Shabbat Shalom. I'm going to ask you to turn with me to the prophet Malachi. In Hebrew we call him Malachi, my messenger, is the meaning of the name of Malachi, and Malachi wrote and ministered to our people of all, the people of Israel, about 400 years before Yeshua the Messiah was pronounced as the Lamb of God, which would take away the sin of this world. So Malachi, very interesting book. It is actually the last prophecy that our forefathers heard from God for about 400 or 450 years passed by and there was no messenger to present before Israel a message until John the Baptizer came and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of this world.

So I would like to read today the first five verses of chapter 1. And we have already have gone through an introduction in our previous ministry meeting. And today I would like to just present before you the first five verses of the first chapter. Let me read those verses so we will have this before us. It says in verse 1, Malachi 1.1, the burden of the word of the Lord to Yisrael by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

Where is a dome, saith, we are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places, thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down. And they shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord has indignation forever. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the borders of Israel. Yigdal Adonai me'al gvul Yisrael. These are the last verse I want to read today. Now, brothers and sisters, just once again, give me a moment or two before I'm going to enter into these verses. I want to just refresh your mind with that one fact, that by the time that we read the prophet Malachi, it is about 430 or so BC.

Jewish people who returned from Babel now have already built a temple in the city of Jerusalem. They finished to build the temple at about 513 B.C. The temple was finalized and the sacrificial system had continued on. About 515 B.C. The temple was finished and the people of Israel are now back from the diaspora, the dispersion. The Jewish people have already rebuilt the temple in Yerushalayim. The walls of Jerusalem was already built by Nehemiah, Nehemiah. And you might say things began to come into a formal order. After those 70 years of dispersion, and after the return back, Now, by that time, the very same temple that was once destroyed in 586 B.C.

By the Babylonian is now rebuilt, of course, in a smaller scale, but rebuilt again. The sacrificial system continued. The priests were there doing their service. There was an altar there. The animals were killed. And you might say the routine of the worship of the Lord now was restored. And now that it was restored, you would expect that the people, Israel, our nation, who have enjoyed now a restoration, and now you might say the service of the Lord and the worship of the Lord continue on, you may say what a privilege it is. Let us now enjoy what God had brought us back into. Our forefathers were in Babel.

Our forefathers have already suffered, have been persecuted. Now we are coming back. Yes, we have enemies around us, but at least we can worship the Lord and praise the Lord and go through the ceremonies and And all that, you might say, the rituals that God has given to our fathers according to the law. But something has happened. And something has happened, perhaps we might say, similar into our condition today in the days of the assembly, the church age. The restoration back to the truth that was given to us in the word of God is amazing. It is great. The problem is that there is a problem because the heart, though we're going through the routine, we are going through the system, and yet the heart still is hardened and discouraged and not really enjoying the things that God has intended us to enjoy.

Now I'm always, as I'm studying and teaching the Word of God in relationship to Israel, I'm always making an application to our lives today because if you remember, as we read it many, many times in the Brit HaChadasha, in the New Testament, the apostles more than once said when he wrote to the Romans and when he wrote to the Corinthians, He said in Romans chapter 15, for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning. That we, through patience and comfort of the Scripture, might have hope. In other words, we learn from the events that happened in the days of Malachi to apply it to our lives today.

You see, we live today in the last days of what we know and understand of the church age. 2,000 years pass by. The Messiah had already died, was buried, and rose again. He was ascended to heaven. The Holy Spirit of God descended in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago. He formed the assembly, the ecclesia, when the Spirit of God descended and formed the body of Messiah. 2,000 years passed by, and now we are finding ourselves right now, much later, after all the experiences that the body of Messiah have experienced. In about the 1800s, about a few hundred years ago, there was a revival. And the times of darkness, of the dark ages, had passed by, and there was a revival, and the truth of the Word of God was now presented, and many got saved and accepted, The Lord Jesus, the Messiah, and become part of the assembly, part of the ecclesia.

There was a time, the dark ages, where the Bible could not have been even read. We didn't have believers in the early days, in the dark ages, never had the privilege that you and I have today to read the Word of God and to study the Scripture and to search the Scripture and to ask the Lord to guide us. We are in such a privileged era and the last days of the church age, just the same like our own Jewish brethren were in the days of Malachi. But, beloved brothers and sisters, whatsoever things have happened to our people of all under the law, we can see it evidently happening today to the assembly, to the people of God, to the ecclesia under grace.

