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The LORD’s Love for Israel

(Genesis 25:19-28; Romans 9:6-18)

¹ This is an oracle, the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi^(a):² “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you ask, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved,³ but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”⁴ Though Edom may say, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people toward whom the LORD is indignant forever.⁵ You will see this with your own eyes, and you yourselves will say, ‘The LORD is great—even beyond the borders of Israel.’”

The Polluted Offerings

⁶ “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. Yet you ask, “How have we despised Your name?”⁷ “By presenting defiled food on My altar.” You ask, “How have we defiled You?” “By saying that the table of the LORD is contemptible.”⁸ “When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present the lame and sick ones, is it not wrong? Why not offer them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.⁹ “But ask now for God’s favor. Will He be gracious to us? Since this has come from your hands, will He show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.¹⁰ “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.”¹¹ “For My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name, because My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of Hosts.¹² “But you profane it when you say, ‘The table of the LORD is defiled, and its fruit, its food, is contemptible.’¹³ You also say: ‘Look, what a nuisance!’ And you turn up your nose at it,” says the LORD of Hosts. “You bring as an offering animals that are stolen, lame, or sick! Should I accept this from your hands?” asks the LORD.¹⁴ “But cursed is the deceiver who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but sacrifices a defective animal to the Lord. For I am a great King,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and My name is to be feared among the nations.”