Book of Malachi - Ch. 1, Vs. 2-3 (01/08/2023)

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We've got everything settled here. We'll go ahead and get started. I might need dad to turn this down once he gets back in here.

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Pretty loud. I think it's mic number four. Pop pop. Testing.

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Yeah, that's better. That ring went away too. All righty. Well, good morning everybody. We're going to be at Malachi chapter one, verses two and the very beginning of verse three again.

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We're going to finish up kind of what we were looking at last week for this specific thing.

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Yeah, we're recording pop pop. We're going to finish up a few thoughts there before continuing the trek through Malachi.

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Malachi. Last week, if you guys remember, we did a couple of things where we went trying to think, how did we get there?

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Oh yeah, we started with first John, I think four eight. We talked about the concept of God's love being infinite and infallible and then asked how does that mesh with verses such as Malachi one verse three where he says,

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I have hated Esau. We talked about that quite a bit and we kind of concluded, we determined that it is possible for God to have infinite love and yet still be able to hate certain individuals because while his love is infinite, he ordained the method by which he extends that love to people and that being his election, through election.

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So we concluded that but then we also just took a broad look at God's love in general and like I said a few weeks ago, we went to that, we went to kind of the quintessential verse on God's love that is

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John 3 16 and we broke that verse down word for word and saw that there weren't any contradictions.

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It doesn't go against God's character in other words to when we look at passages like Malachi 1 3.

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So we looked at, we ended last week with looking at John 3 16 and of course we kind of asked, how does this apply to Malachi and you know we learned that first of all the first part of verse three of Malachi does not violate

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God's character of course. His love is infinite and infallible but he is also very specific about how he extends that love to the human race.

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So that was a big portion of what we talked about last week. Of course the race was totally fallen, 100 percent of it deserved hatred and deserved damnation for the sin that we all exhibit, that the human race collectively exhibited and of course that is necessary given

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God's characteristic, another one of God's characteristics that we're going to be talking about shortly as well.

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And so 100 percent of it was fallen, he had this infinite love that was already an on, that was already a huge part of his existence.

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I mean well how do I word this, obviously it's always been a part of his existence but the point

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I'm trying to get to is even prior to our existence his love was there, it was shared among the the trinity, his love for the son, for the holy spirit, and the son toward the father of the holy spirit and you can go all the way around.

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And so that love pre -existed all of us, the human race, and so when we come into existence now we are then fallen and the whole race was doomed, he extended that same infinite love that he was sharing toward his son, toward spirit, to a remnant of that otherwise totally fallen race and so that's kind of what we were talking about yesterday.

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He extended that love in two specific ways at least, not necessarily limited to these but certainly including these of course by electing his people before the foundation of the earth, we talked about that quite a bit last week, that of course included

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Jacob and his seed as he expressed in verse 2 of Malachi, Jacob have I loved, but also by putting the entire universe or the cosmos as we looked at John 3 16 last week back in order at the crucifixion which made it possible for those who are believing in him to have eternal security and their salvation so obviously that's an enormous amount of love not only for his creation but also for his people and so that's where we that's what we talked about in depth last week.

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Now this truth to kind of continue that also shows us how it is more than consistent with his character to love his elect in infinite proportions while also hating the non -elect in equally infinite proportions and while that sounds like that sounds just on the surface level or at face value it sounds almost harsh especially if you are looking at it through the lens of the common conclusion that we talked about last week as well which is

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God is love God loves everybody when you hear something like that it doesn't resonate immediately with the large majority of people and it sounds kind of harsh but if you all stick with me by the end of today's lesson it's going to make perfect sense that it is the way that it is so we'll just kind of put a pin in that understand that's kind of the foundation behind passages like what we're reading here in Malachi and what we covered last week as well and as we continue forward today and hopefully we can get to the end of the material we'll see that this is actually a very a very special thing and again just stick with me and we'll get there.

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Now like I said a second ago you know when we've been submersed in a culture that has that conclusion

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God loves everybody it can be really difficult it could be a difficult truth to grapple with but it's true all the same and that can be illustrated multiple ways the

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Malachi passage we're in is just one of them. Now what about the commentaries on this specific passage that we've been reading so we looked at these verses last week we looked at some scripture behind the characteristics of God specifically his love and how that can coexist with the passage in verse three where he says

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I saw and we we looked at a number of things and came to our conclusion which which fits but what about other commentaries is what are some things that other people consider when it comes to this passage and of course

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I came across these commentaries when just in in general study for these lessons and they there seemed to be something a little bit off with them in in at least my first impression and I want to share a little bit of that with you guys to get y 'all's thoughts on it because I think it's rather interesting and I think it can also be very helpful when it comes to digesting this kind of material and going through studies like this.

