I must be a terrible communicator, since I acknowledged that point in my reference to the "Greatest Commandments" and it completely misses the point that I was attempting to make.
We KNOW that Jesus cannot be talking about that issue, since other scripture is so clear on the matter:
Matthew 22:36-40 [NIV] "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
THEREFORE,
Luke 14:25-27 [NIV] Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
... MUST be trying to tell us something more subtle that has nothing to do with hating our parents or loving God more than people.
Sure, since God says he HATED "Esau" and claimed "their people will be called 'The People with Whom the LORD Is Forever Angry.'", it is safe to say that God loved His chosen people more than those he destroyed and hated and devastated and shattered. That is VERY safe to say.
I was wondering if God's description of His plans for Esau/Edom caused you to have second thoughts on "loved less" as an accurate description of how God describes His feelings? Here it is again:
Malachi 1:3-4 [NIV] "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."
