Does God play favorites? - Favoritism - TouchPoints

Psalm 7:11God is an honest judge. He is angry with the wicked every day.

If God were to give every person what he or she deserved, no one would survive, for the Bible says that all people have sinned against him and deserve eternal punishment (Romans 3:23). God is not only gracious for offering us the way to eternal life, he also is merciful in giving it to us for free as a gift. All we need to do is accept it (Romans 6:23).

Ecclesiastes 9:11I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.

John 3:16“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

God does not promise equal treatment for us on earth, but he does promise that all have equal access to eternal life. Everyone receives eternal life the same way, by simple faith in Jesus Christ. And when we finally arrive in God’s presence, everything will be completely fair, just as we have always longed for it to be.

Numbers 2:9So the total of all the troops on Judah’s side of the camp is 186,400. These three tribes are to lead the way whenever the Israelites travel to a new campsite.

Romans 9:10-16This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.” Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.

Jacob, who had two wives, loved Rachel more than Leah (Genesis 29:30-31), which caused all kinds of family problems. When God arranged the Israelite camp in the wilderness and the order of marching, he chose Leah’s descendants before Rachel’s. God did not “play favorites” as Jacob did. Judah was first because the Messiah would come through his line. Favoritism is preferring one equal above another equal. God’s choices of one above another are divine preferences for divine purposes. God’s ways are not always our ways, so we often won’t understand them. Our task is to discover his will for us and follow him anyway.