Genesis chapter 49 this evening will be our sermon text, particularly the first 28 verses of Genesis chapter 49. That's found on page 53 of your Pew Bible, if you need a copy. Last week we saw Jacob gather Joseph and Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. This evening we will see Jacob gather all of his sons. and speak to them these words. But these are not merely Jacob's words. These are the Lord's words to us. So here from your Lord, Genesis chapter 49 verse one. Then Jacob called his sons and said, gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the first fruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father's bed. Then you defiled it. He went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brothers. Weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their council. Oh my glory be not joined to their company for in their anger they killed men and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger for it is fierce and the wrath for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, your brother shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down. He crouched as a lion and as a lioness. Who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him. And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk. Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea. He shall become a haven for ships. He and his boarders shall be at Sidon. Issachar is a strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds. He saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor. Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward. I wait for your salvation, O Lord. Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels. Asher's food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal delicacies. Naphtali is a dough let loose that bears beautiful fawns. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring. His branches run over the wall. The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him and harassed him severely, yet his bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. By the God of your Father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breast and of the womb. The blessings of your Father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil. All these are the 12 tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them. Blessing each with a blessing suitable. To him. This far church, the word of our Lord, let us pray and ask that he would bless its reading and preaching. Heavenly Father, you tell us that by your spirit you have appointed the foolishness of preaching. The foolishness of the cross to win hearts to you, to win souls to you, to proclaim, to announce, to declare that Christ is King. And we pray that that banner would be waved high and clearly this evening from this text, that all may see and know their sin, their need of Christ and what he has done to accomplish their salvation and his eternal victory and ours. We pray this in His name. Amen. Most honest preachers will tell you that as they are sometimes considering a text to preach, they'll want to see what other preachers have done, how other preachers have handled the text, how they've divided it up, what they have focused on. I was flipping through a few books this week looking at this text and came across a group of servants by that beloved 20th century preacher James Montgomery Boyce of 10th Pres in Philadelphia. Dr. Boyce preached eight sermons on this text. And if you had heard or have read a sermon of Dr. Boyce, you knew the eighth sermon was just as clear and as sharp and as helpful as the first. Well, I'm making no claim to be on a par with Dr. Boyce. Instead, warn you to fasten up your seatbelt because it won't be eight or six or four or two sermons through this text. It'll be one. But it'll be one in which we will see clearly the Lord's hand in history, in salvation, and in your life. This text is often called Jacob blessing his sons. And indeed, the last verse of the text said it was just that. But if you notice at the beginning of the text, verses one and two, the text tells us that this was Jacob telling his sons what shall happen to them in the days to come. Have you ever played that thought experiment? If someone came to you and said, I will tell you what will happen in your life, I will tell you your fate, your doom, the day that you will die, what will happen to your offspring? Would you take the information? Children will often say, yes, wow, that sounds amazing. Adults often say, no. I fear that if I knew the day of my death or what would happen to me, I would live in fear of that looming over me. And that's, of course, a totally understandable response. However. If God is God. If as we confess, all things must be subservient to my salvation to the salvation of God's people. What do we have to fear? What did Jacob's sons have to fear? If God is in control, we know that he will Judge sin rightly. We know that he will bless his people. We know that he will lead his people with a savior king. That indeed is what we will see as we unfold this text, as Jacob tells his sons what is to come. We don't have so much points this evening as we have clusters. or clumps, or groups of sons, groups of brothers. We'll look at them in three different groups, but we'll begin this evening with the first, the eldest sons, the first three sons. And as you look at Reuben and Simeon and Levi, you