While Israel, our forefathers, fell under the law, You see in these last days of the church age how the church have completely failed under the days of grace. Last week, or last ministry meeting, when we started together, we read 2 Timothy. Where the Apostle Paul said, I know. He said, I know that in the last days, perilous times shall come. And he listed the things that will happen in the last days of which you and I experience today in our own life and in our own people's lives today. So now in this preaching of Malachi, it is really very interesting because it's like a dialogue. God state a statement, Israel responding to God with a response, with an answer, and God began to explain to them that whatever condition they are in they were wrong and they have departed from the Lord and so if you notice there are seven statements that God says here in the whole book of Malachi that he give to the people of Israel restored remnant of Israel who are now back in the land back in Jerusalem back in the temple back through the worship system and all things seems to be just right.

But the heart was not right. And it didn't take too long and they were so discouraged and they didn't continue to follow that which God had intended for them to follow. The first thing that we find out in chapter 1, Malachi 1, verses 1 to 5 is the first statement of God concerning his people Israel. The response of Israel and then the answer of God in response to what they said. In this case is chapter 1 verses 1 to 5. God is presenting the fact that he has loved his own people Israel. And so you notice that it says here the first verse of Malachi chapter 1 verse 1. The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

And I just want one more point before I'm going to move along. The word the burden comes from the Hebrew word Masah. Masah means a load that one is carrying. When I was in the Israeli army, we had to carry many Masahot, many heavy burdens in order to strengthen you, to be able to run and to walk for miles after miles after miles. But here the Masah is not something physical that Malachi was carrying, but it was the spiritual condition that Malachi was exhorted to present it before Israel that their condition was so wrong that it became like a heavy load that God had to tell Israel that he was very much concerned about their spiritual state.

And so it was the burden, the Massah, of the word of the Lord. Notice it was not Malachi's burden, It was the burden of the word of the Lord, but he presented it to Israel through the man by the name of Malachi. In this book of Malachi, there are four times the word Malachi or Malachi mentioned. The word Malachi simply means messenger. In chapter 1, verse 1, the Malachi or the messenger was the servant, the prophet Malachi himself. In chapter 2, the servant or the messenger was the priest himself. In chapter 2, verse 7, for he is the messenger of the Lord. In chapter 3, verse 1a, we have the third person who is a messenger.

And the third person is the announcer of the coming of the Messiah at his first coming. And we know that, that it is applied to John, Yohanan, Hamadbil, John the baptizer. And in chapter 3 and verse 1b, the fourth person that the word messenger applied to, and this is to the person of Yeshua, the Messiah, the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. So we have four times, by the Holy Spirit of God, mentioned the word Malach, or Malachi, my messenger. Once applied to Malachi the man, the second time applied to the priest who is a messenger, the third time it applied to John the baptizer, Yohanan Amadbil, and the fourth time it's applied to Yeshua, Jesus, our Lord, and our Messiah, who is the messenger of the covenant, who would come to provide for Israel that new covenant, the Brit HaChadasha, when he would die and will be buried and will be resurrected from among the dead.

And so here we begin. From the next verses, from verse 2 all the way to verse 5, those are the only verses I would like to speak about in this ministry meeting today. Verse 2 to verse 5 we have some of the things that the Lord is dialoguing with Israel he's sharing with the people of Israel and you notice how it began in verse 2 it says that the Lord is announcing his love for the people of Israel notice what it says I have loved you saith the Lord in Hebrew it's very nice it says I just simply love you I have loved you in the past I love you in the present and I will love you in the future I love you this is tremendous when God is saying to the Jewish people who return now from Babel and they are now already the next generation and the next generation some few hundred years pass by And he's giving them this wonderful statement and he said to them, I loved you.

I love you now, I loved you in the past, and I will love you for time and for eternity. This is tremendous, the thing of God's love. I mentioned in our previous meeting together that there are four verses in the Word of God that you might say describe before all humanity of the love of God. John 3.16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Then we also mention Jeremiah chapter 31 where God said to Israel I have loved you with an everlasting love. Ahavat Ad. A love that is unconditional.

According to verse 3, I have loved you with an everlasting love, God said to our people of all the people of Israel. In other words, it is unconditional and unlimited to a time and to a season. I have loved you with an everlasting love. Then in Ephesians chapter 5, And verse 25, we read, Husband, love your wives as the Messiah loved the assembly, Paul Shaul said, and gave himself for the assembly, the church, the ecclesia. Paul said in Ephesians chapter 5, and this is an exhortation for us who are believers to love our wives as the Mashiach loved the assembly and gave himself for the church, for the assembly, for the ecclesia.

