have to start talking to my wife more on Sunday mornings so I'll know what condition my voice is in before I get here. I was very surprised when I opened my mouth to read at first that things weren't coming out the way they were supposed to but we'll press on. Turn with me if you would this morning to Genesis chapter 15 and if that number caught your attention that's many chapters before The portion we'll be turning to afterward, and it's in the life of Abraham and not of Joseph. But I want to read a couple of verses here before we turn over to the 46th chapter. So Genesis 15, and we begin reading in verse 12. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo and horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards they come out with great substance." Now over to Genesis 46. beginning in verse 1. And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and went to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. And he said, I am God, the God of thy father. I fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go with thee into Egypt, and I will surely bring thee up again. And Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes, And Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones in their wagon which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle and their goods which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt. Jacob and all his seed with him, his sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him, into Egypt. And now skip down, if you will, to verse 28. Verse 28 together. And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph to direct his race unto Goshen. And they came into the land And Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him. And he fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive. And Joseph said unto his brethren and unto his father's house, I will go up and show Pharaoh and say unto Him, My brethren in My Father's house, which were in the land of Canaan, are coming to Me. And the men are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed cattle, brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have. And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation? That ye shall say, Thy servant's trade hath been about cattle and youth even until now, both we and also our father. that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.' Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh and said, My father and my brethren and their flocks and their herds and all that they have are come out of the land of Canaan, and behold, they are in the land of Goshen. And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers. They said moreover unto Pharaoh, for to sojourn in the land are we come. For thy servants are like flocks, for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan. Now therefore we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen. And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are coming to thee. The land of Egypt is before thee, and the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell. In the land of Goshen let them dwell. And if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle.' And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh. And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt. in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph nourished his father and his brethren, and all his father's household with bread, according to their families. Amen. We'll end our reading there, and we do trust and ask again the Lord to add his blessing to the public reading of his inspired word. Let's bow our heads and our hearts together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we come with thanksgiving today again at the privilege of gathering in Your house, of being among Your people, of being present under the public reading and the preaching of Your Word. Lord, You do not count these things lightly in the experience of Your people. Lord, forgive us for ever counting these things lightly. for ever coming to this place without expectation and spiritual desire. And so we pray that You will give us help today. Lord, whether it be matters great or small, whether it be need of encouragement or challenge and rebuke, Lord, may Your Spirit speak to us in our point of need. And we ask these things in the worthy name of our Savior, our risen Savior, the Lord Jesus. Amen. Our past few studies in the life of Joseph and that of the chosen family should have been filled with wonder when we consider something of the sovereign and providential workings of God. All the pieces of that story weren't just imagined in the mind of a novelist. They were purposed and planned and filled out in the workings of a sovereign, all-seeing God. But these studies have also been filled in no small way with powerfully moving accounts of personal emotion and the interactions between these divided brothers, this divided and now reunited family. We've been impressed with a record of personal experiences of repentance and of grace. And all of these are highly significant and they're instructive to be sure. But there's more going on here than the stirring and the changing of these brothers' hearts. God is now sovereignly and for an extended season removing Israel from the land of Canaan. And as we've read, Jacob has this caravan here to pause. They've come to Beersheba, the southern extremity and border of the land of Canaan. Beersheba is the place where Jacob would have grown up. It's the place where he would have experienced the joys of childhood and the special care of his loving mother. The peaceful life and pilgrimage of his father Isaac. It's a place he would have fled from when he feared his brother Esau. This is no insignificant place. And so here, we come and find Jacob has paused. dwelt a little on this a little earlier, which we'll mention again in a moment as we survey the life of Jacob. But here, before he would have this caravan leave the land, Jacob must pause and seek a word from the Lord. This is