It was my intention to use the Westminster standards to help us dive in to the doctrine of the Trinity and the incarnation of Christ. And we sort of began looking at that last week and Lord willing, I'll get back to that next Lord's Day. But this week I wanna do something slightly different, at least something we haven't done very much in the last couple of years. I wanna have a New Testament lesson because I wanna look at a New Testament passage that I think will help us put our evening sermon text in a helpful context. So to that end, let me ask you to turn in your Bibles to Revelation 12. Revelation 12. I'm gonna read verses one through five. Revelation 12, beginning in verse one. This is the true word of God. Now a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of 12 stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and 10 horns and seven diadems on his head. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God and his throne. This is God's word. This is an amazing Christmas text, perhaps my favorite Christmas text in the Bible, albeit a very surprising one, because it's telling us the Christmas story in the broadest contours of redemptive history. But what really makes Revelation 12 surprising is that it presents Christ's first advent in the context of intense cosmic warfare. And that's what I want to take a moment and briefly zero in on this evening. Now we're introduced to three key characters with key roles in this cosmic warfare. So we need to identify them. First, there's a woman, a splendid and glorious woman who's pregnant with a male child. And then second, there's a male child that's obviously gonna come from this woman. And then third, there's a cruel and vicious dragon who desperately wants to destroy her offspring. So let's make sure we know who's who. The woman represents God's covenant people, the church as she exists throughout history. And verses one through five, it's the church in the Old Testament. And while it's not our focus this evening, from verse six to the end of the chapter is the church in the New Testament. I wanna start with this. This is not a literal woman. It's not Eve and it's not Mary as Roman Catholics believe. If you glance at verse one, we're told the woman is a sign. She's not an individual woman, she's a sign. And to interpret this sign, we need to look at its features. And when we look at the features of the sign, one of the things we notice is that this woman is associated with luminaries, the sun, the moon, and on her head, a garland of 12 stars. So what are we to make of this? Well, to rightly interpret the book of Revelation, you need to know that John assumes his readers would have been saturated in the Old Testament, which is why it's such a difficult book for us to interpret because we're often not saturated in the Old Testament. And you see this imagery of the luminaries here would have reminded Old Testament saints and those that John was writing to of Joseph's vision that's recorded in Genesis 37, 9 through 11, right? Many of us recall that Joseph had dreams, and in one of Joseph's dreams, his father was presented as the sun, his mother, Rachel, was presented as the moon, and the stars in Joseph's dreams represented the 12 tribes of Israel. And of course, when we speak of the 12 tribes, it's just a basic way to identify God's covenant people in the Old Testament. And that's what the imagery of Revelation 12 represents. It's symbolic, simply, of the Old Testament church. Again, the woman is not Eve, not Mary. It's the people of God being depicted as a woman. Again, imagery you find all over the scripture. And so this woman's womb, the womb of Israel as it were, is that protecting place that God's using to preserve the promised messianic seed up to the point when Messiah will be born. So that's the first character. in Revelation 12. Second, there's a child who is clearly Jesus. He's the promised Messiah. God's promised Christ. And identifying him isn't really a no-brainer. As far as I know, no Orthodox Bible scholars really dispute that the child in these verses is in fact Christ. In verse five, John alludes to Psalm 2 and applies it to this child. And Psalm 2 is clearly about Christ. It has to do with this child ruling the nations with a rod of iron. Later in Revelation 19.50, John will make this even more explicit that it's Jesus. That's who the male child is. Jesus, the promised Messiah. And that brings us to our third character, the dragon, who again is presented as a sign. And once more, we don't have to wonder who this is. Although we didn't read it, we're told down in verse nine that this great dragon is the serpent of old called the devil and Satan. Now we also know him as the father of lies, the destroyer, the accuser of the brethren, the prince of the power of the air, the God of this age bails above. And John presents him as comprehensively powerful. He has 10 horns and seven diadems and the numbers 10 and seven indicate a kind of completeness and a kind of fullness to communicate to us the frightening level of might and ferocity associated with this vicious beast and his lies and his threats and his brute strength were such that with a single sweep of his tail, a third of the stars of heaven were cast down to earth. And of course, this is a picture of the angels that fell with Satan. So that's who the dragon is, the evil one, the enemy of our souls, the devil. And now that we have some sense of who's who in these verses, We wanna notice the menacing posture of the devil engaged in this cosmic warfare. Glance there at the last half of verse four. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. So this is a very graphic picture of the dragon, of the serpent of old with an insatiable evil hunger to devour Messiah. And we actually know why, don't we? Why the dragon is so passionately committed to destroying Messiah. We know because we know the backdrop of this is actually Genesis 3.15. When God declared that through the seed of the woman, He would send one to destroy the serpent of old, to fully and finally crush his head. And you see, from that point forward, from that moment in Genesis 3.15, when a picture of the gospel was first announced, from that moment, Satan was determined to extinguish the messianic seed and to do so by killing or destroying or corrupting the people through whom this earthly seed would be born. And if you can understand this cosmic warfare, it'll actually help you make better sense of the Old Testament and the countless conflicts and struggles and challenges that they endured. And if you're walking through biblical history, it becomes immediately clear that this fiery red dragon wasted no time bringing attacks against the seed of the woman. We see that in the first family when Cain murdered his brother Abel, that was just the devil trying to destroy the messianic seed. Satan wants to destroy the one that God promised would destroy him. And that just continues to play out in the narratives of the Old Testament. Think of Pharaoh in the opening chapters of Exodus. He orders the killing of all the male children in Israel. That was demonic. It was to devour the messianic seed. I think about David, a man after God's own heart, the royal seed, through which the Messiah come. On two occasions, Saul, who was influenced by Satan, hurled spears at David to kill him. If only he could kill David. What was Saul doing? He was an agent of the dragon seeking to destroy the promised seed. It was the dragon standing before the woman, ready to devour the child. And the fiery dragon's efforts reached a fevered pitch with Herod. When he heard that Jesus had been born, he ordered all the male children under two years old to be killed. Again, in the most graphic and vile way, this was the dragon standing before the woman, ready to devour the child. If you'll allow me to say it this way, the dragon was determined to stop Christmas. But for all of Satan's efforts to do this very thing, he was unsuccessful. Verse five tells us the child was born and he was caught up to God and his throne. That is God's advent purposes wouldn't be thwarted. The Christ child was born, lived, died, rose from the grave and ascended to his throne. Ever since Genesis 3.15, the dragon was standing before the woman ready to devour the child and the good news of Christmas is that the child was born. This evening, when we return to our study in 2 Kings, we're gonna see a vivid portrait of Revelation 12 unfold on the pages of Holy Scripture. Well, let me ask you to open your copy to 2 Kings 11. Your copy of Scripture to 2 Kings 11, excuse me. 2 Kings 11, verse one, this is the true word of God. When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs. But Jehoshabah, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons who were being murdered. And they hid him and his nurse in the bedroom from Athaliah. so that he was not killed. So he was hidden with her in the house of the Lord for six years while Athaliah reigned over the land. In the seventh year, Jehoiada sent and brought the captains of hundreds of the bodyguards and the escorts and brought them into the house of the Lord to him. And he made a covenant with them and took an oath from them in the house of the Lord and showed them the king's son. Then he commanded them saying, this is what you shall do. One third of you who come on duty on the Sabbath shall be keeping watch over the king's house. One third shall be at the gate of Sir and one third at the gate behind the escorts. You shall keep the watch of the house lest it be broken down. The two contingents of you who go off duty on the Sabbath shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord for the king. But you shall surround the king on all sides, every man with his weapons in his hand. And whoever comes within range, let him be put to death. You are to be with the king as he goes out and as he comes in. So the captains of the hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. Each of them took his men who were to be on duty on the Sabbath with those who were going off duty on the Sabbath and came to Jehoiada the priest. And the priest gave the captains of hundreds the spears and shields, which had belonged to King David that were in the temple of the Lord. And the escort stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, all around the king from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple by the altar and the house. And he brought out the king's son who put the crown on him and gave him the testimony. They made him king and anointed him and they clapped their hands and said, long live the king. Now, when Athaliah heard the noise of the escorts and the people, she came to the people in the temple of the Lord. When she looked, there was the king standing by a pillar according to custom and the leaders and the trumpeteers were by the king. All the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets. So Athaliah tore her clothes and cried out, treason, treason. And Jehoiada, the priest, commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the army, and said to them, take her outside under guard and slay her with the sword, whoever follows her. For the priest had said, do not let her be killed in the house of the Lord. So they seized her, and she went by the way of the horse's entrance into the king's house, and there she was killed. Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people, that they should be the Lord's people, and also between the king and the people. And all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They thoroughly broke in pieces its altars and images and killed Matan, the priest of Baal, before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord. Then he took the captains of hundreds, the bodyguards, the escorts, and all the people of the land, and they brought the king down from the house of the Lord and went by the way of the gate of the escorts to the king's house. Then he sat on the throne of the kings. All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet, for they had slain Athaliah with the sword in the king's house. Jehosh was seven years old, when he became king. Well, there ends the reading of God's holy word. May bless it to our hearts this evening. Dearest congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, you'll recall that God raised up Jehu as king of Israel to rid the northern kingdom of Baal worship that had been introduced under the reign of Ahab and Jezebel. So he went about executing all of Ahab's descendants. And Jeho was extraordinarily thorough in those tasks, as you'll recall. One of the problems though, is that it wasn't just the Northern kingdom who'd been perverted with Baalism. And it also infiltrated the Southern kingdom of Judah. And this infiltration happened, you may remember from several lessons back, through a marriage arrangement between King Ahab of the North and King Jehoshaphat of the South. You'll recall Ahab gave his daughter Athaliah to marry Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram. And in that unholy alliance, in that wicked marriage, Baal was formally invited. into Judah. And frankly, dear ones, for allowing and promoting this idolatry in Judah, what the southern kingdom deserved was to be obliterated by God. Turn back a couple pages to 2 Kings 8. I want us to get a sense of this. 2 Kings 8 and verse 18. This is the account of Jehoram's reign as the king of Judah. 2 Kings 8 verse 18, we're told, Jehoram 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. I wonder if the devil thought, God will surely destroy Judah for this. Was the serpent of old trying to use God's righteous hatred of idolatry against him to destroy the promised seed? Could this have been the dragon standing before the woman ready to devour the child? I think so. But look 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. Now God will surely bring judgment on Jehoram. In fact, all of his sons will be killed except for Ahaziah. And Ahaziah became king of Judah and he only reigned for a year. And he was in no way an improvement over his father. He was just as evil as Jehoram, our brother, and just as zealous to promote Baal. And that shouldn't be a surprise. His mother, Athaliah, after all, was the daughter of Jezebel. But his end would come when he traveled north to Israel to support his uncle. Ahaziah would be swept up in Jehu's Operation Baalbegon. And Ahaziah became another notch on the hilt of Jehu's sword. That means there's no king in Judah. And that's where our text picks up this evening. Athaliah, she's more than willing to step into that role. And we're gonna see, this is just the opportunity. that the serpent of old was looking for, the dragon standing before the woman ready to devour the child could be written large over this chapter. Because as soon as Queen Mother Athaliah gets the news that her son Ahaziah is dead, we're told there in the last half of verse one, she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs. And don't miss the gravity of this moment. At this point, it seems that there's no one from David's line to sit on his royal throne. And we have to ask, what about the covenant promises that God had made to David that he would have an heir who would sit on his throne eternally? What of the promised messianic seed? Will it continue? Oh, on the surface, things seem ominous. Could it be the dragon has won? That he's going to blow out the lamp of Israel? Will Judah be snuffed out? Has Athaliah managed to accomplish the sacred mission of her master, Satan? And most significantly, has the hope of salvation for God's people promised in Genesis 3.15, has that promise been eradicated? Of course, we know the Bible. And we know the answers to those questions. We know God's sovereign. We know his redemptive plan cannot and will not be thwarted. We know Jesus will eventually be born in Bethlehem. The messianic seed will advance and the greater son of David will come. But we shouldn't overlook that our text intends to stun the reader and to create some tension in our thinking in order that we might best grip God's sovereign and gracious provision in this apparent moment of great darkness. And the provision that God raises up against the wicked Athaliah is another woman whose name is