What does it mean when the Bible says God hated Esau?
The statement that God loved Jacob but hated Esau must have been taken as relative rather than absolute. Special blessings were promised to Esau and his descendants (Gen. 27:38-40). However, the spiritual insight of Jacob was far greater, and Jacob was the one through whom the promised seed was to come. The comparison of the good things done for Jacob with those done for Esau is like the difference between loving and hating. Compare Luke 14:26, the statement that if a man does not hate his father and mother he cannot be a disciple of Christ. Love for father and mother is commanded in the Scripture. No Christian can hate his father and mother. What is meant is that his love for Christ should be so great that, in comparison, the love for father and mother would seem almost like hate.