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Well first of all it's really easy to find agreement among all the commentators out there in our first conclusion which of course being that God's love is infinite so you know there's not going to be any disagreement on that among believers again it's it's arguably the number one characteristic that our minds may go to if someone were to ask you know what are the attributes of God just right off right off the bat you know

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God's love is going to be where most people go to I mean obviously that is an enormous an enormously wonderful aspect of God because that is what made it possible for us to to be as children so obviously a lot of commentators out there will agree with our first conclusion that God's love is infinite but it does start to get a little bit interesting when you start to look for some commentators that would agree with parts of our second conclusion that being that God while God's love is infinite it is extended from and through him to a specific group of people in other words his love is specific and intentional not universal which of course is the common the common conclusion that God loves everybody that that that implies that his love is universal and that it transcends the wickedness and all of that kind of stuff the unrighteousness that the human race has and it's not quite that simple because it's not a matter of his love transcending those things it's matter of him having to be him being the father having to have a satisfactory payment for that wickedness for the unrighteousness in order to extend the love so it's not that love just transcends those things therefore he can love people despite their wickedness unrighteousness all those things all that had to be covered up for even a remnant to be to receive the infinite love that he has so that part gets a little bit murky but another part that that a lot of commentaries start to get a little iffy on is that his hatred of Esau is clearly laid out in verse three his hatred of Esau was actually it's funny

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I have this written wrong in my notes I have it backwards what they say is that Esau's actions preceded the hatred of Esau from God that's a very common conclusion and I'll explain

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I'm going to read some of the commentaries to you guys in a second to y 'all so that y 'all can hear the way they try to verbalize how they get to that conclusion because it's really interesting but what they will you know they'll believe that God's love is infinite not a lot of them talk about the fact that that infinite love is extended through election so they kind of bypass that and then they go immediately to addressing the hatred which is the common conclusion being the at the the actions preceded the hatred the actions of Esau preceded the hatred of God okay so you know how do they get that where's that interpretation kind of how would they verbalize that interpretation a little bit well for the sake of time obviously we can't look at every single one of them but I'm going to show you guys a kind of a broad but brief snapshot of of a few of these so I want to I'm just going to read them as they were quoted and I want to get y 'all's thoughts on how they get there and then

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I presume that those of us in this room will probably read I'm sorry probably reach very similar if not the same conclusion so I'll share mine shortly after but I do want to get y 'all's thoughts on it so here's the first one regarding Malachi the first part of verse 3 of chapter 1 which says let me just read it

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I'm going to read verse 2 in the first part of verse 3 it says I have loved you sayeth the

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Lord yet ye say wherein hast thou loved us so there's his people questioning his love saying how and he responds he gives them a very precise answer was not

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Esau Jacob's brother sayeth the Lord and yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau so there's the verse in question here's the first commentary and this one hurt a little bit because this was this is a commentator

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I like quite a bit he says God does not exercise his sovereignty to reprobate any creature the hatred of Esau had been well deserved after the continued opposition to God through the centuries there is no room here for the portion of reprobation which is not taught in scripture so what do y 'all think about that first one and I mean that's a that's the full that's the full quote

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I'm it's a very in -depth commentary and it gets to this part and and that was how it was addressed and left and then it goes on his sovereignty he does not exercise the sovereignty to reprobate any creature the hatred of Esau had been well deserved after the continued opposition to God through the centuries so there is that the actions preceding the hatred now here's what's really funny about it right off the bat well first of all does anyone else have any thoughts because I do want to hear what y 'all think about it just to get first impressions and then

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I'll share kind of what my first impressions were yeah

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I mean what pop pop said

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I have a mic out there but in case y 'all couldn't hear him God doesn't change he is immutable so how could there be love there until certain actions take place and then that revert to hatred yeah dad okay we're gonna get there it's so important right yes that was my one of my first thoughts well

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I actually he might be a Southern Baptist I mean I'll tell you who these guys are this first one is

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Charles Feinberg who is a Jew who was a saved Jew I don't know what his denomination was and yeah he brother

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Rocky was a big fan of his and and right well that's interesting well if you want to hear something funny so this is

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I get his commentary which I read both for the Obadiah study and I'm reading with this along with a few others but I have brother

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Rocky's copy of that commentary and it's marked up and one thing dad always said is if you ever go take a book off of his shelf that brother