And then we also mentioned in our previous meeting together that Paul, Shaul, elsewhere said in Galatians 2.20, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul was always fascinated with the fact that how can God love me? He was saying when he was sharing this with the Galatians believers. So God's love for the world, John 3.16. God's love for Israel, Jeremiah 31.3. God's love for the assembly, Ephesians 5.25. And God's love for you, for me individually, Galatians 2 and verse 20. And so God is pronouncing this statement when he said, to Israel, he says, I have loved you, sayeth the Lord. Now you and I might wonder and say, what is it that God found in Israel that he loved the nation?

What is it that God found in the church and the assembly that he loved the assembly? What is it that God loved in the world that have rejected him? And what is it that in you and I that God loves us unconditionally, unconditionally the love of God towards whom he has set his love upon, it is unconditional. Now, I want you for the context, if you will, go back with me to the book of Deuteronomy for a moment, because we are studying Malachi, but I want you to see it in light of historical promises of God to the people of Israel, historical relationship that he had with our forefathers, the people of Israel.

Look at the Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 6, 7, and 8. We read there in verse 6, God said to Israel through Moshe Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses the lawgiver, God said to him to say to Israel, for thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God has chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And then he continues, he says, the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than the people or than any people for ye were the fewest of all the people but then he continues but because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers has the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeem you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt look at this by the way when God stated this statement in Deuteronomy chapter 7 our forefathers the people of Israel were standing on the shore of the promised land soon they will enter into the promised land 38, 39 years have passed by where they rebelled and disobeyed God all along for 40 years, 38, 39 years and yet God still say I have loved you Now it makes you wonder, it makes you wonder, why would God set his love knowing the manner of the behavior of the people whom he has chosen?

Yet he says, I've loved you. After 40 years, nearly 40 years of rebellion and complaining against God and against his will, constantly saying, we don't have any food, we don't have any water, we want to go back to Egypt to eat the to eat the food from Egypt to back to Egypt and God says no i want you to go to the promised land that i will give to you i promise to your fathers and yet Israel rebelled again and again and when they were standing before the shores of the promised land God said to them the Lord did not set his love upon you nor chose you because you were more in number than any of the people but because the Lord has loved you.

We will never understand the love of God. We will never fathom His unconditional love towards His people. Notice in chapter 10 in the same book of Deuteronomy in chapter 10 and verses 14 and 15 we read, listen to this beloved brothers and sisters behold he said verse 14 the heavens and the heavens of heaven is the Lord thy God the earth also with all that therein is only listen to this verse 15 only the Lord had delight in thy fathers to love them and he chose their seed after them even you above all the people as it is this day it's not because Israel or the Jewish people were better than any other nation but it was simply the election and the love of God towards our forefathers that brought them into such a favor the love of God towards His people I read Jeremiah 31.3 I have loved you with everlasting love I didn't read but Hosea 11 God speak of Israel Israel is my firstborn and I have loved him sometime beloved brothers and sisters when you're on your own and when you are questioning the Lord sometime ask yourself the question.

Why is it that God has loved me and brought me into a relationship with him? What is it in me that God could set his love upon me? It is fascinating. It is fascinating. So you see, when God states this statement to Israel, Israel, like you and I, have the audacity to question the love of God. And you notice what we read here in verse 2 again, but this time 2b, the second part of verse 2, it says there, yet ye say, notice that, Malachi chapter 1, verse 2b, yet ye say, wherein has thou loved us? In other words, in a different translation, yet ye say, how is it that you say that you loved us in what way you really loved us and you know what they kind of neglected to look back at the faithfulness of God throughout the whole history of their people of Israel and to say the fact that they have experienced persecution even in those days A few years earlier, in the days of Haggai and Zechariah, God promised that he will eventually bring about the Messianic kingdom.

So when they were sitting now in the temple or in the city of Jerusalem, they were looking back just a few years earlier, when in the time of Haggai, in the time of Zechariah, the Jewish people built the temple, And when Zerubbabel and Ezra beautify and build the temple and beautify it, and they look back and Haggai said to them by the word of the Lord that the temple that they are building, meaning looking to the future, will be greater than ever before. And they were anticipating the Messianic kingdom to come. But it didn't come. They didn't quite understand, like many of us do not understand, the program of God and the plans of God and the way he works in our life we don't quite understand so instead of saying God love me anyway in spite of the fact that I am going through difficult time they began to ask the question does God really love me I don't know of you like me.

