Please turn with me tonight to 1 Samuel chapter 20. This is part three of a sermon we began several weeks ago, Loyal Love. So I want to, up front, I want to apologize to anybody who hasn't been here for the last few weeks. I see my friends here tonight. I look forward to meeting you afterwards. any of you others that haven't been here because this has been spread out over several weeks. We had Easter, we had student preacher, so it's been a long time to finish this sermon, but I'm gonna do the best I can tonight to help us get to that point. So first of all, afraid for his life, David joined by his friend Jonathan, they form a plan to determine if Saul intended to harm him. Their scheme, though successful, confirmed the worst, that the king did want David's death. These verses focus our attention really on the complexities of Jonathan's decision to help David. which demonstrated his loyal love to God's anointed king over his own father. Likewise, each of us, we determine where our allegiance lies. I mean, either with the world or with Christ. And so, let's ask for the Lord's blessing on his word before I read it. Father, thank you for your word tonight, and we ask for your help that Holy Spirit would be our teacher tonight. Give us clarity of thought and mind as we hear your word read, as it's expounded, and will you apply this to us as only you can? And we ask in Jesus' name, amen. I'm just going to have you go ahead and be seated tonight because it's a long passage. I'm just going to pick up in verse 24, and we'll talk through the other section. It says, So David hid himself in the field. And when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul's side. But David's place was empty. Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought Something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is not clean. But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David's place was empty and Saul said to Jonathan, his son, why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today? Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked, leave of me to go to Bethlehem. He said, let me go for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers." For this reason, he has not come to the king's table. Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan. And he said to him, You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.' Then Jonathan answered Saul, his father, why should he be put to death? What has he done? But Jonathan hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. And Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food the second day of the month for he was grieved for David because his father had disgraced him. In the morning, Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David and with him a little boy. And he said to his boy, run and find the arrows that I shoot. As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. And when the boy came to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, Is not the arrow beyond you? And Jonathan called after the boy. Hurry, be quick, do not stay. So Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. But the boy knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. And Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, Go and carry them to the city. And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most. Then Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord saying the Lord shall be between me and you and between my offspring and your offspring forever and he rose and departed and Jonathan went into the city amen may God write the eternal truths of his word upon your heart and mine Well, tonight we're picking up where we left off last time. We do have part one and two online if you want to catch up there. And all we are seeking to do really is follow the storyline of the text tonight. You know, there are certain passages I think, and it's true certainly the Old Testament narratives, they certainly break up different than the epistles, but Places seem to break very easily in teaching them, natural breaks if you will. But then there are other places that really don't seem to do that very well. And that brings us to a certain level of difficulty and maybe even a danger for someone like me who's trying to teach the Bible. But sometimes we come to an outline as we read it and we just find ourselves saying, you know, I'm not quite sure how this fits. within the passage, and so perhaps as an encouragement to you and a plea to my own limitations, we're just going to follow along with the narrative tonight and work through this text. So we noted last time, there's almost like a pause, a parentheses if you will, in verses 12 through 17, there's a digression from the crisis there that had given rise to the events that are described. The immediate crisis is Saul's murderous threats. And I think perhaps the point that we're supposed to see now is that Saul is actually irrelevant to the future to which Jonathan and David are heading. It's a very straightforward way. It's increasingly clear now that what it means for him to be deposed, what it meant for the kingdom to have been removed from him, so on and so we've sought to understand how David's endurance in the face of these threats and Jonathan's encouragement in anticipation