“Jacob Have I Loved, But Esau Have I Hated”
Romans 9:13
WHY DID GOD LOVE JACOB AND HATE ESAU? I can tell you why God LOVED Jacob; IT IS SOVEREIGN GRACE! There was nothing in Jacob that could make God love him; there was everything about him that might have made God hate him as much as He did Esau, and a great deal more. But it was because God is infinitely gracious that He loved Jacob and because He is sovereign in His dispensation of His grace that He chose Jacob as an object of that love. Jacob was loved by God simply on the footing of FREE GRACE.
WHY DID GOD HATE ESAU? Why does God hate any man? I defy anyone to give any answer but this… because that man DESERVES to be hated. No reply but that can be true. If God deals severely with any person, it is because that person deserves all that he gets. Esau did not lose his birthright; he sold it. he sold it for a “mess of pottage.” If any of you want to know what I preach, it is this: “I preach salvation all of grace and damnation all of sin. I give God the glory for every soul that is saved; and when I come to preach damnation, I say that damnation is of man.”