particularly see the consequences of sin in the lives of these three brothers, and thus in their offspring. Reuben, in verse three, we see is the firstborn. And we know from just last week that although the firstborn are expected to inherit the lion's share of the father's estate, that the Lord often subverts those expectations, does he not? In this case, he does so because of the sin of Reuben. Make no mistake, Reuben had great advantages, did he not? Verse three, Jacob calls him his strength, the firstborn of his strength. He's preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. But evidently he took those blessings, those advantages for granted. And as we see in verse four, sin intruded. Jacob calls him unstable as water. That word unstable can be translated frothy or turbulent. It actually connotes pride. It connotes a heart that is unstable because of presumption of putting itself somewhere where it does not belong. We think again, as we did last week, of the older brother in the parable of the two sons, one who is presumptuous and prideful of his place in his father's estate. Or the Pharisee who went to the temple and strutted his own spirituality, so-called, before the Lord in prayer. Do you remember the sin of Reuben? The son of Reuben is alluded to at the end of verse four. It's actually told for us in chapter 35, verse 22. It was lying with one of his father's concubines. With Bilhah, the mother of his brothers, Dan and Naphtali. And Jacob warns him that he will, as it were, have no preeminence. He will, as it were, fade away from history. You will search in vain to find a prophet or a judge or a king in Israel's history who comes from the tribe of Reuben, for there are none. Then next we have the next two sons who could perhaps take the place of Reuben as the firstborn, Simeon and Levi, and we remember their notorious sin as well, don't we? after their sister Dinah was defiled and they tricked the citizens of Shechem and massacred them there. Perhaps what you don't remember is that when their father comes to them and confronts them for this sin in chapter 34, he confronts them most particularly on this point. that by risking the wrath of the surrounding peoples, they were risking the propagation of the promised people of God. Genesis chapter 34, verse 30, Jacob comes to them and says, you could have instigated a rebellion against us, and the promised seed, all the way, that's traced its way all the way through the book of Genesis, could have been wiped out because of your sin. This illusion here in verse five of weapons of violence are their swords are probably those, those circumcision knives that they convinced the men of Shechem to use on themselves only to then kill those Shechemites when they are undergoing that process. They had, they had taken what was to be a sign of, of the covenant, a sign of inclusion into the people of God. and they had turned it into a instance of grave wickedness. So their anger, their willfulness, their murder is condemned in verse six. And we see their just desserts in verse seven. As it is said, I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. And if you know the history of these tribes in the land, you know that is the case. Simeon didn't really have its own land. It was only an enclave of another tribe, and it was swallowed up by the larger tribe of Judah. And we know, of course, that the tribe of Levi had no land either. You know, one of the reasons is that that was because they were called to be priests. But even the need for a priesthood highlights the sinfulness of the people. For if there was no sinful people, there would be no need for atonement to be offered on the altar, for sacrifices of sin to be offered on the altar. These are the first three sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, demonstrating the consequences of sin and the Lord's just judgment of that sin. But as the text continues, we see more and more sons named and more and more tribes described. And this next group, I might call them the minor tribes, the minor middle. You know, they're not guilty of the great sin of the eldest three tribes, sons. They're not rising to the great renown and providence of the three tribes that we will save for last. But they're somewhere in the middle. Skip down to verse 13. Verse 13 of chapter 49, we see Zebulun. Now the text says that Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea. He shall become a haven for ships. But we know that their described inheritance in the book of Joshua was inland. So what does this mean? Was Jacob an error when he made this prophecy in verse 13? Well, you may know this word that is translated dwell here is applied to a transient life, to a Bedouin nomadic lifestyle, much like the existence of the tribe in Judges. When you turn there, they have not rooted themselves in the land. The text of it's incited in verse 13 as a great port city of Phoenicia. needed many workers, so they would have been transient migrant workers. Trade routes were there, so they had trade and profit from seagoing activities. Next we see Issachar, verses 14 and 15. You may have wondered what verse 14 is talking about when Issachar is described as a strong donkey crouching between the sheepfolds. That's a mental picture of hilly land. Picture, if you will, a donkey in the sheepfold. You have rolling, undulated land, and that is exactly the land that Issachar