of what the kingship of David would mean and our hope of all these aspects all find their security and their focus in trusting God and taking him at his word with that said in verses 18 through 23 It's time now to return to what somebody referred to as this playful story of secret communication. You know, it's almost this wonderful, especially children, I don't know if any of you grew up playing games where we had a game called kick the can, right? You go put this object, it's like home base, and we would devise teams, and we would make up all these strategies. And so you had to go off, and one would go off and hide, the other would try to find you. And you'd try to beat the other team back to the base and tag it, you know. or kick the can, you run by if you could kick it. And so anyway, well you had all these wonderful little strategies and secrets, it was really fun. We always had fun doing that in the neighborhood and we put up these boundaries, you know, big boundaries, you can't go past this road, you can't go past this road, but you get 10 minutes to hide and then we would go try to find each other. Well, it's not quite that way in this passage, of course, but there's some secret activity going on, there's strategies, there's a plan, they're carrying it out. The way in which this story unfolds kind of helps keep our interest that way. So now here you have this straightforward outline of how things are going to be. On the third day, they go to the place where you hid, and when the matter that was at hand and remained by the stone, and I will shoot the arrows. This is agreement. And so the next thing comes, and what we learn from this section, what David learns from this section, is the instruction that Jonathan is going to give this boy He's going to call out to the boy. Well, that's going to be a sign that David needs based on where he shoots the arrow and what he tells him. And essentially, that's the long and the short of really verses 18 through 23. I'm not going to reread it as we looked at it in previous weeks, but you'll notice that he closes the section out by saying, and as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, or he had an arrangement, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever. And so you have this sense of love, the souls that are for one another, and a sense of the awareness that they have of the faithfulness of God and the covenant love of God. The only thing I would point out in this distinction between what Jonathan says in verse 13, where he says, Notice the subject here, if I do not disclose it to you and send you away. Okay, if I do not send you away. Now down in verse 22, when he explains what's going on, But if I say to the youth, look, the arrows are beyond you, then go for the Lord has sent you away. All right. The Lord is not sending him away, though, in this vacuum. You know, the Lord's using the language and the call of Jonathan. In order to achieve his purposes. It's a straightforward and an obvious point, but it's good to remind ourselves that here once again is elsewhere. This is God's providential working. The heart of man is devising the way, but it's the Lord who's directing the steps. Proverbs 16, 9. And so in verse 24, David hid himself in the field. So can't you just picture this shepherd boy? this Ephrathite from Bethlehem, the one who'd been brought out from the flocks of his fathers in the field of Bethlehem into this mainstream life, this great and vast army, this leader, this king, this anointed king now, the one who's taken on this Philistine giant, the one who's been in a secret moment anointed as the future king, and here we find him hiding himself in the field. And so when the new moon came, which of course was to be the occasion of the festival, the meal, whatever they were celebrating, the king sat down to eat. Now once again, I've said this to you a lot, but when we read Old Testament narrative, we probably shouldn't read it the way we read other things all the time. You're supposed to read in the way that you would read a story as it's being told to you. You're supposed to say, we have David and he's hiding in the field. And what's the king doing? Well, the king is setting down. Notice verse 25. That may seem like an unnecessary verse in the sense that, well, we know the king sat down to eat. But again, the writer's building this framework for us. He's creating an image for us. So when we read this story, we're beginning to say, oh, I get it. The king sat on his seat, as kings do at other times. And then on his seat by the wall, okay, and Jonathan sat opposite and Abner sat by David's side, but David's place was empty. To which we say, of course it was empty because he'd hit himself in the field. The way in which it's described for us is in order to build for us the way in which it's gonna unfold because David's place was empty and yet Saul didn't say anything that day. For he thought something has happened to him. He's not clean, surely. He's not clean. Of course, that doesn't mean he didn't have time to wash his hands before he sat down to eat the meal. Perhaps indicating that David is, he's thinking, well, he's ritually unclean for this occasion. In other words, there's gonna be certain processes and patterns and things that are gonna preclude