Romans 9:8-13 (KJV) They which are the children of the flesh, these are NOT the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. 10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth😉 12 It was said unto her, The ELDER {meizon, the greater} shall serve the YOUNGER {elasson, the little or less}. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I LOVED {agapaō, is beloved}, but Esau have I HATED {miseō, to hate or detest}.

Last week we spoke of the Sovereignty of God. Our God is omniscient, that is, He knows all things – even those things which have not yet happened. God is omnipresent, that is, He is everywhere and fully cognizant of every event, whether in the Heavens or on the earth. God is omnipotent, which means He has all power. When the young maiden Mary questioned Gabriel when he declared that she, though a virgin, was with child, that good Angel replied:

Luke 1:37 (NKJV) … with God nothing will be impossible.

Our Lord Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 19:26, “with GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”. And again in Luke 18:27, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God”. The God Who made us and all that you see is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.

God Always Keeps His Promises

We are saved because God promised to offer us salvation. God made several promises to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. God promised Abram (Hebrew aḇrām, meaning “exalted father”. This was what his father Terah named him) that a nation of children would be born through him and his wife Sarai (Hebrew śāray, meaning “princess”). God promised Abram that the nation that would come from him would bless all the Gentile nations. Now pay attention to this, dear one. When God made this promise,

Sarai was infertile.

Abram had no ability to have children because his soulmate was infertile. Abram himself was fertile, but his wife wasn’t. We know that Abram was fertile because, when it became evident to Sarai that she was barren, she suggested that Abram go in to her Egyptian slave Hagar. Believe it or not, this was Sarai’s idea – and Abram went along with it. “Abram went in to Hagar, and she conceived” (Genesis 16:4). That didn’t go well. God promised a child and a nation, even the salvation of the world. The promise cannot be fulfilled by Abram and Sarai helping God out!

Abram was 75 (Genesis 12:4) when he began to follow God, and 86 (Genesis 16:16) when Hagar had their child Ishmael (yišmāʿē’l, meaning “God will hear”). God made a promise to Abram, and as 11 years passed, Abram thought he needed to help God fulfill his promise. That was a bad idea.

God keeps His promises. As humans we often think we need to “help God out”. We make excuses for God. We twist the Scripture to make God satisfy our desires and our thought process. As the Apostle earlier said, “let God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4). God is Sovereign. When He makes a promise, He will keep that promise. The problem is, WE WANT TO BE GODS. So God often makes us wait until we surrender and acknowledge:

Father God knows best.

Why did God wait to send the Messiah into the world when He did? God promised the Messiah would come all the way back in the Garden of Eden. God told that old Serpent (Revelation 12:9), Lucifer:

Genesis 3:15 (NASB20) … I will make enemies Of you and the woman, And of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise Him on the heel.

It is God’s intention to save whosoever will through the Messiah. When the Messiah came, His ministry would stomp the head of the Devil – give him a holy headache – but it would just bruise His heel. Jesus would come and die on the Cross of Calvary. But this would be only a bruise, for on the third day He would rise again, ever to lead the family of God. God prophesied this back in Genesis.

So WHY did God wait until Israel was in Roman domination before the Messiah came to us through the maiden Mary? The Bible tells us:

Galatians 4:4-5 (NKJV) … WHEN THE FULLNESS OF TIME HAD COME, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

When hard headed Israel was at a point of surrender, the Messiah came. God makes a promise. God keeps His promise. But God determines the right time for that promise to be kept –and that time is often when we WAKE UP and SURRENDER. God wanted to reach the WHOLE WORLD through His Son Jesus. God determined to wait some 4000-6000 years between the promise and the fulfillment. God keeps His Word.

Romans 9:9 (KJV) For this is the word of promise, AT THIS TIME will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.

Abraham, “AT THIS TIME I WILL COME”. Not when YOU want, not through YOUR ability, but through MY ABILITY. I am God, Abraham, YOU ARE NOT!

We can’t help God out. God doesn’t need us to keep His promises (Genesis 18:10). It was not until Abram believed God fully, that God renamed him ABRAHAM (Genesis 17:5, aḇrāhām, the father of a multitude). At that time God renamed Sarai to Sarah (Genesis 17:15, śāray). Abram and Sarai believed God, and were saved. But it was only when they became more fully reliant on God that they were Abraham and Sarah.

God keeps His promises. He does not need our help, but DEMANDS our OBEDIENCE and our WORSHIP.

Genesis 18:14 (ESV) Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.

What is “the appointed time”? It is when God says it is. God will come and fulfill the promise, just as He has decreed, when the time is right according to God. Did He? Yes!

Genesis 21:2 … (ESV) Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.

