If The Israelis Are God's 'Chosen People'

Does That Mean He Hates The Palestinians?

 by adam harbinson

I made what I thought was a pretty obvious statement on this programme a few weeks ago to the effect that God doesn’t hate anyone. The basis for the comment that if Christians believe that God is love, how can they believe that he harbours hatred? Can love hate?

A version of the same article was published in a number of newspapers that I write for, and I got a couple of broadsides insisting that God does hate; apparently he hated Esau, he hates workers of iniquity, he hates Gays, he hates Palestinians, he sent the Asian tsunami four years ago because he hates Hindus.

On the face of it, the Bible can give the impression that God hated Esau for example, but scratch the surface and you’ll find that maybe it’s not that simple.

The Old Testament prophet Malachi did indeed quote God as saying, ‘I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated,' but the Hebrew word that’s translated ‘hated’ can be, and often is translated, ‘rejected.’ Here’s the background; Esau was a hunter, a big rough man of the fields; and Jacob was described as a plain man, dwelling in tents; he tended sheep. So when Esau brought God a gift – or a sacrifice as it was called – it was the fruit of his own labour, but when Jacob brought God his gift, it was a lamb. That required a death, the shedding of innocent blood, symbolic of the shedding of Christ's blood for all mankind. Therefore, could it be that God rejected, not Esau, but Esau's model for salvation, a brand of salvation that required a contribution from him? And did God accept not Jacob, but Jacob's model for salvation, a free gift on the basis of the death of another?

However, there's a bigger picture. Theologians can debate the topic until the cows come home, they can produce scripture after scripture to support their differing views, but ultimately ordinary people who are neither theologians nor historians choose to believe what they believe, often without any real evidence. And it has to be said that sometimes they appear to take a perverted delight in their belief. So the bigger question is why do they do that?

The French philosopher Voltaire, in the eighteenth century said, 'God made man in his own image, and man hastens to return the compliment.'

Could it be that there are homophobes in our midst who have projected their narrow prejudices on to God? Could it be that Zionists worship a god who takes pleasure in the destruction of entire villages in the West Bank or in Gaza, even though the true God’s desire is for them to care for the orphans, the widows and the aliens? And is it possible that there are some among us whose pious bums polish pews every Sunday morning without fail, could it be that they worship a god of their own making who would swat like flies all who fail to observe the law even though Paul the apostle said that if we try to make ourselves right with God by keeping the law we fall from grace? How hypocritical God would be to tell us to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, if all the while he’s hatching schemes to wipe his enemies off the face of the earth!

No, the heart of the gospel, the good news, is summed up by my old friend Brother Andrew; ‘God loves people, period!’