Marriage, chapter 24. You can find that on page 934 in the back of your hymnal, 934. And I'm gonna read the first three paragraphs. Page 934, chapter 24 of Marriage and Divorce, paragraph one. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman. Neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have any more than one husband at the same time. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, for the increase of mankind with legitimate issue, and of the church with an holy seed, and for preventing of uncleanness. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry who are able, with judgment, to give their consent. Yet it is the duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord, and therefore such as profess the true reformed religion should not marry with infidels, papists, or other idolaters. Neither should as, excuse me, neither should such as are godly be unequally yoked by marrying with such as are notoriously wicked in their life or maintain damnable heresies. This week's confessional lesson reminds us of some basic truths about marriage. At least they were basic truths once upon a time. Namely, that marriage is ordained by God to be between one man and one woman for one entire life. And it is a primary and necessary building block for society. It's most definitely true that the Lord has given marriage to be a great blessing to fulfill our need for intimacy and companionship. And it is a marvelous gift from God. But it's also an institution that provides stability for culture. And the degree to which we see the institution of marriage disintegrate is the degree to which we can expect to see the family unit disintegrate. And that'll be the degree to which we can expect to see the overall disintegration. of our society. And a great many of our cultural woes right now can be traced back to the fact that we've lost a sense of this truth. Marriage is also the way that God replenishes the human race. I've often said the first command God gave Adam was have babies, be fruitful and multiply. And believers should know that marriage is the way God establishes a holy seed within the church. This week's confessional lesson also teaches another and vital truth about marriage. It's the duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord. If that isn't clear enough, the confession is saying that it's wrong to marry an unbeliever. And that includes those who hold to various forms of false religions or those who only have a superficial Christianity. Over the years, I've tried to stress this because it's important. And here's what I mean by that from a pastoral point of view. I've said this before. But if a young person comes to me, a young adult, and they say, Pastor Berg, give me two things, two priorities to help me make the transition from young person to young adult. Do you know what those two priorities would be to have in the forefront of their mind? Number one, believe the gospel. and live like you believe it. That's priority number one. Priority number two, resolve that you'll only marry someone who believes the gospel and lives like they believe it. Nothing is more important. This exhortation from the Westminster Confession, it actually flows right out of the Bible, doesn't it? Listen what the apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6, verses 14 through 16, and pay careful attention to the contrasts. Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? You see, God ordained marriage to be a remarkable blessing and it is a wonderful gift from God when a man and woman come together in a covenant marriage and they seek to live their lives together centered on the gospel and in joyful submission to Jesus Christ. Now of course marriage is difficult and will always present some challenging times precisely because you have two sinners who live so close together. But if a man and a woman share those priorities of centering their lives on the gospel and have a genuine commitment to the glory of Jesus Christ by God's grace, marriage can be a wonderful delight just as God intends it to be. On the other hand, to marry outside the Lord is a sin and they're often disastrous and devastating consequences. This evening when we return to our study in 2 Kings, we're gonna get a front row seat to see some of the devastating consequences. But for now, let's continue praising the Lord. We'll stand to sing a number 128B, 128B. Well, let me ask you to open up your copy of scripture to 2 Kings 8. 2 Kings 8, and we're gonna begin reading in verse 16 and read down through the end of the chapter. 2 Kings 8, beginning in verse 16. Hear the infallible word of our God. Now in the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoshaphat, having been king of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, began to reign as king of Judah. He was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done. For the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for the sake of his servant David as he promised him to give a lamp to him and his sons forever. In his days, Edom revolted against Judah's authority and made a king over themselves. So Joram went to Zaire and all his chariots with him. Then he rose by night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots and the troops fled to their tents. Thus Edom has been in revolt against Judah's authority to this day. And Libna revolted at that time. Now the rest of the acts of Joram and all that he did, are they not written in the books of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? So Joram rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. Then Ahaziah, his son, reigned in his place. In the 12th year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, began to reign. Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel. And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab. Now he went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to war against Hazael, king of Syria, at Ramoth Gilead. And the Syrians wounded Joram. Then King Joram went back to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael, king of Syria. And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram, the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick. There ends the reading of God's holy word. May he bless it to our hearts this evening. Dearest congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the most tragic things you can observe in the life of a believer are glaring blind spots. I'm talking about the believer who walks with the Lord and may be faithful to the Lord in any number of areas, but under certain circumstances, they make disastrous life choices or compromise in some egregious way and it inevitably leads to spiritual catastrophe. That's what blind spots can do. And truth be told, dear ones, we all have spiritual blind spots, which is why we should regularly pray Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me. and know my anxieties or my worries and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." Of course, even David, the human author of these words, presumably failed to pray them often enough because he certainly had blind spots. And so did Jehoshaphat, the fourth king of the southern kingdom of Judah. And his spiritual blind spots definitely led to spiritual catastrophe. And frankly, blind spots and their consequences could be writ large over that text we just read. It's confusing, so it might help. Blind spots and their consequences. Now verse 16. of 2 Kings 8, it brings us back to the Southern Kingdom. It's been a while since we zeroed in on Judah. In fact, the last time we thought seriously about what was going on in the Southern Kingdom was way back in 1 Kings 22, which is where we learned about the reign of Jehoshaphat. And we learned something important about Jehoshaphat, that like his father, He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. And that's a way of saying in a very general way, Jehoshaphat was to be thought of as a godly king. Of course, we also learned that he made mistakes of a rather severe nature and there are several massive dings to his reputation. Here's a few of them. First, he didn't remove the high, excuse me, the high places of false worship in Jerusalem because they were popular with the citizenry and he didn't wanna put them off. Second, he made peace with King Ahab and entered into a couple joint economic ventures with the Northern Kingdom. We're gonna flesh that out in a few minutes. And third, a part of that peace and economic alliance he made with Ahab in the northern kingdom involved Jehoshaphat establishing a marriage between his son Jehoram and the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. And it's that unholy marriage that sort of sits behind the events of this evening's text. Jehoshaphat was a believer. Boy, did he have blind spots. Or as Dr. Ralph Davis put it, Jehoshaphat seemed to be long on piety and short on sense. And because of that, Judah is in great peril. Now, I wanna take a moment and try to untangle some of the confusing names and relationships, and they can be especially confusing when you're comparing the Northern kings to the Southern kings, and they share the same names, and that's what we're dealing with in this text. So let's start with this. Jehoram and Joram is basically the same name. Joram is simply a shorter form. of Jehoram. You might think of it this way. You have a friend who's sometimes called Benjamin and other times he's called Ben. It's the same person. Ben is just a shorter form of Benjamin. That's how Jehoram is used. It's an abbreviated or shorter form of Jehoram. But here's another confusing part of all this. Ahab and Jehoshaphat used the same names for their sons. I printed out a small chart in your bulletin. If you have that handy, you might turn to it. It's just a little tiny chart, but it might help you organize this a bit in your own thinking. In the northern kingdom, you have Ahab, who was followed by his sons, Ahaziah, and then Jehoram. In the southern kingdom, you had Jehoshaphat, who was followed by his sons, Jehoram and then Ahaziah. So the names are simply reversed, but same names. And by the way, this is another indicator. of just how close Ahab and Jehoshaphat were. The same name were used for their sons and their grandsons. By the way, that's just creepy, isn't it? Again, I'll come back to that unholy alliance in a moment, but let's start to lay hold of a bit of the historical facts there in verses 16 and 17. It was during the fifth year of Ahab's son, Joram, that Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, began to reign in Judah. Now