Joshua 13
All right, turn to Joshua chapter
13. Joshua 13, the whole chapter will be our reading for tonight.
And as you make your way there, I’ll point out to you, this is
a new section in Joshua. The first five chapters, I believe,
of Joshua were Israel crossing over the Jordan River. So remember,
they were out in the wilderness. Moses is dead. Joshua’s got to
do it now. Miraculous river crossing, high
waters, spring waters, the river probably a mile wide. God holds
the river back. They cross over on dry land.
They build their heap of rocks. So after they crossed the river,
the next section, which we just finished, was all the conquest of the promised land.
Everybody with an ite after their last name had to die, right? All the ites had to die so that
Israel would have a pure, clean promised land. So now the next
several chapters, and it’s about 10 of them or so, these chapters
are about who gets what. And so this is a tedious section
of scripture, but never fear, we’re gonna find some good things
in it because all scripture is breathed out by God and is useful
for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness
so that the man of God may be fully equipped. So hear God’s
word, the 13th chapter of the book of Joshua. Now Joshua was
old and advanced in years. And the Lord said to him, you
are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much
land to possess. This is the land that yet remains
all the regions of the Philistines and all those of the Gesherites
from Shihor, which is east of Egypt. Northward to the boundary
of Ekron, it is counted as Canaanite. There are five rulers of the
Philistines, those of Geza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, and
those of the Avim. In the south, all the land of
the Canaanites. and Meara that belongs to the
Sedonians, to Aphek, to the boundary of the Amorites, and the land
of the Gebelites, and all Lebanon toward the sunrise, from Baal
Gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo Hamath, all the inhabitants of
the hill country from Lebanon to Misrathoth Maim, even all
the Sedonians. I myself will drive them out
from before the people of Israel. only allot the land to Israel
for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. Now therefore
divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and half of
the tribe of Manasseh. With the other half of the tribe
of Manasseh, the Reubenites and the Gadites, they received their
inheritance, which Moses gave them beyond the Jordan eastward,
as Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave them. From Aroare,
which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, and the city that is
in the middle of the valley, and all the table land of Medeba
as far as Dibbon, And all the cities of Sihon, the king of
the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, as far as the boundary
of the Ammonites and Gilead and the region of the Geshurites
and the Maccathites, and all Mount Hermon, all Bashan to Salicha,
all the kingdom of Og and Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and
in Edri, He alone was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. These
Moses had struck and driven out. Yet the people of Israel did
not drive out the Gesherites or the Maccathites. But Gesher
and Maccath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day. To the
tribe of Levi alone, Moses gave no inheritance. The offerings
by fire to the Lord, the God of Israel, are their inheritance,
as he said to them. And Moses gave an inheritance
to the tribe of the people of Reuben. according to their clans.
So their territory was from Moroer, which is on the valley of the
Arnon and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and
all the table land by Medeba, with Heshbon and all its cities
that are in the table land, Dibbon and Behemoth Baal, and Beth Baal
Mion, and Jehaz and Kedemoth, and Mephath, and Kiriathim, and
Sibma and Zerath Shehar on the hill of the valley, and Beth
Peor on the slopes of Pisgah. Beth Jeshmanoth, that is all
the cities of the table land of all the kingdom of Sihon,
the king of the Amorites who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses
defeated with the leaders of Midian, Evi, Recham, and Zur,
and Hur and Reba, the princes of Sihon who lived in the land.
Balaam also, the son of Baor, the one who practiced divination,
was killed with the sword by the people of Israel among the
rest of their slain. and the border of the people
of Reuben was the Jordan. As a boundary, this was the inheritance
of the people of Reuben according to their clans with their cities
and villages. Moses gave an inheritance also
to the tribe of Gad, to the people of Gad according to their clans.
Their territory was Jazer and all the cities of Gilead, and
half of the land of the Ammonites to Aroer, which is east of Rabah,
and from Heshbon to Rameth-Mizvah, and to Bitonin and from Mahanim
to the territory of Debir. In the valley of Beth Harmon,
Beth Nimra, Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon,
the king of Heshbon, having the Jordan as a boundary to the lower
end of the Sea of Shinareth, eastward beyond the Jordan. This
is the inheritance of the people of Gad according to their clans.