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Rocky's library is back in dad's church office and if open it up and there's no markings in it probably it's not any good probably one that brother

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Rocky didn't think was worth his time but the ones he did think are worth his time I mean they're like marked up in some cases beyond even being able to see the words anymore and this was one of them but in this one little little paragraph he had three question marks written next to it and so brother

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Rocky apparently brother Rocky was was a little confused because what's interesting about this is

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Feinberg he talks about God's sovereignty and other areas but for some reason he skirted past this one so that's the first one and dad mentioned oh sorry go ahead

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I don't know you never know I would hope so but anyway so to dad's point

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I mean this one is just very concise very kind of to the point and it just doesn't ring well does it

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I mean like first first thoughts like dad said it sounds like he's cheating a little bit there is no room here as it is not taught in scripture well we're going to get to Romans 9 which dad already quoted but I don't know where he reached that conclusion and I don't know that one threw me off a little bit well here's the second one this one's even better all right this is this is a lengthy one but this is just so interesting

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I mean to hear I mean these are awesome guys by the way there's not a in some areas

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Feinberg was really solid many areas this next one I'll tell you who it is after I read it but the the the reasoning you can just tell there's there's something going on here it says quote this is writing the same passage

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Esau didn't desire the Lord Esau's actions had to be worked out in 1500 years of history before God prepared to make that kind of a statement that I hated

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Esau all right so let me read the first part again because this is the part it well and this is the so on this particular commentary there's this commentary about Malachi so I went to see what the commentary was on this same passage in Romans 9 and it says see commentary of Malachi so all right so let me start over it says

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Esau didn't didn't desire the Lord well I mean so far we would agree with that Esau certainly had no desire for the

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Lord and neither did his ensuing lineages the the Edomites as we just as we discussed in the leap in Obadiah he didn't desire the

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Lord sure but this is the part that's really weird Esau's actions had to be worked out in 1500 years of history before God prepared to make that kind of a statement now here's the interesting thing by what he's doing is he's saying that it was really the

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Edomites actions over the course of 1500 years that caused the hatred of Esau but that doesn't make any sense neither in Malachi nor the

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Romans 9 passage because it specifically calls out Esau the individual not his lineage and it's his lineage that was the 1500 years yes

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Esau's actions had to be worked out in 1500 years of history before God prepared to make that kind of a statement he had to see all the actions he was thinking about it for about 1500 years and then after they finally reached that final by the time you get to Malachi he's like okay

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I hate these people now right he saw the good works and then through poor knowledge elected those doing good works it's a very similar argument that doesn't have the logical uh change that's right he put it it was a parenthetical right and again we'll get there y 'all don't y 'all don't jump the gun too much go ahead

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Mimi go ahead Mimi in time and say this is what's going to happen therefore

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I'm going to choose this he could just not create well here's what's really funny as well well yeah

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I mean why well I mean yes why why create if that if that was the method why create um and another thing is what's interesting unless I this is just kind of off the cuff a little bit so Katie was making the point that you know a lot of people say that election is by foreknowledge because what the way

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God did it was he died for everybody but he looked out in the verses on election what he's talking about is he looked out in the future saw those doing good works or believing on him and elected them that's the argument what's interesting is this is kind of the reverse argument if you think about it because what he did was he waited 1500 years he didn't even use foreknowledge he waited and watched in real time for 1500 years he wasn't quite sure what was going to happen then he decided who he was going to love and who's going to hate just wait to hear the commentator is all right maybe

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I shouldn't tell you all the commentators because I love these guys I don't like I I just don't it's just a little bit here's what

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I'll tell you guys why I think they're taking these angles in a minute and maybe maybe

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I mean I'm not saying it's good enough I'm just I will tell you why I think they are dancing around this to such a degree in a minute so this is just the first sentence by the way all right

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Esau's actions had to be worked out in 1500 years of history before God prepared to make that kind of statement he continues and we need to understand that the difference that we have between loving and hating is simply this all right the life of the nation that came from Esau and the life of the nation that came from Jacob demonstrates that God was right when he said that he loved one and hated the other

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God was justified though he did not make the statement at the very beginning

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God never said at the beginning that he loved one and hated the other he had to listen let me finish he had he had to wait until they became nations and these two nations then demonstrated that he was right in making this statement huh

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I'm not going to mention who this guy is because dad's too yes dad's too angry let me read one more and then

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I'm going to tell you guys why I personally think they are dancing around to such a degree although it is very depressing to read these the last this is crazy this oh sorry go ahead pal that uh this would have been the 90s perhaps maybe the 80s this gentleman is is no no longer with us uh he was a great name um and huh y 'all could probably guess it y 'all can probably guess who it is oh that would make sense to me no this was

