I had someone ask me the other day why they are so hated by God. Thinking back, I remember when I first found God, a lot of times I thought God hated me. I didn’t know him. I hadn’t read much of the Bible and people weren’t very good at explaining Bible meanings either. Some of the stuff I asked about, the people didn’t know the answer I was seeking. They just trusted that what they were told was the truth.
I told one of my friends, God hated me. She said God doesn’t hate anybody. I said yes he does, the Bible says so. She wanted to know where it said that. I cited the story of Jacob and Esau, (Genesis 25-33.) and (Romans 9:13 and Malachi 1:2-3) Then I recited, The Lord said, “I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.” My friend said the Bible didn’t mean that God hated him. I didn’t think she knew what she was talking about because she couldn’t tell me what the verse did mean.
I’m gonna stop right there for a minute. People that take in information, whether it is about God and the Bible, politics, history, or whatever can be ill informed about the truth if they do not research the topic they’re wanting to learn or being told about themselves. We get so busy or idle, maybe lazy that we do not gather information for ourselves. We depend on someone else to do it for us and then tell us what’s going on.
Example: watching the news. Some reporters have a bias against President Trump. They will twist his words to mean things that he didn’t say.
A few weeks ago, I had someone tell me that the president is cutting off all the funding that supports people in group homes and similar institutions. I watch the interviews and speeches that the president gives, I watch the congressmen and senators as well because I want to be well informed and I want to know the truth about what is going on in this country. And, I want to hear it come straight from the horse’s mouth so that I know what I hear is the truth.
What that lady told me wasn’t true. The only information that she had received was from a person who watched a reporter on MSNBC. I don’t care what people’s political views are or who they watch on television. But, when it comes to taking in important information, we need to know what the truth is. The only way we know what the truth is, is to research whatever we want to know about for ourselves.
We live in such a glorious time! Never in history has anyone ever been able to access information as quickly and easily as we can, yet we don’t do it. We take so much for granted.
Back to my story,
I asked several people and could not get the answer I was seeking from anybody. No one could tell me why the Bible says that God hated Esau if God can not hate. I did get my answer a couple years later. I was online looking for information. I came across a site that translates English to other languages. I started messing around with it. I decided to do some translations of the Hebrew language. One of the words I had translated was hate. In Hebrew, the word for hate has different meanings. Hebrew is a root based language. Which means a few letters can form different words. The meaning of the word changes depending on how it’s used in a sentence. The word for hate can mean hate, hatred, rancour, grudge, and animosity, malice, detest. To love less, despise, reject, or forsake. It can also mean a lesser love or withholding of affection.
“I have loved Jacob, but I hate Esau.”
Are there any words in the paragraph above that can be used to substitute the word hate? I believe so.
If you read the story of Jacob and Esau, you will find that there were a lot of differences between Jacob and Esau. Jacob was more scholarly and stayed close to home. Esau was a kind of rugged character that enjoyed hunting and he kind of lived in the moment. Esau was the oldest. He had the birthright which meant that he inherited most of the stuff that his father had accumulated over the years. He was not appreciative of his birthright. Matter of fact, he traded it for a bowl of soup.
My interpretation of the story is that he resented his birthright. I don’t think he wanted the responsibility of it. I think he wanted to be free to do as he wished. He did some bad things and didn’t seem to have good character. I don’t think Jacob was a saint either, but I do sincerely believe that there are reasons why God preferred him over Esau.
After reading the story of Jacob and Esau, and learning how one word could have many meanings in the Hebrew language, I no longer think that God hates anyone. I think he hates what we do and I think he can prefer someone over another person by their actions. That’s something to think about if you’re thinking God hates you. Plus, we need to remember that sometimes he gives us a hard way to go and challenges us to help us grow.
I decided I am not going to tell you the story of Jacob and Esau. If you’re interested in it, you will open your Bible or get online and look up the story for yourself. I told you where to find it. Practice doing research. You will enjoy the feeling of having faith that what you know is the truth because you learned it for yourself.