was assigned. But that's not all that the text says. Verse 50, the land is good, the land is pleasant. But Issachar bows his shoulder to bear, becomes a servant at forced labor. In other words, Jacob tells Issachar that his descendants will be enslaved. Actually, modern architecture has proven this out. It's found correspondence from the king of Megiddo, telling of how he conscripted men from towns in Issachar's land. That this, indeed, took place hundreds of years later. They were conscripted into chain gangs for the king of Megiddo. Next we have Dan, verses 16 and 17. Perhaps one of the more vivid images in this text, a serpent in the way, a viper by the path that bites the horse's heels. We're told that Dan shall judge his people in verse 16. Judge is to execute judgment on the land. We know, of course, that this was one of the reasons that the Lord was sending the Israelites into the promised land, was it not? To execute judgment on the sinful nations that had gathered there. It's actually a play on words here. The Hebrew verb for execute judgment is din. Sounds like the name Dan. They're small like a serpent, perhaps the horned viper that was common in that place. They struck unexpectedly to consume larger nations. Judges 18 tells us how they take the land of Laish and remote. North Israel may remember that Samson was a Danite who single-handedly struck down hundreds of Philistines. Again, fulfilling this prophecy that Jacob is making. Ultimately, though, you don't have to read long in the narrative about Samson to know that despite his great strength, his victory did not come from that strength, did it? Or even when his hair was shorn, he prayed to the Lord, and it was the Lord that provided him his strength, and therefore it was the Lord who provided him victory. That's precisely what verse 18 is telling us, isn't it? In the midst of this, it's almost like a pause. I wait for your salvation, O Lord. You will raise up mighty men of valor. You will raise up whole tribes to go into the promised land and to take the sword to the people who are living there, but the victory ultimately comes not from the sword, not from the strength of St. Senator, his locks of hair. No, it comes from a covenant Lord who is giving them this land, who is causing his promises to be fulfilled with the seed of the woman, Genesis 3. Three more tribes on the other side of this pause. We see Gad in verse 19. This is also a play on words. Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid their heels. Gad means to raid. The verb means to raid. Gad, you may recall, had its inheritance on the eastern side of the Jordan. And it was therefore subject to many raids, whether it be Ammonites or Moabites or the Arameans. But as the verse says, they will cause them to retreat. That's what it says that the viper, or I'm sorry, verse 19, he shall raid at their heels. The only way you raid at someone's heels is that you have caused them to turn and to run in the opposite direction, showing their heels to you, and you raid them at that point. Gad was a tribe known for its military prowess. Jot down 1 Chronicles 12, verse eight. and later when you have a chance to read that verse and see the way in which the military prowess of Gad is described. God doesn't say they won't be travailed, but he says in their travail, they won't be overcome. They will raid the heels of their enemies. Well, two more minor tribes, we have Asher verse 20. You may know that the Hebrew word Asher means blessed or means happy. This description, verse 20, is a happy description, is it not? A reference to the fertile land on the western slopes of northwest Israel, along the Mediterranean. Perhaps the most fertile land in the entire strip of the promised land was given to this blessed, happy tribe. Likewise, Naphtali, verse 21, also fertile land to the north. Text tells us that Naphtali is a dough-let, loose, This could be translated free to Rome. In fact, Naphtali had no northern border. They were free to Rome as far as the blessings of the Lord would extend. Interestingly, at the end of Moses' life in Deuteronomy 33, when he's blessing the tribe of Naphtali, he says their inheritance is sated with favor, full of the blessing of Yahweh. So you may be thinking, well, so what? This is very interesting, a bit of a historical run-through of the 12 tribes of Israel, at least nine tribes so far. It's a little bit of geography, a little bit of agriculture, a little bit of military description, but are these just historical factoids? Are these just names to fill in on that map in the back of your study Bible, telling where the 12 tribes had their inheritances? No, friends, you know that is not the case. And in fact, as we look at our last three tribes this evening, we'll see that this history is actually going somewhere. That God is not merely putting these people in the land so that they will enjoy the fruit of the land. No, he has a purpose for them and he has a leader for them to lead them in their life in that land. And so as we look at the last three sons this evening, I'll call them the blessed brothers. Those who receive the greatest and the highest of the blessings recorded and recounted by Jacob in this chapter. For Benjamin, they're Joseph. They're Judah. You may call these the new firstborns. If Reuben and Simeon and Levi lost their chance to be the firstborns. These three took their place. the