And Moses gave an inheritance to the half-tribe of Manasseh.
It was allotted to the half-tribe of the people of Manasseh according
to their clans. This region, or their region,
extended from Mahanaim, north of Albation, or through Albation,
the whole kingdom of Og, the king of Bation. All the towns
of Jair, which are in Bation, 60 cities, half of Gilead, and
Ashtaroth and Edreai, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bation.
These were allotted to the people of Machir, the son of Manasseh,
for the half of the people of Machir, according to their clans.
These are the inheritances that Moses distributed in the plains
of Moab, beyond the Jordan, east of Jericho. But to the tribe
of Levi, Moses gave no inheritance. The Lord, the God of Israel,
is their inheritance, just as he said to them.” Amen, this
is God’s word. And I’m sure you’re sitting on
the edge of your seat wondering what in the world we’re gonna
do with all these surveyor stakes. But just you wait. I have owned three houses now.
One in Charlotte, one in Greensboro, and now one here. And every single
time we bought a house, the first time I go out and cut the yard,
my eyes are not just on where the lawnmower is headed, but
my eyes are on, okay, that stump needs digging up, that shrub
needs to be replaced, that limb needs to be cut. And then go
inside the house. This needs painting. That shingle
needs repairing. This gutter needs fixing. And
so for months, or in the case of this house now, years, I am
forever taking ownership of it. Actually, I believe it’s taking
ownership of me. You can see it on the busted
knuckles and all the rest. But outside and inside, This
house for the last seven years eight summers We have been making
it our own and we are still at it every nook every cranny You
know how homeownership is there’s never There’s never not something people
say a boat is a hole in the water in which you pour your money
I think a house Can sometimes be that way at least you get
a little of it back maybe I think our house was built in 1948.
Somebody bought it in 2004, did a little fixing up. And then
until we bought it, nothing much has happened. So water heaters,
air conditioning units, roofs, all the rest. We have done all
the tasks. I’ve climbed through the attic. I’ve climbed under the house,
been to every corner of the crawl space, all that. We fixed a few things for taste
or bring it up to code, whatever. See some of y’all amening, nodding
your heads. You you’ve done the same thing. And the reason I
go through this and say all this is this is what Israel is supposed
to be doing with their inheritance. Israel has now inherited their,
their land and they’re supposed to know every nook and cranny
of it. Uh, they’re supposed to know their boundaries, their
survey marks. They’re supposed to know what
walls and cities. and cisterns and vineyards and
houses are their own. Israel is to do with their inheritance
as we are to do with our homes. We own them, right? Home ownership is such a wonderful
thing. Well, at least it can be. Sometimes it can be an albatross,
we might say, but it’s supposed to be a wonderful thing. It’s
our piece of the American dream. It’s our little quarter acre
dream or half acre dream or whatever it is we live on. And the challenge
now for Israel is they are to not only fight for this land,
but they are to do everything in their power to keep it. You
saw little bitty hints of the enemies have crept back in, or
there’s some areas where they haven’t done their due diligence.
So we want to think about this passage and how God is at work
in Israel receiving their inheritance. First thing we want to think
about is what we find in verses one through seven. This is what
we might call the covenant update. Uh, the covenant update begins
with, um, Joshua’s birthday. And my little joke is it’s a
good thing. Joshua is a man, you know, the, you know, the,
the Southern rule, you don’t ever ask a woman or age or tell
a woman’s age. Well, God just blasted. I heard
the chuckle when I read it, uh, Joshua, was a man, uh, old man
advanced in years. And what did God say to him?
You’re an old man advanced in years. Uh, none of us wants to
hear that. Um, but Joshua is old. Uh, he’s probably about 85 years
old. And the reason this is a covenant
update is because Joshua is a covenant mediator. How did the book of
Joshua begin? Moses, my servant, is dead. So Joshua is in better shape.
Joshua, my servant is just old. Joshua, my servant is just advanced
in years, but he’s about 85 years old. And that lets us know that
it’s been about 40 years since the beginning of the book of
Joshua. This means that all of Joshua’s old age, you know, he’s
probably bent over a little he’s in rehab, you know, getting his
knee worked on his hair is a little whiter. Um, You know, his aches
and pains are there. He’s probably taking all that
stuff y’all see on the news channel, the stuff that helps you sleep
at night, the stuff that helps you not hurt during the day and
makes Mike Huckabee’s life better. He’s got his walk-in bathtub
now where he can soak. He’s done everything to be 85.
