Jacob Is Loved

Greetings in the Lord!

This past week I’ve been getting words with the same general theme: the coming day of the Lord’s wrath against all His enemies, the same enemies of Israel, and also about judgment against the rebellious in Judah.  In Zephaniah 1-2, the passages first mention a day of judgment for those in Israel who are bending their knee to foreign gods and for those who have grown rich through corrupt business practices.  The call is to repent before the coming day of the Lord.

The next chapter lists all the coming judgments against Israel’s neighbors, all those who have arrogantly delighted in her sufferings, have instigated trouble and violence towards her, and conspired to take away the land in which they live.  The Lord will lay them low, scatter their armies, and overrun their lands with “desert creatures”, or unclean spirits will come to inhabit those places. 

“This is what they will get in return for their pride, for insulting and mocking the people of the Lord Almighty.  The Lord will be awesome to them when He destroys all the gods of the land.  The nations on every shore will worship Him, each one in its own land….He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria, leaving Nineveh utterly desolate and dry as the desert….The desert owl and the screech owl will roost on her columns….What a ruin she will become, a lair for wild beasts!  All who pass by her scoff and shake their fists.”  Zephaniah 2:10-11, 13, 14b, 15b.

Isaiah 34 echoes these same words of the Lord.  It is a decree of the coming day of the Lord and His wrath against the nations and people who rebel against God and oppose Israel.  They are referred to collectively as “Edom” in the passage.  Again, the chapter makes mention of these nations’ armies being overrun and laid low: “the mountains will be soaked with their blood.”  The passage is full of unsettling imagery and words: “My sword has drunk its fill in the heaven; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed.” Isaiah 34:5.  Then it closes like the passage in Zephaniah with the same promise and result: those nations will be filled with “desert creatures,” unclean birds, “hyenas,” and “wild goats.”  All of these symbolize demons and unclean spirits.  Then again today, from the book of Malachi, chapter 1, verses 2-3: “I have loved you,” says the Lord.  “But you ask, ‘How have You loved us?’  Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” the Lord says.  “Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”   

The “love” for Jacob is based on covenant relationship.  There are at least five covenant promises God made with the Patriarchs of old.  With Abraham it was about being the father of many nations and inheriting the whole land of Canaan: “But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you…”  Isaac’s birth was a miracle, born to Sarah in her nineties—well past childbearing years.  Later we read about Jacob and Esau while they are still in the womb.  “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated: one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:23)  Well, as we know from Scripture, Esau was the older, so we know that based on God’s election, he was meant to serve Jacob.  So how does that apply to us today?

The word of the Lord does not change with the times.  God prefers faith over self-reliance and reasoning, righteousness over selfish ambition, being born of the Spirit over living by fleshly knowledge and tradition, power of the Holy Spirit over the strength of man, and His election as prescribed by His perfect will over stubborn unbelief and self-promotion.  It the season of the gulf between these two camps becoming wider and wider, with God showing Himself mighty in His judgments against those who fight against Him and oppose Israel.  Likewise, the rebellious and backslidden will be chastised by God to either bring them back into right standing or to be put out of the camp, so to speak.    

I expect we will be seeing big spiritual revivals and many coming to Christ in places where they have been typically enemies of God and Israel.  The favor and preference of God is reserved for those who believe in Him and put their faith in His son, Jesus.  Belief, or faith backed up with action, is the deciding factor, not genealogy, nationality, or race or anything that you cannot ultimately control; only your decision to believe in His son Jesus and live according to His words matters. 

~Be blessed and be a blessing.