God's Hatred of Esau

Had a gentleman in my church ask about Romans 9 and God's hatred of Esau and his hardening of Pharaoh's heart. This is what I emailed to him.

My own opinion of Romans 9 is that it has to be read in context through to Romans 11. This is Paul's wrestling with how salvation has come to more people than the Jews and what the Jewish "vocation" was and has now, because of Christ, become. What I will do is talk about Esau and then outline Paul's intent through Romans 11.

First, God's hatred of Esau, quoted from Malachi, is in the context of God raising up the Jewish nation, just returning from exile. Malachi is about God's plan for Israel and Malachi's word to those who will be leading it (priests, etc.). By this time, Esau's descendants had formed a new people (Edomites) completely separate from the twelve tribes of Israel. God's selection of Israel meant destruction for those opposed to them. This was not hatred for Esau individually, as God wrestled Jacob in order to change Jacob's demeanor and give him courage to face Esau (Gen. 32-33) and be reconciled.

Paul then gives the example of Pharaoh: Another person God has hardened for his purposes. What Paul has done is give two examples of the negative side of God's selection of Israel: the selection of Israel meant the dis-selection of others. He does this to show that God's current dis-selection of ethnic Israel is not out of God's character. (This is why Paul is wanting to be cut off himself for his race at the start of ch. 9.) But even in the midst of this dis-selection of ethnic Israel is the selection of some Israelites. Stay with me.

Then he asks a question some will think (9:19): Why does God still blame us? Paul's answer: Who are you to talk back to God? God's dis-selection of ethnic Israel, the objects of wrath prepared for destruction (9:22), was to make his glorious salvation known for both those from the Jews and the Gentiles. So, God creates a people from those who were not his people (9:25), but this had to happen by the dis-selection of ethnic Israel. This brings us to the last part of chapter 9 where Paul says that those who pursue righteousness by works (meaning "works of the Law"--that which demarcates ethnic Israel) have stumbled (9:31). They've missed the point of the Law. (Think back to the notion I talked about from Jeremiah, with God writing the law on hearts and minds.) Paul is in true anguish, then, at chapter 10 because he knows the zeal ethic Israelites have for God (10:2). But this zeal is not based on true knowledge of God, nor is it based on God's righteousness. Why not? Because Christ is the end of the Law (10:4) so that everyone (both Jew AND Gentile) may be part of the people of God. Paul then shows that there is no great difference between Jew and Gentile (10:5-13).

Skip ahead to chapter 11 and Paul comes to his conclusion: Does this mean God has dis-selected Israel forever? No...God will always have a remnant of Jewish people come to be part of the people of God. So, being ethnic Israel does not mean one has stumbled beyond recovery: It has only been for the sake of Gentiles who God calls. So that Gentiles don't boast this selection of non-Jews and dis-selection of Jews, Paul says Gentiles are like wild shoots grafted into the real branches.

Paul's conclusion (11:26), then, is to reveal the "mystery" (meaning 'purpose') of God: Israel has been hardened (what I have been calling 'dis-selection') for the Gentiles to come in, making one new people out of the two. [This is why Paul says in Eph. 2 that Christ made peace between Jews and Gentiles by abolishing the Law in his flesh, preaching to those who were near (Jews) and to those who were far away (Gentiles).] With this new people, all "Israel" (people of God, not ethnic Israel) will be saved (11:26). You'll notice that Paul changes the quote in verse 26, saying, "The deliverer (Jesus) will come FROM Zion," when its original quotation (Is. 59:20) says, "the deliverer will come TO Zion." The point isn't salvation for the Jews, but salvation through the Jews and their Messiah. And of course Paul ends all this talk of election and God's choosing and God's picking with the phrase, "God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all" (11:32).

In sum, I believe Paul is saying this: God's selection of Israel meant dis-selection of some (Esau and Pharaoh). Now God's dis-selection of Israel, part of his eternal plan, is for the sake of the Gentiles. And this was his eternal plan: To form one new 'Israel,' one new people of God, from both Jews and Gentiles. Paul is so amazed at this providence of God and his knowledge in selecting and hardening for the good of ALL, that he ends with praise!