Love vs hate

I plan to carry two apples to class to illustrate God’s choice between Jacob and Esau. I will ask a member to chose an apple from the pair when covering Malachi 1:2-3. Most likely the person will chose an apple based on appearance, etc. (illustrating how we judge based on appearance). As humans, we tend to make the apple the issue.

God didn’t do that. He simply made a choice to accomplish with whom to accomplish His purpose. He favored Jacob and didn’t favor Esau. See the LifeWay Leader Guide discussion on p. 118 for a discussion of love vs. hate. As I understand it, the Hebrew does no refer to an absolute love for Jacob and an absolute hate of Esau. Instead, the Hebrew simply indicates a favoring one individual and not the other not based on God's purpose (not that one was better than the other in some way or another).