Favoritism is the preferential treatment of people based on what they can do for us, and it has the power to fracture not just families but the mission of God — as we see in Genesis 37 where Jacob's open favoritism of Joseph nearly unraveled the entire family of promise. Favoritism jeopardizes God's work because it devalues people by stripping them of their God-given worth, and dethrones God by replacing His rule of love with our own comfort-driven preferences. But the most surprising twist is that God's answer to man's favoritism is grace — bypassing the favored Joseph entirely and choosing Judah, the betrayer, to carry the lineage of Jesus. We are all Judah, and it is only when we experience that grace personally that we are freed from playing favorites with others.