the place, again, of God's meeting with his grandfather Abraham. And think of that fateful night we read over a portion of in Genesis 15. As Abraham enacted that covenant ceremony, divided the pieces of the carcasses of the animals. And yet, those two divine emblems passed between them as that deep sleep from the Lord came upon Abraham. Here is the place where God pronounced Abraham righteous. It's at this event in Abraham's believing experience that God utters those words that the Apostle Paul draws upon in the book of Romans chapter 4. The classic treatment and full statement of the Bible's doctrine of justification by faith alone. And perhaps this is the very spot where Abraham lay that night as Jacob lays. And his night perhaps is sleepless. God will meet with him in the visions of the night. Jacob must seek the Lord. He cannot act merely out of personal interest. Can you imagine the interest? We've read something of the brother's report. of the Spirit of Israel reviving in Himself. He becomes aware that Joseph, His beloved son, is yet alive. He will see Him before He dies. He's got every reason to be encouraged, to be thrilled, to be ready to hasten to Egypt. And He is. But those personal interests have to be set aside for a moment. Jacob must seek the Lord. I say, he cannot, out of mere personal interest or even the immediate need of the famine, exit the land of Canaan. He must know that God is in this thing. And so as he pauses here, he offers sacrifice. He takes special occasion to worship and to seek the face of God before he leaves the land. As an aside here, It's an obvious practical lesson for us that we should pull aside, worship, seek the face of God before we ever make any major life-changing decisions. Well, as we have read in the story, God did not leave His asking servant alone. Just as he appeared to Abraham all those years before, he appears to Jacob in the visions of the night to ease his righteous fears and to assure him that his hand is in this thing. Notice we've said his fears are righteous. I believe they are. Jacob here is manifesting something of fear. Not unbelieving fear, but something of the fear of the Lord. Something of the fear of doing the wrong thing. Abraham and Isaac, his father, each left the land of Canaan on the occasion of a far lesser famine. And they left in unbelief. Jacob, now on the occasion of a much more severe famine. He doesn't fear to stay in the land as Abraham and Isaac did in their wavering faith and in their struggle with unbelief. He fears to stay in the land if God isn't in it. This is a different Jacob than we have seen before. Here is Israel walking with his God. I want to consider together in these several chapters we've read from today, just again the greater outlines of this part of the story. And so if you think firstly with me today of leaving Canaan, and this from Jacob's vantage point, and I suggest to you here that we see a faithful providence. A faithful providence. Now we can hurry through our thoughts on this point. We considered something on this theme a couple of months ago as we were surveying the life of Jacob before we came to the life of Joseph we've been reviewing. But remember as we said there, this long interval, this long interlude as it were in Genesis about the story of Joseph is just a piece of the story of Jacob. It's the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that Genesis brings us through from creation to their point in history in God's providential outworkings. And I say we can hurry through this point. We considered in our studies of Jacob's story, we found on this part of his story, reverence, revelation, and reassurance as we collected our thoughts together then. But consider again now, that Jacob is at this point in his journey, willing even to forego, we might say, his reunion with Joseph, to stay in the land and endure that famine, unless he has a word from the Lord that he is able to leave. He must know that it is God's will that Israel leaves Canaan. And of course, we've read the account God knows of his fear. He knows of his reverence. He does descend and give him word. We read in the account, such things as fear not to go down into Egypt. We read him stating again, I am the God of your father. We read the very comforting statement, I will go with you into Egypt. You're not leaving me behind. You're not leaving my sovereign will and purpose. I've ordained this." Here, we see that record that it is here again that God will purpose to make of Him a great nation. We hear God's reassurance that He'll bring that nation out. That He'll bring them back to the land of Canaan. There is, I say, a faithful providence that Jacob is reassured of. God's hand is in this. He's not in sin to depart from the land. God has ordained it. And perhaps Jacob on this night is mindful then with those reassurances from his God that what is transpiring now is something of the words God spoke to his grandfather in this very spot. that He would take His seed into a nation, a strange nation, that He would make of them there a great nation, but that they would be in servitude. But afterward, that nation God would judge. As Israel would ponder these things then, it leads us quickly into our second thought. We look at leaving Canaan from Jacob's vantage point. And I say we looked at that some weeks ago and survey it again here this morning. But let us today consider Jacob's leaving Canaan, Israel's departure from the land, from Canaan's vantage point. Here I submit to you we see a fearful prospect There is an ominous phrase in the record of Genesis 15 in God's promise to Abraham. Abraham still childless. Abraham still praying and pleading with God, I have no seed. The steward of my house, this Eleazar, is the closest thing to a son I've got. Where is this promise? Well, God visited Abraham, assured him of the promise. that a seed would be great. He would make of them a great nation. He mentions this sojourn in Egypt without naming the land. But there's a phrase