The child of promise is Isaac (Genesis 17:21), not Ishmael. God would bless the family of Ishmael for Abraham’s sake. The Messiah promised in Eden would come through the promise of God through Abraham.

When God makes a promise, He always fulfills it when HE wants. Adam and Eve would never see the Messiah in this life. Abraham would see his child Isaac, but would never see his full lineage – nor Israel – in this life. God’s promises will be fulfilled, regardless as to our inabilities, our brokenness, or our help.

God Doesn’t Care What We Think Of Him: His Purposes Will Stand

Romans 9:10-11And not only this; but when Rebecca (Isaac’s wife) also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the PURPOSE OF GOD according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth😉

This section of Scripture has caused many theological arguments among various denominations in Christianity. Calvinists will seize on to these passages to teach the Five Points of Calvinism, but Arminians will often skip these verses entirely, or try to explain them away. The text is not confusing, but very simple.

Preach! This text is about God fulfilling His promise to the Serpent, to Abraham, and to the Church. God promised that the Messiah would come. He promised that His Son would become incarnate through the Abrahamic lineage. God controlled where the Messianic line went.

God established Isaac’s name: Abraham’s son, the son that God promised, was called Isaac as God so decreed (Genesis 17:19). In the ancient world the father of the child would give the child his or her name. Though Abraham and Sarah came together to make Isaac, it was God Who caused Sarah to be fertile. Without God the child Isaac would never have been born. God fulfilled His promise to Abraham by giving the couple the ability to bear Isaac (Hebrew yiṣḥāq, meaning “he laughs”).

Why “ISAAC” or “He Laughs”? I think it’s because God laughs at our feeble attempts to help Him out!

When Isaac grew up, he would marry Rebekah because God would choose her for him. When Rebekah conceived by Isaac, she had a twin conception. She was not aware of this until the children growing in her reached a certain stage, and began to battle inside her:

Genesis 25:22-23 (ESV) {Rebekah} inquired of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.

Before the children are born – in fact, long before even Abraham was born – God knew Rebekah would have twins. God also knew the character and the spirit of each twin. Each twin would represent a nation. The Older Twin, Esau, would father an unbelieving nation which would eventually be called EDOM (or the Edomites). God would bless Esau, though Esau had little use for God, but was all about self power, self promotion, self gain. You see Esau when you see famous or powerful people who are “self made millionaires”, or “highly talented”. God often blesses the ungodly, as our Lord Jesus noted:

Matthew 5:45 (NKJV) {your Father in Heaven} makes His sun to rise on the EVIL and on the GOOD, and sends rain on the JUST and the UNJUST …

God sends His goodness to all – even the Esaus of this world (and there are many). God would give Mount Seir to Esau and his descendants (Deuteronomy 2:5, 22), telling the nation Israel to leave Esau’s land alone (Joshua 24:4). God blessed Esau – but sent the line of Christ through the younger twin Jacob.

Esau Represents Humanism, Jacob Represents Brokenness and Surrender

Romans 9:12 It was said unto her {Rebekah}, The ELDER {meizon, the greater} shall serve the YOUNGER {elasson, the little or less}.

Word Study: When God refers to Esau, he is called meizon, which means THE GREATER. Esau was first born. As first born, according to human tradition, he should have inherited the leadership of the family upon Isaac’s death. He should have received the double portion of the inheritance. Esau was a man’s man. He was a warrior. He was powerful. His daddy was proud of him. He was Isaac’s favorite.

I was listening to John MacArthur the other day when he said something that stick in my head. He said (and I ad lib this) “There are only two religions in the world. There have never been more than two religions in the world. There is the Way of God that is found only through surrender to Christ, and the human religion of works.” That is so very true. All other religions in the world can be distilled down to this: work hard and earn your way, and you can achieve Heaven. It is only Christianity that says “Come to Christ broken, totally spiritually bankrupt, unable as Abraham was unable – and God will receive you as sons and daughters. Live your life broken, fully reliant upon God the Father Who loves you, and you will be BLESSED”.

Esau is humanism. Esau is human religion. Esau is human fame and fortune. Esau is a god-man. Esau is the Tower of Babel, working your way to Heaven. Esau is Abraham going in to Hagar, trying help poor, pitiful God to keep His promises. Esau is man centered, human power. Esau is global warming. Esau is redefining God’s design of marriage. Esau is crowd pleasing in order to get a blessing. Esau is godless desire. Esau is “mostly peaceful protests”, burning down a nation under a godless President. Esau is human tradition.

Now I’m going to make you mad, but Esau is Santa Claus over a crib in Bethlehem. Esau is the Easter Bunny without an empty Tomb.

