Let's open our Bibles, please, the book of Isaiah. We're in the 30th chapter. We got down to verse 17 in our last lesson. In this chapter, we find that the Lord rebukes Jerusalem in the 30th chapter. The next chapter, the Lord defends Jerusalem in the 31st chapter. And we gave you titles for the others before. But in this 30th chapter, and I might bring you up to date before we pick up with verse 18, The first seven verses, the alliance and its failure. They had an alliance with Egypt. The alliance they had with Egypt failed. In fact, God said it would fail, and He said it would not profit them, in verse 6. And then the second section, the written table against the rebellious, and that's first rebellious people, and that's against verses 8-14. And then verses 15-17 is Jehovah's word of encouragement. He gave a word of encouragement to the people. And now, verses 18-21, we have the nation blessed and restored. Verses 22-26, and we'll pick up with these last three things. The nation blessed and restored, verses 18-21. And then verses 22-26, idolatry ceases and the land is restored. And 27-33, the accomplishment by the coming of the Lord. All of these verses here in this chapter, somewhat the previous and the next, have some application to Assyria and the people in Isaiah's day, but basically the whole is yet to be fulfilled in the tribulation period because this points to many things in the future that have not found their fulfillment in anything that happened to Israel of old. So a lot of it is prophetic as far as the future is concerned, and we're going to find That would be the best way to approach this particular section, and also chapter 31. So let's pick up with verse 18. And here we have a description of the glories of the millennium, when the Lord does return. And he says, Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you. And therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait for Him. There's two waitings here. The Lord will wait, and we're to wait. You know, we sometimes lose patience. We don't have enough patience. We're to wait. The Bible says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. So, we mount up with wings as eagles. And we fly for a while. And we run for a while. But can we walk and not faint? Eventually it comes down to just steadfastness, doesn't it? We have these ego-like experiences, and we have these races that we run, and we have all the things that seem to be going, we're going at full force, but there comes a time that we have to be consistent in our walk as a Christian. And it takes patience to do that. And here it says, Blessed are all they that wait for Him. And there is coming a time that the blessings of the millennium will take place. And notice it's talking about a time that he will be gracious and he will be exalted. And then verse 19, he tells what's going to happen. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shalt weep no more. Isn't that what we were talking about a little bit ago? Isn't that what Brother Nichols' poem was about, and Brother Jim's song, the crying would all be passed, and we would be taken to heaven, and there would be joy and glory. I was thinking as Brother Jim was singing of Revelation chapter 21, if you don't mind turning over there, the 21st chapter of Revelation, and I want to read a verse for you. 21 and verse 4, it says, And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death. Neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." So there's going to come a time that these tears of sorrow and weeping and heartache will all be in the past. That's a time in the future. And back in the text in Isaiah, I want you to hold your place where we're studying. In the 19th verse, the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shalt weep no more. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. That means be constant in prayer. And there's more comfort as well as holiness that is produced by being constant in prayer. At the voice of thy cry, when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. Isn't that a wonderful promise? God says he's going to hear it and he's going to answer. You know, if that's a time, the hope for this passage of scripture fully realized when Christ returns, how much more is it now applicable to you and I to be instant in prayer and constant in prayer? He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. We look for God's grace and God's mercy, but do we have that voice of cry? Do we have that voice of prayer? Are we constant in prayer? And we should be. Paul says, pray without ceasing. And we should have a prayer on our heart. We can't be on our knees all the while and pray, or in some posture other than that, or standing and praying, or sitting and praying. And by the way, the posture is not the important thing. Brother Nichols read a poem about the best prayer fellow ever prayed. He was standing on top of his head down in a well. And so he said he did his best praying in that position. And sometimes when you're in that pit of despair and having no hope, it doesn't make any difference in what position you're in. Just pray. Jesus was having Peter to walk to him on the water, and Peter began to sink. And he didn't have time to assume a proper position or posture for prayer. He just said, Lord, save me, and immediately it happened. But when we cry, the voice of thy cry, when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. Look at verse 20. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers. You know, God is going to be the teacher during the millennium. A famine of bread is not so great a judgment as a famine of the Word of God. Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. The bread of adversity and the water of affliction. If this applies to natural things in our life, that's bad enough. But what would you think if God withheld the spiritual blessings from your life? The spiritual water, the living water, and the bread of life. And the Bible says that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And Job of old says, I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Do we count it more than our necessary food? I'm afraid many of us count our food for the body as our most necessary food, but it really is not. Men have been known to live without food for a long period of time, but we definitely need the Spirit and breath of God upon our lives to really have spiritual life. And it says in verse 21, And thine ears shall hear. a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it. There's going to be a time that God will give us perfect guidance. This is the way, walk ye in it. When you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left, God's going to have the place, the way so plain and so clear that we cannot be mistaken as to the right way to walk. And all these blessings are waiting. The hopes of this passage will be fully realized when Christ returns. Notice verse 22, You shall defile also the covering of thy grated images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold. Thou shalt cast them away as a minstrel's cloth. Thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence. In other words, you cast your idols away from you. In one scripture it says, To the moles and to the bats. You'll get rid of all the idols, whatever they may be. And you'll begin to depend upon God instead of the idols that you trusted in, and certainly so in the days of the tribulation period. In verse 23, Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal, and the bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous. In that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. There's going to be an abundant harvest during the millennium. When the Lord comes back from heaven in power and great glory, and you find it in the 19th chapter of the book of Revelation, Then in the 20th chapter, during that thousand years reign of peace and righteousness, as the Bible promises, there's going to be fruitfulness and prosperity and abundant harvest. And God will bless us in a tremendous way. Verse 24 says, the oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender. which have been winnowed with a shovel and with a fan. And there shall be upon every high mountain, upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall." In other words, God is going to bless His people, but He is going to judge in the battle of Armageddon. This great slaughter refers to Armageddon, when the Lord will come and judge the wicked nations round about. when the tower shall fall. In verse 26, moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun. Well, it isn't now, is it? But there will be a day that the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and healeth the stroke of their wound. The Lord is going to heal his people and bind up the wounds. This may also refer to life that is knowledge that will be increased during that period of time. We were talking about not knowing too much about heaven and eternity now, but then during the time of the millennium, there's going to be an increase of our knowledge because we'll know as we are known. We'll see and understand things that we do not understand now. In verses 27-33, Isaiah again predicts the destruction of the Assyrian army. Of course, we said that there are some things that are applicable to the time of Isaiah and the people in that day. But there is another Assyrian that will be defeated in the future. And we'll pick that up, beginning with verse 27. We'll find that the accomplishment of all of this is by the coming of the Lord. So let's look at 27. It says, Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy. And it says, His lips are full of indignation and his tongue is a devouring fire. You know, you have but to read some passages in the book of Revelation to see that that the Lord is going to come in judgment, and he's going to be like a devouring fire. And the burden thereof is heaviness. And the grievousness of the flame of fire, the burden of this burning with anger, or the grievousness of the flame, will be with heaviness. And his lips are full of indignation. And his tongue is a devouring fire. Remember, the Bible speaks of the Lord coming and the sword of his mouth being that sword by which he executes judgment upon an ungodly world. And this will happen in a day in the future. There are many things that could be said about this verse of scripture, but his theme of this final woe is retribution. And God will certainly judge the Assyrian and has judged the Assyrian in the old days, but he will come and judge the Assyrian of the future and the tribulation as a storm of fire and hail and flood. And so there's a great day of judgment that is coming. We found in verses 22 through 26 that the idolatry would cease. Verses 27 through 33, we're going to continue with the retribution. upon the wicked nations at Christ's coming. In verse 28, And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach in the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity. And there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err. So there's going to be a great judgment upon the nations that will be sifted. Then he says, you shall have a song as in the night. When he speaks to his people, there is a promise of a future day of joy. You shall have a song as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept, and gladness of heart as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel. How about a song in the night? That's for God's people to enjoy and be blessed by, isn't it? Have you ever come to the night when you feel that the night is so long that there'll never be a morning? And so you can't sing in the night because of the suffering and the sorrow and the pain. But in the morning, you know, the Bible says, Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. So there's going to not only be the morning joy, but there's going to be the fact that in the night time you'll be comforted as well. Have you ever been in the hospital and lying on the sick bed and it seems like the night is thirty hours long? I mean, it just seems like morning will never, never come. But then when the morning light comes, I don't know what there is about it, but there just seems to be, even if you're in terrible pain, a little sense of relief because it's morning and because there's light and because some way or another, God has prepared it that way for us. But this is a night of darkness for God's people, but there will be a day of joy coming. Look at verse 30. And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard. It would be wonderful if people would hear his voice today, wouldn't it? But the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and all shall hear. And it says, And shall show the lightning down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. His voice will be heard, and it's good to hear the voice of God if you're on God's side, and God's on your side. But when his voice comes and the results are judgment, look at the comparison or contrast in the beginning of this verse and the latter part of this verse. Look at the verse carefully. And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard. That sounds good, doesn't it? Sounds wonderful for God's people. But