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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through
Malachi.
“I have loved you,” says the Lord.
“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’
“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I
have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country
into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
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. You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is
the Lord—even beyond the borders of Israel!’”
Malachi 1:1-5
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be
to God.
Today marks the start of our study through the last book
of the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi. And as you would imagine given
Malachi was a prophet, we begin with a prophecy, one that conjures us Israel’s
past to remind God’s people of where they stand with Him. Look again at these
opening five verses:
A prophecy: The
word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.
“I have loved
you,” says the Lord.
“But you ask, ‘How
have you loved us?’
“Was not Esau
Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have
hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his
inheritance to the desert jackals.”
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. You will
see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is the Lord—even beyond the borders
of Israel!’” Malachi 1:1-5
You may ask why Malachi is located where it is in the Old
Testament. The answer is found in looking where his work took place in reference
to Israel’s history, particularly after the Babylonian captivity.
At the first return, you’ll recall that Zerubbabel led
the first remnant of Israelites home from Babylon, a move permitted by King
Cyrus the Great of Persia, who had defeated the Babylonians and assumed their
empire. That first remnant included the prophets Haggai and Zechariah who along
with Zerubbabel urged the Israelites to rebuild God’s temple, a feat they
accomplished in 516 B.C.
Ezra the priest and several more thousand Israelites
would join the newly reconstructed Israelite nation in 458 B.C. with Ezra
placing an emphasis on reinstituting proper worship practices as well as a
return to obedience toward God’s law. You can get a more in depth account of
what happened in Ezra’s time by reading the Old Testament book that bears his
name.
The third wave of Israelites that returned in 445 B.C. did
so under the leadership of Nehemiah who had been the cupbearer for Persia’s
King Artaxerxes but became Judah’s new governor. God specifically tasked
Nehemiah with rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem but Nehemiah also spent
time continuing the reform work started by his contemporary, Ezra. Nehemiah
would return to serve Persia’s king in 433 B.C. and in his absence, the
Israelites fell back into old sinful practices, something Nehemiah discovered
upon his return years later. And given that statements from Nehemiah in the Old
Testament book named after him match up closely with words from the Book of
Malachi, it is widely assumed that Malachi served as a prophet at the same time
Nehemiah was governor, particularly after the latter’s return from Persia. With
this, I think it’s easy to see why Malachi is often thought of as the last
prophet in the Old Testament and thus this book’s positioning.
Now let’s turn our attention back to our scripture
passage.
What we see immediately is that we go back to the future.
Let me explain.
Note how the Lord goes back to the lives of Jacob and
Esau, emphasizing His relationship with both. You’ll recall that Jacob and Esau
were the twin children of Isaac, Abraham’s son, and Rebekah who while pregnant
was given these words about her unborn children and the destinies for each:
“Two nations are
in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people
will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” Genesis 25:23
And with that, the stage was set for what would follow
because here’s how the scripture’s describe the birth that followed these words
from the Lord:
When the time came
for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out
was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. After
this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named
Jacob. Genesis 25:24-26
Esau emerged first and that made him the firstborn, the
one who was entitled to receive his father’s birthright. But wait a minute,
didn’t the Lord say that the older would serve the younger? How in the world
would that happen?
The answer is found in the scriptures as we move forward
in Genesis from the birth of these two brothers to the moment when the
birthright would be issued. Here’s what happened to fulfill the Lord’s promise:
When Isaac was old
and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his
older son and said to him, “My son.”
“Here I am,” he
answered.
Isaac said, “I am
now an old man and don’t know the day of my death. Now then, get your
equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild
game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to
eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”
Now Rebekah was
listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country
to hunt game and bring it back, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I
overheard your father say to your brother Esau, ‘Bring me some game and prepare
me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence
of the Lord before I die.’ Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell
you: Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare
some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. Then take it to your
father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.”
Jacob said to
Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth
skin. What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would
bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.”