But when things don't go right in my life, I began to question. Sadly, of course, does really God care? Does he really love me? If he really loved me, why did this happen to me in my life? People question him. If really God loved me, why I have my health problem? Maybe why my finances are not as well as I would expect them to be? If really God loves me, why do I go through these experiences right now in my life? Maybe with my family, maybe with my children, maybe with my health. Does God really love me? That is the question that you and I might raise and that's what they said to him.

In Hebrew in other words in what or wherein you really loved us did you really love us do you really love us we question God it is amazing beloved brothers and sisters how the human heart is instead of recognizing that in every circumstance in our life God knows best and he's sovereign, he allows things to happen? Yes, we live in a world that is filled with sorrows and trials and tribulation. You remember what Yeshua said in John chapter 16? In this world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. In other words, you and I might say, when everything is going to be well, and we're going to sit and everything is comfortable, everything is easy and no problem in our life, then will be the time that we can say that God loves us?

No. You know how do we know that God loves us? Just think what happened to Yeshua, the Messiah, when He died for us on the cross. This is God who became a man. And as a man, he went all the way to the shameful cross where he was penalized for every sin that we have committed, past, present, and future. You remember what we read in John 13 at the Passover? We just celebrated the Passover. John chapter 13, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them all the way through. He could have called 10,000 angels and destroyed the world and be freed from going to the cross, but he did not.

A shameful death he died. He suffered on our behalf. You tell me that God does not love you? Again, John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave. He didn't expect from us anything. But he gave his only begotten son. But you can see that Israel, like you and I, challenging God and saying, wherein have you loved us? How can you say that you love us? Look at our situation today. We have all kind of problems. We have enemies from without. We cannot enjoy what we want to enjoy. The promises that you have given us haven't come to fruition. How can you say that you really love us?

And so God is so gracious. And thank God the way that he is. If he will treat us the way we deserve to be treated. If he would have treated Israel the way Israel deserved to be treated. Because of their unbelief and violation of his word. Israel will have no longer any future. But God in his grace is dialoguing. He's explaining to his people. And he's showing to them that really after all. He does love them. And he began to tell them their history. And so notice what he does. And I wanted to say that from verse 2c, the third portion of verse 2, all the way to verse 4, he gives them fivefold reason or proofs to the fact that he really, really loved the people of Israel whom he had chosen to be his chosen people.

Notice that the first thing that he said to them, and he's responded to his own people who said, wherein have thou loved us? In B, notice, not quite towards the end of verse 2, he stated this statement and he said to them, was not Esau Jacob's brother? You know what he does? It's so interesting because he takes the Jewish people all the way back to where Jacob and Esau were born. And I'd like you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 25. Go back with me to Genesis chapter 25. And I want you to notice that, dear brothers and sisters, that there, when God says, was not Esau Jacob's brother, In Genesis, chapter 25, he reminds Israel of how Israel as a nation came to be.

And so in Genesis, chapter 25, if you remember, we read there in verse 19, and these are the generation of Isaac, Yitzchak, Abraham's son. Abraham beget Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rivka to wife the daughter of Betuel, the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Lavan, the Syrian. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rivka, his wife, conceived. In verse 22, he continued, he said, and the children struggled together within her. And she said, if it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord. So you remember Rivka, she was actually barren.

Yitzchak, Isaac, prayed to God and he says, God, please allow my wife to be impregnant so we will have a family. So God have answered to the prayer of Yitzchak, of Isaac, and Rebekah conceived, and apparently, when she conceived, she had two children in her belly. Because he does say the children were struggling within her, and she was troubled, and she went to inquire of the Lord. She said, why is it that I feel the way I feel? It seems to be like there is going a conflict already in my belly before my children were even born. So notice what the Lord said to her in verse 23 he said that the Lord said unto her two nations are in thy womb two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels the one people shall be stronger than the other people and the elders shall serve the younger verse 24 and when her days to be delivered were fulfilled behold they were twins in her womb then verse 25 and the first came out red all over like an hairy garment and they called his name Esav in English Esa in Hebrew Esav and then in verse 26 and after that came his brother out and his hand took hold of Esa's heel and his name was called Yaakov and Isaac was 60 years old and when she bare him.

