Favoritism and Favorites

I want to start this by challenging us to look at these two words. And I will start by making a statement.

God does not show favoritism but He has favorites.

Does it look like a contradiction in terms? Is it really a contradiction of terms?

Grace is the explanation of that apparent contradiction in terms.

Favoritism has to do with using different standards for the same situation. It has to do with unfairness. And that can not be applied to God as He is fair. He is the just judge.

Favor, however has to do with how we receive and respond to God. This is what determines how He will relate with us.

The Bible says that God loved Jacob and hated Esau. But in the Bible that word hated has to do with comparisons.

For example Jesus said that if anyone loved Him and does not hate everyone and everything he cannot be His disciple. Yet He said that we love our enemies, love our neighbors as we love ourselves etc.

That is where I want us to start.

God therefore did not hate Esau like we hate. He simply meant that He chose to favor Jacob over Esau. But I want us to look at how it came about.

The Bible calls Esau profane yet we do not see any profanity when we read the scriptures.

What we see is that he was worldly. He was focused on the here and now instead of the promise he was supposed to be carrying.

Remember the birthright? Imagine comparing spiritual inheritance to a plate of stew? He chose his stomach above Abraham’s call and promise.

Incidentally, many years later when Jacob is seeking reconciliation we see him more concerned with wealth (I have enough, my brother) than the favor Jacob was after.

Did God favor Jacob? Yes. Did He show favoritism? No.

Jacob opened himself to favor just as Esau closed himself to the same. And we see the same with Isaac and Ishmael. One sought spiritual connection when the other was pursuing a worldly inheritance. And that is where God’s favor operates from. God’s favor will flow when the heart is in the right place with respect to spiritual things.

We will obtain God’s favor depending on how sold out we are to His agenda.

Esau was a very hard worker. No wonder his father favored him. He enjoyed the game this hard worker brought.

Jacob was homely. He probably didn’t love adventure or the rigors and dangers involved in hunting. But he knew about Abraham’s promise and call and wanted to be the one to access it. That he could make a vegetarian stew so delectable as to be exchanged with a birthright is exceptional but he did it.

It is the same today.

The revelation we can access is directly proportional with the hunger we have for the same. It means that we might be in an identical place yet one accesses revelation even as the other is getting things.

That is the reason we see pastors accessing the world but sadly losing their spiritual cutting edge. That is why we find pastors who were on fire for revival and holiness becoming cosy with the oppressor. In short a preacher becomes friends with people he could not have touched with a ten foot pole when they were at their peak of spirituality. And it happens because the then abominable character has been allowed to give some goodies to the good minister.

The minister then can’t afford to preach against sin, corruption or immorality as was his past because his new ‘sponsors’ lead such lifestyles. I once heard a pastor friend building on a sermon so nicely yet just about the time he was to give the final punch he made such an about time that some of us were dazed. That is why many ‘successful’ preachers rarely, if ever, make an altar call as they must then press for conviction.

That is how an Esau is made in ministry.

And you see the same when you look at Jesus’ earthly ministry. It was the disqualified that were able to access Christ’s revelation instead of the specially placed spiritual giants. Remember Jesus talking about the prayers of a Pharisee and a tax collector.

God is about to do the same in the upcoming revival as He will overlook some of those we think are better placed to lead it.

Are you a God-seeking Jacob (conman) or an earthly hard worker?

Where do you think God’s favor will flow to?