Our word for today is אָהֵב love, like, endear, to have a great deal of affection or care for or loyalty towards. It is used 210 times in the Old Testament. We see it used of God’s love for people. Deuteronomy 10:15 Yet the Lord set his heart in אָהֵב love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. And God’s command to love Him. Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall אָהֵב love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. It is also used when God commands to love our neighbor. Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall אָהֵב love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
It is used when one family member is loved more than another, showing favoritism. This by the way, always ends badly in these Bible accounts. Genesis 29:30 So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he אָהֵב loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years. Another example of this is also in Genesis. Genesis 37:3-4 Now Israel אָהֵב loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father אָהֵב loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Eventually his brothers try to kill him but instead sell him as a slave to get rid of him.
So back to our chapter 25 of Genesis where we see this same thing. Genesis 25:27-28 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, אָהֵב loved Esau, but Rebekah אָהֵב loved Jacob. And like the other accounts in the Bible this will also end badly. We will look at this more when we get to Genesis chapter 27. It looks like the parents loved one son over the other based on their own preferences Jacob stayed at home which Rebekah probably enjoyed whereas Esau was a hunter which Isaac liked because he got to eat wild game. This can happen if we are not careful which God points out very clearly in James as favoritism.
James 2:1-4, 8-9 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? … If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. Because God loves us all the same, he calls us to love other’s without showing favoritism.