someone from being able to participate in this meal at this time in this kind of feast. David's not ready to do that. Whether it was a special Sabbath or whatever it was. And so Saul is able to say to himself, well, that's probably what it is. So he didn't say anything at all. Actually, don't you think he could have somewhere along the way said to himself, you know, I have tried to kill him three times. You know, three different occasions. I wonder why he's not showing up. Didn't show up for my invitation. I don't know, he says, maybe he's unclean. Verse 27, but on the second day, Saul asks why David's place was empty and he inquires of Jonathan, his son, and notice how he refers to David. Notice how he refers to him. Why has not the son of Jesse, and surely there's some significance in that, and he's unwilling even to use David's name. I mean, it's hard for him. He can't even put it on his lips. It's impossible for him to distinguish the phraseology running around in his head. Saul has slain his thousands, but David has slain his tens of thousands. Remember back from chapter 18? Everywhere you went in that community, David's the hero. He's the great one. He's the future. Saul can't even put his name on his lips, it seems. And he refers to him in almost a disparaging way. What about this son of Jesse? Why has he not come to the meal, either yesterday or today? Fascinatingly, in verse 28, in Jonathan's answer to Saul, he replies in a fashion that seems to suggest that he had the authority to give David permission to be absent. Notice that. David had inquired of him. Now, of course, that was a prearranged situation. We know that from the earlier text, but you'll notice the way it unfolds. Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. If I would have been Saul, I would have been saying, why is he asking leave of you? It's not your party. You may be the crown prince, you're my son, but you're not the king. I mean, he asked leave of you? What else? Well, he said, let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. Now, if you take time to go back to verse six of this chapter, where David tells Jonathan what, he gives him his script, what he's supposed to say. If your father misses me at all, then say, David, earnestly ask leave of me to run to Bethlehem, his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the clan. But when you come to this, you realize Jonathan, for whatever reason, he decides to embellish a little bit. You know, when somebody asks you to give a speech or they ask you to make a statement for them, it's usually better just to stick to what they're asking you to say. They're not looking for creativity at this point, right? They're not asking for poetry. They're simply asking you to say what they've asked you to say. And that was clear. For whatever reason, though, Jonathan adds some bits and pieces there. He says that David said, my brother has commanded me to be there. So you know, once people start embellishing, well, that can go a lot of different places. Really, this wasn't being truthful from the very beginning. It's getting better by the moment. It says, he's gone to a family gathering, but it was because of his brother who commanded him to be there. Now, if you're Saul, wouldn't you be saying, I don't care what his brother commanded him to do? I mean, I'm the king. So now, if I found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers. So that's the speech. And he says, this is what David has said, and for this reason, he's not come to the king's table. So Saul didn't really understand the extent to which Jonathan and David's lives were interwoven with one another in this steadfast love of God. He probably had a hint, but I don't think he understood the depth of that. So in verse 29, there's this little phrase, this interesting phrase, it says, let me get away. You see that? And it's actually the same phraseology that we saw all the way through chapter 19, where it describes David fleeing. I won't go through all the verses, but you can look in verse 10, 11, 12, 17, 18. One commentator observed that and he said, perhaps Jonathan may have slipped by embellishing the story, but only inadvertently by using this terminology whereby he says that David said, let me get away. So he's actually giving us a clue to the real reason for his absence. Because the story of his life continues to be, and he fled, and he escaped, and he fled, and let me get away, so it's kind of a theme. Well, how does this go over? We discover it in verse 30. We're not surprised by this, but nevertheless, it's still something to note. Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan. And when the setup had been created, David had anticipated that Saul would either react by saying good or by losing his temper. We saw last time that Jonathan had said, should it please my father to do you harm? And now, of course, all of that unfolds here in a moment. And he addresses his son. He says, you son of a perverse, rebellious woman. Well, that's not very nice, is it? I mean, why does he have to drag his wife into it? The fact is, he is the son of a perverse, rebellious man. But he says, you son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness? Don't really know exactly what that means. Well, in actual fact, it wasn't so much Jonathan that had chosen David, it was God that had chosen David. And the rejection of which Saul is now aware is crystallized in that moment as it unfolds. It's a tragic scene where now he's confronted by the rejection, not simply of this character David, but by the son of his own home. In verse 31, it's almost like he makes a final appeal to him when he says, listen, as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Apparently, he still somehow is holding out hope that he can scramble something together out of the ash heap of this kingdom, the bits and pieces that are left lying around. Maybe something could be rescued by Jonathan. But he says, as long as this fellow's alive, this son of Jesse, there's no chance of you ever sitting on the throne. Therefore, send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die. Don't think I don't know where your allegiance lies. He says, looking at his son there. Now we know that Jonathan actually had surrendered his rights long before this encounter. Remember that? Back in chapter 18. And we stopped and wondered what was going on. That covenant there that was being made with Jonathan and David in chapter 18 verse 3. Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him. as his own soul. And then on that occasion, he basically stripped himself of his robe, he took off everything, and remember how the robe had been torn? It was an emblem of the kingdom being torn from his father, Saul. And now he takes off his robe as the crown prince, and he gives it to David, and he gives him his armor, he gives him his sword and his bow and his belt. And this appeal was useless on the part of his father. Saul didn't really understand the extent to which Jonathan and David's lives were interwoven as one another in this covenant and this steadfast love of God. What I find amazing here is that verse 32 begins, Then Jonathan answered Saul, his father. Why? This mission is accomplished. We've already been able to deduce Saul's reaction. That's what the setup is for. If he says good, then we'll be able to send out that message. If he loses temper and he boils over, then we'll know what we're supposed to do after that. And so we do know what we're supposed to do. Then Jonathan answered Saul, his father, and he said to him, why should he be put to death? Now remember this is a repeat if you go back to chapter 19 verse 4, So he's back on the same theme and he says to his father, he's not telling him something he doesn't know. He's rehearsing this material. Why should he be put to death? What has he done? Now I'm going to suggest that this is because of Jonathan's steadfast love for his father. His father says to him, as long as this character, the son of Jesse, lives, you'll never have a throne. And Jonathan, realizing all that's to unfold here, remember, he's realizing in terms of the vengeance of God against his enemies, not knowing how that's going to play out. At the end of the day, he says to his father, but wait a minute. And Saul now hurls a spear at him to strike him. You know, a parallel scripture there. Remember Jesus said, you know, they persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you. So David, the anointed king, he's dodged a spear twice, and now Jonathan, the brother of the anointed king, finds himself under the agonizing wrath of his own father. It costs to be on God's side, you know. And it's interesting, isn't it, the way in where there's the balance of verse 33, but Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. And then the writer says, so Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. I mean, like he didn't know it up to this point. So he looked at his father and he said, so I'm taking that as a no then. I mean, David's not going to make it through this. All right, I got it. I think I've got it now. Verse 34, and Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and he ate no food. So, you know, food's not important at that part. Grief consumes him. He grieved for David because his father had disgraced him. Well, he had disgraced David and he had disgraced Jonathan. One of the commentators to which I've been referring here throughout this study, at this point he says, Jonathan feels nothing for his pitiful father. That's his comment. He said he's furious, he's not eating for a couple of days. Disgrace has been his portion and portion of David. So this commentator felt that he feels nothing for his pitiful father. I'm not, I don't buy that. I'm not sure that, of course he can't know for sure, but I say, why did he bother to appeal on David's behalf again? Was it not perhaps his feeble attempt even to convince his father to win basically and to save his father? You see, facing the cost of loyalty there introduces us to all kinds of dreadful ambiguities sometimes that we're faced in order to be loyal to the king. This is at least an inkling of that to which we've been referring all the way through in terms of Jesus' words recorded for us in Luke 14. Now the great crowds accompanied him, and he turned, and he said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Of course, Jesus knew these Old Testament narratives. It almost makes you wonder, did he have that scene in mind? Because here, loyalty to the king meant, on the part of Jonathan, He had to