Jehoshabba. And because of how God's going to use her, I've entitled the sermon, The Woman Who Saved Christmas. Now let's work through this. Wicked Athaliah seized the throne as soon as she heard her son was dead. And she must have seen this as an opportunity to establish Baal worship throughout Judah. It's something she longed for. But she knows as long as there's some hope in Judah, that the promised Messiah will come through the line of David to sit on his throne as long as that promise is out there. She's not going to be able to accomplish her devilish plans. So she begins to implement her own operation, Operation Judicide. Anyone who might've claimed to the throne of David, she extinguishes. And we might overlook this truth, but we wanna see just how exceedingly vile and murderous this rampage is. She's actually willing to kill and is clearly killing her own flesh and blood. This is not just political killing. This is a true vile murder. And yet in God's perfect plan, He's raised up her own daughter to foil her plan. We're told there in verse two that Jehoshaphat is Jehoram's daughter and Ahaziah's sister, and that would make Athaliah mom. Now for some reason that can only be explained by God's providence, Athaliah has no intention of executing her daughter, probably because she wasn't a threat being a woman. And apparently Athaliah thought she was the only woman who could ever do this job. But surprisingly, her daughter had no intention of letting her wipe out the Davidic seed. This was a woman who was on the Lord's side, even if it meant siding against her mother. You know, Once when Jesus was teaching on the cost of discipleship, on the cost of following him, he said, do not think that I come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I've come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10, 34 through 37, Jehoshaphat passed that test. She was more committed to Yahweh than she was her own mother. And so she takes up her nephew, Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and she hides him and his nursemaid away. And it seems as though they were initially hidden probably in the place where bed linens were kept in the palace. Language is a little hard to get, but probably the place where bed linens were kept. And as soon as the coast cleared a bit, she smuggled them over to the house of the Lord, to the temple where They would be hidden for six years. And these were dark years for Judah. A princess of Baal is ruling the roost. And you have to think only a small handful of people knew that an heir of David was alive. Think about that. Most of the faithful in Judah, and there certainly was a remnant, they must have been devastated They didn't know Joash was alive. They didn't know the seed was preserved. Can you imagine the spiritual anxiety that must have created in these believers? They simply had to trust that God wouldn't and couldn't and never would abandon his promises because all they saw is that the Davidic line was extinguished. Jehoshaba is the initial heroine. She is the woman God used to say Christmas, but she wasn't alone. There's also a hero in our passage, and his name is Jehoiada. He's a priest and a faithful man of God. And while we're not told this in 2 Kings, we're given a wonderful little detail in the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 22, where we're told that Jehoshaba is actually Jehoiada's wife. So this is actually not just a couple of faithful men and women, this is a faithful covenant family. And while Jehoshaphat is courageous and bold, Jehoiada seems to be a guy who knew how to master a coup. You think this guy must have trained with the CIA or something because he just knows how to put this plan in place. Six years have passed and the seventh year after Athaliah's judicide, Jehoiada begins to put the pieces in place to put a proper heir of David on his throne. And of course, he's gonna need help. So he brings in the captains of a special group of temple guards, and he brought them into the house of the Lord. And we're told there in the middle of verse four, he made a covenant with them and took an oath from them in the house of the Lord and showed them the king's son, excuse me. And we get a glimpse here of Jehoiada's devotion and his wisdom. He brings these would-be helpers into a sacred space, the house of the Lord, and there he covenants with them. He's doing his due diligence to make sure that these are actually loyal men of God who can be trusted. And once he's confident they are, and not before he's confident, then you see, he shows them the king has a living heir. Now at this point, things start to move very quickly. It's his plan for the coronation of Joash to come as quickly as possible. Notice there in verse five, this is gonna unfold, this plan, it's gonna unfold at the changing of the guard on the Sabbath, when one group is going on duty and another group is replacing them. Again, there's some brilliance to this, because this means they're gonna be twice the number of guards that there would ordinarily be, because they're at a guard shift. And then he divides the guards up into three companies. One group will take up a post at the temple, one group is gonna take up a post at the king's palace, and one group will be at the gate sewer, which was likely something like the breezeway that existed between the palace in the temple. And the purpose of these various posts ultimately is to