But this lets us know it’s been about 40 hard years. It’s been 40 hard years of conquest,
40 hard years of battles, 40 hard years of wars, 40 hard years
of taking care of all the heights. Sometimes on my house, my wife
says, when do you want to sell it? Because we’re going to get
old someday and you don’t need to be climbing on the roof. You
don’t need to be crawling under it on your belly, looking for
termites. You don’t need to be doing all that. And I hope that
I can be like Joshua, old and advanced in years, still taking
care of business. I know my day will come, but Joshua’s got a
little left in him. Remember his predecessor, Moses,
when he got old. First 40 years, he lived in Egypt.
Second 40 years, he lived out in the wilderness, taking care
of his father’s sheep. And so when he was 80 years old,
That’s when God said, you need to go to Pharaoh and tell him
to let my people go. So 80 years old. And then when he got 120,
it says his eye had not dimmed. His strength had not abated.
This is a covenant update because it’s letting us know the status
of our leader. Lately, we’ve wanted to know
what’s the IQ of our presidents. I don’t know why all that is.
And Trump, of course, is a genius, right? Then we want to know,
how are they healthy? Are they going to make it? Do
we have to please not have number two? Or worse, number three? You know, we wonder about these
sorts of things. Well, this is letting you know
Joshua’s passed his test. You know, God’s still with him.
So what does God tell Joshua, the old man? What’s the rest
of the covenant update? There’s still work to be done.
Tomorrow’s Monday morning. And I imagine most of you will
go to bed tonight knowing what’s on the docket for the week. Gotta
go here, gotta go there, this appointment, that appointment.
But you’ll go to bed knowing what’s on the docket. And if
you’re a guy, that’s kind of our thing, right? We want to
know what needs fixing this week. How many times we get to go to
Lowe’s? We want to know, does the car need filling up? You
know, there’s there’s things on our list. What’s the work
schedule like? Well, Joshua gets his marching
orders. There’s still work to be done.
And if you read the details, it’s basically way, way, way,
way up north above the Sea of Galilee. So if you look at Israel,
it’s a slender piece of land. It’s it’s tall, 100 miles long. It’s 50 miles wide, something
like that. And there’s the Dead Sea at the bottom, then Jordan
River Valley, and then there’s the Sea of Galilee up top. Well,
way above the Sea of Galilee, there’s land not yet rid of enemies. So that’s one of the areas God
is speaking about way, way, way up north. There’s some areas
that need to be taken care of. The other area, which you’ll
be more familiar with, would be kind of other side of the
promised land in the south over towards the Mediterranean Sea.
And that’s where all the Philistines live. So fast forward in your
Bible. Who is David a couple hundred years from now still
going to be dealing with as king? The Philistines. So when you
get a couple hundred years from now, David is king. David is
still completing the conquest. So when we read about David and
Goliath, one of the things David is doing when he takes care of
Goliath, is he’s finishing the job Joshua started. Not sure
if that’s something we recognize. God is still for a long time
establishing the people of Israel in the promised land. And about
the time they get good and established, which is really about Solomon’s
time. What does Israel do? They sin.
And so their their peace and tranquility in the promised land
is forever. and jeopardy after that. And
eventually they get carried off into exile. But the covenant
update is there’s work to be done. And I’m going to keep fighting
for you. I’m going to keep doing this
work with you and for you. And so we see in verses six and
seven, God’s promises. I myself will drive out these
enemies, the ones way up north and the Philistines over above
the coast. I myself will drive them out
from before the people of Israel. Your job, Joshua, is to a lot,
a lot, the land for Israel as an inheritance, as I have commanded. So for the next several chapters,
bunches of chapters, it’s gonna be allotment. This is yours,
this is yours, this is yours. Put your stakes in the ground,
take this to the surveyor’s office, go down to the courthouse, file
your deeds, pay your taxes, that kind of business. So that’s the
covenant update. Now we wanna look at a word of
danger. And we simply find it in verse 13. I think you could
have passed right over it and not noticed it, but verse 13
is red alert. Yet the people of Israel did
not drive out the Geshurites or the Maccathites, but Geshur
and Maccath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day. So this is a warning. Now, I’m
probably gonna get in trouble for this, but here’s a little
pop quiz for you. What’s the first thing you do
when you buy a house if it’s not new? No, you change the toilet
seats. That’s been the rule in my house.
