Perhaps we have all heard the argument by those of the arminian or freewill persuasion that God didn't really hate Esau, He just loved him less than he loved Jacob.

But if this argument had any real substance it could just as legitimately be used to prove that God really didn't love Jacob, He just hated him less than he hated Esau. However, the real reason anyone tries to "fix" this or any other text is because they don't like what it says. It is dangerous business to try to make God's word conform to our religion. The only safe course is to make our religion conform to God's word.

The truth is, the apostle was teaching the much-hated doctrine of Eternal and Unconditional Election when he spoke of God loving Jacob and hating Esau, even "before" either of them had been born or had done any good or evil (Ro 9:11). If any of my readers do not believe in election they should pay very close attention to the rest of that verse: "that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth.”

Even if a person argues that God loved Esau less than He did Jacob, that still doesn't explain away the choice that God made of His people in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), and it also does not explain away God's discriminating grace in favoring some of the human race more than others.

Even if Jacob and Esau had never been mentioned in the Bible we are given plenty of other examples of the Great Potter (Ro 9:21) taking the same lump of mankind and making some vessels unto honor and others unto dishonor. God will Have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion (Ro 9:15), and in view of the fact that no one deserves any mercy at His hands (there can be no such thing as deserved mercy), He does no harm to those from whom He withholds His mercy. He can just as righteously show mercy to a persecuting Saul of Tarsus as He can leave an Egyptian Pharaoh to the natural hardness of his corrupt heart. In both cases He has every right to do what He will with His own creation. Christ asked two very probing questions concerning His own sovereignty, "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?" and, "Is thine eye evil, because I am good?" (Mt 20:15). How wretched it is for men to question God's proceedings! It is He who is good, and they who are evil.

As for the idea that God loved Esau less than He did Jacob, it should be kept in mind that God "laid Esau's heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness” and called him and his descendants (Edom) "The border of wickedness," and, "The people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever" (Mal 1:2-4). Are we to believe that God did all this just because He loved them less than He did Jacob? Perish the thought!

Those who insist on having the god they worship "love everybody" will never be able to "fix" a lot of things in the Bible, including this issue with Jacob and Esau. It just won't go away---as much as they would like for it to disappear.