Gen 33:10, And Jacob said, "No, please, if now I have found favor in your sight, then take my present from my hand, for I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably. 
This morning, we will finish with our consideration of this passage. We have spent time dealing, with Jacob and Esau in terms of their anticipated reunion after twenty years of separation. We also traced the expression of God’s favorable vision upon His people from Lot’s salvation, through the blessings that filled Joseph’s life to Moses and the required favor in the sight of God necessary to lead the Children of Israel out of their slavery in Egypt. 
In terms of Moses, we spent much time with his prayer that he would come to know God and His favor upon him. He wanted to have an intimate relationship with God that was far from single-sided one that we often seek. We have the tendency to want God’s favor upon us for those blessings and things that we will receive as a direct result. Moses, however, desired the blessing for the sake of the glory of God to be demonstrated to the whole world. That would be evidenced in God’s going forth with His people and showing all the nations that this people was unique to Him. Moses’ ultimate desire was to see the glory of God manifested for the sake of all those who would witness that this was, and is, in fact, the One, True, and Living, Lord God Almighty, Creator of the heavens and the earth, and the One to Whom all praise and honor and adoration is due.
We then ended, last time, with the consideration of the favor of God that was bestowed upon Ruth through Boaz. We saw that we are not to just sit and wait for God to bless us like spoiled children, but that we are to seek Him with all our heart and mind and effort. We are to give ourselves wholly to the reality that we are to please Him with our every endeavor and might and thought and word and deed. Ruth was not blessed just because she came back to Israel with Naomi. She was blessed because she gave herself fully to the task of being honoring to her mother-in-law and to the task of making every provision for her. In honoring Naomi, she was honoring the God of Naomi and therefore received the fruit of that heart after all that would manifest her love for her new heritage. 
This, then, brings us to the Prophet Jeremiah. Please turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah 31:1-14. In this passage, we have the voice of God declaring what He will do for His people. This is a wonderful proclamation of the effects of the favor of God visited upon His people. Jer 31:1-14, "At that time," declares the Lord, "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people." Thus says the Lord, "The people who survived the sword Found grace in the wilderness- Israel, when it went to find its rest." The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness. "Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! Again you shall take up your tambourines, And go forth to the dances of the merrymakers. "Again you shall plant vineyards On the hills of Samaria; The planters shall plant And shall enjoy them. "For there shall be a day when watchmen On the hills of Ephraim shall call out, 'Arise, and let us go up to Zion, To the Lord our God.'" For thus says the Lord, "Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, And shout among the chiefs of the nations; Proclaim, give praise, and say, 'O Lord, save Thy people, The remnant of Israel.' "Behold, I am bringing them from the north country, And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth, Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together; A great company, they shall return here. "With weeping they shall come, And by supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters, On a straight path in which they shall not stumble; For I am a father to Israel, And Ephraim is My first-born." Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, And declare in the coastlands afar off, And say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, And keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock." For the Lord has ransomed Jacob, And redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. "And they shall come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, And they shall be radiant over the bounty of the Lord — Over the grain, and the new wine, and the oil, And over the young of the flock and the herd; And their life shall be like a watered garden, And they shall never languish again. "Then the virgin shall rejoice in the dance, And the young men and the old, together, For I will turn their mourning into joy, And will comfort them, and give them joy for their sorrow. "And I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness," declares the Lord. 
Initially, even though this was addressed to the Children of Israel, the full force of this blessing of God’s favor in His sight is visited completely upon His people, including those who are brought into His fold through the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son. In fact, it is only in the light of Christ, that this passage finds its fulfillment as all those who are born again in Him are brought to the heart of Zion.
As well, the prophet makes several key declarations which pertain absolutely to the Gentile nations brought into the heart and lineage of God through His Son. The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness. Each of us are brought into this relationship with God in Christ through His working essence of love drawing us unto Himself. He has done the work and He has made the provision and He has chosen to so include you and me within the framework of His people. 
"Behold, I am bringing them from the north country, And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth, Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together; A great company, they shall return here. "With weeping they shall come, And by supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters, On a straight path in which they shall not stumble… Note the fact, again, that He is the One Who will bring forth those whom He will gather. He is the One Who will seek them and cause them, cause us to come before Him as He guides and directs and protects and keeps us on the path. Yes, the heart of this writing is an encouragement to those Israelites who were losing hope in their despair and their enslavement to the many nations around them. However, the fact remains, that God’s Word is not just limited to the single nation, but it is to all His people, all Whom He will gather into His heart with supplication and with direction. These people are not powerful and confident, they, we, were blind and lame, scattered in the remotest parts of the earth, lost in our sin and shame until He called us and claimed us for His own, a great company.