In other words, here's two boys struggling in the belly of Rivka, in the womb of Rivka. The first one that was born, his name was Esav because he was hairy. The second one, Yaakov, held the hill of Esav and his name was called Yaakov. It comes from the Hebrew word hill holder. He held the hill. He came out after him. Here was Esav, the first one, the second one was Yaakov. And now God reminded Israel, was not Esau Jacob's brother? He took the people of Israel all the way to the time when Yitzhak and Rivka had two sons. Both of them are twins. Both of them are struggling already in the womb of the mother.

Both of them came in that order. Esav was first and Yaakov was next. And so twins, same mother, same father. Both of them were brought forth out into this world. Both of them were part of the same family. But now here God is teaching the people of Israel and he's teaching us something that many of us have a lot of problem with and the next statement that we have here in this first chapter of Malachi again it is found here in chapter one you notice that immediately after he said in verse two was not Esau Jacob's brother says the Lord yet notice what he said in the last portion of chapter 1 and verse 2, yet I loved Jacob.

And if you just continue to read in verse 3, and I hated Esav, Esau. When we read such a statement, Immediately, we ask ourselves the question, how is it that God said, I hated Esau? I loved Ahavti et Yaakov, Vesaneti et Esav in Hebrew. I have loved Jacob, and he said, but I hated Esau. Of course, to read a verse like that, how many a time, many people ask me this question, Brother Gideon, I just don't understand, how is it that God could say that he hated Esau? Now, beloved brothers and sisters, that's why it's so good to understand, or we can say it this way, that God never hates any human being.

God never hates any human being God hates sin but he loves the sinner nowhere throughout Scripture we ever read of God hating any human being the only place that is mentioned it is here but we need to understand what is he saying here when he said Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated does God hate human being the answer of course is not again to mention John 3 16 declare for God so loved the world the human race that he was willing to give his son the Messiah to die for the human race so God does not hate any men or any woman but we need to understand what is the Hebrew biblical explanation as to these two statements so when God loves one and hates the other we understand that from other passages that God have chosen the one and did not choose the other it has to do with election was not Esau Jacob's brother yet we read Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated.

God does not hate the person of Esau but God have elected the one and did not elect the other now let me prove this to you from Scripture so if you go back with me once again to Genesis the same passage, Genesis chapter 25, and I want to read just a couple of verses there. Notice that, first of all, you see that, and I'm back to the very same passage, put your finger in Malachi, don't lose Malachi, we are back to Genesis chapter 25. Notice the statement that we read in verse 23, Genesis 25 and verse 23. This is very helpful to see, to understand it, that election, or choosing the one, and not choosing the other.

Notice that it already happened before even the babies or the children were even born. Look at this, verse 23. The Lord said unto her, verse 23, this is Rivka, two nations are in your womb, two men, two manner of people shall be separated from thy boughs. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people. And notice there, The elder shall serve the younger. Now, God already told Rivka long before the children even came out into this world that the elder, a sab who came first, will serve the younger, Yaakov, who came after him, out. It is an issue of election. It's not a love and hate because God never hates any human being, but it is elected or did not elect.

Let me show you a little bit to develop it a little bit more that we will see that as well when it's come to other passages. Look at Genesis 29 now. Jacob was born, Esau was born. They became two, you might say, nations. They were separated now from each other because after all, Jacob has stole the birthright from Esav and he went away. And now notice in Genesis chapter 29, look what we read concerning Rachel and Leah. You remember Jacob have worked for Lavan. Lavan was his family member. He went all the way to his house. Lavan has two daughters. One of them Rachel, the other one Leah.

Yaakov want to have one of his daughters to marry her. So you remember in chapter 29, he said to Jacob that he's willing, he want to have her as a wife. So he said to Laban, Laban said to him, you've got to work for seven years for Rachel. So the Bible said in verse 20 of Genesis chapter 29, that Jacob served seven years for Rachel. And they seemed unto him but a few days for the love that he had for her. Can you imagine? He wanted to marry this young lady and seven years for him became like a few days. That's what a real love is. You labor and you labor and you labor and you labor and you labor for years, seven years.

