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. 
Last week, we began to look at this passage in terms of what it means to find favor in the sight of God. This was the course of Jacob as he was returning to his father’s land to face the feared wrath of his brother Esau. The very discourse, as we read, was between Esau and Jacob, but it highlights the manner in which God manifested His sovereignty in even Esau’s heart and mind over the course of the twenty year separation between the two brothers. 
As well, we considered Lot finding favor in the eyes of God in terms of how he treated and tried to protect the angelic representatives who were searching the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for even 10 righteous men. Not having found that many, the Lord favored Lot with His salvation from the devastation that obliterated the two vile cities. Even as Lot was fleeing, he was unable to reach the safety of the hill country, so he requested and found favor in the sight of the Lord in receiving refuge within the small town of Zoar.
We ended last week’s deliberation with the passage containing the request from Moses to God to deal effectively with His people with regard to the manner in which Moses had found favor in the sight of God. Let us re-read the scripture which delineates the manner in which Moses saw this relationship with God in terms of His favor being expressed through Moses unto the Children of Israel. 
Please turn once again to Ex 33:12-19. Ex 33:12-19, Then Moses said to the Lord, "See, Thou dost say to me, 'Bring up this people!' But Thou Thyself hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. Moreover, Thou hast said, 'I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.' "Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found favor in Thy sight, let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee, so that I may find favor in Thy sight. Consider too, that this nation is Thy people." And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." Then he said to Him, "If Thy presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Thy sight, I and Thy people? Is it not by Thy going with us, so that we, I and Thy people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?" And the Lord said to Moses, "I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight, and I have known you by name." Then Moses said, "I pray Thee, show me Thy glory!" And He said, "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion." 
This passage is full of so much that is at the heart of knowing that we have favor in the sight of God. As we initially broached last week, Moses fully understood that to have the favor of God’s sight meant that there had to be a reciprocal knowledge of Who God is and His Nature and Being in action. We cannot just be satisfied with the little bits and pieces that we have been given to date of the theology and the doctrinal aspects and the traditional teachings concerning the Christian religion. We are not looking at theoretical and philosophical familiarity. That was not going to help Moses deal with the leading forth of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. He needed to know God and to know Him in all His glorious power and wisdom and guidance. 
Listen to the heart of his prayer unto God …if I have found favor in Thy sight, let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee…. …let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee… Moses needed to know God and His ways in order to fulfill all that was before him in the effective dealings with this soon to be proven stubborn and rebellious people. Day after day, for those 40 years of wandering, Moses’ only joy would be centered in the fact that he found favor in the sight of God because he was ever more clearly learning the greatest depths of Who God was.
And it wasn’t just the knowledge of God that Moses craved, but in the very prayer to know more of God, Moses makes a very gut wrenching proclamation. Then he said to Him, "If Thy presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Thy sight, I and Thy people? Is it not by Thy going with us, so that we, I and Thy people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?" Moses was extremely distraught with the very thought that the Lord would not go before him and the Children of Israel. Even after God had just promised "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest", Moses could not but declare the utter necessity that God absolutely needed to do that, to go with them in their being led forth to the Promised Land. He did not want to go one step further without the knowledge of the immediate presence of the Lord. This was in order to make known that this people belonged to God, that this people was distinguished from all the others because of the favor of the face of God upon them. If that was not in place, then Moses wanted nothing more to do with any of this.
At the core of this determined response to God was the fact that Moses not only wanted to know the favor of God but that he wanted God to receive all the glory and the praise and the honor due unto Him for all that He was accomplishing in this deliverance of His people. What made the nation of Israel different from all the others was the fact that they were the chosen people of God. They served Him and received His blessing and sustenance in the midst of all the other nations of the world. This would serve to bring about the recognition that this people would be known, not for their actions and their abilities, but because the favor of God was upon them. He would keep and guide and protect and give them the victory over all those nations and obstacles and hardships by His presence within their encampment. In that direct revelation of His favor, God would receive the glory and that was the heart’s desire of Moses in this prayer.
One of the final aspects that we will see in this prayer is that such a heart after knowing the immediate presence and the favor of God, the desire to know Him in greater reality and truth, led Moses to seek to see the very glory of God. Then Moses said, "I pray Thee, show me Thy glory!" Just as a deeper knowledge of Who God is brings with it the more abiding presence of God’s favor resting upon our lives, so also does God’s immediate favor and the relationship that develops with Him cause us to want to see His glory revealed unto us. We become ever more eager to see His glory opened unto our eyes as we walk on this earth.
