Well, let's seek the Lord's help in our study, and we'll get to work. Pray with me once more. Our great God in heaven, we're thankful that we have the holy scriptures. And they were created and recorded by men who were carried along by the Holy Spirit. We're thankful, O God, that the same Holy Spirit that carried those men along to provide this divine record of redemptive history is in our hearts, confirming in us that your word is true. And so we ask, O God, that the truths we read this afternoon and the truths we hear will be written by that one same spirit on our hearts. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Let me ask you to open up your copy of scripture to 2 Kings, 2 Kings. We're gonna start reading in chapter 23 and verse 31 and read down through chapter 24 and verse 7. 2 Kings 23 beginning in verse 31. Jehoiahaz was 23 years old when he became king and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamatl, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libna, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to all his fathers had done. Now Pharaoh Necho put him in prison at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem. And he imposed on the land a tribute of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold. Then Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in his place of his father Josiah and changed his name to Jehoiakim and Pharaoh took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt and he died there. So Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh. But he taxed the land to give money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Necho. Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebediah, the daughter of Petahiah of Rumah. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. In his days, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. And the Lord sent against him raiding bands of Chaldeans, bands of Syrians, bands of Moabites, and bands of the people of Ammon. He sent them against Judah to destroy it according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken by his servants, the prophets. Surely at the commandments of the Lord this came upon Judah, to remove them from his sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? So Jehoiakim rested with his fathers. Then Jehoiakin, his son, reigned in his place. And the king of Egypt did not come out of his land anymore, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever. Well, dearest congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, I want to take a couple minutes, do a little bit of review, to help set the stage for what will be our final section in 2 Kings. It's been a while since we were here. We've been working through Zephaniah. It's actually been several years since we began this study on the rise of the monarchy in Israel, I think almost seven years ago. is when we first began it, so it's been a long track. So you might not remember that the first sermon in this series was actually on the last verse of the book of Judges, Judges 21, 25. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. So that sets the context that Israel was in need of a good and godly king. They needed a Messiah who would be anointed by God to rule and reign over his covenant people. Of course, as history unfolded, you'll remember that Israel got ahead of herself. She very much wanted a king like all the other nations who would go out and lead them in battle, and so who did they choose? Saul. And Saul not only proved to be a disaster, you may remember he was actually kind of an anti-Messiah, right? You'll recall, he diligently sought to kill David, who was the man after God's own heart. But Yahweh preserved David because it was his desire to establish a covenant with this giant slaying shepherd. And in 2 Samuel 7, God established and ratified his royal covenant with David. And God promised David that his house and his kingdom would be established forever. And God promised that the people would be firmly planted where the name of Yahweh would dwell with his people. That was about 990 BC. Of course, it was David's son Solomon who would have the privilege of building the temple in Jerusalem. And Solomon proved to be a remarkable builder, an incredible politician, and a wise and godly king, until he wasn't. Nearing the end of his life, his large harem of wives and concubines turned his heart from the Lord. just as God had said that would do back in Deuteronomy. And Solomon ended up supporting all sorts of false gods and pagan worship within Judah. And at that moment, when Judah was at its high watermark, you begin to see the Lord's blessing retreating from Israel. And so that after Solomon's death, the kingdom became divided into two nations, a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. The northern kingdom of Israel had 19 kings, none of which were godly. The northern kingdom immersed themselves in idolatry, wickedness, immorality. God was gracious to them. God raised up great prophets like Elijah and Elisha to warn the people and call them to repentance, but they were repeatedly described as stiff-necked. And in 722 BC, God used Assyria to judge Israel, they