But it's like a few days when your heart is set in love upon one. And so we continue now. You notice that where it says a little bit later in verse 29 to 31, you notice that his seven years have passed by and he finally wanted to get his wife Rachel, but what Lavan does? He tricks him. And instead of giving to him Rachel that he loved, he gave him the other sister by the name of Leah. He goes in at night, he comes, gets up in the morning, look, lo and behold, it's not Rachel. It's Leah. And then he had to work an additional seven years to get Rachel.

But I want you just to notice what it says. Very, very interesting in these verses. This is Genesis 29, verse 30. I'll read verse 29, 30, and 31. It says, And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his handmaid, to be her maid. And he went also unto Rachel, and he loved. Notice he said, he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and he served him yet seven other years. And then it says in verse 31, and when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Notice the word, Jacob loved Rachel, but the Lord saw that he hated Leah. But he didn't hate Leah.

He just didn't choose Leah. Jacob, have I chosen? Esau, have I not chosen? It's not a matter of hating because God never hates any man. It's an expression of the fact that one has elected one over the other because that was his sovereign choice. Now let me develop this just a little bit more Because in Deuteronomy, go now to Deuteronomy chapter 21, there is an additional explanation that would help us to understand the love-hate or the election, the sovereignty of God in election. Deuteronomy chapter 21, verses 15, 16, and 17. And I'm reading. Here we find out an instruction that God gave to Israel through Moses and he said, if a man, verse 15, have two wives, and notice that brothers and sisters, one beloved and another hated.

And they have borne him children, both the beloved, the one who is loved, and the other one who is hated. And if the firstborn son be held that was hated, verse 16, then it shall be when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn. Now notice that. It's very unusual that a man have two wives. That was not what God had intended from the beginning. Let a man leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his own wife and them two shall be one flesh.

But here we can see, here's a situation that God gave an instruction through Moshe. If a man have two wives, the one he loved, the other one he hated, another one it has a matter of preferences rather than despising and hating one that is not the intention that we have here the thought of hating in the context of Malachi chapter 1 and verse 2 and 3 is simply one was elected and chosen and the other one was not. Because God does not hate any man or any woman. God hates sin while he loves the sinner. And for this he proved when he sent the Messiah Yeshua to die for the sin of this world.

Now I'd like you to turn to a New Testament passage that will illustrate as well for us. Go to Luke chapter 14 with me. Matthew, Mark, Luke, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 14. And I want you to see what Yeshua, the Messiah, himself says in relationship to love or hate. Notice what we read in Luke chapter 14 and verses 25 and 26. Here is Yeshua himself said, the Messiah himself, we read in verse 25, and there went great multitude with him, and he turned and he said unto them, and notice what he says, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters.

Yea, his own life also he cannot be my disciple. What does it mean when Yeshua says, if any man hate not his father and his mother, what does Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah teaches us to hate our parents, to hate our children, to hate our wives, to hate our brethren, to hate even our own life? He cannot be my disciple. What does he mean? Obviously, beloved brothers and sisters, what we learn, this is Hebraic. This is a Hebrew way of expression that God gave to our people, of all the people of Israel in his word. Love and hate is elected versus not elected. It's just the same like if you would go to buy anything.

You would choose one over the other. Jacob have I chosen, and Esau I have not chosen. Now, of course, we know the life of Jacob. He says, how can God say, I can understand where God could say I've hated Esau. Well, what I can't understand, how can God say, I love Jacob? What we cannot understand, how can God say, I love you? Knowing our heart condition, knowing our sinfulness, how can God even love us and choose us to be those with whom he will have eternal relationships? So when God responded to Israel who said, wherein have thou loved us? Number one, he says, was not Esau Jacob's brother?

Look at history. He was a twin brother. Number two, God says, yet I love Jacob. Jacob was not better than Esau. Yaakov is not better than Esau. And then he said, I hated Esau, meaning I did not choose Esau, but I did choose Jacob. It's my sovereign choice. I'm a sovereign God, and I can choose whom I will. This is, brothers and sisters, what we call in Scripture the truth of election. Election. Now we don't quite grasp it and we are always willing to tell God whom should he choose and whom should he not, who deserve and who is not, but God does not ask man.

God does not ask Israel, neither is he asking you and I. He is sovereign and he elect whomsoever he will. Let me show you another verse. Go to Ephesians chapter 1, please, with me. Ephesians chapter 1, now in relationship, not only in relationship to Israel, But in relationship to each and every one of us, look what Ephesians, our pastor Paul said in Ephesians chapter 1 and verses 3 and 4, Paul said there to remind the brethren in Ephesus who were pagan, who were idol worshippers, he said to them in verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in the Messiah according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world where were we when God had elected you and I who became believers in time God had chosen us before the foundation of the world as we clearly can see here in Ephesians chapter 1 and verses 3 and 4.

