for supporting Ezra as the author of this prophecy over Malachi.
“While there is no evidence that Malachi is to be identified with Ezra the tradition is strong that Malachi is a personal name, and in the absence of compelling arguments to the contrary it is logical to accept that the prophet was called Malachi.”[iv]
Malachi is most-likely writing his prophecy during the post-exilic period. This is one of many details that is agreed upon across the scholarly community. If you remember, the Jews were taken captive by the Babylonians who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC. This captivity lasted until 538 BC after the Persians defeated the Babylonians. Cyrus, the king of Persia, agreed to release the Jews and allowed them to return home, at which time they began the reconstruction of the temple just a couple years later in 536 BC.
In 455 BC Ezra returned to Jerusalem and Allen Ross points out that he “began a revival to bring the people back to faith.”[v] However, it wasn’t long before the people were back to their old rebellious habits and so, nearly 13 years later, Nehemiah finds the people in the same spiritual condition as they were when Ezra first addressed them. By the time Malachi shows up, circa 450-420 BC, the temple had finally been restored, but the people of God had become so steeped in their spiritual waywardness that the reconstruction of their hearts was of greater concern than the temple. And this is the reason for Malachi’s prophecy.
The Hebrew canon closes with a divine yearning for the hearts of God’s people to worship Him sincerely and faithfully while also calling to mind the faithfulness of God.
Again, Baldwin sums up this book beautifully.
“Malachi’s prophecy is particularly relevant to the many waiting periods in human history and in the lives of individuals. He enables us to see the strains and temptations of such times, the imperceptible abrasion of faith that ends in cynicism because it has lost touch with the living God. Even more important he shows the way back to a genuine, enduring faith in the God who does not change (Mal. 3:6), who invites men to return to him (Mal. 3:7), and never forgets those who respond (Mal. 3:16).”[vi]
With that, let’s turn our attention to the scriptures.
Loved? (Mal. 1:2-5)
Malachi 1:2–5 NKJV
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved;
3 But Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage For the jackals of the wilderness.”
4 Even though Edom has said, “We have been impoverished, But we will return and build the desolate places,” Thus says the Lord of hosts: “They may build, but I will throw down; They shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, And the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever.
5 Your eyes shall see, And you shall say, ‘The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.’
Let me just start with this.
I’m sure that many of you already know that Malachi 1:2-3 are among the most difficult passages in the Bible. To read that God loves one is less of a concern than to read that He hates another. How can both be true considering an omnibenevolent God whom scripture teaches isn’t just loving, but is Love (1 Jn. 4:16)? The words, love and hate, have greatly troubled both skeptic and Believer alike. And the failure to properly understand what is meant by loved and hated has caused many to walk away from the God Who is Love.
The opening verses of Malachi begins with an emphatic and heartfelt declaration by Yahweh - “I have loved you” (v2). The verb love is in the perfect tense which can also be phrased this way, “I love you.” Not just that God loved them sometime in the past, as we learn from Dt. 7:7-8, but that He loves them at the time that Malachi is speaking, and He will always love them in the future. God’s love for His people, is the overarching theme of this prophecy. It drives the entire message.
The same is true for you and me. My friends, despite what hardships you may have experienced until now, regardless of the cards you were dealt, God’s love is the overarching theme of your life as well. How do I know that’s true?
John 3:16 NKJV
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Romans 5:8 NKJV
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
When it comes to the issue of God’s love, the Bible leaves no space for debate. A.W. Tozer called the love of God “...one of the great realities of the universe, a pillar upon which the hope of the world rests.” [vii] And yet, the Jews respond to God’s declaration love with brazen disapproval and ungratefulness. “How have you loved us?” Even in our day, this question is repeated by those who reject the sovereign and compassionate hand of God. It is wielded against God by those who claim that life isn’t fair. If God is so loving, why is their suffering? If God is so loving, why does bad things happen to good people? If God is so loving then life should be easy. The question presented by the Jews solicits evidence. Prove to me that you love me!
Merrill F. Unger claimed that the reason God’s people were requesting proof of His love was because
They were making the common mistake of inferring that because the Lord had [held them accountable for their sin], because He had chastised and afflicted them [because of their rebellion], He did not love them.