look at this. And shall show the lightning down of his arm. And the indignation of his anger and the flame of a devouring fire was scattering and tempests and hailstorms. So they're talking about judgment. Isn't it much the similar application of the gospel is that the gospel is a savior of life to them that believe, but of what? Of death to those that do not believe. So some people rejoicing here in the voice of God, and there will be some people that will Fear to hear the voice of God. His mighty voice to be heard. Aren't you thankful today that His voice to you is pleasing? It's welcome. You rejoice to hear it. You would like to hear it more. And you invite it. Think of the song. In the garden. I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses. And this voice I hear. The Son of God. He reposes. And He walks with me and talks with me. It tells me that I am His own. It's good to belong. It's good to belong to the Lord. It's good for Him to belong to us. In the Song of Solomon it says, I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine. Then it says in another scripture in the same book, it says my Beloved is mine and I am my Beloved's. It has it in the reverse. So it applies the same text in two different directions. And what does it mean? It means that I belong to the Lord I belong to the Lord and He belongs to me. He belongs to me because I've claimed Him. I've said, Lord, I want you. You're mine. And I belong to Him because He's bought, well, you're bought with a price. You're not your own. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. I love that twofold union and relationship. And that's what every believer has, is that kind of relationship. So here it says, And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show lightning down his arm with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of the devouring fire, with scattering and tempests and hailstones. For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down with smoke with a rod." Now, we said earlier that it has its application to the Assyrian in Isaiah's day, but nothing here, or everything that's here, is not fulfilled with that particular judgment upon the Assyrian in Isaiah's day. It looks for a forward time, a future time, in the great tribulation time when there will be the Assyrian that will rise up, so to speak. We could go into the beast and the antichrist and all of that, but I won't take time to do that because most of us are familiar with the fact that if we teach the book of Revelation, it's easier to teach the book of Revelation than it is to take Isaiah and teach the book of Revelation. If I was teaching, you know, a lot of preachers do that. And I don't belittle them for it if they have enough skill. and ability to do that. But on the other hand, I find it much simpler to, when I get over there, teach about the beast and the false prophets, than to look in Daniel and in Isaiah and make all these applications, which are certainly true. They will be applied that way. In verse 32, it says, And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with taverns and harps, and in the battles of shaking with Will he fight with it? For Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the king it is prepared. He hath made it deep and large, the pile thereof is fire and much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." You know, we might make a few comments on Tophet. Just as Sheol was prepared for the king of Babylon, and that's in Isaiah 14, verse 9. In fact, earlier we studied that Sheol. It's prepared for the king of Babylon, so Topheth was prepared for the king of Assyria. And it was a site outside of Jerusalem where the worshipers of Molech sacrificed their children. You can have references in the Kings and in Jeremiah that show that this is true. And it was defiled by Josiah in 2 Kings 23, verse 10, and turned into a garbage dump. And the name Gehenna, which comes from G-E-B-E-N-H-I-N-N-O-M, meaning the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that which was the location of Topheth, the Gehenna is the New Testament word for hell. And the funeral prior of the great Assyrian king would be the garbage dump. How humiliating that would be. And so it does have its application to the king that was of Assyria in those days. But I'd like for us to pick up with chapter 31. The Lord defends Jerusalem. Chapter 31 only has nine verses, and I believe we'll have time to cover these nine verses. There's a lot of things that need to be said about this 31st chapter. It says, Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because there are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong. But they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord. Here you have people looking to everything else and everyone else other than God. And it is God, not Egypt, that will defend these people. This is a chapter on the Lord defending Jerusalem. And who's going to defend his people? Not the world, not Egypt. The Egyptian alliance is condemned again in this chapter. We already said in the 30th chapter that the alliance and its failure, you found in verses 1 through 7 in the 30th chapter, the alliance with Egypt. And here it's condemned again because we're not to look to the world. Egypt is a picture or a type of the world. And we're not to look to the world for our protection and for our defense. Many times you and I as Christians look other places for our defense. We look to man. We look to this one or that one. We look to big names. We look to big money. We look to all kinds of things. But that's not the way to do it. Look to the Lord and He'll provide the needs. We just gave you the testimony this morning over a church. I believe it's a wonderful testimony for this church. to have a 12-year loan for the new property we bought out here, facing the Muscolaire Trail, the main road here, a 12-year loan and pay it off in 10 months. That's a pretty good testimony for the people of this church. I mean, somebody loves the Lord. Somebody's willing to put their money into the Lord's work. And it's quite a bit of money, too, if you'll remember. But the Lord provided it in His own way And we didn't have to get up and beg everyone for anything. In fact, we hardly even mentioned it, except for the good reports once in a while. And God is able to provide. But when we look to other things, man places his confidence in many things. Sometimes we place our confidence in men. Sometimes we place our confidence in our carnal reasoning. We just reason it out with our little carnal mind and say, well, we've got this all figured out. Our worldly