reject his father. So I disagree with this commentator who said he felt nothing for his father. I mean, he's no different than us. I mean, I think the reverse is true. He feels everything he's going through. He feels everything for his father. And even on this account, this drama, this affection, this alienation plays out. It must have been difficult. Well, the morning comes, in verse 35, and the plan is to put into action, into the field of the appointment with David and this little boy. The drama of the errors unfolds as planned. The signal is sent out, the boy is dispatched. The word is, hurry, be quick, do not stay. So the message is sent. And David, at that heap of stones there, will have recognized that he's gonna have to continue to be a fugitive. There's no possibility of him receiving a welcome from Saul, or any encouragement from Saul's court. So the key here is loyalty to the anointed king meant that Jonathan had to reject his father. Man, doing the right thing is hard sometimes. It really is. So Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. Here's another wonderful little sentence, isn't it? But the boy knew nothing. He knew nothing. Can't you imagine going home? Mom says, well, how did it go? You know that thing you were going to do today? How did it go? And he says, I have no idea. I don't know what was going on. I mean, this fellow told me, he says, you run up there and you come back. And I don't know any more than you do. And then in verse 39, only Jonathan and David knew the matter. And Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said to him, go and carry them to the city. And here's this overwhelming, flood of emotions at this point because the reason that they've been speaking in this way that no one can overhear or understand is because well nobody must hear that. The reason that David's been hiding the way he has Is it so no one's going to see him? It's this foreordained plan so that they'll be able to part from one another in a way where Saul really can't catch up to them or his forces can't catch up to them. And it would seem to me that what happens is this really this godly, loyal love in this situation here. that Jonathan can't help, nor David can help, but they actually come out of hiding and they kind of embrace one another in that moment. David rose from beside the stone heap and he fell with his face to the ground. And really what we're seeing here is a picture of deferential respect. He fell on his face to the ground, so he doesn't emerge from the stones going, hey, wow, that was great, it worked out perfectly, you know, high five. Now this is a sober moment. A reality sets in. He falls to the ground. He bows three times. Do you see what's going on here? In this story, Jonathan is still the crown prince of this fading kingdom. The kingdom is passing away. David is the anointed king, but it's in secrecy. Jonathan has an inkling of what's going on. David's not sure how it's all going to finally play out. But in the meantime, he bows down before him as an expression. of his gratitude and his devotion, and here you have it. They kissed one another, they wept, and David was weeping the most. Now, I can't delay on this any longer. Safe to say that today, emphasis come from different commentaries today that this is an indication of some kind of homosexual affection between David and Jonathan. But that owes absolutely nothing to the text, absolutely nothing to the time, absolutely nothing at all to what's being said of them. but it owes everything to the reading of the 21st century immorality into the context of 6th century BC. Now I'm certainly not suggesting that homosexuality didn't exist back then, just that people who don't even believe the scripture in the first place, they read all kinds of things into the Bible because they have a man-centered gospel worship of man's presumed free will and his fleshly desires and the fact that man defines truth in their minds instead of God and so forth, you know, man's desire trumps everything today. So saying simply that they kissed one another, I mean, There are manly cultures that do that today, even still. I mean, Italians do that, parts of Spain, parts of the Middle East. Ladies, I'm going to keep this PG, but not to be distasteful in any way. I'm going to get through something here. Let me share this with you. Today, our culture is struggling to understand what it means to be a man. And I think one of the goals of today's culture is actually to feminize men, to neutralize them. My dad was a football coach. And I grew up in a locker room. And to say nothing of whenever I finally got old enough to play and made the team. Now, I trust you would never kiss any of your teammates on the cheek. Guarantee you that. But there was no modesty whatsoever in a locker room. There was hazing even, not condoning that. But it happened. You endured it. Nobody ever was seriously injured. but showers were open, locker room was open, no stalls, no screens, no curtains. You get my drift? You just dressed and undressed in front of everyone, but our generation would be absolutely horrified by that environment. And yet, there were some rock-hard, tough, masculine young men in that locker room. We beat each other half to death every week in practice. We got bruised