Malachi 1:2
I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
The verse is a direct declaration of the Lord's love for His people, met at once by their questioning challenge asking in what way He has loved them. It stands at the opening of the prophecy as the beginning of the account of God's dealings with Israel. It belongs among the Old Testament prophecies that will find their fulfillment in the last days.