We had some neighbors down in Charlotte area, and when we moved
into our house, they brought us three new toilet seats. And
we thought, what in the world? And they said, no, this is important. So that’s been our joke. First
thing you do. Second thing you do is you change
the locks. Or you make sure you collect all the keys. The third
thing you need to do is get a termite inspection. And then you need
to keep having them come out and check for termites and bond
and ensure your house. In my case, they come quarterly.
They crawl on their bellies, all the nooks and crannies underneath.
They look for termites underneath. They check the little bait stations
out there. And there’s always termites in
those bait stations. People think, oh, I don’t need
one of those termite bonds or whatever. But if you have a house
made of wood, you need a termite deal. What happens if you don’t get
a termite inspection? What happens if you don’t get
a termite treatment plan, a termite bond? You could have an eaten
up house. And guess what your homeowner’s
insurance will never do? Pay for termites. And so that’s
something very important. When’s the last time you went
in your crawl space? Maybe never. But what can happen over time
as you’re sitting in your easy chair drinking tea and watching
gun smoke? Termites can eat your house. And that’s the exact same
thing that can happen when you’re an Israelite in the promised
land with all the ites around you. If you don’t keep your sword
sharp and your quiver full of arrows and keep watch over the
promised land, incrementally, you could lose your inheritance
in Canaan. And then spiritually speaking,
We can, over time, slip away from God. We put down our Bibles.
We quit going to church. We stop praying. We get out of
the disciplines of grace. And before we know it, the termites
have eaten away at our spiritual growth. And so this is a good
example for us. We don’t want to over-spiritualize
what was going on all the way back then. But isn’t this a good
example? We need to be on our toes. Uh,
how do we say it in America? Um, sometimes we’re like the
frog that got boiled. Did the frog immediately go into
boiling water? No, he went in a pot of cold water and the thing
got hotter and hotter until it boiled. And the frog never knew
he was boiling and said that that’s kind of the way it is.
We, we under, we, we, we’ve heard all that before. Um, but danger,
are you aware of what’s under your house? What’s in your house?
What’s in your heart? God is warning us here that we
need to obey him 100%. He said, clean out the land.
So they should have cleaned it out. They didn’t, and it’s going
to wreak havoc for years, generations to come. The promised land is
theirs for the taking, but it is not theirs for the keeping
necessarily. They must work to keep the land
clean. Now the third section, this is
the longer section of the scripture. This is verses eight to 33. And
some of you probably have the caption over your verses that
says the inheritance east of the Jordan. And then as you go
over to chapter 14, you probably see the caption, the inheritance
west of the Jordan. Now chapter 14 is gonna take
us all the way through, I don’t know, chapter 20, 20 something,
once you get through. Yeah, chapter, I think 20, 21
it is. So, boy, that’s going to be a
long one. One commentary I read just covers it all at once. That
may be what we do. So you better buckle up next
week. But this third section, verses 8 to 33, we can think
of it in terms of property stakes. You know, you buy your house.
The surveyor comes out and he finds the irons. And if you live
in a really old section, they’ve got to dig for them. But they
know where to look. They know how to dig. They’ve
got their metal detector. And then they flag them with the
orange things. And so you can walk around your
little plot and say, this is mine. Or it’s mine in the banks,
as the case may be. But property stakes are really
important. So hang on. Don’t skip the next
couple Sundays. There’s a lot in this for our
good and for our growth in grace. But I want to ask you about some
math here. What is 2.5 plus 9.5? It’s 12, right? Now we’re good mathematicians.
At least I see some nods over here from the accountants. 2.5 plus 9.5 equals 12. Well,
what does 12 represent? The 12 tribes of Israel. And if you’ve been coming on
Wednesday night, what have we just walked through? the children
of Jacob, right? They’re the 12 tribes. So Sunday
night and Wednesday night are pairing right up quite well.