This is a central aspect of how we should want to please God in an increasingly intimate and detailed living relationship with Him. We want to be enabled to express our hearts unto Him in the manner in which others will be the recipients and the observers of all that He does day in and day out. When we so seek to give Him all the honor and the adoration that He deserves, we become enthralled with the prospect of knowing Him more closely in the majesty of His glory as we endeavor, ever more fully, to please Him in our sojourn on this earth. This was the heart that Moses expressed to His Friend in this prayer. He wanted to see the glory of God, not for Moses’ sake, to promote himself as some special person with an honored placement above all other men, but with the desire to bless God by knowing Him all the more intimately in his relationship with God. 
Then we have God’s response to Moses’ heart after seeking something that would further create and bond this relationship between The Creator and His creation. "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion."
In this reply we have the wonderful statement with which God has always dealt with His creation. Not only will He show forth His goodness and proclaim His name before Moses, but God declares that He will be gracious to those to whom He determines grace is to be lavished and He will show compassion upon those whom He chooses to so bless with compassion. The core expression of the mind of God is fully entwined in the fact that His goodness and His grace and His compassion cannot be separated from the reality of finding favor in His sight. He will choose to bestow His awesome favor, in goodness and in grace and in compassion, upon those with whom He will choose to establish this living relationship. It has nothing to do with earning it. It has nothing to do with being deserving of it. It has nothing to do with luck or circumstance or being at the right place at the right time. It is all wrapped together in the fact that God has known, from before the advent of eternity, those upon whom He will bestow His salvation in Jesus Christ. 
This is a key fact that we must never forget! For whatever reason, known only to God, there are those whom He has chosen unto Himself in truth and in life. We cannot force Him to choose anyone who is not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. That is all predetermined by the Omniscience and the Omnipotence of God. We do not know whom He has chosen to grace with the revelation of Himself, therefore we must be on constant guard to present Him in the utmost expression of love to all who come into our lives. We do not have the authority to declare someone’s salvation or condemnation. As a result, we are encumbered with the responsibility to treat everyone in the truth that, as Christ is livingly expressed to them, they will receive the call of God which will draw forth the response that God has put into their hearts. This is all a reality of God’s showing forth His glory to those who are desirous to see and know the fullness of His Being and Essence. 
	Leaving this tremendous prayer of Moses, we now come to the passage dealing with the expression of how favor in the sight of God is put into earthly application. Please turn to Ruth 2:8-12. Ruth 2:8-12, Then Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw." Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, "Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?" And Boaz answered and said to her, "All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know. May the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge." 
	As Ruth was faithful in honoring her mother-in-law in the strange land, away from her parents and friends, so did the favor of God manifest itself in the eyes of Boaz. There was a recompense evidenced from the heart of God, through the earthly instrument of His favor, Boaz. While Boaz attributes his gracious treatment of Ruth to the fact of her willingness to properly care for and honor Naomi, it was the Lord Who so moved his heart to see and to become enamored of her, just as the Lord sees and chooses each one of us to be blessed with His unending favor and grace.
	Boaz took notice of Ruth and made every provision for her to safely glean in his fields and to partake of the bounty of the harvest as the pickers were instructed to leave extra for the meals of the two women. Please note, that Boaz does not prevent Ruth from the labor required. He did not just give her the portion that was to be set aside. She still had to labor, even to the point of needing the refreshment of the water which the servants will draw. She was not given a free ride, but rather received the blessing of the master of the fields to reap the bounty of her labor in peace and in security. 
	This is something we often fail to consider as we sojourn on this earth. We are frequently of the mind that, because we are Christians, everything will just be given to us as we sit and expect God to feed us. The truth is that we are to seek Him with all our hearts in order to find Him. We are to work, with all diligence, in the course of our walk with Him. Yes, He makes every provision for us, as His adopted children in Christ Jesus, but we are not spoiled children who just expect Him to bend over backward to meet our every craving. 
Life as a Christian is filled with toil and with striving after the things of God. We are safe in Him. We have peace and we have security in Him, but we are still required to honor Him in the course of our dealings with the everyday issues that we face. We are not earning anything of our salvation, as we have already discussed this morning. That is a free gift given to those whom the Lord chooses to save unto Himself. 
Rather, the key of this passage in Ruth, is that we do not just expect God to make us the overfed and pompously indulged heirs of His kingdom. We are instead, put to labor in the fields of His planting and caused to be fellow workers in the harvest of the fruits of His glorious work. His favor is bestowed upon us, not because of what we do, but because we are brought into such a living and personal relationship with Him that we want to help and to work and to honor Him. 
We want Him to receive all the glory in bringing forth His eternal life to the forefront and the conscious sense of those all around us. Again, this is all in order that God would receive the honor and the blessing and the admiration and the adoration of the entirety of His creation. We work with all our hearts unto Him for His sake, Alone, no matter what it involves in our lives. 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 149:1-4. Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, And His praise in the congregation of the godly ones. Let Israel be glad in his Maker; Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King. Let them praise His name with dancing; Let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre. For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation. Amen.