The Favor of God is Upon You in Greater Ways than You Know
March 10, 2024
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
Have you ever had the experience of living through a short season of time where you thought that life at that time was either bland or even unpleasant. But later, when you reflect back on that season, you think of it fondly and recognize that God’s favor was upon you?
I have had this experience many times. One of the first was when I was in the Air Force, especially the experiences of basic training and technical training (training for the job that you would do in the service). While I was going through those times, I didn’t like it very much.
But, a couple of years after I was discharged, I thought back on those times with pleasant feelings. I recognized that God’s hand was upon me in a favorable way. I needed the discipline that those experiences provided. I was fed three hearty meals a day (the food in the Air Force was superior to other branches). Once basic training was over, I had access to well-equipped gyms. God’s favor was upon me! But I didn’t see it at first.
This kind of experience even happens to the good times. I have gone through times when I was having an enjoyableexperience at the time but, years later, those times seem even more precious! I see God’s favor in a clearer way.
I have had others tell me that they have this experience also. However, I never considered some of the people of God in the Bible who had this same experience until recently. There were several who lived through such a scenario. They had an awareness to some degree that God was favoring them (although one person seemed not to see it at all), but it became far more evident to them afterwards.
Because this seems to be a common occurrence among God’s children, we can say with confidence that God’s favor is upon you in greater ways than you know.
The verse that we began with, I Timothy 6:17, does not mention the favor of God but the word does not have to be used to see it, does it?
Paul writes that God “provides us with everything to enjoy.” He does! But Paul adds an adverb. God richlyprovides us with everything to enjoy! God is bountiful towards us! This rich provision is nothing less than the favor of God.
As I had said, some precious saints in the Bible already had an awareness of God’s favor upon them but it wasn’t always so evident to them until afterwards.
[1] Consider Joseph. When he was in Canaan he had already had dreams that God’s favor was to be upon him (Gen. 37:5-11) but then events happened in his life which likely made him forget those dreams. First his brothers plotted to murder him. Instead they stripped him, threw him in a pit, and sold him to slave traders.
We can well imagine how Joseph felt being a slave and taken to a foreign land away from his beloved father and his home. He would have felt utterly forsaken. He was taken to Egypt. On the trip there he would not have been treated well by the descendants of Ishmael. Once in Egypt he was sold to Potiphar, captain of the guard. Just as in taking a new job today, there is a period of uncertainty and trepidation until one becomes accustomed to the job. Joseph would have had those same experiences only more intensely, since he was a slave.
Therefore, Joseph’s experiences were burdensome and oppressive. It would not be too long, however, when everything that Joseph did on behalf of Potiphar turned out very well:
2And Yahweh was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.
Not only was Joseph favored but, because he was in Potiphar’s house, the favor of God overflowed to his master too:
5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field.
Joseph saw, after his experiences of misery, that God was favoring him.
Then Potiphar’s wife accused Joseph of trying to seduce her and he was thrown into prison. Modern prisons are bad enough but the prisons 3500 years ago were worse. Again, Joseph must have been dejected.
Yet, in time, it would become known that God’s favor was upon him:
21But Yahweh was with Joseph and extended lovingkindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.
So, not only did God favor Joseph but he made it so that the chief jailer did also.
And,
23 The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.
The Lord was with Joseph causing him to succeed. When Joseph was first imprisoned all seemed bleak, but God was favoring him greatly. When he was first cast into prison he didn’t see it. But soon after, he did.
[2] Take notice of Moses. We should be familiar with his story. When he was a member of Pharaoh’s house, under privilege, he saw an Egyptian beating a fellow Israelite. He killed him with a blow and then had to flee for his life. Where would he go? He could not stay in Egypt. Yet, that is the only country he knew. He went into the wilderness.
Traveling in the ancient world was not an easy task. There were no motels, no restaurants, no readily available food, even water was scarce. He wouldn’t have even known where he was going. He made his way to Midian, a people descended from Abraham. (Midian would later become an enemy of Israel but, at this time, they were not.) How would you feel if you found yourself in another country where they spoke a different language and the culture was completely different than the one you grew up in?
