I have loved you,
says the LORD.
Yet you say, How have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother?
says the LORD:
yet I loved Jacob,
All Commentaries on Malachi 1:2 Go To Malachi 1
Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
At the very beginning of the world, of those two sons who were born of Adam, Abel the younger is chosen, while as a figure of the unfaithful Jews, Cain the older one is condemned. Afterward, in the time of Abraham, the same figure is fulfilled in Sarah and Hagar. Sarah was sterile for a long time as a type of the church, while Hagar as a figure of the synagogue bore a son at once. Hence it is that the younger son Isaac is received into the inheritance, but Ishmael, who was older, is driven away. This fact also seems to have been fulfilled in those two: Jacob the younger was loved by God, while Esau was rejected according to what is written: “I have loved Jacob but hated Esau.” This figure is also known to have been fulfilled in those two sisters whom blessed Jacob had as his wives: Rachel, who was the younger, was loved more than Leah the older. In fact, of the former was born Joseph, who was to be sold in Egypt as a type of our Lord and Savior. That Leah was blearyeyed while Rachel was beautiful in countenance is also significant: in Leah is understood the synagogue; the church is indicated in Rachel. A man whose bodily eyes are afflicted with inflammation cannot look at the brightness of the sun. Similarly the synagogue, which had had the eyes of its heart filled with jealousy and envy against our Lord and Savior as with poisonous floods, could not gaze upon the splendor of Christ, who is “the Sun of justice.”