firstborn of Jacob's beloved wife, Rachel. When Jacob thought he had lost Joseph, Benjamin became then the beloved second son of his deceased wife, Rachel. And Judah, the fourthborn of Jacob's sons, but because of the sin of his first three sons, became, as it were, the new firstborn. Judah, Joseph, Benjamin. We'll take them in reverse order. First, Benjamin in verse 27. Benjamin, the younger brother of Joseph, the favorite of Judah, he's compared to a ravenous wolf. Now this may be, in today's culture, a ravenous wolf may be something that you would use to describe an enemy or someone who you think is unfair in business practices or in some other way, but this would be a great compliment. in the days that the people of God were sojourning in Egypt. To be a ravenous wolf was to be one that was powerful. that was able to secure for itself its own food. But you notice this wolf is so good at what it does that in the morning it devours the prey, great, but in the evening it divides the spoil. It's so good at winning prey that it has more to share, to bless those who are around it with some of the loot, as you were, more than he could eat. And again, we see many times in the people of God that the tribe of Benjamin acting in this way. Think of Ehud, that left-handed judge in the book of Judges who kills King Eguon as he is in his bedchamber. Or the 700 sling marksmen of Judges chapter 20, known for their marksmanship as they are expert in battle. You could even put Saul in this category. King Saul, of course, was a Benjamite. He was rejected by God eventually because of his apostasy, but he became king at first because of his reputation, of his height, of the way in which he was able to lead the people at battle. But I especially think of the New Testament Saul. Saul of Tarsus, of course, was a Benjamite. And Saul of Tarsus may be responsible for the presence of more people in the kingdom of God than anyone who ever lived saved our Savior himself. The tribe of Benjamin, dividing the spoil, sharing it with others, bringing the peace of Jesus Christ to the known world at that time. that the blessings of the nations would come in. Next we have Joseph, verses 22 to 26. You may have noticed as Jacob went through these blessings, some of them seemed different than the others. Some of these seemed retrospective. He began speaking in the past tense of blessings or things that Joseph had accomplished. And we know from the story that we have been looking in these last 14 chapters of Genesis that this is appropriate. Is it not? Verses 23 and four speak in the past tense of this victory. Joseph was attacked, wasn't he? Verse 23, archers bitterly attacking him, shooting at him, harassing him. We know this is, of course, a reference to his own brothers who sold him into slavery. It was either leave him for dead or sell him into slavery, and they chose to sell him into slavery. We know what Jacob is alluding to, but even more so, we know the source of Joseph's strength and victory, do we not? Notice all these by clauses in verses 24 and five. By the hand of the mighty one of Jacob. Verse 25, by the God of your father who will help you. Verse 25, by the Almighty who will bless you. Three times in short succession, Jacob points again to the source of Joseph's victory, the way in which he provided for his brothers by the strength of God. Remember, he was left for dead in a cistern. No one would have ever thought that one day he would rise to the highest point of power in the strongest empire in the world, the right hand man to Pharaoh himself. This is truly the Lord's doing to provide salvation for his people. And from this explodes what? The incredible repetition of blessings, the verses 25 and 26. Were you counting as I read them? Blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep, blessings of the breasts of the womb, blessings of your father, mighty be on the blessings of the parents. Six times, blessings of heaven above, six times. Jacob uses the word for blessing. Again, this exuberant explosion of blessing to stress the point that we are making. The people of God could know the source of their security, the source of their future, the source of their salvation from a worldly perspective, salvation from famine, from death, from the wiping out of that tribe of people descended from Abraham, from the face of the earth. Blessings fell on whom? The one who was, end of verse 26, set apart from his brothers. I love the double meaning of that description of Joseph being set apart. He was set apart in one sense because he was and excluded and set apart by his brothers in a hateful and a vengeful and a murderous way. But ultimately we know that he was set apart by the Lord in a way that would bring, as we have already mentioned, the rescue, the life of his people. And that's why he can be described in verse 22 as a fruitful bough. a fresh growth of green from the plant. You may wonder what it means that his branches, in that verse, run over the wall. This is a description of a branch that is so strong, that is so verdant, that is so life-giving, that it leaves its own place and begins to spread life elsewhere. That it's not really its own little square of the garden in which the fruitful bough is bringing life, but it's overextending its wall to bring life to those neighboring parts of the garden. And what we think of the people of Egypt, who survived the