fully surround young Joash so that nobody can get to him. So the guards get in place, they bring out the spears and the shields that David had acquired, they distribute them to these soldiers and they're told if anyone gets too close to the king, they're to be immediately executed. And the guards follow their order to a T. And the moment of truth comes in verses 11 and 12. Then the escort stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, all around the king, from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple by the altar and the house, and he brought out the king's son, put the crown on him, and gave him the testimony. They made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands, and they said, long live the king. That's important to note, this coronation took place exactly where it ought to have, in the temple. And don't miss it, as soon as the crown is put on the head of young Joash, he's given the testimony. And by testimony here, it means he was given a copy of God's covenant law. Now, the regulation for kings in Deuteronomy 17 says that any prospective king was to actually write down his own copy of God's law with his own hand so that it could get in his own heart. And it may be though based on the fact that he was such a young man that they decided initially to provide him a copy. And in addition to the testimony being God's covenant law, most Bible scholars suggest that he was also given a very public charge at this point, that he was to be faithful to the covenant that God had established with David. back in 2 Samuel 7. And you see, that's because as Judah's king, he functions as a covenant mediator. And don't miss that he's officially anointed by God to be this king. Well, once that happens, once he's anointed, once he's got the crown on his head once he's received his testimony, once he's received the charge to the stipulations of the Davidic covenant. The guards, perhaps other worshipers who were at the temple, they simply can't contain themselves any longer and they simply shout out, long live the king. And all this celebrating. Finally garners attention, the attention of Athaliah and she rushes into the temple and she can't believe what she's seeing. Joash is wearing a crown and he's in a place where the king should stand. And she hears the sounds of trumpets and rejoicing. And her only response is to cry out, treason, treason. This is the hubris of demonic leaders. They assume they have authority, even in God's house, but they don't. And Jehoiada, rather unceremoniously, has her led outside of the temple. and she's to be executed at the horse's entrance to the palace. Boy, back in verse one, things looked desperate for Judah. The dragon was standing before the woman ready to devour the child. But in the end, it's the dragon's servant that's killed and the messianic seed advances. Well, young King Joash has the testimony and he's been taught what his covenant responsibilities are, but now the people need to actually renew their covenant relationship. with the king and with the Lord. And Jehoiada facilitates a covenant renewal service beginning in verse 17. And again, the reason a covenant renewal service was necessary is because for the past six years, Athaliah had established Baal as the state religion. That was the publicly accepted faith. But no more, the people need to come together. They need to acknowledge their covenant relationship and their loyalty to Yahweh. And notice what Jehoiada does in this covenant renewal ceremony. It's his intention to orient all of Israel to Yahweh. Joash has covenant responsibilities to be loyal to Yahweh. Judah has covenant responsibilities to be loyal to Yahweh, and Judah is also pledged in covenant to be faithful and loyal to their king. You see, all of these relationships in the covenant community are ultimately oriented toward Yahweh. The people have returned to their God, and now they need to rid Israel of every trace of Baal. And so the people go on a seek and destroy mission. First, they tear down the temple of Baal. You know, it's interesting. We're not told when this temple was built in Judah. It's not mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament, but that ought to catch our attention, a temple of Baal in Judah. But at this point, they tear it down. They kill Matan, the priest of Baal. They smash the Baal idols and altars and decimate all things Baal. Dr. Davis helpfully comments, you can't have a solid covenant victory unless all that sabotages the covenant is eliminated. And that's what's taking place in Judah. It's a smash fest. How should we apply that? I saw in the news, this happened a few days ago, a Navy pilot apparently tried to apply this kind of principle quite literal. In the state capital of Iowa, there's a statue, there was a statue of a satanic half-man, half-goat called a Baphomet. And this pilot named Michael Cassidy, he went into the state capitol, he pulled that statue down and decapitated this grievous idol. Perhaps that's a bit too literal a way to apply smashing bales, but I should say I'm actually more concerned about Christians who immediately wanna argue that coexisting with Satan worship is simply the price of living in a pluralistic democracy. To me, those kinder and gentler liberal democracy loving Christians are more of a danger than a man who doesn't want to tolerate Satanism. Be that as it may, to be faithful to our covenant God, we should