His mother said to
him, “My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for
me.”
So he went and got
them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the
way his father liked it. Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older
son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. She
also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. Then
she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.
He went to his
father and said, “My father.”
“Yes, my son,” he
answered. “Who is it?”
Jacob said to his
father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up
and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”
Isaac asked his
son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”
“The Lord your God
gave me success,” he replied.
Then Isaac said to
Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my
son Esau or not.”
Jacob went close
to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of
Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He did not recognize him, for his
hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him.
“Are you really my
son Esau?” he asked.
“I am,” he replied.
Then he said, “My
son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.”
Jacob brought it
to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac
said to him, “Come here, my son, and kiss me.”
So he went to him
and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and
said,
“Ah, the smell of
my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you
heaven’s dew and earth’s richness—an abundance of grain and new wine. May
nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and
may the sons of your mother bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.”
After Isaac
finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his
brother Esau came in from hunting. He too prepared some tasty food and brought
it to his father. Then he said to him, “My father, please sit up and eat some
of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”
His father Isaac
asked him, “Who are you?”
“I am your son,”
he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”
Isaac trembled
violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I
ate it just before you came and I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed!”
When Esau heard
his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his
father, “Bless me—me too, my father!”
But he said, “Your
brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”
Esau said, “Isn’t
he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me:
He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t
you reserved any blessing for me?”
Isaac answered
Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his
servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I
possibly do for you, my son?”
Esau said to his
father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!”
Then Esau wept aloud.
His father Isaac
answered him, “Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from
the dew of heaven above. You will live by the sword and you will serve your
brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your
neck.”
Esau held a grudge
against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. Genesis 27:1-41
And with this, a conflictual rift was established between
these two brothers that would extend well beyond their lives.
Esau would eventually leave Canaan and move to a land
south of where Jacob would settle:
This is the
account of the family line of Esau (that is, Edom).
Esau took his
wives from the women of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, and
Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite— also
Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.
Adah bore Eliphaz
to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel, and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These
were the sons of Esau, who were born to him in Canaan.
Esau took his
wives and sons and daughters and all the members of his household, as well as
his livestock and all his other animals and all the goods he had acquired in
Canaan, and moved to a land some distance from his brother Jacob. Their
possessions were too great for them to remain together; the land where they
were staying could not support them both because of their livestock. So Esau
(that is, Edom) settled in the hill country of Seir.
This is the
account of the family line of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill
country of Seir. Genesis 36:1-9
From this point on, the Edomites would be rivals of
Israel, all tracing back to the days of two brothers, the younger taking the
birthright and blessings from the older.
So what happened to Jacob?
Well, without getting into too much and making this
devotion an epic, he went through his own series of deceits but produced twelve
sons. He also underwent a name change after wrestling with God:
The man asked him,
“What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he
answered.
Then the man said,
“Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with
God and with humans and have overcome.”
Genesis 32:27-28
And so it was. Jacob became Israel and his twelve sons
became leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel, each tribe gaining a portion of
the inheritance of Canaan, the land God promised and delivered to the
Israelites.
Now, with all this as a historical backdrop, we can
better understand the opening words of Malachi 1.
The Lord wanted to remind His people how beloved they
were and He reminded them by going back to Jacob and Esau. Note here that the
word “hated” sounds as if God despised Esau but the reality is that God only
loved Jacob more and thus why Jacob ended up blessed as he was, the progenitor
of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Lord wanted Israel to remember they were
still His favored nation.
As for Edom, the nation which held Esau as their founder,
the message was strikingly different. For because of the resentful, inciteful attitude
the Edomites adopted toward Israel, the Lord promised they would not be blessed
but cursed, gaining a reputation as being the “Wicked Land” under the “wrath of
the Lord”.
Today, we know Israel still remains a nation blessed by
God and any enemies should take notice or run the risk of becoming like Edom,
cursed for being a wicked land and people, enemies of His beloved.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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