wisdom, you know, we have worldly wisdom. We have wisdom from God. That's the kind we need to use. But if we have worldly wisdom, the Bible says the world by wisdom knew not God, and therefore it says it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And that's exactly what we need to do is do the preaching. And then we use our worldly wisdom. Sometimes we use our own We say, I've got this, you know, I've got a scheme, a plan. We use our own plans. I've got it all planned out. The best laid plans of mice and men, huh? What happens? They don't work out. But God's plans work. God has a purpose from the beginning. You know, God had a purpose before the foundation of the world for our salvation, which He purposed in Christ before the foundation of the world, the Bible says. God had a purpose for His only begotten Son. It says, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and with wicked hands, by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Jesus said, I lay down my life for my sheep. He says, no man taketh it from me, I lay it down on myself. He says, Father, mine hour has come that I should depart out of this world. And he knew when his hour was come. Until that hour was come, nothing would happen. See, God has a plan. He had a plan for our salvation. He had a plan for this church. He worked out that plan in due time. He still has a plan, and He still has a purpose for His existence. We need not to lose sight of the fact that God has a purpose for our existence. If there was not a purpose for our existence, we'd just shut the door and lock up and go home, wouldn't we? But there is a plan, there is a purpose, and God is going to carry on His work when all of us are dead and gone, and that's why Brother Randy is speaking of these young people. We want them to grow up with the ability to carry on after we're gone, because we're not going to going to be here forever. My wife and I were looking at some pictures in the office this morning, and we pointed out 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, maybe 8 or 10 people that their pictures are back there in the office that are already gone to be with the Lord. Many of them you know. Some of them you don't. But God has a way of doing it, and we don't have to think we have it all figured out. We trust in our own knowledge. We trust in our own ways. We seek help from all directions but God. It says, Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help. God has given a warning. We are not to go to the world for our help and stay on horses. You know, they were told not to multiply to themselves horses because this was symbolical of their war power and their strength and their ability to win battles. And it says, Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses. The word doesn't mean stay on them, like if you're not going to get thrown off, but stay or trust in them. Stay on horses. Some of us can't stay on horses anyway, can we? Especially if they're kind of wild. But anyway, you know I had a lady one time who was worried in First Church I pastored. She was worried about when the Lord comes, He's coming on a white stallion, Revelation chapter 19, and the armies of heaven, they're all coming on them. Horses. We're going to be clothed in white linen, symbolic of the righteousness of the saints. She said, but I can't ride. The Lord's going to teach us all how to do better. We'll come back. Don't worry about it. You just get a hold of those reins and He'll see that you stay on. And coming back, and of course it's symbolical language. We don't know the literal aspect of it, but the Lord is coming like a great conqueror on a white stallion. And the armies of heaven, and it symbolized there by the saints of God, the children of God, are going to come with him. And he's going to wage war against the wicked nations of this world, and that's when that battle is going to take place we've been speaking of. And we're going to see him win the victory. We're just coming along to accompany him. But here it says, Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because there are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong. But they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord." So I would say for you and I to make a personal application of this, not only is the Lord saying this to warn Israel and of the future, but You and I need to make a practical application of this, that we need to do our trusting in God more than in man, not in man. Now, we have Christian brothers and sisters that we depend upon for certain things. We encourage them to do their work. They encourage us to do our work. And when we work together, we need each other's work and service. But God is the one that sees to it that all this is brought together. And he keeps the church in one accord, in one mind, in one spirit. And when we're all together in something that goes on in the church, well, God will bless it. That's the way he wants it. They were all with one accord and one heart in prayer. And the Holy Spirit came upon them and they said, we want to preach your word with boldness. And they preached the word with boldness. We just had that in Sunday school this morning. So now look at verse 2. It says, Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men and not God. That's a good statement, isn't it? They're just men and not God. Now we read earlier, we studied where God would make not only Egypt, but Was it Moab and Egypt? Three nations that are wicked. He will call them by His name and they will be a blessing in a certain day. I forget what chapter it was, but when we look back you can find it. We had it previously where He would bless Egypt and they would finally be called His people. Let's look in the 19th chapter. Verses 23 through 25. Egypt, even wicked, heathen, symbolical of the world, Egypt, and also Assyria, the one we're talking about in the future, will turn to God, or He will turn them to Himself, along with Israel. And in the 19th chapter of the book of Isaiah, it says in verse 23, In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria. A highway out of Egypt to Assyria, that goes across Israel. That involves that whole area. I mean, that's not true now, is it? Because you have too much conflict there now. But there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians shall come into Egypt. And the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptian shall serve with the Assyrians. And it says, In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria. In that day shall Egypt be the third with Assyria. Israel shall be a third with Egypt and with Assyria. And it