So why 2.5 plus 9.5? Well, because the tribes of Reuben
and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh are going to stay east
of the Jordan. So east of the Jordan all the
way up the whole land is going to be for those two and a half
tribes. They made a deal with Moses back in Numbers. Hey, this
is pretty good land. We got a lot of sheep and oxen
and for us to drive all these sheep and oxen, remember Israel,
remember what happened when they were in the plains of Egypt?
They grew mightily in sheep and oxen. And so this is a really
good pasture land. This is probably where Abraham
and Lot lived for a while. This is just historically been
great pasture land. And on the way over there, they
say, Hey, can we, can we, can we just stay here? And so the
deal is this y’all get to stay in that part of the promised
land, but y’all got to go over the river with us and you got
to help us clean it out. And then you can come back. So
chapter 22, I think it is, is the telling of that group coming
back. after they’ve helped clean out the promised land. So anyway,
this section, verses 8 to 33, is about the two and a half tribes.
The rest of the chapters we’ll be getting to are about the other
nine and a half tribes. So this is an interesting little
spot here for us to think about all God’s blessings. Maybe you’ve
seen in the map store, I don’t know if they even have those
anymore. I used to like to go in one in Charlotte. And they have
maps of all the area. And you could buy the books,
the atlases. This is before the internet and
the phone and technology, even the GPS gadgets. But I used to
like to go in there and look at the maps. But they also would
sell the topographical maps. And you could buy a little topographical
map of your neighborhood, your area, and kind of see the creeks
and the rivers, the hills and the rises. Maybe you have one
of the Great Smokies or the Appalachians something like that. But they’re
fun to look at. And that’s in a sense what we have over the
next chapters. We have one of those bumpy maps, you know, where
it pokes out in plastic. That’s what these chapters are.
It’s a topographical map of the land of Israel as given to the
Israelites. And you were probably saying
in your head, what are we going to do for the next several weeks
looking at all these property stakes? Are we going to be looking
through the little surveyors thing for all these chapters
and getting eyes glazed over? Well, you may not think it’s
exciting, but to these who were slaves in Egypt and who wandered
in the wilderness, This is their inheritance. Maybe a modern way
to think of it. Well, not so modern 100 years
ago. I think there was what the Homesteaders Act of 18 somethings. And if you were willing to go
West, the US government was giving away something like 280 million
acres of land. And if you just went to the land
office and signed up for it, you were given a number of acres
and you would sign off for the land as long as you promise to
improve it and better it and live off of it. I think of also
in our history after the Civil War, many of the slaves who did
not own land were given the chance to own, as we say, 40 acres and
a mule. Right? So this is not too terribly
unfamiliar to us in our recent history. So these property stakes,
all the listings of the from here to the to there, have y’all
ever read your deed? If you live in an old neighborhood,
it’s really interesting. Back up to the corner of Mr. Smith’s
house and over to the corner of Dr. So-and-so’s house and
then over to the corner of this street and that street. It’s
really fascinating. It’s a verbal description of, you know, some
of you might have lived on what used to be a cow pasture and
it was, you know, over there where they had the barn is written
in your description. I mean, it’s pretty fascinating to read.
That’s what this is. But we ought to take great joy
in it because God is doing as he said he would. Remember all
the way back in chapter 12 of Genesis, what did God say to
Abram when he came to the land of Canaan? One day, this will
be yours. One day, this will be yours. And the people that
inhabit this land will outnumber the sand on the seashore. The
people that inhabit this land will outnumber the stars in the
heavens. And so Abraham thinks so far
ahead, knowing what a wonderful promise. He never sees that promise
come true. All he owns, By the end of his
life is a grave for his wife, a little plot in a cave, but
that piece of land was important. He too was buried in it. And so this is rather boring
to us possibly, but very exciting to the people of God. I want
you to flip in your Bible over to Psalms 136. and I think Psalm 135, you’ll
see in these two Psalms, Israel giving praise to God for God’s
provision through Egypt and through the wanderings in the wilderness
and then through the conquest. Look at Psalm 135. It says over
and over and over, praise God. And then you get down to Verse
eight of chapter 135. So why do we praise God? We praise
God for all kinds of reasons. He struck down the firstborn
of Egypt. Skip down to verse 10. He struck down many nations.
