When God Fights for You

Good morning. It's good to be with you. As Matt mentioned, my name is Jono Darville. I'm here with my wife, Jillian. We just moved to Pittsboro, North Carolina in May with our two kids, Jono Junior, who's four years old, and Hattie, who is two. And the PCA has sent us there to start a new church.

If you know anything about Pittsboro, it's historically a 4,500 person rural small community. But now the Preston Development Group has moved there and bought 8,300 acres of land, and they're building a significant amount of homes. The population's gonna go from roughly 5,000 people to over 60,000 people roughly overnight. They're building around 25,000 homes. Some of you may have heard Disney's even building a community out there.

We have moved right into the heart of Chatham community down there, and we are starting Living Hope Presbyterian Church. There don't have any PCA churches or any Nay Park churches serving Pittsboro, so there is a desperate need for gospel-centered churches to serve this community. Our great hope is that through a fresh and sustained proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, this community would experience revival and reformation, that the people, places, and institutions of Pittsboro would thrive in their God-given purposes.

We'd ask you for three things. First, we'd ask you to pray that the Lord would raise up a team of people in our presbytery to consistently pray for us, especially over the next five years as we seek to become an independent PCA church in Pittsboro.

Second, if you know anybody that lives in Pittsboro or is planning to move there, or if you'd like to move there yourself, come talk to me. We've got about nine families with us right now. We had our first family dinner this past week, and we'll start meeting on Tuesday evenings the first week in November.

Just a quick story—the Lord has provided in a way that we didn't even know to pray for. I met with the Preston Development Group. They asked me about the church, and their executive vice president said, "We think we'd like to help you find a space. We have a sales center that we're not using right now." I said, "Well, what are you thinking about for rent?" She said, "Well, we're thinking about nothing for rent." It's just a huge answer to prayer. We'll get a lease for that this next week.

The last thing that you could pray for is just that the Lord would provide our fundraising needs over the next five years. That's what the PCA does—you raise five years' worth of pledges, and then by the end of that time, the hope is that you are self-sustaining.

That's a little bit about us. I'd love to talk to you afterwards. We'll be back in about a month to do a Sunday school on the church, and you've got a little card in your worship guide that you can check out for more information. There's a QR code on the back.

Scripture Reading

Well, we are in 1 Samuel, so grab your Bibles and turn to 1 Samuel 14. We're gonna be in verses 1 through 15 and 20 through 23. Hear now the reading of God's word.

One day, Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side." But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah in the pomegranate cave of Migran. The people who were with him were about 600 men, including Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. — 1 Samuel 14:1-3

I just wanna pause real quickly because we're not gonna come back to it and point out something that one scholar noted—verse 3 links the failed house of Eli with the failed house of Saul. These names are very intentionally included.

And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. Within the passes by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other side. The name of the one was Boaz and the name of the other Senah. The one crag rose on the north in front of Michmash and the other south in front of Geba. Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few." And his armor bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul." — 1 Samuel 14:4-7

Then Jonathan said, "Behold, we will cross over to the men and we will show ourselves to them. If they say to us, 'Wait until we come up to you,' then we will stand still in our place and we will not go up to them. But if they say to us, 'Come up to us,' then we will go up for the Lord has given them into our hand, and this shall be a sign to us." So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, "Look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves." And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, "Come up to us and we will show you a thing."

And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, "Come up after me for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel." Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet and his armor bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer killed them after him. And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armor bearer made, killed about 20 men within as it were half a furrow's length and an acre of land. And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and even the raiders trembled. The earth quaked, and it became a very great panic.

Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into battle. And behold, every Philistine sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion. Now the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that time and who had gone up with them into the camp, even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise, when all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after them in the battle. So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle passed beyond Beth Aven.

God as a Warrior King

So I want to open with a question for you. What do King Henry V, High King Peter Pevensey, King Aragorn, King Leonidas, King T'Challa, King Arthur, Richard the Lionheart, King David, Alexander the Great, and William the Conqueror all have in common? They are kings and military commanders who actually engaged in combat.