Moses stayed in Midian for forty years! There he was given a wife and attached himself to her father, Jethro, who was a priest. It appears that Jethro was prosperous because he both possessed flocks and was a priest. Moses likely was not that happy with leaving such a privileged position in Egypt, his homeland, and serving as a shepherd for his father-in-law. But, are not his provisions there a manifestation of the favor of God? They are.
• He was given a wife. The Bible says that, “he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. “ (Proverbs 18:22)
• Pharaoh sought to kill Moses (Exodus 2:15), but Moses found protection in this far-away land.
• He became part of a good family and had both food and shelter.
God’s favor was upon him although he would not have seen it clearly.
Moses would then speak to God in the burning bush and was given his commission to bring out his people from bondage to Pharaoh. After they were delivered through the Red Sea he met his father-in-law, wife, and child in the wilderness. The Bible records this:
Jethro rejoiced over all the goodness which Yahweh had done to Israel, that he had delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians.
Even Jethro recognized God’s favor upon the Moses and the Israelites. But it had been with Moses all along.
[3] The story of Gideon is one of the best illustrations of God’s unrecognized favor.
At the time of the judges of Israel, the Midianites were oppressing Israel. We read:
1Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh; and Yahweh gave them into the hands of Midian seven years.
2The power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.
The oppression by the Midianites was severe. They would not only steal their crops but would purposely ruin the land so that the Hebrews could not grow more food (Judges 6:4). They would steal all their livestock. Then the Lord sent an angel to speak to Gideon. He was just an ordinary man, hiding from the Midianites as was everyone.
He was threshing wheat in a winepress so no one could see him:
12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
See how the angel tells Gideon that the Lord is with him. But Gideon is doubtful. He thinks the Lord has forsaken all of Israel. He is not happy about their oppression nor about having to hide.
The Lord tells him to strike down the Midianites and that the Lord would give him the victory. But he is still doubtful. The angel performs a miracle (bringing fire to consume Gideon’s offering to the Lord) to remove his doubts.
Then the Lord commanded him to sacrifice two bulls and to tear down the altar to Baal that the Israelites had set up. But Gideon was afraid that the men of his region would harm him or kill him if they knew he did it, so he did it in secret (6:27).
As Gideon is about to attack the Midianites he has doubts again, even though the Lord had already told him twice that he was with him and he would succeed. So, he asks for a sign. Hence, the famous “putting out the fleece” incident.
Then the Lord, in order to prove how it is God who will give them the victory, has Gideon go against 120,000 Midianites with only 300 men! Gideon is still afraid! God says:
10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant.
So, Gideon goes stealthily and hears about a dream the Midianites had about a giant loaf of bread that tumbled into their camp and crushed everyone. What a silly dream! (God has a sense of humor!) But this silly dream caused the Midianite army to strangely start killing one another once the battle began soon after this. And so Israel was victorious.
They chased the survivors, 15,000 men, and killed them. See how God favored Gideon even though he was so full of doubts and fear. God’s favor would remain upon Gideon all his life. He had his own house.
Children were considered to be a manifest sign of God’s favor. The more children one had the more God’s favor was upon you in biblical thought. And we read:
30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives.
Gideon was doubtful about God’s favor at first but then he knew it and dies “at a good old age.” (8:32) That phrase is another manifestation of God’s favor.
[4] Finally, think about Ruth. In Ruth we find a woman who did not recognize God’s favor until the best of the best came to her. Naomi and her husband had moved to Moab because of a famine and remained there. Their sons married Moabite women one of whom was Ruth. All died except Naomi and her two daughters-in-law.
