The sovereign love of God.
Remembering that the scriptural sense of "hate" in this and corresponding passages is to love less in comparison, or to reject when there is a competition of claims, we nevertheless learn from this passage—
I. THAT GOD'S LOVE TO INDIVIDUALS AND TO NATIONS IS A SOVEREIGN LOVE. By this we mean that it is a love which bestows special favours, for reasons which cannot be discovered in those that enjoy them, but in the gracious purpose of God.
1. In the case of the two brothers personally we note the following facts: Esau was the elder, yet not the heir of the promise. He suffered at the hands of a brother in some respects less noble than himself. He thus lost his father's chief blessing and had to take the remnants, and to be satisfied with a poorer inheritance, while Jacob received "the glory of all lands."
2. The two nations, Israel and Edom, were separated like two rivers issuing from the same fountain, the one destined to be a highway of commerce and a source of fertility, the other to be lost in the sands of the desert. Israel, blessed with a priesthood, a succession of prophets, and a covenant "ordered in all things and sure," in spite of many apostasies; Edom, allowed to drift into idolatry and crime till it became known as "the border of wickedness," etc. (Malachi 1:4). Such gifts and calling of God cannot be annulled any more than his sentences of judgment can be reversed (Malachi 1:4). In those judgments and in those mercies men shall see the finger of God, and shall stand in awe of the glory of God (Malachi 1:5). These truths applicable to God's dealings with nations now.
3. The salvation of individuals is no less the result of sovereign love, inasmuch as the very beginnings of spiritual life are of God, and are "according to his own purpose and grace," etc. (2 Timothy 1:9). Election is not "an order of merit," but a cord of love. The experience of all Christians confirms the doctrine of God's sovereignty in salvation, though it cannot answer the many questions suggested by God's varied dealings with individuals, or explain the reasons of his eternal purposes. Note St. Paul's "conclusion of the matter" (Romans 11:33-36).
II. THAT THIS UNMERITED LOVE OF GOD MAY BE IGNORED BY THE RECEIVERS. "Wherein hast thou loved us?" This may arise from:
1. Forgetting past mercies under the presence of present trials, like Israel (Psalms 106:12-14).
2. Forgetting our present blessings as contrasted with the lot of others.
3. Having an imperfect sense of our absolute dependence on the unmerited mercy of God (Deuteronomy 7:7, Deuteronomy 7:8).
4. And therefore taking even our spiritual blessings very much as a matter of course, and indulging in self-complacency rather than cultivating grateful humility in view of "the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:7, 1 Corinthians 4:8).