were sacked, and they were carried off. The southern kingdom of Judah had 20 kings in total, and only eight of them are godly. The last king, the one we looked at most recently is Josiah, and he is surely the godliest king of all. Listen to how he's described, just back up in 25, verse 25 of this chapter. Now before him, There was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his might, according to the law of Moses, nor after him did any arise like him. You may remember those studies from a few months back. Josiah's rediscovery and commitment of God's law, and specifically his passion to destroy idols in Judah and restore true worship, they set him apart from all the other kings. But at the age of 39, while still a relatively young man, he made the terrible decision to go out in battle to face Pharaoh Necho at the Battle of Megiddo. And while out there, an Egyptian archer's arrow found the king, and he was mortally wounded. And the godliest king really in Judah's history died. The great reformer perished at the Battle of Megiddo. That was about 609 BC. So here's what I want you to know. About 381 years passed from the time when God established his covenant with David and the death of Josiah. And in these last couple chapters we're gonna look at in 2 Kings, with Josiah gone, a substantial tension begins to take shape. There aren't gonna be any more godly kings in Judah. In fact, in just a little over 22 years, there won't be any kings in Judah. The entire land will be conquered and decimated by the Babylonians. And so as we're moving through this, the question that ought to be in the back of our minds is, what of God's promise to David of an everlasting covenant? And you have to understand, for the few, and I think there were very few, but there were a few faithful in Judah who were hearing Judah's death rattle, this would have been a pressing question. God, what about your covenant promises to David? That's a problem. Now, you and I know how that tension is resolved, don't we? It will happen on the very first page of the New Testament in Matthew 1.1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David. Of course, that's the son of David who will establish the kingdom. that has no end. And on this side of Christ, we know that's how God always intended to keep his promise. But again, the faithful in Judah, this would have been a real tension for them. God had promised an enduring kingdom and it's being sacked. So we wanna keep that in the back of our minds as we work through what is a little bit more than two decades of Judah's history as we know it. What we're gonna see is a nation plagued with a succession of weak and ungodly kings. And we're gonna see a series of divine judgments that are gonna amount to the undoing of Judah. In fact, we might say it this way, in these final chapters and in the reigns of these final miserable kings, we're gonna see a series of divinely appointed reversals of fortunes. Because one of the things that will become clear is that as Judah faces devastation at the hands of the Babylonians, it's not because they're arbitrarily on the wrong side of a geopolitical conflict and just got sort of swept up into the madness. No, we're gonna see their judgment is because God's word said it would happen. Glance back at 2 Kings 22. By the way, you're gonna need your Bibles open. 2 Kings 22, 2 Kings 22. And look there at verse 16, this is when Josiah sought a word from the prophetess Huldah. He wanted to know, are the judgments that were taught in the Deuteronomic law, would they unfold on Judah? And here's how the prophetess responded. Thus says the Lord, behold, I'll bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants. All the words of the book which the king of Judah has read, because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore, my wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched. And that's just what we're going to see unfold in our text. So Josiah was killed in the Battle of Megiddo in 609 BC. The people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in his father's place. Here's an interesting detail. We know from 1 Chronicles 3.15 that Jehoaz was actually the youngest of Josiah's sons. Sometimes in various parts of scripture, he's referred to as Shalom. We don't know why the people would choose the youngest when that's an honor that really should have fallen to the oldest son. What we do know is his time on the throne was incredibly short. In fact, we're told he only reigned for three months. Sadly, we get a picture here of just how much damage can be done in three months. Apart from knowing who Jehoiah has as mother is really the only other important information we have about him is found there in verse 32 in terms of biographical information. It is, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done. So we might have hoped that he would build on the reforms of his father Josiah, but he does just the opposite. He follows the trajectory of his wicked father Ammon and his even more wicked grandfather Manasseh. And so what does this mean? That the many years Josiah spent implementing faithful worship and sought to restore a kind of national