The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-11, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.

Question

What does hate mean, when God says He "hates Jacob?" Does He actually hate the person or does He hate what the person does?

Answer

You remember in Romans, chapter 9, God says, "Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated." It doesn't say He hated Jacob, as the question indicates, but He says, "I love Jacob and I hate Esau." Now the question is, "Does God hate the person or does He hate what the person does?" Well, what does John 3:16 say, "For God so loved the whole world." So we know that everyone falls under the general category of the love of God, but there are a number of times in Scripture when God is expressed as "hating." I was thinking of Psalm 5:5 where it says, "The boastful shall not stand before Thine eyes; Thou dost hate all who do iniquity." Then over in Psalm 11:5, "The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates." Then over in Psalm 26:5, "I hate the assembly of evildoers." In Proverbs, an even more extensive statement is made in that familiar text of chapter six, verse sixteen, "There are six things which the Lord hates, seven are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers." And then, of course, in Proverbs 8:13, you probably have something which makes it very clear. It says, "The fear of the Lord (or true worship of God) is to hate evil; pride, arrogance and the evil way, and the perverted mouth I hate."

Now in all of these cases you can see clearly that what it is that God hates is not the individual but--what? The sin. He even lists the sins that He hates. When a person persists in those sins, it is the sin in the sinner persisted that God hates. Even God says, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." The New Testament says that "The Lord does not desire that any should perish." And so it is the sin that He hates. In Jeremiah, I was just thinking of chapter 44, verse 4, it says, "I sent all my servants the prophets again, and again, saying 'Oh, do not this abominable thing which I hate.'" It is the deed of the sinner that the Lord hates. It is the act of 
sin that the Lord hates. But, it is also true that the sinner who does not repent, who continues in the sin will feel the fury of God's hatred. In Malachi 1:4, it says that, "The Lord," towards people who sin, "is indignant forever."

So God hates the sin, but if the sinner persists in the sin, then the sinner feels the hatred of God. With regard to Esau, I might just say as a footnote, nowhere in Genesis does it say that God hated Esau--it doesn't say anywhere that He hated Esau. It was only after Esau had chosen sin and abandoned God for many, many years--over a thousand years before God would look back and say, "Esau have I hated." By that time it was clear to all where Esau stood. So once the sinner is inexorably and finally identified with the sin, then the sinner feels the hatred of God.