Did God hate Esau? Or hate individuals?

[Deborah13]

I love you guys, but honestly there's no need to go down the Calvy trail. Truthfully, I'm of the opinion that there is no need to ever visit the over-thought doctrines of Arminianism and Calvinism.

I was reminded, this morning, of a story Spurgeon told in one of his later sermons and your statement is perfect to use as a spring board. I won't get everything perfect, it's been too long since I have read it.
Spurgeon, tells the true story of Calvinist missionaries who go to a remote land, Iceland I believe it was. They spend weeks, giving the men the gospel through the eyes of their doctrine, very complicated to show in scripture. No one is getting saved. One day a frustrated man, after a meeting, approaches one of the missionaries and expresses his frustration that he doesn't understand and can't they state it more simply. The missionary gives him the bare bones, gospel scriptures. The man says, "Why didn't you just say that from the start!" The man believes the gospel. The missionary, at the next meeting, preaches the simply gospel. I don't remember if all of them got saved but most did.

 

[gr8grace3]

I've seen several interpretations

1. God hated Esau.
When God said that he loved Jacob and hated Esau, that is to be taken literally.

Problem: This contradicts scriptures which state God so loved the world, Iehouah hates the death of them that die, and God is willing none should perish.

2. God loved Esau less than Jacob
When God said that he hated Esau, it was actually an idiom or a figurative statement of comparison saying that he loved Esau less. An example is when Jesus said we are not his if we don't hate our parents (meaning holding Christ way above all).

Problem: This says that God is playing favourites while scripture says "God is not a respecter of persons".

3. God hated the nation of Edom.
This is saying that he rejected Edom as his.

Problem: this expands God's potential hate in this verse from one person to a whole group, and holds the contradictions from the first.

God hates the wicked.
Psalm 11:5 says: The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

If this is to be read literally, as God hating the wicked (rather than the wickedness of the wicked), this brings to question the hope for humanity in light of the scripture which says "There are none that do righteousness, no not one".

God does not hate. There is no darkness, no sin in God.

"hate" in the bible is called an anthropomorphism. It is ascribing a human emotion, that God does not have, to try to explain the infinite to a finite being.

Hate Esau/Edom? No, not in our definition of hate. This points to Gods perfect justice and righteousness.The man and the nation never adjusted to Gods justice(Christ on the Cross) and never had Gods approval. they operated in human view point and never did adjust to Gods divine view point.

Hate sin? No, not in our definition of hate. It points to Gods holiness and perfect Character. It points to His integrity. There is absolutely no sin or darkness in God and sin is apposed to His perfect integrity.

Even the word love is an anthropomorphism. our definition of love, is way to small to describe infinite God who is perfect in everything.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

God does not hate. There is no darkness, no sin in God.

"hate" in the bible is called an anthropomorphism. It is ascribing a human emotion, that God does not have, to try to explain the infinite to a finite being.

Hate Esau/Edom? No, not in our definition of hate. This points to Gods perfect justice and righteousness.The man and the nation never adjusted to Gods justice(Christ on the Cross) and never had Gods approval. they operated in human view point and never did adjust to Gods divine view point.

Hate sin? No, not in our definition of hate. It points to Gods holiness and perfect Character. It points to His integrity. There is absolutely no sin or darkness in God and sin is apposed to His perfect integrity.

Even the word love is an anthropomorphism. our definition of love, is way to small to describe infinite God who is perfect in everything.

Hate does not have to be emotional. God most surely does hate sin. He doesn't love it, that's for sure.

Likewise with love. Love does not have to be emotional. There is love that has nothing to do with emotions.
Because we are fleshly, emotional creatures, using a stunted, biased, and inadequate language (in the case of English, anyway) it's hard for us humans to understand love and hatred do not have to be emotional. We don't have words to adequately express what we as humans only know by nature to be emotional, but which is really not only emotional.

I remember watching a video of an evangelist speaking to a foreign crowd through an interpreter. The interpreter just looked at the evangelist with his hands up in the 'I dunno' position when the evangelist tried to differentiate between 'like' and 'love' in his sermon.