piety, it's being substantially reversed in three months. And that tells us something profound about the general spiritual condition in Judah. Something I have said over and over as we've worked through this, the majority of folks who were going along with Josiah's reforms did so because Josiah had ushered in a time of peace and prosperity. I mean, the only way Jehoahaz could have reversed things so quickly is if the people went along without opposition. You know, it's interesting. You probably hear this reflected in my prayer. I'm so encouraged to hear young men talk about wanting to build this and building business and Christian enterprises and Christian institutions, and I'm all about that. But that's got to be undergirded by conversions. It's got to be undergirded by the power of the gospel, right? I don't believe it has to be a majority of believers for that to happen in a substantial way. but for movements to really take root and bear real fruit, there's gotta be real repentance. That's why we have to pray for that if that's one of the goals we have. But that wasn't the case in Judah. That helps us understand why Yahweh spoke these dreadful words. My wrath shall be aroused against this place and it shall not be quenched. Well, as I said, you know, Pharaoh Necho had killed Josiah, but he wasn't through. He arrested Jehoahaz and temporarily put him in prison in Riblah, which was more than 200 miles north of Jerusalem. I printed out a map for you to help orient you to the geography. You can see it, it's pretty high in the north. And at that point, Pharaoh forced Judah to start paying a substantial tribute, 100 talents of silver and talent of gold. That's roughly 7,500 pounds of silver. and 75 pounds of gold. And verse 34 says that eventually, Neca took Jehoahaz to Egypt where he died. Dr. Phil Reichen made an interesting observation that in effect, Jehoahaz became something of a prototype exile, a first exile from Judah, right? And his bondage in Egypt was something of a portent of the judgment to come, right? It represents one of those reversals of fortunes I mentioned, something of an unraveling or an undoing of redemptive history. Think about this. You have a king of Judah back in the land of Egypt, back in the house of bondage, and Jehoaz won't be delivered. He's going to die there. So we see a reversal of fortunes. We also see that Pharaoh continued to exercise his power by placing a puppet king over Judah. He chose Eliakim. And to demonstrate just how much power he has, he changes Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim. Now, Jehoiakim was actually Josiah's second son. And we can only assume that Pharaoh chose him because Jehoiakim indicated he'd play ball. And we're gonna see in a few moments he did for a while. Now we do get a bit more information about Jehoiakim than we did about Jehoahaz, but there still isn't a lot of biography about him here in Kings. And the reason I mention that is those of you who are familiar with the book of Jeremiah, you'll know that the prophet Jeremiah spent a lot of time locking horns with Jehoiakim. I mean, they interacted a lot. We're told there in verse 37, like all these final rulers, that he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to all his fathers had done. Again, that's gonna be the refrain of all the final kings. But what I wanna do is take just a couple moments and flush that out a bit, particularly from Jeremiah. Glance there first at verse 35. We see that Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh's tribute, so he's gonna pay the Pharaoh's tax. But the text indicates he didn't want to use the money from the royal treasuries, and instead he imposed steep taxes on the people. And while that would be exasperating, it actually gets worse. Turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah 22. Jeremiah 22. And we're gonna pick up at verse 13, and this is directed at Jehoiakim. Jeremiah 22, beginning in verse 13. Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor's service without wages and gives him nothing for his work, who says, I'll build myself a wide house with spacious chambers, cut windows out for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion. Shall you reign because you enclosed yourself in Caesar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness?" Speaking of Josiah. Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy. Then it was well. Was not this knowing me, says the Lord? Yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness for shedding innocent blood and practicing oppression and violence. So here's what's happening. The king is taxing the bejeebers out of the people to pay Pharaoh Necho, all the while building himself a mansion. And he's forcing the same people he's taxing to work on his house, and he's not paying them. You see, all that matters to him is that he gets the kind of mansion a man of his stature deserves. He has no concern for the citizens of the kingdom, just his own personal comfort and prosperity. You know, it's easy for us to think the tax policies of tyrants or greedy politicians who use their positions to enrich their lives, or civil leaders who have little to no