Esau is seeking out a Church based on what I WANT, instead of what God wants. Esau is a Church song service without the preaching of the Word, and the preaching of the Word without that damnable, hated doctrine,

REPENT!

This is the most hated doctrine in Christianity, REPENT, surrender, let God be God. Esau is walking the aisle and being baptized, but ignoring God the rest of the week. Esau is easy believism. Esau is Joel Osteen, prosperity preaching that makes you feel good, but never demands repentance. Esau is a form of Christianity that never makes disciples. Esau rejects what Jesus commanded:

Mark 10:21 … come, take up the cross, and follow Me.

Mark 8:34 … Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Esau is not about self denial, but human satisfaction and ease. Esau uses “I” in just about every sentence. I see Esau in every person who uses the word “I” fifty or more times in five minutes of conversation. God told Rebekah:

Romans 9:12 … The ELDER {the GREATER} shall serve the YOUNGER {the LESSER}.

God did not want the Messiah’s line going through Esau, but through Jacob. Why? Was Jacob the better person? Absolutely not! Jacob was a mess.

Humanly speaking, Esau was Hollywood, and Jacob was deadwood. Spiritually speaking, both children were DEAD in trespasses and sins. Jacob is broken. God will have to break Jacob to save him. But God wants the Messiah to go through Nazareth, the lesser, and not Hollywood the humanly greater.

God said:

Romans 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

Here the Apostle quotes not from Genesis, but from Malachi chapter 1. This is the key to understanding this verse. God did not say this to Rebekah. God told Rebekah, “The GREATER or STRONGER shall serve the LESSER or WEAKER” (Genesis 25:23). God spoke these words to the Israelites as a warning through the Prophet Malachi:

Malachi 1:1-3 (KJV) – The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. [2] 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, [3] And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

Why did God say He HATED Esau but LOVED Jacob? Because God gave Esau everything. He gave Esau first born status. God made Esau a great hunter. He made Esau Hollywood, beautiful. God allowed Isaac to love Esau best. Esau had everything – and yet never loved the Lord Who gave him everything. God had the line of the Messiah go through Jacob and not Esau because God knew how Esau and the Edomites were going to turn out. He knew that the Edomites would become pagans, and the line of Christ could not go through a pagan line. God knows all things, and because He knew that the unbelief of Esau would persist until destruction … so God sent the Messianic line through Jacob.

Because Esau and the Edomites would not repent, though God gave them a wonderful land to live in, and the abilities that they had, God said:

Malachi 1:4 (KJV) Whereas Edom 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 hath indignation for ever.

Esau, you can keep rebelling against God. You can keep on ignoring His daily blessing. You can keep on magnifying yourself. And if you do, you will earn the HATRED of God. I have heard supposed Bible scholars say:

“When God said ‘Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated’, He just meant
that He loved Esau less”.

No. I love you, but you’re in bad error. The Greek miseo means “to hate”. EVERY SINGLE BIBLE TRANSLATION I CAN FIND EXCEPTTHE NEW LIVING TRANSLATION TRANSLATES MISEO AS HATED. The New Living Translation renders the word as “REJECTED”. In the Book of Malachi where God said “I HATED Esau” (Malachi 1:3) this is the Hebrew śānē’ (pronounced saw-nay’) which means “to HATE or BE THE ENEMY OF”. Once more, every single translation of the Bible I can find but the New Living Translation and the New English Translation renders this word HATED. Those two translations use the word REJECTED.

Hated means hated. God hates the spirit of Esau, the person who has received everything, and yet makes themselves gods. God hates those who will not acknowledge His gifts to them. God despises those who will rob Him of glory, so that they can glorify themselves. It is like stolen valor, to claim credit to yourself for what you never did.

Jesus Christ came through the broken line of Jacob, to an unknown birth in Bethlehem, to a tiny insignificant village called Nazareth. The Messiah came to save whosoever would come to Him with empty hands, repenting. He came to raise up a people to Himself, to the glory of God, to live under the power of the Kingdom of God.

If you are broken and surrendered to God, to Jesus Christ, “Jacob has He loved”. He loves the broken, the surrendered. But to you who claim Christ, yet do not obey Him. To you that are proud, even arrogant in all that you have achieved. To you who, like Esau, have the best and have been blessed – but glory in yourselves. “Esau has He HATED”. If you leave this life without Jesus, with the Spirit of Esau, you will find out that God does hate. We close with these words:

Romans 9:14-16 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

God will show you mercy if you come to Him through Christ. Come to Him today. Come repenting. Come surrendered. For your sake, come! May God the Holy Spirit lead you to Christ’s side today. Amen.