Hello Awelight, may please refer to my responses below regarding your comments:
Your comment that the book of Romans does not apply to mankind
In applying hermeneutics, you need to look at the verses and chapters before and after the verse.
- If you read Romans chapter 1 to chapter 4, it is about the unrighteousness of men (both the Jews and Gentiles) and that righteousness can only be received through faith and Abraham is used as an example.
- Romans 3:23 states “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Now, is it only the Romans that have sinned, or has the whole of humanity sinned?
- Chapter 5 focusses on justification by faith and verse 6 states that Christ died for the ungodly. Now did Christ only die for the Romans only? Or did He die for the whole of mankind?
- So before you get to Romans 5:8, the chapters are clearly speaking about all mankind and not the Romans only. Unless you believe it is only the Romans that are justified by faith and that Christ only died for them!
- When you read further in Romans 8:12, it states that it is because of Adams’ disobedience that sin entered into the world. Now is Adam the father of the Romans only or of the whole of mankind?
Also when you look at Romans 5:8 you will notice the following:
The text states that
before the Romans were believers (while they were still sinners), God demonstrated his love towards them. In other words, God did not wait for them to be believers or change their sinful and wicked ways before He showed His love to them. Christ died for humanity before many people in the world knew who He was. God did not wait for everyone to first believe that Christ is the Son of God before demonstrating His love to the whole world. God is not a respecter of persons and if He demonstrated his love to the Romans while they were sinners, it means that He demonstrated his love to everyone (all mankind) before they believed.
The reason why you believe that the verse was taken out of context is because you did not apply hermeneutics properly by reading the chapters and verses before and after Romans 5:8. You assumed that because it says Romans, that it only applied to the Roman people, which is not the case.
Your comment regarding Romans 9:13
In order to understand this verse, you must start to read from Romans 9:1.
When you look at the context, God loving Jacob and hating Esau has nothing to do with the human emotions of love and hate. It has everything to do with God choosing one man and his descendants and rejecting another man and his descendants.
For example, God chose Abraham out of all the men in the world. The Bible very well could say, “Abraham I loved, and every other man I hated.” God chose Abraham’s son Isaac instead of Abraham’s son Ishmael. The Bible very well could say, “Isaac I loved, and Ishmael I hated.”
The chapter explains that God choosing Israel (Who was called Jacob) was decided before Jacob and Esau were born. It was not dependent on their actions.
If you read Genesis, both Jacob and Esau committed sins, but God chose Jacob. So if God was a god of hate, he should have hated both of them since they were both were sinners. Therefore Romans 9:13 has got nothing to do with feelings of hatred towards Esau but explaining the principle that who God chooses is not dependent on their actions.
Your comment regarding Jeremiah 49:10
The descendants/seed of Esau were the Edomites. In Numbers 20:14-21, Edom had sought to block Israel's first entrance into the Promised Land. You can read 1 Samuel 14:47), 1 Kings 11:14-22, 2 Chronicles 20:1-23 and 2 Kings 8:21 showing the Edomites’ hatred, hardheartedness, cruelty, and arrogance towards the Israelites.
Because of the continuing antagonism towards Israel, God proclaimed through his prophets that it will be destroyed.
Your comment regarding Jeremiah 49:10
God asking King Saul to kill the people of Amalek was to fulfill the promise that He made in Deuteronomy 25: 19.
Amalek had attacked the Israelites without any provocation when they were coming out of Egypt.
Although God is love, He is also a God of justice (Psalm 89:14). Since Amalak tried to kill the whole of Israel starting with the weakest (which was the lame, the elderly, women, and children), it is fair and just that Israel should destroy all of them as much as it was their intention to destroy all of Israel.
Please read Deuteronomy 25:17-19 as well as Exodus 17:8-16
Overall
God being just, does not mean He does not have love.
The punishment of the wicked by Him is not a sign that He hates them. There is a consequence for every action. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Galatians 6:7).