There are things we do that make us favorites to some people at any given place we find ourselves. Be it at our workplace, school, church or homes, we become the favorites of the heads or leaders of the area when we are able to identify what they prefer most in order to do that for them.
At times, we don’t understand why our parents prefer our brother or sister to us or why our bosses seem to like one employee over all of us. The secret is that, in every setting there are favorites and to be a favorite is highly dependent on one knowing what their boss or leader wants.
The same thing applies to the Kingdom of God; God has His favorites. I know this might not sound well with some people but it is the truth that God has His favorites among His children though He loves us all equally.
Rather than being unhappy with God for apparently loving someone more than you, look for why God is doing so in order to also do what He wants.
We cannot expect the president of our country to be treated the same way as any other citizen when it comes to privileges; the same applies to our Members of Parliament (MPs) because we presume that their work makes them deserving of some special privileges than any other citizen.
God has His favorites because He cannot treat the disobedient ones the same way as He would treat the obedient ones.
God rewards us according to our works and faithfulness.
There were two twin brothers in the Bible who were favorites each of a parent for some reasons; in Genesis 25:23-26 Isaac and Rebekah had two sons- Jacob and Esau.
In Genesis 25:28 Bible says, “Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.” Here it was clear that Isaac’s favourite son was Esau and the reason he loved him was clear: Esau was a cunning hunter (vrs 27) who always brought his father wild game (bush meat) which Isaac loved so much.
Though Bible did not specifically state why Rebekah loved Jacob, the same vrs 27 offers a clue, just as it was for Esau. “The boys grew up, and Esau became a skilful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.”
The description of Jacob’s preoccupation may create a picture of a lazy person who had nothing doing except to remain at home; actually, there is no clear definition of the work he did.
But his preoccupation makes him his mother’s favourite: a mother always wants a son to run errands for her, to help with household chores and to be at her beck-and-call at all times and Jacob falls perfectly in line. When she wanted someone to do the errands, Esau would be nowhere to be found, whereas Jacob came in time to help her out. This obviously tells why Isaac loves Esau and Rebekah loves Jacob.
When later in their lives, Isaac wanted to release his blessings to his first born, Esau, he sent him to look for good meat to prepare a stew for him (Genesis 27:1-) but Rebekah, whose favourite was Jacob, overhead the conversation between Isaac and Esau and made her favourite, Jacob, disguise himself as Esau and took the blessing.
It may sound unpalatable because there was cheating but that is what happens when people want to do good, among many, they choose those who are of a benefit to them.
In 2 Timothy 2:20 Bible talks about various vessels or articles in a large house. “In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use.”
There are different articles (servants) in God’s house and some are for special purposes (favourite servants) and some for common use (less favourite servants).
To be God’s favourite servant (article) is a matter of choice as the next verse states, 2 Timothy 2:21-”Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.”
To be God’s favourite, we need to know what God likes in order to do it to His satisfaction and to gain His favour. His word is encouraging us to purge ourselves of anything He hates in order to become instruments (servants) for special purposes.
It doesn’t matter how one is or where he is placed in the Kingdom of God; what matters is their ability to purge themselves of everything that God hates and do the things that God likes.
When we are God’s favourite, we gain special favour from Him and life is made better for us. When it gets to the critical point, God comes to our rescue.
In Genesis 33:1-4, Jacob was going to meet his brother Esau after so many years. For fear of being killed by his brother, whom he thought was plotting revenge, Jacob separated his children according to their mothers.
He sent forward the children he had with his maid servants and followed that up with the children of Leah and then those of Rachel, to meet his brother. This arrangement was strategically made to ensure that his favourite did not suffer any unfortunate situation.
The plan was that, if Esau was going to attack him and his family, the first to be attacked were going to be the maidservants’ children, who did not meant as much to him as those of Leah, who was not the person he had wanted to marry in the first place. By the time Esau would have finished attacking and killing the two batches, Rachel’s children might have found an escape route from the violence.
Rachel was the woman he worked hard to marry but was denied the opportunity to do so due to a custom that made it mandatory for the first child to marry first (Genesis 29:16-26). In fact, in the depth of his heart, Rachel ranked first, followed by Leah and the maidservants.
So it is in the house of God. Those who get God what He desires and those who make themselves available for His use as a servants, gain some favour that surpasses what others get.
No one plays with his assets so let’s become God’s best servants (articles) that He may use us to glorify Himself and honor us with His favour at all times.