You must know that life for an unmarried woman who was not still in her father’s household was extremely difficult. There were no social programs. There would be no income unless they had a job and jobs for women were few and far between. Widows and never-married women would very often go hungry and were at the mercy of selfish men. So, we can better understand Naomi’s lament:
20 She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”
She describes her widowhood as calamity. This is because of the destitute condition of unmarried women. She even states that God is “testifying against” her, meaning that God is against her. This wasn’t true but that is her view. Do not we have similar experiences. When things go drastically wrong in our lives sometimes we blame God. If we don’t verbally blame him, as Naomi did, we may blame him in our hearts and murmur.
If Naomi felt this way, Ruth did too because she was in the exact same condition as her mother-in-law. She was also a widow. She elects to stay with Naomi no matter what and Naomi returns to Israel with Ruth accompanying her.
When they get to Israel Ruth goes into the field after the reapers have already reaped, just to gather the left over grain. She just “happened” to glean in the field belonging to Boaz. He notices her and likes her. He speaks to her and asks her not to glean anywhere else except his field. He gives her water and arranges for the young men who work there to give her water whenever she wishes. When he does this, we read:
10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”
She recognized the favor of Boaz, which was really the favor of the Lord to her. Then Boaz says:
“May Yahweh reward your work, and your wages be full from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.”
Boaz calls upon God to reward Ruth because she remained faithful to Naomi. Ruth responds:
13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”
Again, she recognizes that she is experiencing the favor of Boaz but she also says that he comforted her. This means that she was in distress.
God’s great favor comes upon her in this way: Boaz was a kinsmen redeemer, able to purchase Naomi’s husband’s property back from whomever owned it after his departure decades earlier. With the redemption of the land came the responsibility to care for his widow, Naomi, and even his daughter-in-law, Ruth. So, Ruth married Boaz, a wealthy man who loved her and cared for her. More, she gave birth to Obed, who would become the grandfather of King Davidand a progenitor of Christ Himself!
Certainly, Ruth did not see God’s favor upon her until Boaz began to show her favor. Then she was blessed beyond measure in marrying him!
This is often how God’s favor comes to us. We don’t always perceive it until later, although it was with us all the time, even in our distress.
[Conclusion & Application] This morning we saw how the favor of God was promised to four children of God. But it wasn’t evident to them at first. Later they realized how the Lord had been with them, favoring them, all the while.
[1] Joseph, first as a slave, then as a prisoner.
[2] Moses in Midian for forty years!
[3] Gideon, so full of doubts, yet God was with him in great power and victory. Even blessing him richly in his personal life.
[4] Ruth, who went from destitution to become the wife of a godly and wealthy man.
The stories of these cherished people correspond to our own stories, if we belong to Christ. Have you been in situations where everything seemed to be wrong? Maybe you are in such a situation presently. Whether you are in it now or were in it in past times, you should know that God’s favor is upon you. It is upon you in greater ways than you thought. It is a divine reality that all things work together for your good. It is not just a platitude. It is a reality. God’s favor is extended to you!
What ought we to do? Of course, we ought to take comfort in this truth. We ought to say to the Lord and to those close to us, as Ruth did, “You have comforted me.” God has been “richly providing” for you!
I wish to give you an admonition that I gave last week. As some have told me in this church, “We need to hear these things over and over!” We do. Sometimes we need to hear things many times before the light bulb turns on in our minds. The admonition is this:
You should press on in a strong way. Do not allow your situations to discourage you. Be comforted. But, in your comfort do not simply sit around and do nothing. Rather, press on into the kingdom that awaits you. That is, take the revelation of God’s favor upon you and allow it to motivate you to live for him in a higher and more focused way.
In order to press on in a strong way you will need to change your daily habits. Turn off the tv. Turn off your phone. Stay off of the internet. Abide in his word and speak to others about the kingdom of God, not about politics, sports, entertainment, or fashion. Speak about accountability for sin and speak about the kingdom!
Have you seen God’s favor in a clearer way today? Then make some changes, you followers of Christ!
God’s favor is upon you in greater ways than you know.Let the favor of God make you strong!