regularly evaluate our lives and the pull of idols upon our own hearts. Because they're there. Calvin, as you've heard many times, rightfully said, our hearts are an idol factory. They pump out idols and there's always a pull to go after idols. And we need to go on a seek and destroy mission upon those idols. And we need to seek God's power to demolish them. in our own lives, because this is a perennial problem for God's people, so much so that the Apostle John, when he was wrapping up his first epistle, concluded his letter with this stark exhortation, little children, keep yourselves from idols, amen. Again, to quote Dr. Davis, you can't have a solid covenant victory unless all the sabotages of the covenant is eliminated. That means destroying idols that keep you from enjoying the intimate communion and fellowship we have with God through Christ. Well, the passage actually wraps up with a sort of enthronement ceremony. There's a royal procession that goes from the temple to the palace. Joash ascends to the throne and he sat on the throne of the kings. and with the Davidic line secure. The people are filled with joy. The turmoil of idolatry has been replaced with the peace of covenant faithfulness. What a passage. Athaliah, she threatened the salvation story. She was hovering over the salvation story. She was the dragon who stood before the woman ready to give birth, hoping to devour that child. But God wouldn't allow that to happen. He raised up Jehoshabba and Jehoiada, a wonderful covenant family. who God would use to preserve his messianic seed. And some 750, 800 years later, we would see the fruit of their labors. When in a manger in Bethlehem, the true and final heir of the Davidic promises would be born, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords would come to rescue and secure salvation for his people. The dragon could never win because it was God's plan and purpose to save us. And on that first Christmas morning, the dragon's purposes were thwarted and our salvation is secure. Amen. Let me give you a moment to Ask any questions. Presbyterians can clap their hands, but they can't move any other part of their body. So if they move another part of their body, that would constitute dancing and could be excommunicated. So just clapping your hands while remaining still, that's, so I'm glad we got to clear that up. The other observation is in verse 20, it says the people of the land rejoiced and the city was quiet because the Athaliah was slain. I think that's a, In other words, when, yeah, go ahead, comment. No, no, I'm just, I'm eating up what you're saying. That's awesome, yeah. Yeah, because when terror reigns, there's no peace. And clearly, God, you know, yeah, peace comes from following Him, not from Baal worship and things like that, so I. That is a beautiful picture. Her execution, while it may seem violent, it was used to bring about peace. I've said this before, there is no peace where there is no judgment, right? And in this case, her judgment was requisite for the peace of Judah. My question is, it's a minor question, verse 18. 18? Yeah, 18. At the end of it, he said, and the priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord. Is this military? Because the Kohathites were like the deacons. No, they wouldn't be Kohathites. Interesting enough, it's a word The Hebrew word there is Kari and the Kari, some of your translations may even have it Karaites or Karthites or something like that. The Kari were typically somewhat like almost mission, not missionaries, mercenaries who were hired and they became faithful and very devoutly loyal to Yahweh. So it's that group of people. And it's interesting that that's who Jehoiada was trusting in, those men. Yes, yes. Any other questions? No, please. Did she not know that there was a grandson that was missing that wasn't slaughtered? I mean, did she know who her grandchildren were? Or did they just not? I'm just curious how that works out. You know what? One of the things I would say to be sure she was killing her own family and that does indicate a viciousness. But we shouldn't assume that a woman like this had the kind of affection toward her grandchildren that you guys would have. You know, this was a very calloused woman, clearly, right? I mean, the fact that she could do this, she's in the vein. I mean, she's doing what Herod did. She's doing what the Pharaoh did. Let's just kill the children to stop the seed. Any other? Well, let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word to us. We thank you that as we work through the details of a passage that seems very distant to us, behind it what we see is your amazing faithfulness, your power and purpose to persevere the messianic promise, the seed who would come to deliver us and redeem us and to secure our salvation. And as we read this and we see your divine tenacity in providing this Savior for your glory and our salvation, Lord, we pray that that fills us with full confidence that if you've begun a good work in us, you will carry it on to completion, that we are secure and firm in Christ, and that we walk in that godly assurance to your honor and praise. And we pray that we can leave here this evening with that comfort and with that consolation rejoicing that our King reigns. We ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let me ask you to stand, brothers and sisters, to 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.