Jehoram was 32 when he became king of Judah, and he reigned for eight years. Now those are the basic facts, but there's another fact that I want you to be aware of that we don't learn here in 2 Kings. It's recorded for us in the parallel passage of 2 Chronicles 21, there we're told that Jehoram had six brothers. Their dad, Jehoshaphat, named Jehoram to be his successor because he was the oldest son, which was perfectly normal and appropriate and just what you'd expect for an ancient king. But because Jehoshaphat was a good father, he actually provided very generously for all of his other six sons, set them up in lands with money and all that they needed to have a very comfortable life. But here's what happened. As soon as Jehoshaphat died and Jehoram secured the throne, one of his very first royal acts was to have all of his brothers murdered so that there would be no challenge to his power base. Again, that's an important piece of context because it tells us just how wicked the King of Judah, Jehoram, truly was. And it sets the stage for verse 18. Listen again to verse 18. Speaking of Jehoram, and he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Now we're beginning to see now the profound cost of Jehoshaphat becoming so closely intertwined with Ahab. The judgment-deserving apostasy of Israel has now infiltrated Judah because of Jehoshaphat's compromise. I mean, remember, Ahab and Jezebel, they were true blue Baal followers. They weren't nominal Baal followers. They embraced it. They had a hearty faith in Baal. They wanted Baal to supplant Yahweh as the God worshiped in the Northern kingdom. In other words, you have a king of Israel who passionately was committed to blasphemy and idolatry and now Jehoshaphat's provided the circumstances through this marriage of his son to Ahab's daughter for this idolatrous apostasy to gain a major foothold in Judah. And you have to think as Jehoshaphat was making that peace treaty with Ahab and forging these close diplomatic ties and was creating joint business opportunities that somewhere in his mind it all seemed like a smashingly good idea. I mean, Israel had been engaged in a civil war. And all Jehoshaphat had to do was give his eldest son in marriage to the daughter of the vilest idolaters in Israel, Ahab and Jezebel. And something we'll see clearly in a couple of weeks is that Jehoram's wife, Athaliah, boy, she's a chip off the old Jezebel block. She was just as committed to Baal as her mother. And if you'll allow me to say this in a crass way, if someone were to say, Jezebel's gotta be the most evil woman who's ever lived, I think Athaliah probably responded to that by saying, hold my beer. She's determined. We'll see that in coming weeks. Now, I'd like to say that the forging of the marriage between Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, and Ahab's daughter, that was a blind spot. But really, that's just flat out disobedience. Nothing less than that. It's disobeying God's holy law. And what adds insult to injury is that Jehoshaphat must have thought of himself as a wise and savvy king because everybody wants greater peace and greater prosperity, don't they? But Jehoshaphat pursued that peace and prosperity by cozying up to God's enemy and becoming the trusted and dependable confidant to the worst idolater that had been in Israel up to this point. And so now the despicable idolatry of Israel has spread like a cancer into Judah. Something we don't want to miss at this point is at this moment in history, there's very little distinguishing Judah from Israel. Ahab's son and Jehoshaphat's son, they're best buds. And with that, the northern and southern kingdom are almost reunited again. That's quite a picture, isn't it? Only they're not reunited around Yahweh. They're seemingly reunited around Baal. Let that sink in. Northern kingdom, Southern kingdom, they're one nation under Baal with idolatry and blasphemy for all. At this moment, both Israel and Judah alike deserve God's judgment. And we'll see that judgment begins as Judah's place on the world stage is challenged. Their military force and ability comes to be pressed against. Edom had been a vassal state to Judah, which means Edom was basically a subjugated people. They were under Judah's authority, paid taxes to Judah. And we see there in verse 20 that Edom revolted against Judah's authority and raised up their own king. So Jehoram responded. by calling his army together, driving them to Zaire, a city in Edom, and they sought to regain control. Apparently what happened is the Edomites surrounded Judah's military. Judah's military tried to fight back as best they could, but they were surrounded and all they could do was beat feet back to Judah, tail tucked between their legs. And there's a small but significant detail there at the end of verse 22, and Libna revolted at that time. The reason I say that's a significant detail is that clearly Edom, that was a different nation, wasn't it? Libna was a city in Judah. It wasn't a subjugated nation. It was a Judean city. And interestingly enough, it's one of the cities that were given to the Levites in Judah. So we see there are clearly priests who are pushing back against this. And when we get to chapter 11, we'll be introduced to a priest by the name of Jehoiada. And he's gonna be a priest that God uses to start to restore Judah. But for now, things are very dark in terms of Judah's future. Judah is following Israel and that's going to lead nowhere good. Well eventually Jehoram will die and his son Ahaziah will reign in his place but there's some interesting twists in Jehoram's demise. that I wanna draw your attention to. So I'm gonna have to ask you to turn in your Bibles forward to 2 Chronicles 21. 