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J Vernon McGee and uh what's interesting what's interesting is he said something prior to making this quote in the commentary

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I was reading that made perfect that was like I was like this is great all right he's setting the stage for a good a good conclusion

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I'm gonna actually come back to that in a little bit because it it's true but then he followed up with this and I was like threw my hands up in the it was like what's going on here let me this one is totally different but it's so bad

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I just had to include it listen to this and I don't even know I don't know who this guy is it was just a commentary

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I came across on Blue Letter Bible I don't know who this person is listen to this one dad you're gonna love it it says a lot of times people get hung up on the idea of God saying he hated somebody actually it is a term that means love in a lesser degree it means

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I loved Jacob but I have loved Esau to a lesser degree the word hates

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Esau is rather a difficult translation and then he went on that was the total commentary on verse 3 of Malachi from this individual his name is

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Chuck Smith I personally am not aware of him don't know much about him but that was his commentary of course if you look at the

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Hebrew word it literally means hated like it's not a lot of Hebrew words will have tons of different um thing tons of different things you could have translated it to English you know from the

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Hebrew to English this is one of those Hebrew words that literally it just means hated so I don't know where he got that go ahead dad it's to a lesser degree

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I don't know where they get it it's

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I look I literally double and triple check because if you guys remember last week

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I said I don't I was like I didn't I don't even have the Hebrew word in my lesson because it just means hated so I was like wait a minute did

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I miss something and I went back and looked so I don't know how that conclusion was met on that one so before we continue

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I just want to say really quick I think that one reason why these are so concisely bad is because perhaps and maybe

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I'm giving too much a benefit of the doubt

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I because again some of these guys obviously they did a lot of awesome things you gotta know hundreds of thousands of people were saved listening to the gospel messages that were given by J Vernon McGee on the radio or through his commentaries were most of his commentaries are fantastic same for Feinberg I think personally this is from the human viewpoint of course that they were kind of dancing around this just wanted to get past it move on quickly because number one because of the size of their ministries they even perhaps in their minds for better or worse in my opinion for worse but that's up for debate

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I suppose they wanted they didn't want to spend time in there perhaps in their opinion confusing people and they just wanted to get by this however way they can and get to the bigger stuff you know the gospel the love of God into you know things that from the babe drinking milk that needs the milk before the meat perhaps they were trying to bypass the meat for the sake of their vast audiences again maybe that maybe that's me just being um you know giving the benefit of the doubt because I do love these guys um perhaps that's the direction they went but that's the best

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I got because I really uh these commentaries were very interesting very strange to me as I was going through them and of course we already addressed it

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I have written next what's wrong with these interpretations um well they don't seem to make logical sense as one would be much quicker to admit that God this is really interesting too because in the same commentaries they will be quick to admit that God's love was before any actions took place so there's a logical fallacy right there the love was there before actions took place but the hatred was there after the actions took place so they'll be quick to admit that the love was there first but then they conclude that his hatred could only be justified by centuries worth of wicked actions on the part of the one being hated which of course it's not really the one it's his entire lineage if you're gonna we're gonna talk about 1500 years it's talking about Esau as a specific individual man held up in juxtaposition to Jacob and yet they're they're saying the 1500 years of the history of the

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Edomites is what you know led to the hatred of Esau um so you have a logical problem first and foremost but it also doesn't make theological sense either as we can glean from the ultimate commentary on the passage in Malachi so what do you guys think would be the best commentary to go to on this past passage that we're in Malachi verses two and three that would be

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Romans nine because Paul literally quotes Malachi verses two and three of chapter one and it's literally the apostle

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Paul's commentary so if y 'all want to go there we'll just read it verse by verse we're not going to spend a whole lot of time here uh but let's read it all the same so does

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Paul uh in even imply a similar conclusion to Feinberg to McGee to Smith into into others as well well the whole chat

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I mean it's man the first eight verses are really powerful because Paul Paul kind of answers that this the conclusion is wrong in his beginning of chapter nine because he talks about how burdensome it is to him it's something that he had to deal with that is that not all of his brethren were going to be saved and he even said under the inspiration of the holy spirit that if it were possible he would give up his very own eternal security so that a hundred percent of his brethren of his generation could be saved all of Israel of his generation could be saved that is a sad that's the kind of sacrifice that I can't even comprehend and of course the lord would never allow that but even still under the inspiration of the holy spirit

