Jacob I loved, Essau I hated by Minister Marcel Bruff

There’s a hard verse in Scripture:

"Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." Romans 9:13

At first it sounds unfair. It sounds cold. But when we look at how God actually dealt with both men, we see something deeper about what it means to be a son and what it means to be loved by God the Father.

1. How God’s "Hate" Looked With Esau

God kept every promise He made to Esau.

Esau became wealthy. Powerful. The father of a great nation, Edom. From the outside, Esau had everything.

But here’s what God didn’t do:

He never disciplined Esau. He never intervened. He never broke him to make him holy.

God essentially "cut the rope" and let Esau live exactly as he wanted. Hebrews 12 tells us Esau was "godless" he sold his birthright for a meal. And God let him.

That’s the scariest form of "hatred" not active wrath, but passive abandonment. To be left to yourself. To never be corrected, never be shaped, never be made like Christ.

2. How God’s Love Looked With Jacob.

Jacob was a deceiver. A schemer. The kind of man who would grab his brother’s heel and try to get ahead.

But Jacob was a son.

And because he was a son, God refused to leave him as he was.

Look at Jacob’s life:

Trials. Betrayal. Laban cheating him. Wrestling with God all night. Walking away from that encounter limping.

God pursued Jacob every day of his life not to destroy him, but to change him.

From "Jacob the deceiver" to "Israel the prince with God."

God’s goal wasn’t to make Jacob rich first. It wasn’t to give him an easy, comfortable life.

God’s goal was to make Jacob holy. To conform him to the image of God.

3. What This Means For Us As Sons and Daughters

Especially in America we’ve been told:

"The goal of God is your prosperity, your health, your best life now."

But the Bible says something different:

"The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son." Hebrews 12:6

If you belong to God, His primary goal is not to make you comfortable.

His goal is to make you Christlike.

That means:

1. Correction is proof of sonship. If God never corrects you, that’s dangerous.

2. Trials are tools. The hard seasons, the limping — that’s God shaping you.

3. Love sometimes hurts. A father who lets his child run into traffic doesn’t love them. A Father who pulls them back, even roughly, does.

Esau got blessings without transformation.

Jacob got transformation that led to blessing.

CONCLUSION

So the question for us is not: "Is God blessing me?"

The question is: "Is God changing me?"

Are we asking God for comfort, or for holiness?

Are we running from the discipline, or leaning into it, knowing it means we’re His?

God’s love doesn’t always feel good. Sometimes it limps.

But a limp that walks with God is better than running freely away from Him.

He is not trying to give you a better life.

He is trying to give you a better you one that looks like Jesus.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank You that You don’t leave us the way You found us.

Thank You that when You love us, You discipline us, You shape us, You refuse to let us stay as "Jacob the deceiver."

Forgive us for chasing comfort more than holiness.

Forgive us for calling it "hatred" when You correct us.

Teach us to see every trial, every correction, every "limping" season as proof that we are Your sons and daughters.

Conform us to the image of Christ. Make us holy, even if it costs us comfort.

We don’t want to be Esau blessed and abandoned.

We want to be Jacob broken, limping, but walking with You into the promise.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen. Marcel and Jackie Bruff @ walkgoodinchrist