This tremendous favor in the sight of God is fully manifested in the reality that …the Lord has ransomed Jacob, And redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. We have been redeemed from the power of sin and death and have been released from the prison of our own defilement. No longer are we cowering in the dungeons of shame, wearing the rags of our own self-righteousness. We have been redeemed by the Lord God Almighty! We have been purchased by the precious blood of Christ, freed from the enforced servitude to the wantonness and the filth and the depravity of our old nature. Rather, in Jesus Christ, all those shackles and bonds that so fettered our hearts and minds and kept our spirits in the state of death have been broken asunder. We have been ransomed and made alive to God in Jesus Christ! 
On account of this tremendous reality, we join all the people of God in drawing unto Him to celebrate His goodness and His grace and His mercy and His so great love. Look at what should be evidenced in our gathering before Him to rejoice in all that He has done. "And they shall come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, And they shall be radiant over the bounty of the Lord — Over the grain, and the new wine, and the oil, And over the young of the flock and the herd; And their life shall be like a watered garden, And they shall never languish again. "Then the virgin shall rejoice in the dance, And the young men and the old, together, For I will turn their mourning into joy, And will comfort them, and give them joy for their sorrow. "And I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness," declares the Lord.
Where is there any place for sad and sullen countenances in this commemoration of the goodness of the Lord? Where is there any room for the loss of joy in being judgmental, or jealous of, or withdrawn from our fellow saints in Christ? With what heart do we find that we can criticize or defame or shun our brothers and sisters in Christ Whom God has chosen and included within the domain of His adopted family? If we are dealing with one another in any course other than that of delighting in the favor of God so clearly and so brilliantly and so eternally presented in the face of Our Lord Jesus Christ, there is something foul in our hearts and minds that needs to be immediately purged and eliminated! 
We are to be shouting for joy from the height of Zion! We are to be radiant in the fullness of all God’s bounty lavished so completely and freely upon us! We are to be rejoicing in the every inclusion of each one with whom we are joined together in Christ and finding that we truly do not have enough energy, enough vocabulary, sufficient songs of praise and thanksgiving, and adequate opportunity to share all the goodness of God with those in our lives!
The key aspect of this entire consideration of the favor of God is the fact that we are to be satisfied in the Goodness of God so manifested upon us in His sight. This is where we often find that we are drawn away by our hurt feelings and our discontentment with what we perceive to be our lack as Christians. In all honesty, when we are critical, when we are judgmental, when we are demanding, when we do not understand the needs of others, when we are less than considerate and patient and kind and accepting of others, the core root stems from our discontentment and our thinking that we should be receiving more than we already have. This is an utter impossibility since we have so gloriously been given everything in Jesus Christ. Rom 8:32, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 
	If any of this rings true in our hearts and minds, if there be any discontentment which causes us to not be completely satisfied in all that God has done, we need to ask God to remove it far from, as far as the east is from the west and the heavens from the earth. We must seek Him, with all our hearts, to bring us into the full enjoyment of our salvation in Jesus Christ!
A key point in all of this is that we are to treat each other, and all others, in the same favor of our sight as we have in the sight of God. His glorious blessing upon us is not for us to hoard or to lord over others. It is to be absolutely spread abroad unto the entirety of this realm as we are so led forth by His Holy Spirit. The rejoicing and the celebration that is ours in Christ should be evident for the bestowment of His favor upon our fellow believers, our family members, our work and school mates, our bosses, and even upon our enemies. 
We conclude this contemplation with the passage of Rev 22:1-5. Let us read it together. Rev 22:1-5, And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His bond-servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall no longer be any night; and they shall not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine them; and they shall reign forever and ever. 
The fulfilled context of this passage revels in the light and the glory and the majesty of God. The immensity of the favor of God upon our lives so far supersedes even the pastoral beauty reflected in this passage. This was the only manner in which John could even begin to give a description of what is involved in the manifest glory of God in Jesus Christ upon His people. In this light, we must come to the place that we set aside all those issues and complications and attitudes which truly serve no purpose in our lives other than as walls and barriers which will be shattered at the revealed heart of God to all His children.
Just as Esau was brought to the place that he could truly rejoice at the sight of his long separated brother, Jacob, so should we seek after the Lord to make us rejoice in the joining together of one heart that is ours through Jesus Christ. We are to be filled with all the wonder and the amazement and the joy of our salvation and the salvation of all whom God so favors with His grace and mercy, in the light of His favorable countenance upon us. So be it!
And Jacob said, "No, please, if now I have found favor in your sight, then take my present from my hand, for I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably. Amen.

	
This morning’s benediction is Ps 145:5-10. On the glorious splendor of Thy majesty, And on Thy wonderful works, I will meditate. And men shall speak of the power of Thine awesome acts; And I will tell of Thy greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of Thine abundant goodness, And shall shout joyfully of Thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works. All Thy works shall give thanks to Thee, O Lord, And Thy godly ones shall bless Thee. Amen.