together, we got the breath knocked out of ourselves, we got our teeth chipped, we sometimes were concussed, we got broken bones at times, and there was always blood on somebody's uniform after a game. We thought nothing about modesty in any sense. It wasn't even an issue. We were not the least bit insecure about our masculinity. We loved our brothers. Black, white, Latino, didn't matter. Sometimes we wept together after we lost a game where we'd fought really hard and lost a close game. No one for a moment thought a thing about that kind of open environment. Today, things have just gotten way off in the ditch. So look at this. They're bound to one another. They wept with one another. And if you want help thinking about this notion of kissing, well, what about what Paul says? Greet one another with a holy kiss. And then, for example, in Psalm 2, which begins, why do the nations rage in the people's plot in vain? You remember how that Psalm ends? Therefore, O kings of the earth, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, rejoicing with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry with you. In other words, this is not simply like an expression of affection or even adoration. It's an expression of veneration. And so it is. Actually, if you can visualize in your mind this taking place, it could make you weep. If you really got this scene in your mind, it would be harder to understand the depth of this narrative when you came to the end of it and you said, hey, that worked out pretty well, if that's all you said about it. I'll see you on Tuesday. Everything's great. Couldn't possibly be that way. They didn't know if they'd ever even see each other again. They didn't know at that point. Consider all the pain involved for Jonathan, rejecting his father, all they had gone through, and establishing this allegiance with David. He's already asked him, show me the steadfast love of the Lord. If I live for you to be king, do not let me die when Yahweh avenges the enemies of David. And so now, all that's represented in the tearing and rending, there's this familial dimension of life that, now this happens sometimes today, Even when somebody becomes a Christian, they come from a family who's not church or not Christian. Your family says to you things like, you know, I don't know why you had to go out and become a crazy person. You know, got all religious and now, you know, look how you were cared for. We raised you right. We did. And now you're just throwing all that away and you're setting it aside and you're doing this and you're doing that. And so the ambiguity of loyalty is there all the time. And for David to see was part of this parting. After all, in a sense, he's part of the cause of this. And he sees the risk. He sees the pain, the hurt, the longing, the point into the future. And Jonathan then has the last word. He says, go in peace. Because we've sworn, both of us, in the name of the Lord, saying the Lord shall be between me and you. It's a bit like Ruth and Naomi, isn't it? Ruth said, do not urge me to leave you. So there was this loyalty thing, right? She's a Moabitess. Go back to your family. Go back to where you're from. Go back to where your security lies. No, she says, don't urge me to leave you or return from following you. But where you go, I'll go. Where you lodge, I'll lodge. Your people should be my people and your God my God. So back here to 1 Samuel 20, 42, go in peace. What amazing rending pain and joy is wrapped up in that kind of affirmation and on what basis are they going to be able to go in peace except the peace that's grounded in the steadfast love of the Lord, which never ceases. So whether they would see each other again, you know, they didn't know they would be aware of that. the dimension of the relationship there that they enjoyed, a dimension that neither of them could fully comprehend at that point. A dimension that pushes us way beyond just the historicity of this scene and ultimately into the book of Revelation. I mean, where we'll see a company one day that no one can number from every tribe, tongue, and nation, and language, and people. They're all united in this covenant love of God as God's story ends there and new beginnings happen. Because it was the purpose of God from the beginning to put a people together who are his very own. And it's utterly, people are utterly undeserved privilege that each one of us have to name the name of Christ and to be included in that community. Don't know how it's all gonna work out in the end exactly, but I wonder if we'll stand there and we'll look around, we'll say, oh, is that David? If we do, I bet he'll be standing next to Jonathan. All the barriers of authority and position and privilege will be gone and we'll cast our crowns. before the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And it's all gonna be because of this immense, steadfast love of God. The fact that Christ has clothed us in his own robe of righteousness, one that we in no way deserve, that's the only thing really that makes us able to go in peace. Father, thank you so much for this portion of your word today and we ask that you will continue to help us meditate upon it and apply it to our hearts and lives as only you can. And so we thank you for it in Jesus' name, amen.