says, Even a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people. See that? And Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, mine inheritance. You see, God is able to bring peace when there is all this opposition and enmity, but he will do it in a future time. In that day there will be a difference. And he'll call Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance. Israel has always been his inheritance, so there's no question about that. But the question is about Egypt and Assyria, isn't it? That's where the problem comes. But God says he's going to work that problem out. You see, he's good at working out problems, isn't he? And Jesus died to save all the world, regardless of nationality, regardless of people, and he will be able to turn some to him. Let's turn back in Isaiah chapter 31, and we're down to verse 3. Now, the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses flesh and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is hopin' shall fall down, and they all shall fail together. For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, like as a lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when the multitude of the shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them. So shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion and for the hill thereof." He is going to come down and fight, and he is going to defend. Here's a wonderful verse. I'm not sure that we have the full meaning of it as we should, but look at this. As birds flying, now first he was seen as a lion in verse 4. That's with strength. But what about birds flying? As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending also, he will deliver it, and passing over, he will preserve it. Hovering over. Birds hovering over. And we see the lion in its viciousness and in his strength, in his strength. That was the fourth verse. He's going to come as a lion. And then what's going to happen? The Lord has spoken to me like as a lion and the young lion roaring on his prey. Now look, but in verse five, as birds flying, here's the tenderness. And so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem. How are birds flying going to defend Jerusalem? It says, defending also will he deliver it, and passing over, hovering over, he will preserve it. You know, we sing the wonderful song, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. We go back to the book of Exodus and we study the Passover lamb. And the Lord said, The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And then further on we find out, it says this in the twelfth chapter, verse twenty-nine of Exodus, And it came to pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat upon the throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon and all the firstborn of the cattle. But in verse 27, it says, That ye shall say, and he's telling the children of Israel what to say about this night that is long to be remembered. He says, That ye shall say it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. Listen, who passed over, get these words. who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians." What did he do? As birds fly, he hovered over, passed over. We usually think of the thought of pass over. to mean that he just went on by and that God went on by and did not destroy the firstborn of that house. That's usually the implication. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. But there's a stronger implication in that word. And it's the same word here in Isaiah. As birds flying, so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending also, He will deliver it. And passing over, meaning hovering over, He will preserve it. Hovering over, so that the Lord actually hovered over and He protected every individual house of those Israelites so that this death angel could not bother, could not harm, could not hurt. So, hovering over, he defended the firstborn in those houses. It's not merely that he passed by, but he hovered over in defense of those of the firstborn. And if you don't study both of these passages of Scripture, and both of them are related because it has the same word. The same word is used here. Passing over, he will preserve it. Have you ever thought of that? Think of that for a moment. Here's the death angel coming. You say, well, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. When I see the blood, I'll hover over you and I won't let that death angel come in the door. I'm just like a mother hen hovering over her chickens. And I'm going to take care of you and protect you. And nothing's going to happen because I'm hovering over you. And the death angel can't enter in the door. So anyway, let's go on down. Verse six says, Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for sin." I'll tell you, we'll get rid of all the unnecessary things, and they will in the future and in the tribulation period. If the day of the Lord comes, people are not going to hang on to those idols anymore because they know they're not going to do them any good. It will be a time to cast them away, won't it? It would be well if we cast away the idols today that we depend upon too much. You say, well, I don't have any idols, preacher. Well, we have idols. We put other things in the place of the Lord. Paul says, look, he says covetousness is idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry. Some things that we don't even think about are idols, aren't they? So you say, I'm not guilty. I don't have any stone images or gold images or silver images, or I do not worship idols made with hands. Yes, but we can still be idol worshipers and not have any of those things around if we worship and idolize other things in our lives. And we should not do that. We should worship the Lord and Him first and put away, cast away the idols of silver, the idols of gold. And it says, what your own hands have made unto you for sin. We'll give you these two verses and then we're close. Then shall the Assyrian fall with a sword. not of a mighty man, and the sword not of a mean man, shall devour him. But he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited, and he shall pass over his stronghold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem." So the Lord himself is going to bring the victory, isn't he? Well, we thank you for your patience and your kind attention. The Lord does defend Jerusalem and will defend Jerusalem. And he will also defend you and I on a personal and individual basis. He will defend the church. He will take care of his own. You know, Jesus said, Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And we know that they have not.