Paul said it to the Colossians in Colossians chapter 3. Notice what he said to them in verse 12. Colossians 3 and verse 12, Paul is saying to them, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness. Humbleness of mind, meekness, and long-suffering. You are an elect of God. Shaul Paul said this to the believers in the city of Colossae. I read one more verse in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 4. And notice there what the Apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians. He says to them, knowing brethren beloved your election of God and I don't have to tell you in John chapter 15 when Yeshua before he died he said to the apostle ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you now you might come with your reasoning and I might come with my reasoning and Israel might come with their reasoning but God is telling to Israel Jacob have I chosen and Esau I have not chosen.

That is the truth of election. God have elected Israel long before Israel was even coming to an existence where he said in Genesis chapter 25, the elder shall serve the younger long before they were even born. God have elected Jacob because he is sovereign. And he has a right to choose whom he may. So, beloved brothers and sisters, in verse 2, was not Esau Jacob's brother? The first respond. The second respond, yet I have loved Jacob. Chapter 1, verse 2 at the end. And then in chapter 1, verse 3, he says, I hated Esau. I did not choose Esau, but I chose Yaakov because I am sovereign. And even though Jacob does not deserve election, yet it is the sovereignty of God.

And I want you also to notice that God never hurts man. He loves man. But you know what he does? He hates the things that man does because of sin. That's what God hates. Every time you and I sin, God hates that sin, while He loves that sinner. Let me show you another verse. Go to Proverbs, the book of Proverbs. In Hebrew we call it Mishle. This is a very important verse to read. Proverbs chapter 6. God gave Israel through Shlomo, Solomon the king of Israel, he gave Israel this list of things that God hates. He never hates men, but he hates sin. And look at this list that we have in Proverbs 6, verses 16 to 19.

It says, and this is King Shlomo, Solomon said, These six things does the Lord hates. Yes, seven are an abomination unto him. And here's the list. Number one, he hates a proud look. Number two, he hates a lying tongue. Number three, he hates the hands that shed innocent blood. Number four, verse 18, he hates the heart that devises wicked imagination. Number five, he hates the feet that be swift to run to mischief. Number six, verse 19, he hates false witness that speak lies. And yet the greatest of them all, number seven, is that he that sows discord among brethren. Do you know how many times we are not careful in a way that we behave instead of building the people of God?

We are sowing seeds of discord among God's people. And God hates it. He despised it. And that's why it's the greatest of them all. He said, as it says, six things the Lord hates, but the seventh are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, a hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devices wicked imagination, feet that are swift to running after mischief, false witnesses and he notice now he's centering the person, he that soweth discord among brethren you know how many of assemblies have been divided because we didn't watch the way we said things and acted upon them you know how many time people have ended up separating from each other because we sowed this seed of sin to sow discord among the people of God.

And God hates it. He hates it. Yet he loved the sinner so much. So Jacob have I loved? Jacob have I chosen? Esau have I hated? Esau I simply did not choose. I am sovereign, and I do as I please, and I am God, and I am supreme over the face of this world. And so now please go back with me to our chapter, and now just to conclude here for us. Now in verse 3, after he mentioned the fact that Esau had he not chosen, then he also showed to the people of Israel who complained, wherein you have loved us, he shows us the consequence of Esau's disobedience to him and his departure from God that brought about the necessity that God have disciplined and punished Esau.

Issa and his descendants, because Edom become the nation that are descended from Esab. And so listen to these verses, very interesting, because in the next verse, at the end of verse three, it says here, notice he said, I hated Issa, and notice what it says at the end of this verse three, and I laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. In other words, what God said in the end of verse 3, that God now have disciplined Esau who departed from him, and he laid the mountains and the heritage of Esau to be wasted. And you know, a dome today is really found today from south from the Dead Sea, all the way and to the Gulf of the Aqaba there, those of you that have been with me to Israel and have been crossing through the Aqaba border into Jordan, all these areas on the other side of the Dead Sea is present-day Jordan.

