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2 Do You Love Us?

3 When the Israelites returned from Babylon in 538 BC, they were looking at rubbles and ruins - brokenness. God spoke to his discouraged people through prophets Haggai and Zechariah in 536 BC.

4 They were encouraged and completed the temple in 516 BC. In 445 BC, Nehemiah came to govern Judah and he encouraged the people to complete the city walls. Nehemiah went back to Persia in 433 BC to serve the king.

5 In 432 BC, a year after Nehemiah left, God again spoke to his people through prophet Malachi. His message was all rebukes. They were unenthusiastic and passionless in their worship.

6 2 Tim 3:5, “the people were having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

7 V1, A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi. 2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’

8 84 years have gone by and the temple was not filled with the glory of God and the nations were not coming to Jerusalem to worship God as promised. The Holy Spirit has not come upon them with power as promised – the never ending olive oil from the two olive trees.

9 V2b, “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

10 I have loved Jacob or Israel and I have hated Esau or Edom. The word “hate” is not a literal hate.

11 Lk 14:26, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. It doesn’t mean that when we love Jesus we have to hate our family members.

12 Mt 10:37-38, anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

13 Jesus meant we must love Jesus more than we love our family members. God meant he loves the Israelites more than the Edomites;

14 V4 Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.” But this is what the Lord Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord.

15 When the Israelites in Jerusalem looked at the surrounding nations they noticed that the Edomites, their nemesis were living well and doing well in trades and businesses.

16 Jer 49:16-17, Obad 3-4, the pride of your heart have deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks, who occupy the heights of the hill. Though your build your nest as high as the eagle’s, from there I will bring you down. Edom will become an object of horror.

17 Edom was built on the top of the hill and the capital of Edom, Sela was built securely inside the clefts of the rocks. It is also known as Petra.

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24 They thought they were living securely inside the clefts of the rocks and they became proud but they were wrong, the Nabataean Arabs would soon come to conquer and drive them out of Petra.

25 V5 You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is the Lord—even beyond the borders of Israel!’ When the time comes, the Israelites would see the fall of Edom, and they would know that God always keeps his promises with his people.

26 The Israelites would know that God loves them more than other nations - particularly Edom.

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