They were so taken up with what God had taken away in the Babylonian Exile that they were oblivious to what God had left and, even more, what He had given them.[viii]
Doesn’t this sound familiar? Many of the world’s great thinkers have struggled with this as well. This even sounds like some of the people you know. Life has been hard for them. They can’t seem to catch a break. It feels like every time they turn around something else is going wrong in their life and as those things start to pile up they can begin to feel like God doesn’t love them or worse, like He has abandoned them all together. If that’s you, do not fall for Satan’s lies.
The question that Israel should’ve asked, the question that you and I should ask is this, “God. Why do you love me at all?” When we think about how marred we are by sin, how filthy and vile when compared to Perfect Perfection, why would a holy and righteous God dare stoop so low as to love us at all? It’s funny to me, that the same people who question the love of God because of the troubles of their lives or the same ones who rob God of the honor and recognition He deserves for the many blessings they have enjoyed. You ever noticed that?
How many critics of God’s sovereignty and benevolence see the good things that they enjoy because of their own wisdom, wealth, power and influence? However, when things don’t work out the way they expected or the pieces of their lives start to fall apart they don’t blame themselves, they blame God. Will you credit God for the hardships of your life? To whom then will you credit for the blessings? The idols of your own hearts and minds, that’s who. And this is precisely the problem.
Hated? (Mal. 1:3-5)
God meets Israel’s challenge. If they want proof that He loves them, here it comes.
Malachi 1:2–3 NKJV
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved;
3 But Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage For the jackals of the wilderness.”
Again, to read that God loved Jacob and hated Esau has been hard to digest for many. But, God’s proof of love lies not so much in the emotions of love as we understand love, but rather within the covenant that He made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In Genesis 28:15, after Jacob meets God under the night sky realizing that the Lord had been with him on the entire journey. God speaks these faithful words to Jacob.
Genesis 28:15 NKJV
15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
That is how we are to understand the contrasting terms of love and hate found in Malachi. I don’t believe that God is saying that He has more affection for Jacob than He does for Esau. This is not about emotionalism, but rather, it is about covenantal providence. God chose Jacob over Esau and make no mistake, His choosing of Jacob was not to the exclusion of Esau either. The prophet Jeremiah records these words from the Lord:
Jeremiah 18:7–10 NKJV
7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it,
8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.
9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it,
10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.
Just like you and me, at any time that we will repent of our rebellion against God we may enjoy the blessing of fully knowing His love for us as well. I’m convinced that this was also possible for Esau. Anyone from Edom could have enjoyed the relenting of God against their nation had they humbled themselves to Him. But it is obvious that they did not and so they would have to deal with the fallout of their choices.
Again, Tozer writes,
We must all choose whether we will obey the gospel or turn away in unbelief and reject its authority. Our choice is our own, but the consequences of the choice have already been determined by the sovereign will of God, and from this there is no appeal.[ix]
The problem with Esau and the Edomites is that they would not yield to the sovereignty of God. That’s why Malachi records,
Malachi 1:4–5 NKJV
4 Even though Edom has said, “We have been impoverished, But we will return and build the desolate places,” Thus says the Lord of hosts: “They may build, but I will throw down; They shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, And the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever.
5 Your eyes shall see, And you shall say, ‘The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.’
Solomon reminds us in Ps. 127:1
Psalm 127:1 NKJV
1 Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.
Yahweh was fully committed to His people. He had chosen them and He would not renege on His commitment.
My friends, do not be put off by God’s hatred for Esau and His love for Jacob. Even Jesus requires the same from us. And it is this call to discipleship that has left many in a awful state of unregeneration.
In Luke 14:26 Jesus says this,
Luke 14:26 NKJV
26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
Jesus doesn’t literally mean that you should hate your family in the way we understand hatred as an emotional disdain for another person or thing. This would obviously be a form of hypocrisy on Jesus’s behalf. What Jesus means is that we are going to have to make a hard decision about who occupies the throne of our hearts. To be His disciples, to become a Christian, we are going to have to choose Jesus over everything and everybody else. And listen, I know that is a terrifying decision for many of you, because it requires you to give up a lifetime of beliefs and customs and culture and tradition. But Jesus promises that
Matthew 19:29 NKJV
29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.
My friends, God has already chosen you. He was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself before the foundation of the world. He made His choice. Now you have to make yours.
