More Favorites??
By Rev. William Dohle
Every family has them. The infamous "favorite child." You know who they are. They are the child who gets everything they want. And doesn't have to do anything for it. They're the one who can get away with anything...because they're "perfect." At times they're the informant, or the tattle-tale. At other times they're the receiver of good gifts. They're the "favorite child" of their parents and the bane of their siblings.
You might be the favorite in your family... or you might know the one who is. In my family...that station is up for debate.
It could be me...the oldest who my siblings seem to compare themselves to.
Or it could be my sister...who does so much with my family.
I think it's my younger brother... who my father once told me would be the richest out of all of us.
Or it could be my youngest brother...the one still living at home at 27 years old.
And my immediate family has them too.
Our oldest son...gets lots of responsibility and gets asked to do everything.
Our middle son...gets away with lots because he can hide behind his older brother.
And my daughter...well, you could say that she's a daddy's girl!
Yup. Regardless of how much we try to love our children equally and treat them all the same, "favorites" creep into family dynamics. Like a part of nature.
Favorites are especially prevalent in families with large families...even today. Louis Tverberg in her book "Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus" describes what one African man said about favoritism. "[It is] this way in polygamous families. The second wife is usually favored over the first, and the father spoils her children and wants them to be his heirs."(Tverberg, 135).
Jacob does that very thing. He has favorites. So much so that when his first favorite, Joseph, is thought to be dead, he moves that station to Joseph's younger brother, skipping all the other children that he has. It is for that reason that Jacob keeps Benjamin(the youngest son of his favorite wife, Rachel) back from going to Egypt with the rest of them. Protecting his favorite from the dangers of Egypt.
When Benjamin is forced to stay in Egypt, Jacob sends word back to Joseph again. "You know that my wife bore me two sons. one of them went away from me and I said, "He has surely been torn to pieces." And I have not seen him since. If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him,
you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery."(Genesis 44:27-28)
It seems strange to me that Jacob doesn't realize he has other sons! Aren't there MORE people in his family?
And haven't we talked about this already?? I can hear that question in your mind. If you've followed this devotion, you will notice we have talked of favoritism before. With Jacob and Esau in fact! There we had a classic story of favoritism.
And here it is again!
In fact, you could say that the whole Bible is one BIG story of surprising favoritism. Favoritism...of God! God throughout Scripture chooses a favorite. And it's never the person we think it should be.
So far in Genesis... God has chosen Issac...the second born.
Jacob...a deceiver, manipulator and another second born.
He chooses Judah, son of Leah the shunned wife of Jacob, to be the line of kings.
He chooses Tamar...and all that happens with her...as the great-great-great grandmother of King David...and eventually of the Messiah himself.
In fact, God's whole story is a story of choosing favorites. And of choosing the least likely person to be the favorite in the story.
Joseph...sold into slavery, Hebrew turned Egyptian.
Moses...excuse maker and studderer.
David...youngest son of a whole herd of boys.
Need I go on? And what's even best is that God has chosen YOU. YOU ... who were nothing in the eyes of this world. YOU! God has chosen YOU! As Paul writes:
"...think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential' not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things to silence the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to silence the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him."(1 Corinthians 1:26-28)
YOU are God's favorite! YOU are God's chosen. Not because you did anything special or perfect. But because of Christ Jesus. For in Jesus, the favorite, beloved, Son of God's company, we are all God's favorites!
Open our eyes, Lord God, and help us see that you have chosen us to be your people in this world. May we extend that invitation to those we find around us, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
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