I grew up in a family of five children, and on more than one occasion I remember accusing my parents of having “favorites”. Although it wasn’t true in my family, Jacob really did have a favorite son! And it wasn’t something he tried to hide; instead, he made his favorite son, Joseph, a coat of many colors as a symbol of his great love for him. Joseph was the first son that Rachel had given Jacob after many years of infertility. If you recall, Jacob had worked seven years for Rachel, so he favored her above his other wives. All of Joseph’s brothers were jealous and longed to have the love of their father, just as Joseph did. They saw Joseph as a “tattletale” who would go and give their father bad reports about them. In addition, Joseph was always telling them about his dreams, and although they would later come true, it is not something his brothers were willing to hear. Their jealousy grew so great that they thought of murdering their brother.

Even though Jacob’s favoritism among his sons made for a rocky sibling relationship, God fulfilled his plan for each of them. Jacob’s favoritism also cause him much grief as he thought his son had been killed by a wild beast. He wouldn’t find out until years later that Joseph had been sold to Egypt. And just as Joseph had dreamt, he would be the ruler of his brothers and the one who helped them survive in difficult times.

The Bible provides us with dozens of examples of people who were partial towards certain people, and also teaches some important lessons we can learn to avoid these mistakes. The effects of favoritism can be a real problem. Even if we have the best intentions, the human reactions to this often spin out of control. All relationships can be negatively affected for life when we allow ourselves to fall into the sin of favoritism. We would be wise to follow God’s example, as He “does not show favoritism” (Romans 2:11). We are to treat everyone with God’s love and do our best to live in peace with everyone (Romans 12:18).

Suggested prayer: Dear God, thank you for all the examples you have given me in the Bible to learn from. Favoritism can be easy to fall into if we are not careful and can be so detrimental to our relationships. Help me show your love to my children equally and treat others with the same love as well. This is how they will know I am Your child. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. In Jesus’ name, amen.

1.    Genesis 37:3-4 (NIV).

Today’s Encounter was written by: Crystal B.