As we will see in today's text, God is a warrior king who saves His people from their enemies. He's a king who actually personally engages in combat.

The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is His name. — Exodus 15:3

He is the high king and commander of both angelic and human armies.

How lovely is the place where you live, O Lord of heaven's armies. — Psalm 80:4

In Samuel, David says to Goliath:

I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel. — 1 Samuel 17:45

I've been reading the book of Isaiah for my devotions lately, and I've been using the NET translation, which is actually really good, by the way. I commend it to you, especially for reading the Old Testament prophets. There is a consistent refrain throughout the book of Isaiah, which says this: "the sovereign Lord who commands armies." It says it over and over and over again.

In fact, in the Bible, it says that the Lord commands armies, that He's the commander of the angelic host. It says it over two hundred fifty times. He commands Israel. He commands the angels. He even commands the stars. Creation itself, as we see in the Exodus and in today's passage, is enlisted in Yahweh's army. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The greatest kings and military leaders in history pale in comparison to our great God. Alexander the Great is one of those little green army men compared to our high king.

And in today's passage, we're going to consider three things about our great God and warrior king. First, God the warrior king commands his soldiers if and when to strike. Two, God the warrior king fights for his people. And third, God the warrior king fights for justice.

God Commands When to Strike

So first, God the warrior king commands his soldiers if and when to strike.

And David inquired of the Lord, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?" And the Lord said to David, "Go and attack the Philistines." — 1 Samuel 23:2

By contrast:

Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies. — Numbers 14:42

The Lord commands His people if and when to strike. Here in 1 Samuel 14, Jonathan, like Gideon in Judges, seeks the Lord, his commander in chief's war council, by looking for a divine sign. Look back with me at verses 8 through 10:

Then Jonathan said, "Behold, we will cross over to the men and we will show ourselves to them. If they say to us, 'Wait until we come to you,' then we will stand still in our place and we will not go up to them. But if they say, 'Come up to us,' then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hand, and this shall be a sign to us."

Now skip over and look at verse 12:

"Come up to us and we will show you a thing."

And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, "Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel." So here we see in those verses in particular that the Lord gives Jonathan and his armor bearer the attack signal: go, strike.

I must confess that I personally probably would have been more like Gideon and asked for a second sign before I attacked a military garrison by myself. While we might see this as somewhat presumptuous on Jonathan's part—and that's kind of my initial reaction on a first reading—the author portrays Jonathan as doing the right thing here. As one scholar points out, Jonathan's act of trust is intentionally sandwiched by two incidents of Saul's acts of disobedience in chapters thirteen and fifteen. In other words, Jonathan's faith and obedience are being intentionally contrasted with his father's unbelief and disobedience.

Even in our chapter today, in the section that we didn't read, Saul begins to inquire of God through the priest. But as the battle noises increase, he abandons seeking the Lord's will. He fails to wait on his commanding officer's instructions. And if you've read 1 Samuel, you just know Saul repeatedly seeks the Lord merely for a rubber stamp on his own will and repeatedly does what is right in his own eyes. He doesn't wait on the Lord.

Application: Waiting on the Lord

By way of brief application, let me just ask you: how are you doing at waiting on the Lord? I think we all struggle with this. Where might you be asking God to rubber stamp your will instead of seeking His? Where are you doing what is right in your own eyes—be it sexually or financially—instead of what is right in God's eyes? In the power of the Spirit, through the grace of God, we need to listen to the word of the Lord. We need to wait on Him and be more like Jonathan and obey.

Of course, this text isn't primarily about us imitating Jonathan—it's a pointer to Jesus, which we'll talk about in just a moment. But there is a lesson here for us about waiting on the Lord and obeying our great high King. In contrast with Saul, Jonathan seeks the Lord. He waits for the signal and then he obeys.

The Remarkable Scene at the Cliffs

The scene that we have portrayed here is pretty remarkable. Jonathan and his armor bearer are at the bottom of two cliffs. Look at verse four:

Within these passes by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other.

