There was a lady in every generation of the Bible who stood out from among the crowd — a girl to whom God showed particular favor.
And this woman was always favored in order to reach her respective generation: Esther, Rahab, Ruth– among others, and yes, especially Mary.
Gabriel said to Mary,
‘You have found grace (free, spontaneous, absolute favor and loving kindness) with God.’{Luke 1:30, Amplified Version}
Can you say overwhelming?!
Favor
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- – /ˈfāvər/ –
noun
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- 1. approval, support, or liking for someone or something.
- 2. an act of kindness beyond what is due or usual.
God approved of Mary. He supported her. He presented an act of kindness beyond even what the Law would bestow upon a person of morality and faith — especially to a woman!
I mean, really… just wow. Absolute favor! Can you imagine having God’s “absolute favor” upon your life? What must that be like? To know that God has favored you, given you free grace, spontaneous loving kindness above ALL other women in the world?
I honestly don’t envy Mary — I can’t imagine being in her shoes even for one day. I wonder what happened when she told her parents about Gabriel’s visit? What about the conversations she must have had with Joseph, her soon-to-be-husband? What happened when people gossiped about her? What happened when friends shunned her? We’re not talking all the warm and fuzzy feelings here, Darling. We’re talking about God gracing a young woman with His absolute favor, love, grace, trust, and honor beyond what anyone in the entire world had ever experienced, yes — but a massive amount of responsibility came along with that privilege, as well.
Think about it: to have knowledge of the greatness of God’s love in THAT way… in a way that NO OTHER WOMAN would ever experience, EVER??? To know that God approved of you to the extent to allow you to carry Jesus, God in flesh, in your womb? This is a big deal. This is a giant deal. This is, like, the biggest deal ever to occur in the history of ever. Oh, yes — Mary was definitely favored above all other women.
And as for Esther, Rahab, and Ruth? I believe that God bestowed His favor — that free, spontaneous, absolute loving-kindness — upon all of them, too. He worked through them; He used them in special ways, too.
Here’s the thing:
I think it’s completely normal to read the stories about these great women and then feel less-than-adequate when we compare ourselves to them. In fact, we can almost allow ourselves to feel useless, unimportant, and insignificant to the Kingdom of God.
When those kinds of thoughts surround us, it becomes easy to get caught up in the worries of the millennial life: the stuff that seems so important in the moment — what’s happening on social media, the latest fashion trends, the who’s who of Pentecost — that we lose sight of what it means to delight in the favor of the Lord.
Certainly the women in the Bible who were used by God were not perfect, but I’m sure they all had something in common: they desired the favor of God in their lives.
And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.
{Esther 2:17 KJV}
Esther was able to obtain the favor of King Xerxes because the favor of God rested upon her. Although she most certainly must have been brilliantly beautiful, I don’t believe it was solely her outward beauty that caused her to be chosen as queen out of every maiden in the land. Xerxes chose Esther to be his queen because there was something special about her, something different: and it was her relationship with God. Because of God’s favor upon her life, it was through her that the entire Jewish population was saved from annihilation.
“By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not…”
{Hebrews 11:31 KJV}
Ok, so we have no record of Esther’s mistakes or imperfections. But Rahab? She certainly wasn’t perfect! She was a harlot — or in today’s language, a prostitute. But because of her faith in God, her life was spared when the lives of every other person in her city was killed when the Israelites marched around Jericho. Then not only was her life spared, she also found great favor with God because she was in the direct lineage of Jesus!
Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
{Ruth 2:10, KJV}
And Ruth? She was a Moabite. She was raised to worship many gods — a pagan, an idol worshipper. She had had a difficult life: her husband died, her sister-in-law rejected her, her mother-in-law was bitter. But she decided to trust in and follow the One True God, and as a result, found favor with Him. She married Boaz, a Jew, and became the great-grandmother to King David… and remember whose house Jesus was born into? The house of David.
Just like these women, deep within our hearts, we also desire the favor of God to rest on our lives. We are passionate about truth, we share the gospel, we’re not ashamed of modesty, we’re not afraid to shine our “little light” and be different.
But we make mistakes. We know we’re not perfect. And so we wonder, “How in the world could God use imperfection?”
Oh Darling! It is because of the inadequacies, mistakes, and imperfections in our lives that cause God’s grace and favor to be so beautiful to us. He doesn’t love us after we’re clean from sin, He loves us in spite of all the sin, and then rejoices when He throws them as far as the east is from the west.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.{Romans 5:8-10, KJV}
This is the purpose behind the cross, darling.
THIS was why God favored Esther and Rahab and Ruth: so that He could ultimately favor Mary to have a way to come to earth in order to be our Redeemer.
The favor given to these four Biblical women is not meant to make us feel inferior in our own generation. Rather, that favor was given to them so that we could experience the grace of Calvary. Those amazing women experienced God’s favor, yes, but you and I have the opportunity to experience the grace and mercy of God out of the ultimate sacrifice: the shedding of Jesus’ blood on Calvary.
God’s mercy is greater than our sins. The guilt that condemns you and accuses you? It was put to death at the Cross. God’s mercy is always readily available to show you compassion and forgiveness: because Jesus died in order for you to be free from guilt. Free from condemnation. Free from every sin you ever committed.
God approves of YOU, just like He approved of Mary. God favors you, just as he did Esther, Rahab, and Ruth. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, who you were, or who you are. He died for YOU on Calvary so that you could experience the same kind of favor He showed to them. He died and rose again so that YOU could experience grace. So that you could experience mercy. So that you could be born again and washed free of guilt, shame, iniquity, sin. So that you could have a new life in Him.
Now here we are:
21st century girls. The millennials. This is our generation. We are the women of today.
We have been called, we have been set apart, we have been chosen, we have experienced the grace and mercy of God. Rise to your calling, darling. Be the young lady God has called you to be to YOUR generation. Allow God to shine in your life so that others can come to the knowledge of Truth by seeing that God’s “absolute favor” DOES rest upon your life, just like it did in Mary’s.
This is your commission:
You have God’s favor. Accept it, cherish it, desire it, delight in it. Stand out from the crowd. Delight in the beauty of God’s grace in your life. Revel in the power of His amazing sacrifice on Calvary. And share it with everyone — absolutely everyone you know.