MONDAY August 16, 2021
Consequences of Favoritism
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.
Genesis 37:3-4
It is never wise to favor one child above another. In the Bible there are several stories that relate to the foolishness of favoritism. When Isaac favored Esau, and Rebekah favored Jacob, it completely divided the home. It caused Esau to hate his brother. Jacob fled from him and stayed away from home for twenty years because of Esau’s anger:
The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. (Genesis 25:27-28).
As a father, Jacob showed favoritism to Joseph, his eleventh son. It caused anger and jealousy among his brothers. The brother’s jealousy went as far as to planning Joseph’s murder:
Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. Then they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming! Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams...” (Genesis 37:18-20).
Jacob had caused so many problems by showing favoritism to one of his sons. However, God in His providence rescued Joseph. The young lad was not killed but sold as a slave in Egypt. God had His purposes fulfilled. Joseph was used to save His family from a seven year famine:
God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God (Genesis 45:7-8).
God is not defeated by human failure.
~William J. C. White~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!