Now skip over and look at verses thirteen and fourteen:

Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armor bearer after him. And they, the Philistines, fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer killed them after him.

That first strike Jonathan and his armor bearer made killed about 20 men. In other words, Jonathan and his armor bearer literally free climb this cliff and then they defeat 20 men.

Have you seen the movie The Patriot with Mel Gibson? This reminds me of the scene in the movie when Mel Gibson's character, Benjamin Martin, attacks the British troops who are transporting his son Gabriel to be hanged. It's a heroic and gruesome scene in which Benjamin Martin, who is significantly outnumbered, rescues his son. Then there's this one surviving British soldier, if you recall, and he's interviewed about what happened. And the bad guy, Colonel Tavington of the British Army, says 20—interesting parallel there in terms of the number—20 of His Majesty's soldiers have been killed. And then he asks, "How many were there? Were they militia? Were they regulars?" And the wounded and terrified soldier responds, "I don't really remember how many, maybe one. One man sounds more like a ghost."

And indeed it was one man—granted, with a little bit of help from his two younger sons who were hiding up in the woods and shooting. But regardless, it's hard to believe that one man could accomplish something like this. In today's text, this isn't The Patriot. This isn't John Wick. This is real history. This actually happened. One man really defeats 20 men with the help of his armor bearer.

How did Jonathan do this? Look back at verse six, and it gives us the answer:

It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.

The Old Testament actually has many scenes like this where the Spirit of God empowers someone—like Samson or Jonathan or David—to accomplish feats that would have otherwise been impossible. Jonathan was not acting merely in his own power or on his own steam. Rather, he was an instrument in the mighty hands of Yahweh. God, the warrior King, commanded Jonathan if and when to strike, wielding him as an instrument against the enemies of God.

So when it comes to divine rescue, God's timing is critically important.

And it's critically important here with Jonathan and the Israelites against the Philistines, and it's also critically important when it comes to the ultimate salvation of God's people.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. — Galatians 4:4-5

In John 2:4, Jesus says:

My hour has not yet come.

Then in John 12:23, He says:

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, to be lifted up and to be glorified.

In other words, Jesus waited until the hour the Lord had appointed, and then He struck a lethal and strategic blow to the greatest of our enemies, sin and death and Satan.

God the Warrior King Fights for His People

Which brings us to our second point. God, the warrior king, fights for his people. He is a king and commander who actually personally engages in combat.

Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. — Psalm 24:8

For the Lord your God is He who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies. — Deuteronomy 20:4

In our text today, as in many other instances in scripture, such as Gideon's victory over the Midianites in Judges, God intentionally fights with one hand behind his back. In fact, if you read the details here, it's more likely that he's fighting with both arms behind his back. Saul only had 600 troops. And if you recall from previous weeks, the Philistines prevented blacksmiths from operating freely in Israel. So what did that mean? That meant that Saul and Jonathan were the only ones with proper weapons. They're the only ones with swords and spears. So from every conceivable human perspective, they were outnumbered, outgunned, and outmanned, but God.

Indeed, as Jonathan says:

Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few

Because our great God and King, the warrior King of the universe, specializes in unlikely victories. As Dane Ortland writes, God's upside down formula is not divine strength plus human strength, but divine strength plus human weakness.

So why? Why does God do it this way? Over and over again through scripture, He puts himself at a perceived disadvantage. Why? Or maybe you recall Shakespeare's Henry V. You've either seen the movie or read the play. King Henry commands the English army at Agincourt. And before the battle, he rallies his troops with the famous St. Crispin's Day speech, one of Shakespeare's most famous speeches. It occurs in Act IV, Scene III, and Henry's army, if you recall, is significantly outnumbered. And Shakespeare has Henry respond by saying this:

The fewer men, the greater share of honor. God's will, I pray thee, wish not one man more. I would not lose so great an honor.