And all these areas were occupied by the Edomite, the Admonite, and the Midianite, and Midian, Ammon, and Moab was there, And God says, notice what he says to us here in verse 3. He says, he laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. If you're going to go there, you're going to see the wilderness that exists there. And today, the people of Edom are no longer there. You might say there are the new people who came and occupied the land. New people who came and now occupied the land of Edom who used to live in that place. And he continues and he says now in verse 4, Edom who is Esau, descendant of Esau, who were constantly opposing Israel.

Constantly opposing Jacob. There was a friction that existed from generation to generation between Esau and Jacob. Jacob is not better, but Jacob was elected and chosen by God, and God had a plan for Jacob. But what happened is when Esau had gone against God's will and against God's people, look what we read in the next verse, verse 4, a dumb will eventually will experience an overthrow. And a dumb eventually will be called, as it says here, the people that against whom the Lord has indignation forever. Look at verse 4. Let me read that again. Where is Edom say? We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down. They shall call them the border of the wickedness and the people against whom the Lord has indignation forever. You see what God is saying to Israel? You, Jacob, you, Israel, were carried in 586 B.C. To Babylon just the same as Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed your temple, destroyed your city. Nebuchadnezzar also had destroyed a dome during those days. And many other countries around. Read it in Jeremiah chapter 25. But Edom wants to say, and he will say, Look, I am going to return, and I'm going to rebuild all the desolation. But God says, No, no, no, Edom.

You will not be able to rebuild the desolation. I will throw down, and they shall call them, that is Edom, The border of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord has indignation forever. Now God had indignation against his own people Israel and he judged them, but he restored them. God had an indignation against Edom, but he judged them and his indignation is against them not for a season, but forever. Esau is a representation of the old nature that man has. And the old nature needs to be put down when it's belonged because God will not allow the same nature to rise up. That's why when we became believers, He gave us new life, new birth, and we now have a new nature, a divine nature, a nature that was received by the Holy Spirit of God.

And a dome is a representation of all those who are the enemies of God that are called the border of wickedness and they are called by all people against whom the Lord has indignation forever. You're asking me, Jacob, wherein have I loved you? Just look at your history. People try to destroy you again and again and you returned back to the land. You were supposed to be ending your history, Israel, but I brought you back to myself. You know, it just reminds me because we just finished a few days ago the memorial of the Holocaust. And every time I think about it, you think of the six million Jews who died only because they were Jewish.

Not because they have done anything wrong to anybody. They may have like anybody else but 6 million you would think that there would be no restoration anymore because most of the Jews were taken over by Hitler and his machine killing machine but God has a purpose for Israel he has a plan and the Jewish people will revive because God has that plan for them. Edom, Esau, the border of wickedness. The people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. Jacob, have I chosen? But Esau, have I not? And Esau departed and gone further and further and eventually I judge them and I will yet judge them. Now finally, beloved brothers and sisters, in verse 5, the Lord promised Israel that there is a day coming when Israel will recognize that God really loved them.

There is a day coming, beloved brothers and sisters, when Israel will finally realize they will never anymore ask the question, wherein thou loved us. He takes them all the way to the Messianic kingdom in verse 5, and he's speaking about a day that will come, and it will be very soon, hopefully very, very soon, from our vantage point of time. It says here in verse 5, And your eyes, Israel, shall see, and ye shall say, this is your mouth, shall speak and say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel. There is coming a day, Yaakov, Israel, you will no longer say these words. Really, wherein have you loved us, Israel?

God is saying to them, there is coming a day when you are going to not only see it and experience it, But you shall proclaim that throughout this wonderful age of the Messianic kingdom, when you will say the Lord is magnified. Notice, the Lord is magnified from where? It says here, from the borders of Israel. Israel will be a nation that through Israel, blessing will flow to all the nations of the world. That is the Messianic kingdom. Isaiah chapter 2 says, Many people, verse 3 said, shall go and say, come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Yaakov, Jacob.

And he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his path. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Yerushalayim. Ki mitzion tetze Torah ve dvar Adonai me Yerushalayim. From Zion will come out the law of the Lord, the word of the Lord, and it's going to flow, the word of the Lord will flow out from the city of Yerushalayim. That is yet a future day that will come. But Israel will have to come to faith in the Messiah, whom today they don't realize that he is Yeshua, but they will eventually, in a future day, will come to acknowledge that He indeed is the promised Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world.

Can we say Amen to that? May the Lord bring that to fruition very, very soon and thank the Lord for the time that we could study Malachi chapter 1, verses 1 to 5. I have loved you, God said to His people Israel.