God Chose You

Malachi 1v2b-3

16^th October 2020

In the first half of Malachi 1:2, we read:

Malachi 1:2a
"I have loved you," says the Lord. "But you ask, 'How have you loved us?'"

Every Christian knows at some level that God loves him, but it's hard to believe sometimes. Sometimes we don't feel loved. We can remember our personal history with God, as we saw last time, and that can help to assure us. But above all else, we know God loves us because God chose us. He could have chosen somebody else but, if you're a Christian, that's proof that He chose you. And He chose me. The Israelites knew God loved them because He chose them:

Malachi 2b-3
"Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the Lord says, "Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."

You'll remember the story of the twin brothers Jacob and Esau, which starts in Genesis 25:21. While Rebekah was pregnant with them, God told her:

Genesis 25:23
… "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the elder will serve the younger."

When Esau was hungry, he traded his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of red soup. Later Jacob more or less swindled Esau out of his father's blessing. There was contention between them, and between their offspring, ever since.

Esau was called "Edom" which means "red" because of the red soup he exchanged for his birthright (Genesis 25:30) and the nation which grew from him was also called Edom. Jacob was renamed Israel after he wrestled with God on the banks of the river Jabbok, on his way home to take up his inheritance. Israel means "wrestles with God". That's why the nation that grew from him was called "the children of Israel" or, simply, Israel.

Edom's territory bordered Israel's territory to the south-east, and for hundreds of years they fought each other, invading each other's lands and massacring each other's people. When Nebuchadnezzar invaded Israel, the Edomites rejoiced, urging the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem (Psalm 137:7). How tragic that the enmity between these two brothers had continued for hundreds of years.

But the fundamental difference between the two nations of Israel and Edom wasn't the story of the contention between their ancestors. It's the fact that God chose Jacob and didn't choose Esau. As Paul says:

Romans 9:10-16
…Rebekah's children had one and the same father, 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. Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy.

This is the doctrine which Paul and subsequent theologians call election. God didn't choose Jacob because he was a nicer person than Esau. Actually, he was probably a nastier piece of work than Esau. God choose Jacob over Esau for His own reasons, which He chooses not to share with us. You could say God chose Him because He chose him.

Anyway, God chose Jacob to be the patriarch of all His chosen people. And He didn't choose Esau to even be a member of His chosen people. And this wasn't because of any character strength that Jacob had, or because of anything Jacob did. God made His choice before they were born.

God has a purpose in electing – choosing – whom He will. We don't know why He chooses whom He chooses, because He doesn't reveal that information to us. We just know that He does, and that all His judgements and mercies are righteous.

As Paul says, "It does not depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy". God has the absolute right, as creator of the universe, to choose whomsoever He chooses to choose. No-one has the right to question His choice, and no-one has the right to demand that He chooses everybody. He certainly doesn't do that. He didn't choose Esau.

And, amazingly, wonderfully, God chose us. If you're a Christian, then God chose you. He chose me.

Ephesians 1:4-6
…he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Like the people of Malachi's generation, we might dare to as God, "How have you loved us?" But that's a really disrespectful question. This is how God has loved us. Before the creation of the world, God chose us to be His chosen people, His family. He chose to send Jesus to pay for our sins, so we could be holy and blameless in his sight. He chose us in love. He chose us because it gave him pleasure to do so. He chose us to the praise of his glorious grace. He's not going to stop loving us now.