The fewer men, the greater share of honor. God fights with meager numbers of men to magnify His glory and to make His name known among the nations and to thereby break the spell of false gods over Israel and the surrounding nations. God demonstrates His superior power so that people realize He is the one true and living God and to put their trust in Him and to abandon their idols.

But remember, God doesn't just send his troops in and sit back. God himself engages in the combat. So let me allude to another film that you might be familiar with, especially the kids. Do you remember the scene in The Lion King when Simba deliberately disobeys his dad and he and Nala are being chased by the hyenas? Remember that scene? Simba, if you recall, claws one of the hyenas drawing blood, and then he roars. And it was a pitiful little roar, wasn't it? The hyenas laugh. But then he goes to roar a second time. And what happens? His roar is seemingly much louder, significantly magnified. And then you realize it wasn't his roar at all. It was Mufasa's. His father had come to his rescue. Mufasa roars a terrifying roar, attacks, and the hyenas scramble. Mufasa comes to the aid of his son and delivers and rescues him from his enemy.

Well, like Mufasa, God roars over his firstborn son, Israel, to terrify their enemies in this passage. And then he attacks. Look at verse 15:

And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and even the raiders trembled. The earth quaked and it became a very great panic.

The earth quaked. This is a key portion of this passage. The earth quaked. Yahweh shakes the ground. The earth is in his hands. The creator of heaven and earth can and does wield creation as a weapon. Shaking the ground, something God actually does throughout scripture, demonstrates His superior power and signals divine deliverance. Shaking the ground is part of Yahweh, the warrior king's calling card in battle.

It's a reminder that salvation belongs to Him alone. As verse 23 puts it:

So the Lord saved Israel that day.

The victory belongs to Him.

Do you know what else God shakes the ground? Strikingly, God also shakes the ground at Jesus' crucifixion in Matthew 27. And again, when the angel comes to announce Jesus' resurrection in Matthew 28. In other words, God shakes the ground at the defeat of sin and death. This episode in the Old Testament of God using a few good men to defeat the offspring of the serpent, the Philistines, foreshadows and prefigures God using one perfect man to defeat Satan and his rebel forces.

God, the warrior king fights for his people. Brothers and sisters, God roars over you. Whether in this life or the next, he will rescue us from all that hinders and harms us. So do not be afraid. Whatever you're facing, cancer, divorce, depression, chronic pain, joblessness, nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. He will deliver us from all that oppresses us.

So I was talking to one of your members here, and my family moved to Cary, North Carolina in 1993 on my eighth birthday. And I grew up in Cary, so I consider this home. We moved from Texas, and I was the third graduating class from Green Hope High School. My sister had gone to Cary High. And so I showed up as a freshman and all my friends from middle school went to Cary High. I happened to know a few of the guys on the soccer team who were about a year older than me. So I was sitting with them at lunch the first week of school, and they were all talking trash about how terrible our football team was. Well, we didn't even have seniors yet, so no wonder we were pretty bad. Well, I make one contribution to this misguided conversation—talking poorly about our football team. And I happened to say it right as one of the biggest guys on the football team is walking by. So next thing you know, he literally picked me up out of my chair and my feet were dangling. And he says, "Well, you just earned yourself a spot in the gauntlet."

And so in a panic, I thought, what's with the gauntlet? I don't know where the teachers were. I don't know where the administration was, but they set up six guys on one side and six guys on the other side, and they made me run through the middle, and they wailed on me the whole time. I got through to the other side, and as a ninth grader, I was about to burst into tears. And thankfully, one of those friends ran me around the corner. He's like, "You're gonna be all right. You're gonna be all right."

Well, that guy also had a friend. And unfortunately, now I had a target on my back. And those two guys, every time I saw them, had something to say to me. So let's call it what it was—they were bullying me. I went on to play basketball, not football. Didn't know people yet. Anyways, they were bullying me. Well, about a week later, Green Hope was playing another school in a soccer match, and I went with a guy named Nick Teague, who was kind of like my big brother growing up. He grew up in my neighborhood, he was older than me, actually a year older than my sister. So he was a senior at the time at Cary High School. So we show up to this match and one of those guys sees me walk in. Well, he's coming right at me. Well, you know what he doesn't know? That Nick and Nick's friend are with me. And I had told them this story. So Nick looked at me and said, "Jono, is that the guy? That's him right there."