at the close of those instructions. God would bring them again out of that land with great substance. And then he says, because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. I say that's a sobering phrase. But it is a significant phrase in the outworking of the Old Testament history. Israel's re-entrance into the land, Israel's conquest of Canaan, I say presents us with a fearful prospect. And it brings us really to a teaching or to a portion of Scripture that is frequently questioned. Because as God would bring Israel out of Egypt, God judged the Egyptians. We see the descriptions in the account in Exodus of the plagues. We see Scripture referring back to it so many times. We see there a clear reference that even in those very plagues and how they were chosen, there was judgment upon the gods of Egypt. A manifestation that they were empty, false idols. That Israel's God is the one and only true God. But as Israel was to go into Canaan, God instructs them to destroy the Canaanites. We read some pretty intense language with regard to that destruction they were to do as they entered the land. Men, women, children. People struggle with the ethics of that. If you have a Bible study book on problem passages in the Scripture, well, it's not just one verse, a host of verses. It's a part of their history that people question. How can God order the extermination of the Canaanites? Liberal Christian scholars look at this and say, well, Israel, you know, at that point, they were just as bad as everybody else. They wanted to go in, murder all these people, steal their land, and set up their kingdom. And so they wrote this history after the fact to excuse themselves. Well, we who take God's Word seriously can't be satisfied with such an answer as that. But what's going on? Well, just join me again in thinking of big picture stuff. What has God done in calling Abraham? In leaving the nations to themselves instead of destroying them again in a flood. If you're going to find fault with Israel or find fault with Israel's God for Him telling them to enter the land and in a holy warfare to rid the land of the Canaanites and take the land as their own, well, back up several chapters and find fault with God for sending a flood and destroying the whole population of the world except for eight people. God is God. And the point that we're to understand here is that it was God judging the Canaanites. The Canaanites' iniquity was not full yet in the years that Abraham sojourned there. God told Abraham there would be four centuries still until that iniquity was full. And those are centuries where these nations already in their apostasy You remember we've surveyed the big picture again that evidently the Canaanites were further into their apostasy than those dwelling in Mesopotamia from which Abraham was called out. They were into their idolatry. They were drifting down that terrible road. The Canaanites were going to come in these centuries to the point where their religion included such things as child sacrifice. immorality mangled in to worship, the bottom of the barrel of sins, if you will. I want you to turn and read several scriptures with me along the way just to again fix our thoughts on this. If you turn to the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter 23, Exodus 23, reading from verse 32 and following, just the very end of the chapter. These are instructions to Israel with regard to their coming into the land of Canaan. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, that is, the Canaanites, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest thou make thee sin against me. For if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee. Now turn over to chapter 34 in Exodus. Exodus 34. We read here from verse 11. Observe thou that which I command thee this day. Behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy their altars, break down their images, cut down their groves, for thou shalt worship no other gods. For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a-whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice, and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a-whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a-whoring after their gods." Now turn, if you would, over to the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy, you'll recall, really is just a sermon Moses' sermon to Israel before they enter into the land. Deuteronomy chapter 7, a reminder really of these things God has commanded and spoken before. Deuteronomy 7 and verse 1 and following. When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and has cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou, and when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them, neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daughters thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take away unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve their God. So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you. and destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall you deal with them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their images and cut down their groves and burn their graven images with fire. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people. for you are the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you, and because you would keep the oath which you had sworn unto your fathers, that the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." And now if you turn again to our last reference, Deuteronomy chapter 20. Deuteronomy 20. In chapter 20, we'll read from verse 16. But of the cities of these people which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth, but thou shalt utterly destroy them, namely the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. that they teach you not to do after their abominations which they have done unto their gods, so should ye sin against the Lord your God." And I'll just reference another text. Psalm 106, which is one of the psalms that surveys the history of Israel, reminds them of the exodus, reminds them of God's hand in giving them the land. There's rebuke of Israel. We read, they did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord had commanded them. There's a powerful text in the book of Judges. As Joshua had been given to lead Israel into the land and the land had in the main been secured. There's a phrase in Judges that says it came to pass when Israel was strong that they didn't drive out the inhabitants of the land. They put them to tribute. Here I say we see Israel leaving Canaan as a fearful prospect. God's hand of judgment is going to come upon these nations. God is abandoning them to their own sins. Unless we think this as we consider this one little ethical question so many bring to the Scriptures, unless we think it an unusual or a strange thing, think of how many occasions we find in the Word where God sovereignly leaves sinners to themselves. And of course, Romans 1 and its theological as well as historical survey of the history of this sin-cursed world. is that God gave us up, us vile sinners up unto our sins. Israel would merely be the hand of God that He would use rather than the waters of a flood to bring a just and worthy judgment upon these nations that had descended of their own accord into such vile apostasy. It is a fearful prospect It's one that God justly ordained. People that would argue this perhaps fail to bring in the argument that we don't see such command to us in the New Testament Scriptures as this is the perennial duty and task of the Lord's people to go out and murder those that disagree with us. No, this is a specific point in history and God working specific purposes which He sovereignly and rightfully has the privilege to do. I say it's a fearful prospect from Canaan's vantage point to be abandoned unto your sin. To have that last remaining testimony, as feeble and as flawed as Jacob's was, We saw some very good testimony. Even some hopeful interactions between Abraham and his neighbors and Isaac and his. Israel's not so much. But yet, God would leave the Canaanites alone. He would take that testimony. If you think of Abraham as he entered the land, the first thing he does in the midst of the land is build an altar unto the Lord as God. Recall these nations already on their journey of apostasy back to the old ways that they knew of that they had abandoned. But now God will take the chosen family out of the land. And it is a fearful prospect. We can't take time, and we're certainly jumping centuries into the future if we were to do so. But as we referenced the psalm, We referenced the book of Judges. Israel's failure here. And you think of that, the Canaanites, that they wouldn't drive out. They put them to tribute. I've thought many times reading through that portion of Judges. I wonder how many sins there are in our lives as Christians that we don't drive fully out. We just seek to put them to tribute. Make some good in our lives because of the sin that we allow maybe on the fringes or in the borders of our lives. Israel is a sad testimony of this. God would deal with them. He said to them in the centuries that followed, He would have the land cast them out. as He would have had the land cast out the Canaanites before them. Israel's leaving Canaan, I say, is a fearful prospect. It reminds us, well, what does Paul say in Romans? Behold therefore the goodness and the severity of God. But let us come to our third thought and final thought today. We viewed leaving Canaan from Jacob's vantage point. We've seen leaving Canaan from the Canaanites' vantage point. Now let us consider Israel's entering Egypt. Here we say, I suggest to you, see rather a fruitful promise. A fruitful promise. We have here a record of Joseph, of course, coming to Jacob, falling upon his neck. I love the comments of Robert Candlish as he refused to comment upon this. He said it defies description. The scripture just simply says he fell upon his neck and wept for a good while. We can only imagine. this joyful reunion of Jacob and Joseph. But as we read the portions that we've read, there's much of state, we might say, in this. As Jacob comes to greet Israel and the chosen family, he comes in his chariot. He comes, perhaps, flanked by his officers. He greets them. He falls upon Jacob's neck, of course, and weeps a long while. But he selects out five of his brothers and Jacob his father. And he would present them to Pharaoh. Many discuss the wisdom of Joseph's policy here. Some suggest that Goshen would have been a land that was not yet ...populated by the Egyptians. Some of the marauding Arab tribes may be in and out of there. Perhaps even a recent scuffle that has been a trouble spot in that place, and to have it populated by a friendly tribe, a friendly people, would have been something Pharaoh would have been happy with. But there's more than just wise politics taking place. More than just good, careful negotiations and diplomacy and the wisdom of Joseph here. He singles out something as he speaks to Pharaoh. And he mentions this to his family and says, be mindful of this. Shepherds are an abomination to the Egyptians. The Egyptians are already advanced. Perhaps they more enjoy the city people. The shepherds, they spend so much time with the animals, maybe they smell like them every now and then. Scripture doesn't explain why they're an abomination to the Egyptians. We can just imagine some of the reasons. But it was a reality. And one of the realities that Joseph knew that Jacob would have understood is that God's bringing Israel out of Canaan to leave the Canaanites to themselves to become entrenched in their corruption and their perversions. But Israel's not to go into Egypt and to absorb the lifestyle and the religion of Egypt either. They are to flourish into a nation in that land, but in a distinct place. A place where the Egyptians would be happy to leave them alone. That the Egyptians didn't want to be mingled in