Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. Luke 1:26-31
These were the words read in one of my Bible studies recently, when I suddenly realized favor is not always favorable. Although Mary was highly favored and found favor with God, this was going to result in her having a difficult life. Mary was already “troubled” after the angel Gabriel called her highly favored and blessed. Then he tells her that since she had found favor with God, she would have a Son, named Jesus. This would not be a good position for a woman who is not yet officially married in her time. She could have been stoned to death. Her betrothed could have left her, and she could have been mocked by the community. However, she was favored and chosen by God to give birth to His Son, the Savior of the world. She would later see Him stripped, beaten, battered, and bruised before having an ignominious death on a cross like a criminal. This is favor folks! Mary did not always face favorable conditions, but the Lord was always with her no matter what she went through and because of this, she was blessed.
Jesus grew in the favor of God and man (see Luke 2:52), but later people spat in His face and beat Him, then on the cross He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (See Matthew 27:46). He was forsaken yet favored. Many of us pray for favor, but can we really handle being favored by God? Joseph was his father’s favorite child and that got him in trouble with his jealous brothers who threw him in a pit and then sold him into slavery. After, they lied to their father telling him an animal must have killed him and ate him. Joseph being alive and well, found favor as the slave of Potiphar who put him in charge of everything in his household. But Joseph found a bit too much favor in the eyes of Potiphar’s wife, who lusted after him and tried to lure him into her sordid arms, but he escaped leaving his garment behind in the hands of this vicious vixen, who hatched a plot against him, which landed him in prison. Yes, still, the Lord was with Joseph who found favor with the prison warden. So although he was not in a favorable condition, being in a dungeon, he still had favor.
But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper. Genesis 39:21-13
We look at people with nice homes and cars, and a good paying job and think they are favored by God. And we tend to look down at the people who live in unfavorable conditions and assume that they could not be favored by God, and we pity them. However, God’s kingdom can be quite different. Sometimes the poorest, humblest souls are among God’s favored and blessed as He is with them. Wherever we are and whatever we are going through when God is with us, we are blessed and favored because we have His presence with us.
Favor comes with obedience and faithfulness. David found favor with God because He was a man after His own heart. David was always faithful to God and so He anointed him as king. Despite this, it is believed that it could have been up to 15 years before David became king. During that time, he was on the run from King Saul, he pretended to be a mad man and lived in caves. That doesn’t sound so favorable to me. Nevertheless, He had God’s favor.
The greatest thing about being favored and blessed by God is that He is with us, no matter what. He gives us favor when our heart is focused on Him, and we are obedient to Him. But His favor does not mean we will always have favorable conditions. It could very well be the opposite.
תגובות