So he's walking at me, then he realizes as they come around that they're coming at him. His eyes got really big. They grabbed him, ran him up against the light pole, picked him up in the air, and just told him, "Listen to me, you so much as say another negative word to this guy, and you're gonna have to deal with us."

I skipped to school the next day, completely unafraid. My big brother went to battle for me. Well, brothers and sisters, Jesus, in a much greater sense, is your big brother. And so you don't have to be afraid of anything because he's gonna take care of it.

God the Warrior King Fights for Justice

Finally, speaking of bullies—last point here—God the warrior king fights for justice. As we read earlier, the Psalms say that righteousness and justice are actually the foundations of God's throne. And I'm sure this isn't a surprise to you, but at this particular moment in Western civilization, opponents of Christianity rail against the goodness of the Christian faith. We've become the bad guy. So they would object to God fighting for the Israelites and taking out the Philistine combatants. They would say, "God is unjust."

So let me, just by way of response, what do we say to that? What do we say to these accusations that God is unjust, in particular, oftentimes when people are reading the Old Testament? Well, I would point out that the doctrine of God's judgment has been a source of comfort for the oppressed for centuries.

It means that there will be a day of ultimate justice, that slave traders don't actually get away with it in the end, that the hyenas and scars of this world will actually be held accountable. There's a famous quote by Miroslav Wolff, a theologian that I'd like to read to you now that I think captures this really well. He says this:

I used to think that wrath was unworthy of God. Isn't God love? Shouldn't divine love be beyond wrath? God is love, and God loves every person and every creature. That's exactly why God is wrathful against some of them. My last resistance to the idea of God's wrath was a casualty of the war in the Former Yugoslavia, the region from which I come. According to some estimates, 200,000 people were killed and over 3,000,000 were displaced. My villages and cities were destroyed. My people shelled day in and day out. Some of them brutalized beyond imagination. And I could not imagine God not being angry. Or think of Rwanda in the last decade of the past century, where 800,000 people were hacked to death in one hundred days. How did God react to the carnage? By doting on the perpetrators in a grandparently fashion? By refusing to condemn the bloodbath, but instead affirming the perpetrators' basic goodness? Wasn't God fiercely angry with them? Though I used to complain about the indecency of the idea of God's wrath, I came to think that I would have to rebel against a God who wasn't wrathful at the sight of the world's evil. God isn't wrathful in spite of being love. God is wrathful because God is love. If God loves us, if he loves the oppressed, he cannot stay his hand forever. It's the loving parent, friend, big brother, teacher that stops the bully.

And in this story, the Philistines were the bullies. They are Scar, and so this is justice.

Second, by way of response: God the warrior king fights for justice, which means that sometimes he fights against Israel and not for them. God is an impartial judge. Throughout the Old Testament, God uses Israel to judge the nations, certainly. But he also uses the nations repeatedly to judge Israel. God is always on the side of justice. He always does what is right.

Third, by way of response, let me say a disclaimer—something that pastor Jeff said, I think it was last week, but he at least said it recently. And I think we have to, especially at our political moment, make a comment like this: modern Israel is not ancient Israel. Neither modern Israel nor America, by the way, constitute the people of God. Rather, the church comprised of believing Jews and Gentiles along with their children are the people of God, and we have not been issued a sword but a cross. So the fulfillment of this passage in the new covenant is not the current wars America and our allies are engaged in.

The Christian tradition does have a just war theory that we can use to assess whether a war is just or not. And hear me, the government has certainly—Romans 13—been given the sword to punish the guilty and protect the innocent. That's true. Whether the government is filled with Christians or non-Christians, that's the purpose of government: public justice. So they can rightfully wield the sword. But I'm not commenting on that because that's not what this passage is about.