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Paul said it therefore he believed it with all of his heart that was his desire that he would experience eternity in hell on behalf of those who were not elect of God the uh among among the

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Israelites but of course that the same applies to um you know gentiles as well so that's how chapter nine begins is that he feels a burden in his heart because of this truth but he's going to talk about it anyway because it's true all the same and so he and then it goes on starting in verse nine for this this is the word of promise at this time will

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I come and Sarah shall have a son and not only this but Rebecca I'm sorry but when

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Rebecca also had conceived by one even by our father Isaac here's a parenthetical for the children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth who is that of him that calleth it's the father it all

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I mean it doesn't have anything to do with actions it's it's the father verse 12 it was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger and here's the direct quote from Malachi verses two and three as it is written that's the reference to Malachi Jacob have

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I loved but Esau have I hated so thankfully we have that commentary because we can push all the others aside and I just want to say this as well there are other this isn't a private interpretation there are plenty of commentaries that reach the conclusion that we have today from wonderful saints going way back from Luther forward

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Spurgeon I wish I could remember all the names that the commentaries I looked at there were some names I didn't even recognize but many commentators very devout men of the

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Lord you know put in the time to reach the conclusion so this isn't a private interpretation not that would be a concern anyway because again we have

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Romans 9 to totally clear it up anyway so was it Esau's actions that caused the hatred is the question or was it the hatred which in itself is an effect of Esau's non -election keep in mind keep that in mind for a second because we're about to go kind of through I need to speed it up a little bit but we're about to kind of look at this one point at a time was it the hatred which was in itself an effect of Esau's non -election that caused the actions the attitudes and the wickedness to be exhibited by Esau as an individual man but also the

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Edomites for 1500 years so which would that be another question I have where did the wickedness come from in the first place okay so they want to say that the wickedness and the actions preceded the hatred okay well we can are it we can thanks to Romans 9 and we'll get into it a little bit more in just a second but we can we can confidently conclude that it was that it was not that order it was the hatred preceded the the actions actually but where did the actions and the hatred in the wickedness and all of the various things that they did exhibit post the election that took place in the womb of Rebecca where did that come from what information do we have regarding how unbelievers are influenced well first we need to realize a really important reality just as much as it's true that God's character is immutable to pop pop's point earlier this morning across all dispensations it is also true that the devil's character and his tactics are non -changing across all dispensations and the devil has been the persistent enemy of God's people from the beginning to present day and how do we know that well

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I'm gonna just quickly run through a couple of passages for you guys and you'll get you'll see my point in doing this in just a minute

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I'm gonna do this really fast y 'all don't have to go here but I just want to illustrate how is it exactly do we know the devil has been our persistent enemy just as he was in the new testament and all the way to present day

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Job 1 -6 now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the

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Lord and Satan came also among them and then the rest of chapter 1 and some of chapter 2 continue to talk about and flesh out the

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Satan's dialogue with the God so he was there Zechariah 3 1 and 2 and he showed me

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Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him and the

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Lord said to Satan the Lord rebuke thee oh Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee is not this a brand plucked out of the fire first chronicles 21 1 and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked

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David to number Israel this is a revelation 12 9 but it's talking about Genesis so I wanted to read this specific one and the this is how we know that the serpent in the garden was

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Satan I mean this reaffirms what that rather it's not how we know but it solidifies it more than we ever needed and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan so this this is in revelation but it like wraps all of human history together from the very first appearance he was the one in the garden he has been our enemy since the garden uh and then first john 3 8 and this again just solidifies from the beginning he that committeth sin is of the devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning for this purpose the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil okay so now we can see that the devil has been the persistent enemy of God's people using a vast array of tactics to persecute them including but not limited to using his children as his tools what's one example that we have of his children the edomites of satan's children yeah the edomites and he saw again oh but our obadiah study illustrated that beautifully we can now apply because that is a reality okay so this is why

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I wanted to go back and grab some of this stuff this is this is why this is important now that we know that that is true that the devil has been the same he has been wickedly he has been immutable in the worst sense from the beginning just as God is immutable in the most perfect sense from the beginning and we can see these passages in the old testament laying out the devil standing there is our enemy we can now apply a new testament passage about how the devil works to our old testament context of malachi that we're looking at this is a passage that dad has referenced many times recently but I want you guys to think about this for a second 2nd timothy chapter 2 starting in verse 24 it says in the servant of the lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient and meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if god pair adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and then here's the key verse

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I wanted to get at here verse 26 in that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will okay now if we backtrack a little bit in the new testament