Respond
The love of God for Jacob and the hatred of God for Esau, that we read about in Malachi, is a reminder of the choice that God made to have the nation of Israel as His on peculiar people in this sinful world, that they should be a holy and royal priesthood of God on earth. In the Pentateuch and the prophecy of Jeremiah we find these reminders.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8, The Lexham English Bible
7 “Yahweh loved you and chose you not ⌊because of your great number⌋ exceeding all other peoples, for you are fewer than all of the peoples, 8 but ⌊because of⌋ the love of Yahweh for you and because of his keeping of the sworn oath that he swore to your ancestors, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
The word of God tells us that God doesn’t choose the wise and strong and beautiful things in world. Instead, He chooses the foolish things, the weak and base things. That was Israel. That’s you and me (1 Cor. 1:26-31).
Deuteronomy 10:15 NKJV
15 The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.
Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV
3 The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
I am convinced that this love that God has for Israel, for the Jews, in the Old Testament, has been made available to us in Christ Jesus. For those of you who are Christians, the Word of God reminds us that nothing can separate us from His love.
Romans 8:37–39 NKJV
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For those of you who are not Christians, you will never truly know the love of God apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 3:16; 4:9-10).
1 John 3:16 NKJV
16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.
1 John 4:9–10 NKJV
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
If you are not a Christian, I don’t want you to hear me saying that God doesn’t love you. It’s not that God doesn’t love you. He does, but you can’t discern it. You can’t accurately appreciate just how much God does indeed love you. And yet, at your base moral level, at your most impoverished spiritual condition, the compassion of God was moved toward you for the salvation of your entire being and the Agent of your redemption was God Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:19 NKJV
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
That’s why He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
I was listening to a podcast recently on Confronting Christianity with Rebecca McLaughlin where she interviewed Ray Ortlund, president of Renewal Ministries, a canon theologian with the Anglican Church in North America and author of his most recent book, Good News at Rock Bottom. In the podcast, Rebecca asked Ray about what motivated him to write this new book. Listen to this.
Rebecca (RM): “Why did you want to write a book about life when it hits rock bottom?”
Ray (RO): Because rock bottom is inevitable. It’s not what we signed up for. When we were seniors in high school, we were not thinking, Oh yeah, that’s where my life is going to go. But sooner or later something unimaginably horrible comes and grabs onto us and doesn’t let go. We don’t want that. We don’t deserve that typically, but it comes and finds us and takes away from us the life we had, the life we thought we would live.
This was the situation that Israel found themselves in and it was their flawed expectation of what they figured life was supposed to be like that forced them to question the love of God. God, how can you say that you love us? A.W. Tozer said that “...no religion has ever been greater than its understanding of God” (A.W. Knowledge of the Holy, p1).
Ray (RO): I’ve been taught God loves me. If I however put another template onto the data of my life, namely God hates my guts, that would explain everything. So, which is it? Is ultimate reality, God loving me or God despising me? Can’t be both.
In Isaiah 57:15, the prophet says God has two addresses. He has two dwelling places and the one is inaccessible, the other is inevitable.
Isaiah 57:15, ESV
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Ray (RO): So, God dwells way up high where we cannot go, and way down low where we can go and where we do go. So, when not if, when we land there, [in the low place], we can look around and the risen Christ is already there waiting for us with open arms.[x]
A.W. Tozer made this profound statement concerning the love of God and our inability to truly grasp its splendor.
I can no more do justice to that awesome and wonder-filled theme than a child can grasp a star. Still, by reaching toward the star the child may call attention to it and even indicate the direction one must look to see it. So, as I stretch my heart toward the high, shining love of God, someone who has not before known about it may be encouraged to look up and have hope.[xi]
Again, the Father has already made His choice. He absolutely loves you! He chose you, in Christ before the world began. Now you have a choice to make. If you’re not a Christian. If you’ve never surrendered to the love and grace of God, my encouragement is that you choose life! Choose Jesus!
Tre Clark
August 10, 2025
Works Cited
[i] (Chapters Available - Malachi - Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Commentaries - https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/cal/malachi.html ).
[ii] (James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament)(Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
[iii] (Joyce G. Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 28, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1972), 237).
[iv] (Joyce G. Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 28, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1972), 227.).
[v] (Allen Ross, Malachi Then and Now, p4)
[vi] (Joyce G. Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 28, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1972), 227.).
[vii] (A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p102).
[viii] (Unger’s Commentary on the Old Testament, p2067).
[ix] (A.W. Knowledge of the Holy, p113).
[x] (Confronting Christianity with Rebecca McLaughlin, Good News at Rock Bottom with Ray Ortlund, 4:36-9:14).
[xi] (A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p98).