2 Chronicles 21. Again, this is the parallel passage of Jehoram's reign, the king of Judah. 2 Chronicles 21. And we'll begin reading at verse 12. 2 Chronicles 21, verse 12. And a letter came to him, this is to Jehoram, from Elijah the prophet saying, thus says the Lord God of your father David. because you've not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat, your father, or in the ways of Asa, king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot like the harlotry of the house of Ahab, and also have killed your brothers, those of your father's household were better than yourself, Behold, the Lord will strike your people with a serious affliction, your children, your wives, and all your possessions. And you will become very sick with the disease of your intestines until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness day by day. Now, this is certainly an interesting letter since Elijah has been dead for a while, right? And as you might imagine, there are a lot of intriguing suggestions as to the circumstances of this letter. I think it was written as a prophetic oracle before Elisha was taken up to heaven by a whirlwind. And it was probably preserved by Elisha and the house of the prophets. But the reason I wanted us to read This letter from Elijah is that it highlights how evil Jehoram was, the king of Judah, so much so that he would encourage the citizens of Jerusalem to play the harlot like the harlotry of the house of Ahab. He basically prostituted God's people to Ahab and Jezebel. and he's gonna face a gruesome judgment that one Old Testament scholar describes as chronic diarrhea and massive rectal prolapse. I am not at all sure what that means except for the diarrhea part, but it was surely ghastly and it was deserved. This helps us see how detestable this idolatry is in the eyes of Yahweh. Well, Jehoram is gone, and one of the worst possible things is said about him at the end of chapter 21. Nobody cared that he died. That's a stunning thing to say. A life that was so meaningless, even as a king, no one was sorrowful when he died. Well, back to 2 Kings 8, he's gone. And Jehoram's youngest son will take the throne because actually God sent the Philistines and Arabians to kill most of Jehoram's other sons. So the youngest son, Isaiah, has to take the throne. He began his reign when he was only 22. and he would only reign for one year. Again, we're reminded that his mother is Athaliah, and she's right there with him, certainly pulling strings and encouraging him in wickedness. And our narrator wants us to make sure we know just how closely aligned Isaiah was with the house of Ahab. Look there again at verse 27 again of 2 Kings 8. Three times Ahab is mentioned. And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord like the house of Ahab, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab. You see, our text is emphasizing to us that Judah's leaders are aligned with Israel and they're united around Baal. But there are a couple ominous details in the text. At least they're ominous for Judah and Judah's kings that give us a hint of the fate of this Baal alliance. Verse 25 tells us, Ahaziah took the throne during the 12th year of Joram's reign in Israel. So that's the 12th year. Here's the thing, we know from an earlier study, I think it's 2 Kings 3, that Joram's reign in Israel is only gonna be for 12 years. And so he becomes king in that 12th year, his final year. And Ahaziah only reigns one year. year in Judah. So something's about to happen where both the King of Judah and the King of Israel are going to be lost in the same year. And we'll see next week that that something is named Jehu. He'll be the instrument. of God's judgment. But the fact that the Northern King and the Southern King are gonna both be eliminated points to the totality of God's wrath against these apostate rulers and their spiritual whoredom. That's one ominous detail. There's a second one as well. And it's recorded for us in verses 28 and 29. Ahab's son, Joram, went to war against Hazael, the king of Syria at Ramoth Gilead, and of course, Judah's king went right along with him, because you know, your buds go into the fight, you gotta fight with him. And here's an interesting thing to remember, and you may recall this from an earlier study, Hazael is another king that God's appointed as an instrument of judgment. The Syrian king is the one God's appointed to bring judgment on the northern kingdom. So when Joram gets to Ramoth-Gilead, he's wounded in battle. And here's the interesting, ominous detail. Ramoth-Gilead is where his father Ahab was wounded by the Syrians and eventually died. And now his son is wounded there. And verse 29 tells us he went back to Jezreel to recover from his wounds. And here's the thing. Do you remember what's in Jezreel besides the summer palace? That's where Naboth's vineyard was located, right? You