concern for the way their policies will affect the people they're supposed to be serving. We tend to think this is probably a new phenomenon. I assure you it is not. It is not a new problem, it's a sin problem. It is a sin problem when you have rulers who are tyrants and force oppressive taxation. And our wicked and idolatrous leaders are simply following in the footsteps of Jehoiakim. I wanna look at a couple more examples from Jeremiah. Get a picture of this guy. Turn to Jeremiah 26, Jeremiah 26. Now in this chapter, Jeremiah had been prophesying and it's at the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, and Jeremiah is actually calling the people to repent. And God even actually promises still at this point, if you repent, I will relent. But what happens is when the leaders of Jerusalem hear Jeremiah's oracles of judgment, they only have one thing they wanna do, they wanna kill him. But in God's mercy, he spared Jeremiah at this point, but that wouldn't be the case for his protégé. Look there, Jeremiah 26. We're gonna pick up at verse 20. Now there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah, the son of Shammiah of Kirjath-Jerim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah. And when Jehoiachin, the king, all his mighty men and all the princes heard his words the king sought to put him to death but when Uriah heard it he was afraid and he fled and he went to Egypt then Jehoiachin the king sent men to Egypt and Elnathah the son of Achbor and other men who went with him to Egypt and they brought Uriah from Egypt and brought him to Jehoiakim the king who killed him with the sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people right so we're dealing with a king who so despises the Word of God that he will chase this prophet to Egypt, bring him back to exercise nothing less than hatred and vengeance. He hates the word of God. To that end, I want to look at just one more example from Jeremiah. So turn ahead to Jeremiah 36. Now, this is a fascinating chapter. The Lord is commanding Jeremiah to write on a scroll the various judgment oracles that He's announced against Judah. So Jeremiah sought the help of his trusted friend and scribe, a man named Baruch, and he wrote all these things down. Well eventually this, and think about what we're dealing with here. This is the Bible. This is the word of God that he's recording. Eventually this got into the hands of Jehoiakim. Let's pick up at Jeremiah 36, 22, and we're gonna read down through verse 24. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month with a fire burning on the hearth before him. And it happened when Jehudai had read three or four columns, again speaking of that scroll, that the king cut it with the scribe's knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they weren't afraid, nor did they tear their garments. The king nor any of his servants who heard all these words, excuse me, So Jehoiakim hears God's Word read, he responds by cutting it up and throwing it into fire. As I said, this is the Word of God. And one of the things that astonished Jeremiah is that the people who did this had no fear and trepidation, it shows just how cold and hard their hearts were to the things of God. And certainly this account in Jeremiah 36 is meant to be a contrast to Josiah. Do you remember what happened when Josiah first heard the Word of God, when it was found and read to him? He was overwhelmed by it. He was undone by it in his own heart, and he immediately repented. But not Jehoiakim, he's got no use for it. He cuts it up and burns it. Now I read those, we went through those passages in Jeremiah for a couple reasons. First, it really helps us get a sense of what's going on in Judah and just what a wretch Jehoiakim is. And second, I wanted to do this in a way to encourage you and inspire you that when you're working through the prophets to see how that connects to the historical books of the Bible, and when you're reading through the historical books of the Bible, see how these things unfold in the prophetic literature. It'd be very beneficial. I've tried to do that as we've worked through this study. But now I do wanna get back to 2 Kings 23. 2 Kings 23. Well, the 25-year-old king began his reign in 609 BC, and for a bit more than three years, he was paying off Egypt. So it's just about 605 BC. Now we just did a little divergence into Jeremiah. I hope you'll indulge me. I want to do a little diversion here now into world history because I think it'll be helpful in terms of fitting all these pieces together. You'll remember that Pharaoh Necho, when he was marching through the valley of Megiddo and Josiah was killed, that was about 609 BC, when Pharaoh Necho was going through the Valley of Megiddo, he was actually on his way to go help the Assyrians, right? The Assyrians and the Egyptians were hoping if their two nations joined forces, they could push back against the emerging superpower of the day, and that was the Babylonians, right? You see, there was a brilliant Babylonian leader and general by the name of Nabopolassar. He had captured the Assyrian stronghold in Nineveh. And this Babylonian general intended to take the Assyrian