In Acts 10:34-35, Peter said, “I now realize God does not show favoritism but accepts men who fear him and do what is right”. I believe sometimes God shows favoritism. In Romans 9:13 and Malachi 1:2-3, it is written: “Jacob I love, Esau I hated.” Here God favored Jacob even with all the sins he committed. This shows that God sometimes discriminates. Why?<\/p>\n\t
No one ever gets to live the life of another person.\u00a0 Just because one person lives in better or worse circumstances does not prove that God shows favoritism.\u00a0 God is about the spiritual life.\u00a0 The physical life is not the end state and is not the measure of what happens in the spiritual life.\u00a0 If we were to judge our spiritual life by what happens in the physical, then we would have to judge that Paul was among the most spiritually deprived people (II Corinthians 11:16-33) because he lived a physically miserable life.<\/p>\n
There are two things that have to be determined first.\u00a0 What is meant by hate and who is being talked about?<\/p>\n
The word “hate” does not have to be absolute, nor does it have to mean a feeling of extreme animosity.\u00a0 In Luke 14:26, Jesus is not saying that we have to loathe our parents in order to come to him.\u00a0 Rather, he is just pointing out the extreme difference between our love for our parents and our love for him.\u00a0 Our love for him has to be so high that our love for our parents comes across as hatred. We are still commanded to love our parents.<\/p>\nMalachi is talking about the nations and not about the original individuals.\u00a0\u00a0 In this context, Malachi is talking about the land that each one possesses.\u00a0 Jacob’s people did not get the land for several hundred years after Jacob was dead.\u00a0 Therefore, the men are not being discussed, but rather the nations that came from those men.\u00a0 Putting it together then, it makes less sense to say that Esau personally was hated (as in extreme revulsion) from before he was born.\u00a0 Rather it makes more sense to say that Esau and his descendants were hated (favored far less) than Jacob and his descendants.
\nThe later meaning of hate is what is meant because we see in Malachi that God’s hatred of Esau resulted in Esau being given a mountain wilderness for a home.\u00a0 There are many people who live and continue to live in mountain wildernesses and they are grateful for it.\u00a0 It is not that being assigned a home in the mountains is a sign of condemnation — it is only a sign of living in a place that is less desirable than other lands.\u00a0 By comparison, Jacob was given a lush land.\n
Now getting back to Romans 9:10-14, “Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls-she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’\u00a0 Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’\u00a0 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!<\/em>” Again, the question is about who is being discussed.\u00a0 The nations of Jacob and Esau or the men Jacob and Esau?\u00a0 You would actually be hard-pressed to find a passage that says that Esau ever personally served Jacob.\u00a0 In fact, at the last meeting of Esau and Jacob, it is Jacob who is bowing to Esau (Genesis 33).\u00a0 In Genesis 33:9, Esau says that he had plenty — an indication that God was blessing him also.<\/p>\n What we are left with is that God determined that He was going to make both boys into great nations and one of those nations was going to be greater than the other.\u00a0 So, He told of His plan from before they were born as to which one was going to be the greater.\u00a0 And He determined that before either one of them did anything to deserve their lot.\u00a0 And all of their children who came afterward were born into the blessing of their father.\u00a0 They inherited a blessing because that was God’s plan.\u00a0 It certainly wasn’t because they earned it by being holy for all their generations.\u00a0 Malachi’s complaint was that Jacob was not behaving any better than Esau.\u00a0 Neither one was deserving of what they had.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: In Acts 10:34-35, Peter said, “I now realize God does not show favoritism but accepts men who fear him and do what is right”. I believe sometimes God shows favoritism. In Romans 9:13 and Malachi 1:2-3, it is written: “Jacob I love, Esau I hated.” Here God favored Jacob even with all the sins…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[90,1208,1460,76],"class_list":["post-52544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-god","tag-impartiality","tag-partiality","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23555,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-god-doesnt-show-favoritism-then-why-was-abels-sacrifice-accepted-and-cains-was-rejected\/","url_meta":{"origin":52544,"position":0},"title":"If God doesn’t show favoritism, then why was Abel’s sacrifice accepted and Cain’s was rejected?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The Bible says that God does not show favoritism toward anyone. So how is it that He favored Abel over Cain, and accepted Abel's offering while rejecting Cain's? Answer: By saying that God is impartial (Romans 2:11), what is being said is that God doesn't favor one person over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12646,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-select-our-true-names\/","url_meta":{"origin":52544,"position":1},"title":"Does God select our true names?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been reading through your website and I find a lot of answers to my questions. I have also shared the link to it in our group. I thank God, first of all for the wisdom He's\u00a0given you. Thank you for your time using it. I really appreciate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82440,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-isaiah-433-4-mean\/","url_meta":{"origin":52544,"position":2},"title":"What does Isaiah 43:3-4 mean?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can I please ask you to explain Isaiah 43:3-4 (NIV): \"For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5233,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-bible-support-the-idea-that-all-men-are-created-equal\/","url_meta":{"origin":52544,"position":3},"title":"Does the Bible support the idea that all men are created equal?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does the Bible support the idea that all men are created equal? Answer: In speaking to the Athenians, Paul stated that God \"has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25021,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-spiritual-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":52544,"position":4},"title":"What is spiritual death?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What exactly is spiritual death? Some say that spiritual death is a separation from God. But what exactly is being separated? A physical separation, personal separation, or soul separation after physical death? If it was a physical separation, then why did God continue to have a relationship with Adam\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39130,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-ecclesiastes-say-our-spirits-return-to-god-but-jesus-says-the-spirits-go-to-hades\/","url_meta":{"origin":52544,"position":5},"title":"Why does Ecclesiastes say our spirits return to God, but Jesus says the spirits go to hades?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why does the Bible say that when we die our spirit returns to God (in Ecclesiastes) and we read the story of the rich man and Lazarus that seems to be in a different location? 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