remember Naboth. He had a vineyard and Ahab wanted it. And when Naboth wouldn't sell it to him, Jezebel had this godly man murdered. And it was there at Jezreel that Elijah pronounced doom on Ahab's entire lineage. If you're inclined, you can go back and review those details in 1 Kings 29. But these are ominous events. The northern king is back in Jizreel, where his family's doom was prophesied. And you know what? The passage does end with a display of family love. When Ahaziah of Judah learns that Joram of Israel is wounded and in Jezreel, he goes there to be moral support, to visit him in the hospital as it were. Ahab's family, they were incredibly wicked, but at least they were a tight knit family. But let this get in your mind, the Northern kingdom and the Southern king, they're both in Jezreel. And we know their reigns are gonna end at about the same time. So, that'll be in coming attractions. I wanna wrap up with two applications. First, Jehoshaphat's blind spots, if we can even call them that, had catastrophic consequences for his family and for the family of God in Judah. I don't want to assume too much, but it's hard not to think that in his mind, the compromises he made to secure peace with Israel and to forge an intimate partnership with Ahab, it must have been in everyone's best interest. I mean, marrying off his son to a rank idolater, making sure your son and grandson have the same names as the sons of a rank idolater, riding in battle with a rank idolater, what could possibly go wrong? And Jehoshaphat's blind spot was not realizing the disastrous chain events he was putting into motion. He knew yoking up with Ahab was wrong, but he must have reasoned. Whatever potential danger was associated with this compromise, it was worth the risk, and that is always a fool's wager. And the King of Judah and the King of Israel, they are about to be slain. And the turmoil that will leave in its wake, it's gonna be a violent and bloody mess. It's going to be a ferocious judgment. And one of the things we have to learn from a passage like this is the catastrophic impact of compromise. When we compromise scripture, when we compromise God's standard, you know, it's usually because we reason the compromise will accomplish some higher good. That's never the case. That's thinking like the world. The world tells us, no matter what you're dealing with, compromise is good, right? Let's reach across the aisle. We hear that in the political realm all the time. Compromise, compromise, compromise. Compromise is the noble virtue of democracy in our country. That is not the way God's people think. It is true that compromises within the world or within the secular sphere There may be some benefit there occasionally. But when God's people compromise God's standard, if they compromise what they know to be God's truth, there's no higher good in that ever. If you know what is true and you compromise, all you've done is acted in unfaithfulness to your God, period. If you compromise God's standards, all you are is a compromiser, period. It might not wreak as much havoc as Jehoshaphat's compromises, but unfaithfulness to God, and that's what compromise is. If you know truth and you tweak it, it always has dire consequences. The second application is this. I'm borrowing a bit here from Dr. Keefe, a professor from Westminster. I wouldn't have thought in this vein had I not read what he wrote. If you were reading through this passage and coming to the end of chapter eight, and you were a betting person, you'd probably be inclined to put all your money on the fact that Israel and Judah is about to be destroyed. because they deserve it. And there are all these little ominous tales in terms of where these events are leading. The dark cloud of wicked disobedience and idolatry, it's hanging over both the Northern and the Southern kingdom. Judgment seems to be all that remains. But just as it seems that the lights are about to go out for Israel and Judah, and their destruction is imminent. We see the lamp of God's grace shining brightly out of this darkness. Look there at verse 19. Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for the sake of his servant David, as he promised him to give a lamp to him and his sons forever. If you were paying attention to the call to worship and the songs we sang, they pointed us to the promises God made to David. And those promises always involved light shining in the darkness, that it anticipated a king who would come in the line of David, who would be the true lamp Israel. Judah deserved destruction but great is the grace of God and great is God's faithfulness to his covenant promises and God will keep the covenant promises he made to David way back in 2nd Samuel 7 that he would raise up from David's own seed a king who would sit on the everlasting throne. You see, David's not going to destroy Judah because he intends for his Messiah, his son, to come to be the savior of the world. And you might think of it this way. God didn't destroy Judah so that he could save you and me. and all those who would believe in the greater Son of David, the one in whom we rest and trust. And so we look to Jesus and know He's our King. He's the fulfillment to the promise, and He's our hope now and for eternity. Amen. Well, I'll give you a moment if you