My point is that this passage in 1 Samuel doesn't teach that the church, America, or modern Israel are meant to execute God's judgments as Old Testament Israel sometimes did. That's just not our role. God isn't issuing a real-time command for us to go to war against certain nations the way he did in the Old Testament with Israel.

Rather—so that's what it isn't, let me tell you what it is. Rather, God's judgment in this passage points forward to two things. First, it points forward to the final day of judgment, which will be executed by Christ at his second coming. That's Jesus' role to fulfill. Second, this passage points forward to Jesus enduring God's just judgment on our behalf and thereby disarming Satan. That's what this passage points forward to: Jesus absorbing the just punishment we deserve at the cross and Jesus executing God's just punishment on those who fail to repent of their rebellion at his second coming.

So let me just, by way of reminder and encouragement, say that the ultimate thing that this passage points forward to is the fact that our great God and King entered into human history. He entered into the brokenness of the world and he was broken so that you and I could be healed. He died on a cross with your and my names on it. How did Jesus fight for us? By jumping on the grenade of eternal suffering so that we could be given the gift of eternal life. He drank the cup of infinite sadness so that we could be given the gift of infinite joy.

So what do we do now? And we're landing this plane. What do we do now? How do we engage the enemies of the church now? Not just here, but around the world. What do we do when the church is oppressed and persecuted? What is a proper response?

Well, at a high level, 1 Peter 4:19 gives us the answer. It says this:

Entrust your soul to a faithful Creator while doing good. — 1 Peter 4:19

Fight for justice justly. Now, how do we do that? Just a quick barrage of ideas here. Build relationship with the lost. Share the gospel with the lost. Serve your neighbors, including your enemies and those who hate the church. We certainly can, like Paul did, appeal to Caesar when it's appropriate here and around the world, which just means appeal to the government. You see that all throughout the early years of the early church where Irenaeus or Justin Martyr were writing letters to appeal to the Roman emperors for justice for the church because they were being oppressed.

Pray for Josephs, Esthers, and Daniels to be put into positions of influence in government and other spheres where they can exercise that influence for the purposes of religious freedom. Think about Esther. What did Esther do? Esther and Mordecai. Through their influence on the king, they changed public policy. So pray for Josephs and Esthers and Daniels today.

And finally, remind yourself, your own heart, the church, the church around the world, that judgment and liberation are coming. The new heavens and new earth are on the horizon. Our warrior King is indeed coming back and this time with a sword. And so we plead with the lost to repent before that day.

I'll close with this. At the end of C.S. Lewis' The Silver Chair, I love the Narnia series, hopefully you do too. Prince Rilian, Eustace Scrub, Jill Pole, and Puddleglum prepare to leave the subterranean city and face severe danger from the evil forces of Underland. Rilian's shield, if you recall, previously black, has been transformed into silver with a figure of a lion redder than blood. And he says this, "Doubtless, said the prince, this signifies that Aslan will be our good lord. Whether he means us to live or die, let us descend into the city and take the adventure that Aslan sends us."

Brothers and sisters, this passage in 1 Samuel 14 signifies that Jesus will be our good Lord. So whether he means us to live or die, let us descend into the city and take the adventure that he has sent us as well. Let's trust the Lord, seek him in prayer, wait on him, and obey.

Will you pray with me? Father, you are indeed the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You are unsurpassed in your beauty, unmatched in your wisdom, unrivaled in your power, and incorruptible in your goodness. Righteousness and holiness are indeed the foundations of your throne. You always do what is right. You are a God of perfect justice, of perfect judgment. And we are incredibly grateful that your Son, our great High King and Lord Jesus, took the punishment that we deserve for our treason. We played king of the hill with the King of the universe, and Jesus died the death of a traitor so that we could be given the honor of a king. Help us to rest in those promises and to share them with a lost and dying world. It's in His name that we pray. Amen.