He killed many mighty kings. Oh, there’s a king from our passage. Whose land did we just read that
they inherited? They got Sihon’s land, the king
of the Amorites. Oh, and they got Og’s land, the
king of Bashan. Uh, the, all the kingdoms of
Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. And then a
little praise your name. Oh Lord endures forever. And
then if you look over at one 36, this is that in Tiffanel
Psalm, give thanks to the Lord for his good. The other side
says his steadfast love endures forever. Some of you go to Carolina
football games. One side says tar, the other
side says heels. Kind of the same thing. Give
thanks to the Lord for he is good. The other side says a steadfast
love endures forever. Skip down verse 10, same thing. He struck down the firstborn
of Egypt. Then you go on down, verse 13,
he divided the Red Sea, made Israel pass through it, overthrew
Pharaoh, verse 15. Then verse 17, to him who struck
down great kings, His steadfast love endures forever. Which kings?
Well, verse 19, Sihon. Verse 20, Og, the king of Bashan.
Verse 21, he gave their land as a heritage. This is a psalm
saying, why should we praise God? And the first, well, these
two psalms, and what does it go right to? It goes right to
the inheritance of these two and a half tribes. Don’t you
think if a psalm has it in its lyrics, this was a big deal.
And so how can we say, Oh, boring, boring, boring tent or a surveyor
stakes, uh, rolled up pace pieces of paper with, with deeds and
plots. Boring, boring, boring, not to the Israelites and not
to God ought not to be for us. Now, let me say something about
why this ought to matter to us. And we want to see it in two
obscure names that pop up in our passage. First obscure name
that pops up in our passage was Balaam. the son of Baor. And remember, he meant to curse
Israel. He ended up saying a blessing. And then he ends up doing something
really terrible later. And where is he now? Dead. Why did he die? Because he was in the land and
needed to be put to death. And so what will God ultimately
do with our enemies? It may be in generations to come
or in time to come, but he will repay vengeance. And he did so
with Balaam. So Balaam, one of the big enemies
of Israel, God takes care of him. Now the other obscure name
that pops up and it’s mentioned twice is Levi. The Levites, offspring
of Aaron, they become the big helpers in the temple. They become
the singers in the temple, servants in the temple. And for years
and years and years and generations, the Levites are very important
to the people of God. They don’t get any land. First
time in verse 14, when it says they don’t get any land, they
get the sacrifices, the offerings, the burnt offerings. So they
get to eat good. They get to eat steak, all year round steak,
filet mignon, whatever. They get the burnt offerings,
so they get steak. Now, you might think that’s not
real great. We’d like some land. We’d like
to farm it. We’d like to have a place to get put out to pasture
when we get old. Well, verse 33 says something
even better. It says, the Lord is their portion. And that’s a very helpful thing
to remember as we look at life in this world as strangers and
exiles and pilgrims. We are not promised life on this
earth forever, right? Israel won’t stay in the promised
land forever. They’ll disobey God and they’ll get booted out.
They’ll get hauled off in exile and not very many of them will
return ever. They’ll stay a scattered people,
scattered over the face of the earth. But what does God promise? God promises to be our portion.
You may not have everything in this world that the Joneses have
or the next door neighbors have. But if you’ve got faith in Jesus,
you’ve got an inheritance in him that will not spot. It will
not fade. Moths will not destroy it, and
it will never, ever be taken from you. And you may have in
this life some riches and some wealth. God may prosper you.
And as we read in the parable of the Minas, he’ll want you
to be good stewards of all that he’s given you. but we need to
think like the Levites. We may not have accumulated much
in this life, but if we know Jesus, we have everything. Let’s pray together. Our Lord
and God, we thank you so much for your loving kindness and
mercies to teach us about how good you are to Israel, how you
go before and you clear out the land and you bring us into our
inheritance. And we thank you that Jesus,
our great savior, has gone to the cross uh, cleared out sin
and cleared out darkness. And one day we’ll come make,
uh, by the word of his power, all things new help us to remember
and trust in these things. We pray in the name of Christ,
our savior. Amen.