have any questions or comments. I know this is one of those passages that is hard to navigate because you've got Joram, Jehoram, Joram, Jehoram, north, south, north, south. I think you said it, I want to make sure I heard you right. So when Libna revolted, theirs was a godly revolt, correct? Yeah, you know what, we're not given any details about the Libna revolt. except that we know it's a city of Judah. We know it's a city that was given to the Levitical priests. Again, all the way back in Numbers, it was promised to Aaron's descendants. And it's one of the cities that Joshua gave when they came in and had conquest of the promised land. So, yeah, I think it was a godly revolt. They saw the direction. And they were priests. And they actually had a responsibility to do this. So, yeah, I would say it's a godly revolt. Again, I sort of alluded to this. When we get to chapter 11, we're moving through the kings, the kings, the kings. what's gonna be really impactful is God's gonna raise up this priest named Jehoiada, who will basically be instrumental in raising up Joash. So really, really, and we don't know this. I looked, I can't find any textual proof for this, but I found myself wondering if Jehoiada didn't maybe come from Libna. Geographically, it would work, but I don't wanna go there because it doesn't say it, so. Any other questions or comments? I have a question in the confession on marriage. There's a phrase in there that I always scratch my head at when it says marriage was given for a legitimate issue. What does that mean? Legitimate issue means the propagation of the human seed. Just in general. Issue is code for seed. As you were talking about, you know, the intermarriage ahabs, yeah, I couldn't help but think of the study I did this morning where Henry VIII wanted his son Edward VI to marry who later was Mary Queen of Scots. They were trying to combine the kingdoms And that's always been a common practice, right, in the kingdoms of the world. I mean, throughout human history, one of the best ways in antiquity to forge an alliance with another nation is, you know, get mom and get daughter and son together and, you know, because here's the thing, who wants to wage war against your in-law? Well, maybe sometimes, but generally speaking, you don't, right? Because your family's there and it's a strong bond. But Israel should have known better because they're God's people and they have a different standard, so. I'll just say what you just said, it reminds me of when we were back in First Kings, when Solomon became king, and it talks about how he did this, he did that, he prayed for wisdom. One of the very first things I remember you mentioning, he makes an alliance and he marries the daughter of the Egyptian pharaoh. Right there. Yeah. And by the way, that's one of the things about the blind spots. They seem to be general. Maybe just men have blind spots in general where women are concerned. But think about David, Solomon, and this. A lot of this has to do with not understanding the dignity of manhood and womanhood and where that relates to marriage and yeah. Anyway. Any other comments? I looked down at number four. It says marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity. What is that? It means you can't marry close relatives. Basically, closer than what would be a second cousin, is the way it works out. Consanguinity. marriage ever be made lawful, or any law of man or consent of parties? And I thought, you know, what's the sodomy in that? Yeah, and that's what I was going to say, that whole list that they're dealing with you can find on Leviticus 19. That's part of where they're borrowing that from. at Prince William University. And I never knew this until shortly before I left. But he was explaining to me that he's married to his first cousin. And that his whole family is like that. And I went to the president of JOC and I said, what's going on here? They do that even today. Truth be told, it's actually common today in a lot of, some European nations even. A number of African and South American nations, they don't see it as a big deal. Because marriage is almost purely utilitarian in that sense. But God's word has always been very clear about those things. And God's people have not always obeyed them. You know what was interesting? When we were in Israel, it made me think about our prayer. We met both Palestinian and Jewish Israeli Christians. And it's difficult because you know, these brothers and sisters are dealing with really horrendous times. Anything else? Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you that in a passage like this that's so full of gloom and despair and apostasy, there is a light, there is a lamp promised to David that would come into the world, the one who would save his people from their sins. Indeed, that light would shine in the darkness and it's shown in the hearts of your people and it's illumined the gospel to us and we rest on that gospel. May we leave from here this evening, firmly embracing and gripping tightly to those gospel promises. And may we serve you this week. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let me ask you to stand, brothers and sisters, and receive the Lord's benediction. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. And all of God's people said, amen.