land around Carchemish. That's actually the northernmost city on that map that I printed out. And so again, in 609, that's where Necho was going. He was going to help the Assyrians there in the region of Carchemish. But that battle wouldn't happen. First off, Necho got slowed down by Josiah, and also the Babylonians had to retreat for about three years, not because of the Egyptians or the Assyrians, but because there were attacks on their northern border that they had to go home and addressed. So Nabopolassar goes back, he addresses that challenge, he puts down the northern aggressors. But Nabopolassar was growing ill, And so it would fall to his son, the crown prince, to deal with the Assyrians and the Egyptians at Carthage. And his son was none other than Nebuchadnezzar. And so in 605, Nebuchadnezzar brings down the Babylonian juggernaut, a powerful military, and they win a decisive victory at the Battle of Carchemish where they decimated the Assyrians and chased the Egyptians tail-tucked all the way back to Egypt. Now what this meant for Judah and for Jehoiakim is that they're no longer going to have to pay those exorbitant taxes to Pharaoh. but they're out of the frying pan and into the fire. You see, after Nebuchadnezzar dispatched the Assyrians and Egyptians, he's coming back from the outskirts of Egypt and he decides he's going to force Judah to pay exorbitant tributes. Now, a lot of important things are happening in history at this point. We know from the parallel account in 2 Chronicles 36 that Nebuchadnezzar started to steal some of the valuable articles from the house of the Lord, some of the valuable utensils from the temple. And most significantly, when Nebuchadnezzar swooped into Judah in 605 BC, he took a few Judeans captive to include a young man named Daniel, along with his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now, there's going to be three waves of exiles brought to Babylon. That's really the first. So again, you can see this is an important historical event. For among other things, this is the backdrop and context for the beginning of the book of Daniel. So look there at 2 Kings 24. his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years then he turned and rebelled against him so after those initial humiliations we see Jehoiakim did play ball with Nebuchadnezzar for about three years then he decided to rebel he He may have thought, scholars kind of postulate, that he thought Egypt would come to his rescue, that they would want to reform that allegiance, get whatever was left of the Assyrians, a little bit of the Egyptian might, and maybe with whatever was left of Judah, maybe, maybe this, whatever. If you look at verse seven, it basically tells the Egyptians had received such a beat down from the Babylonians, their borders were pushed so far back, they're so boxed in that they aren't coming to anybody's rescue. Nebuchadnezzar has given them a good old-fashioned beatdown. And Jehoiakim rebels against Nebuchadnezzar. And this is one of the most surprising things. Look who actually responds to Jehoiakim's rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 2, and the Lord sent against him. raiding bands of Chaldeans, bands of Syrians, bands of Moabites, bands of the people of Ammon. He sent them against Judah to destroy it according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken by his servants, the prophets. If God speaks it, it happens. Surely at the commandment of the Lord, this came upon Judah, to remove them from his sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done and because of the innocent blood that he had shed, for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon. So again, notice verse two, the Lord said, verse three, surely at the commandment of the Lord, this came upon Judah to remove them from his sight. Nebuchadnezzar was the human instrument. But behind the scenes, this is God orchestrating this judgment. These raiding bands, the Chaldeans, which is just another name for Babylonians, as well as the Assyrians, the Moabites, the Ammonites, they probably were mercenaries under the hire of Nebuchadnezzar. But our text makes it crystal clear, they are in service to Yahweh. God is pouring out his judgment on Judah. There is no way a Judean king is gonna weasel out of what God has planned. Later, we'll start to see this next week, Jeremiah will actually tell the future kings, particularly Zedekiah, don't rebel against him, go, this is your dessert for your sin, 70 years in exile. Of course, he won't obey either. It's just the word of God, right? And we see that this judgment that God's bringing about, it's not just for the sins of Jehoiakim. Verse three traces us back to the accumulated guilt. from the reign of Manasseh. You'll remember Manasseh had been Josiah's grandfather. He had reigned for 55 years longer than any other kingdom. During those 55 years, he had led Judah into the deepest idolatry they ever experienced, including things like child sacrifice and the shedding of innocent blood. Oh, how Manasseh would have coveted our abortion mills. And verse four ends with a terrifying phrase. The Lord would not pardon. The Lord would not