Does God hate

Mal 1:3 but Esau I hated,and made his mountains a desolation,and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness
Does this verse tell me that god can hate as well as love
John

It is not a subject mentioned much, but God certainley can Hate. Rev 2:6 "Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolations, WHICH I ALSO HATE. So God also shows hat in the New Testament also.

Did God Hate Esau? probably. Did He hate him personally or his deeds? unclear.

Jesus said it would be better for Judas if he had not been born? Annanias who lied about the selling price of a field along with his wife was struck dead. How do we rationalise this with a loving God?

We recognise that God is Holy. He cannot tolerate any Sin. We are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are able to have a "Covenant Relationship" with God. Break the Covenant and you may well see a side to Christianity that is not nice. God created Hell, He sends peoople that reject Him there. Churches may not like to teach about Hell or accountability - punishment. But it is a central doctrine of our faith as Christians.

It's a guestions of symantics. God is a God of love, a love which the Bible tells us is unconditional. So if the questions is 'does God hate, as in the opposite of unconditional love', then answer is no. This is one of those many situations where the English language doesn't have an exact translation for the Hebrew and Greek texts.

When looking up the syntax for the words used in these verses, it seems that the word 'hate' here is not the absence of 'love'.

In the first instance, the word hate referrs to seeing someone as a foe. God saw Esau as someoone who was an adversary.

In the second instance, it looks like the syntax referrs to detest, specifically when referring to persecution.

Who said God's love is unconditional??

Cheers,

Jim

It was noted that God "is" love. You will find that Hate in many contexts simply means "against". We are told to hate our mother and father, sister and brother.....etc. The context of it all is that we do not put anyone ahead of Christ. God does not hate as we do. He so "loved the world, thae he gave his son...and you know the rest.

The specific meaning of the word "hate", even in the English language is to "dislike intensely."

The very nature of God demands this reaction to sin. Indeed He hates sin. This is the very nature that makes God's love conditional, as evidenced everywhere in scripture.

We have placed an intense "hatred" as being an evil thing by modern connotations, but there are many things we "hate" all the time, but we don't go about burning up over it.

Cheers,

Jim

Psalm 5:5(NASB) The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity.

Psalm 11:5(NASB)The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates.

God's love is unconditional as we cannot do anything to merit it. God's hatred is conditional as it is directed at the creature because of the creature's sin.

Ken

[ November 17, 2002, 02:27 PM: Message edited by: Ken Hamilton ]

I would offer here along with Jim and Ken the additional thought that love demands hate as well. We -- and God -- will hate what threatens or hurts that which we love. How could it be otherwise?

Regarding Esau, we read in Hebrews 11:20 that both Jacob and Esau were initially blessed in regard to their futures. This was the prophecy their mother received about the boys in her womb. However, we read then that Esau was godless, selling his birthright for a bowl of soup (Hebrews 12:15-16). He also ended up marrying pagan women, much to the distress of his parents. Thus, we see in Malachi 1 that Esau was hated and Jacob was loved. Of Esau's inheritance, the Lord says, "I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."

Paul reviews all of this in Romans 9:12-13 when he reminds his reader of both the blessing and the end result for each of the twins. But we are not left in doubt about why God hated Esau after having blessed him in the womb: Esau ended up godless, throwing his very birthright back in God's face, so to speak, for something to eat.

The best person to contrast this with is Jesus, who refused to turn stones into bread even when He was far hungrier than Esau ever could have been. Thus Jesus refused to give up His birthright for food, saying that man does not live by bread alone. I am quite sure the comparison between the two did not escape the early Jewish Christians, although I don't hear it spoken of now.

[ November 17, 2002, 02:55 PM: Message edited by: Helen ]

I won't go into great detail here, but God as love, is not to be confused with mercy and goodness toward creatures. These are merely its manifestations. God as love, is love, in and of itself.

In His dealings with humankind, it is indeed conditional. It is determined on His terms, not ours. Even scripture had different words for love and different meanings........God is love, is not the same as God shows His love. The first is a law unto itself; the second a gift.

Cheers,

Jim

Somethinng I have learned in outr long study of the O.T. in Sunday school is frequently when the O.T. says Esau it represents those who are not God's people, and Jacob represents God's people. Becasue as you see in the O.T. God bringing about His plan for seperating a people for Himself, and ultimately to bring Jesus from that people(He is in the line of David), God choose Jacob for the lineage, but not Esau, and in the O.T. God's people are always having trouble with the lineage of Esau(Edom), and there was a prophesy about God destroying them becasue of what tey had done to Israel,a dn then they were destroyed and no longer exsist, yet Jacob(lineage still exsists as the Jews.
HAve I made sence? Bet I'm dumb and you already knew that.

God loves the sinner, but hates the sin. Here are just some things He hates.

Proverbs 6:16  These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17  A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18  An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19  A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Yes, God does hate. He hated Esau. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? GOD FORBID.