Malachi Chapter One, Jacob Is Chosen

 

We find the name of Israel carried on in Exodus 1:1 where we read, “Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt.” After this it is written that Joseph and his brothers, the biological sons of Israel, passed away, Exodus 1:6. Yet like Eber in Genesis 10:21, the name became an umbrella term for the direct descendants of Jacob through his sons, the twelve patriarchs that would grow into the twelve tribes of Israel. “But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them,” Exodus 1:7. It is interesting to note that the Hebrews, through God’s blessing and their obedience to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, continued to fulfill Yahweh’s command to, “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth,” Genesis 9:1. By honoring the laws passed down through Noah and Shem, they were honoring the God who issued them.

Malachi’s opening theme is the crux of Paul’s argument in Romans chapter 9, pertaining to his Jewish brethren. The apostle, grieved that so many Jews by carnal descent from Abraham have rejected their Messiah when He arrived, reminds his readership that he is related by blood to these people. “Who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers (patriarchs), and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ (Messiah) came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen,” Romans 9:4, 5. Romans chapters 9 through 11 treats the topic of Israel, and her standing in God’s plan in light of the inclusion of the Gentiles into God’s church.

 

Where did that leave Israel, with all of its glories? Since the purpose of this commentary presently is not to expound Romans, but to demonstrate God’s sovereign love for the children of Jacob, we skip ahead a few verses to Israel and Edom’s parents. Paul writes, “(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him who calls), it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated,” Romans 9:11-13. Paul quotes Malachi to demonstrate that God’s elective purpose to determine the channel of divine, progressive revelation culminating in Messiah, would come through Jacob’s seed, not Esau’s. Neither Paul nor Malachi had the patriarchs in mind when they wrote these words. Rather, God demonstrated His purpose in election by calling the (future) Israel to service: a summons the Jews in turn answered, as He knew they would. Israel would tend and keep (or guard) God’s revelation in Scripture, being both its recipients and proclaimers. God chose receptive vessels through whom He would form the nation of Israel, and out of whom He would bring forth Messiah. The impression being here that divine choices were made on the highway of Israel’s development and God tended to her, cultivating her at every turn. God loved (chose) Shem and hated (rejected) Japheth and Ham. God loved (chose) Peleg and hated (rejected) Joktan. God loved (chose) Abram and hated (rejected) Nahor and Haran, Genesis 11:10, 16, 12:1. Malachi 1:2, 3 must be read in light of the determinant for God’s choice. His purpose through Israel was ultimately to bring in the second Adam to restore humanity to His intended purpose from the beginning. In Christ the image of God would be renewed, as God’s new representative Man would perfectly obey, where our first parent transgressed. It was a great honor to be the family chosen out of the nations for that purpose.

 

Moses, in similar language to Malachi, reminds the Jews during their wilderness wanderings and before their entrance into Canaan of God’s elective purposes. “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers,” Deuteronomy 7:6-8. God’s love is unchanging because He is from eternity immutable. God indeed loves Jacob.