with these people. They, for carnal, earthly, perhaps prideful reasons. But Israel had a reason not to be mingled in among the Egyptians. For good, humble, and godly reasons. that they not be corrupted. And you think now of even the occasion in the lives of the leaders of the tribes. These brothers that in Canaan were unconverted and evil and murderous, who've been smitten of God and their hearts are broken and they're penitent now. They're jealous now for the covenant that Joseph had always been jealous for. They would remain a separated people. They would do honor unto their God who they've seen do wondrous things. Obviously, the wonder of His providence in protecting them and using Joseph to do so. But the greater wonders of His grace that shine above those wonders. And they're given the land of Goshen. They're provided a place of their own. They're given to live in separation in distinction from the Egyptians. Now Joseph had done so even living in his own palace as it were. We see how jealously he's guarded the truth that even his servants know of his God. And they can speak of the God of their fathers to the brethren as they deal with them. Jacob and his sons and Joseph appear before Pharaoh. The bargain is struck. Goshen is allotted to them and Israel there to feed their flocks and nourish their families and build a nation. It's interesting as you consider something of God's providence in this, in that little truth we're told about the Egyptians thinking shepherds are an abomination. I think of that giant text in Galatians 6. Maybe we need to come to that again at some point, but let's just say a long while back, I preached a sermon from that text, the three crucifixions in Galatians 6. Because we read there Paul giving us these words, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross, of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's crucifixion number 1. Then he says, by which I am crucified unto the world. There's crucifixion number 2. And the world unto Me. There's crucifixion number 3. For the people of God who have experienced the grace and power of the cross, the world is crucified to us. We're dead to sin. We're dead to the world. And our task in the remaining part of our pilgrim journey is to put that old man to death. To more and more root out the sins that remain. But the world's crucified to us. I've mentioned this numerous times along the way, but it's a very happy, what's the word, paradox with regard to Christian life. Christians can't enjoy sin. It's not a good thing. It's a very sad thing. But the ungodly enjoy sin. The Scripture speaks of the pleasures of sin for a season. But for the Christian, the world's crucified to him. Oh, he can give himself to pleasure and abandon himself here or there for whatever season. But look at David. The man after God's own heart. The man that had the indwelling Spirit of God. A changed heart and mind. He gave in to temptation. He fell into deep sin. But the pleasures weren't there. The world's crucified unto Him. And then it says, and the world unto Me. Or I unto the world. The world's also crucified to God's people. The shepherds are abomination to the Egyptians. They're happy enough to leave them alone. They don't understand how they live. And isn't that what the New Testament tells us? We're converted out of the world? They will think it strange that we continue not with them to the same excess of riot that we once did. They scratch their head and say, that guy's different. Those people have changed. I don't get it. Let them go their way. Here's the fruitful promise. God has brought Israel out of Canaan. that God has secured a place, a distinct place, a distinct living, a distinct life in the midst of Egypt for His Israel. And that is what should be true of us. God's fruitful promise that He'll supply our need, that He'll give us grace for every temptation and trial in this world, and that He will sustain us in this life of distinction from the Egyptians. Let us not look at it as a sad thing that we're somehow deprived because the world thinks us strange. Think of the wisdom. Think even of the logic of that. Here's a world that's under the curse. Here's a world that refuses truth and is running headlong into eternal ruin. And they look at us and think we're different, we're weird. Wouldn't it be a good thing to be different? To be rescued from those that are, as we sing in the hymn, making haste to hell? Let us rejoice. Let us be as Moses will in Egypt later and esteem the riches of Egypt as nothing compared to even the despised parts. The reproach of Christ to be Christ's own. It is, I say, a big piece of the history that Israel's brought out of Canaan for this season and provided a place to be nurtured and built up in Egypt. Almost as God sending forth the Gospel now to the different nations in Egypt of the world to call out a people from those places as well. And by His grace, we're numbered. Let's bow our heads and our hearts together. Lord, we come and ask today that You'll give us wisdom. We have considered or at least introduced even some hard thoughts with regard to Your Word. But yet the answer is plain, if we can but see it. Lord, give us grace. Give us contentment to be in a Goshen. Lord, to make of our lives, of our homes, little lands of Goshen in the middle of this Egypt that we dwell among. And if they count us as an abomination, then we say, so be it. We would be numbered among your people. We would have the smile of heaven rather than the acceptance of the world. And Lord, give us grace as we even venture to look centuries beyond the words we read this morning to Israel's failures in that regard. Lord, keep us back from such presumption. Keep us back from such worldliness that it not be that those numbered among us in generations to come would not even know the God of their fathers whose name they take. And so we pray that You will prosper Your Word to us this day. Sober us and yet encourage us in it. We pray it all in Jesus' worthy name. Amen.