pardon. In our study of Hebrews, eventually we're going to get to apostasy and what that doctrine looks like. It is truly a terrifying doctrine because it tells us that when a person apostatizes, they can get to a place where they are beyond repentance, where they're beyond reverting the judgment of God. That's why there is always a gospel urgency to call people to faith and repentance in Christ. You see, Manasseh, if you remember when we studied that a few months back, he actually repented at the end of his life. But the sin he brought into the land was so extensive and so pervasive and so tolerated that the Lord's not going to withhold his judgment. Well, verses five and six lay out a basic obituary. He'll die, his son Jehoiakim will take his place, and we'll look at that next time. Couple quick points of application. First, sin accumulates and has generational consequences, right? We see that in the picture that's tracing not only Jehoiakim's sins, but back to Manassas. The choices we make today impact future generations. I sometimes wonder if we think that way, if we think covenantally. It's a principle echoed in Exodus 25, where God says he'll visit the iniquity of the father upon the children for the third and fourth generations. We have to break sinful patterns, dear ones, when we see them in our families, in our churches, rather than going along with religious motions. because there are generational consequences often that will unfold in the lives of people we love. Second thing we see is a picture of abuse of power. Heavy taxation on a nation that's forced to build his house for free. When the king of Judah should have been a man committed to justice, and not just justice for any, but justice particularly for the vulnerable and poor. And let me say this, dear ones, we ought to be a people who push back against tyrants and push back against oppressive tax policies, because no matter what they say, no matter who they say it's gonna hurt, it always hurts the poor the most. Third application. This passage reminds us to think about how we respond when we hear God's Word. Again, Jehoiakim literally cut up Scripture while his father Josiah had been undone by it. See, how we receive the Word, whether with reverence and repentance or dismissal and defiance, it actually exposes the true nature of our heart. We've got to examine our response to biblical faith. And you know what? You know, if you bring God's word to bear on the life of a believer and you're confronting them about a sin and you're doing it with the right attitude, it's still going to hurt. They're still going to probably be frustrated with you for a moment. But a true believer will eventually say, oh, this person loved me enough to confront my sin. The only people who will never take that kind of correction are people whose hearts are hard to the word. Another thing we see in this passage is the sovereignty of God over judgment. Again, God's orchestrating these raids from these various groups. He sent them. And this echoes Isaiah 45, 7 where God declares, I form the light, I create the darkness, I make peace, I create calamity, I, the Lord, do all these things. This reminds us whatever judgment happens, maybe God will bless our nation, maybe He'll bring it to repentance, maybe He'll crush it. Whatever happens, it will be according to God's sovereign purposes. And as breathtaking as that is, Part of being men and women of faith is trusting in the providence of God. Finally, I'll close with this. I want to reboot what I already mentioned. The Davidic line is crumbling before our eyes. And one has to ask, but what about the promises? What about the promises to David? Though Judah faced the collapse of the Davidic monarchy, God's covenant remained faithful. The end of David's kingdom was not. It was just a pause until the great king came. Jesus, the son of David, the one to whom the angel promised in Luke 1, 32 and 33, the Lord will give him the throne of his father, David, and he'll reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there'll be no end. So when earthly kingdoms fail and hope seemed dashed, this is what we hang our hat on. Christ wins. His kingdom is ultimately victorious. And it's victorious for us. Amen. Well, I'll give you a moment if you have any questions or comments or thoughts, or if you'd like to throw a tomato at me, I'll see if I can duck. All right, let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your word. We're thankful for the power of it. We're thankful even in these desperate moments in this time of judgment. While we see it's altogether just, it's still unsettling. And we have to trust that you're working out your perfect plan and purposes. We would wonder about that But we know that they worked out perfectly because 2000 years our king was born, our perfect king, and he has secured an eternal kingdom for us. And we live right now in a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Help us to be comforted and blessed and strengthened by that. As we go from here this evening, we ask in Jesus name. Amen. Well let me, excuse me, let me ask you to stand please 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.