A person may say “God has no favourites. It’s what the Bible says in Romans 2:11.”
Another may respond, ‘Yes but the Bible says “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” in Romans 9:13 so there are some people who God loves better than others.’
This is why we must always ask God to open our eyes to behold wondrous things from His Word as the Psalmist prayed in Psalm 119:18.
The Bible must be read within context and with the understanding only the Holy Spirit gives.
Jacob and Esau were brothers and before they were even born and done anything, whether good or bad, God made this statement about loving one and hating the other for this sole reason: “that the purpose of God according to election might stand”
(Romans 9:11).
Matter of fact, if God had not said this before they were born, the fact that Jacob had to run for his life, then work more than 20 years for his uncle who also deceived him, the world would have concluded that God hated Jacob and was punishing him for lying to his old father and stealing his brother’s birthright.
God was showing that He chooses whom He will despite what they may or may not have done.
Regardless, this declaration of love had nothing to do with Jacob the individual, whose name was changed to Israel, but for the seed (generations) that would come through him.
These men grew up and the descendants of Jacob became the Israelites from his 12 sons (Joseph who is probably the most known of them) and Esau’s descendants became the Edomites who ended up being destroyed many centuries later.
Now, this declaration of love covered the generation of Israelites by Jacob because even though he and Esau had the same father (Isaac), only the Jacobites (Israelites) were loved by God.
If this is the case, how do you and me, with our non-Israelites earthly nationalities even stand a chance of being loved by God if God will not even love Esau who was the very blood of Jacob?
We stand a chance because even if God has no individual favourites amongst human beings, He has a favourite in one Person, His begotten son, Jesus Christ and by believing Him, we are adopted not just into the nation of Israel but into the very family of God.
“Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world… Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household”
(Ephesians 2:11&19).
Now, God has mercies which He distributes freely and to some individuals He chooses to show mercy while to others, He withholds His mercy (Romans 9:16).
Yes, some may enjoy the mercies of God more than others because God wills it but this does not mean the person is loved more or preferred over the other.
The only display of God’s love was once and equally displayed to us all by Him sending His only Son to die for the sins of we who hated Him.
The Son who drank that bitter cup is the only favourite of God and anyone who believes and is trusting in Him will become an equal favourite of God alongside all others who believe in Christ.
Grace might be given in greater degrees to some over others, likewise mercy but this is nothing but the will and sheer pleasure of God. If we are deserving of it in anyway, it is not mercy.
The final thing to note is how we measure what we classify as God’s blessings. Does our worldview accommodate the fact that God chastens those He loves and calls those whom He doesn’t chasten bastards? (Hebrews 12:6-8).
If we use the material blessings that this world glorifies and imagine that this is the evidence that anyone is ‘blessed’ or ‘a favourite of God’, we might be serving a god but it is certainly not the ‘I am’ of The Holy Bible.
“The greatest gift God can give to anyone is Himself.”
“We must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God”
(Acts 14:22).