famine merely because of the common grace of the Lord, the ministry of Joseph. So that fruitful bough began to bring life, not merely to the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, but to those in that land who deserved no such thing. but by the common grace of the Lord received life just as much as Jacob and his sons did. What a beautiful picture of the Lord's work through Joseph. Like I said, that blessing, that description of Joseph seems mostly to look backward. But the last brother, the one I have saved for last, the new firstborn of Jacob, Judah, The firstborn son. Looks forward in a way that none of these other prophecies, none of these other blessings did. This is right in the heart of our text, verses 8 to 12. If you read through these phrases and these scriptures and these words that Jacob uses to describe his son Judah, you can surely hear the theme. Consider the language. Your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down before you. Compared to a lion's cub, the statement that the scepter, the instrument of rule shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him. to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. This is royal language, is it not? This is not merely the language of one who is strong, although it is really the one who is blessed by the Lord. Although it is, this is one who has royal, kingly, sovereign rule given to him by the Lord himself. The scepter being that visible sign of the authority that the descendants of Judah described here clearly have. Verse 11 tells us he will ride a donkey, the mount of royalty in that period. He'll wash his clothes in wine, in verse 11. Wine being a sign of superabundance. You have so much wine you could use it to wash your clothes in. The remarks in verse 12 eyes darker than wine teeth water than milk descriptors of beauty common in that day. So so Judah is promised a kingly line. Marked by true beauty marked by abundance that will that will rule. Well. That's what verse 10 means when it says tribute will come to him. That's what verse 10 means when it says, to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. He will be one that wins the obedience, not merely of people. But of peoples. You may notice a footnote there on your text in verse 10 is a very disputed verse and translation. But this does seem to get it right, until tribute comes to him. Some of your Bibles may say something about Shiloh coming to him, or him coming to Shiloh, which would be a Hebrew misspelling, but this seems to be a good translation, that tribute will come to this descendant of Judah. So think about it. 1 Samuel, the prophet Samuel goes to anoint a king. Where does he go? He goes to Bethlehem, and why does he go to Bethlehem? Because he knows that that's the city of the tribal inheritance of Judah. Yes, it was the Lord leading him there, but it was the Lord leading him to the land of this son's descendants. We know from Deuteronomy 17 and elsewhere in God's law that a king was always a part of God's plan for his people. One of the reasons the Northern Kingdom of Israel is judged is because they reject the Judaic king of the Southern Kingdom. Or turn to the New Testament. Why do you think Matthew and his gospel begins with a genealogy? But to show to his readers that a king has arisen who is of this line. A king who has been born, who is the heir, the inheritor of this promise to Judah, that the scepter shall come to him. The inheritance, the obedience of the peoples shall come to him. And in the next chapter of Matthew, Matthew 2, when misemen from the nations come, what do they do? They bring their tribute, do they not? They bring their obedience. Do they not? Oh, not to Herod. Not to Herod, a descendant of the tribe of Edom. No, they bring it to Jesus in Bethlehem. Jesus, the one who, when they went to the prophets and the scribes of that day, asked them, where is the king to be born? They knew, in Bethlehem, in the house of Judah. one who would be descended from this very man in this chapter. So we know that Jacob wasn't just predicting any old king, as it were. That's why he says the obedience of the nations will come to this king. Israel won't be merely over the tribe of Judah or merely over the 12 tribes of Israel, but all the nations will bow their knee before this king, this descendant of Judah. in the royal line of Judah. Readers of Genesis have known from the very first verse that the entire earth, the entire universe is the Lord's. And through this promise, he promises one who will rule that entire creation. As Psalm 72 describes it, from sea to sea, from across the entire planet, one will rule over that entire created order of our Lord. One who will come to reverse that curse that is promised, that is proclaimed and enacted in Genesis chapter 3 on the people of God and on that creation that he rules. One who will overcome the sins of the sons that we've seen here, even in this very chapter. The first three especially, but all the sons who need the priesthood of another. How does he do that? How does he both come to rule this world in a way that rids it of sin, but also to rule of it as a great and awesome king? One requires death. One requires atonement. One requires shedding of blood. The other requires power and life and rule and immortality. We know how those two come together. Does not Paul describe it so well in Philippians 2? For he describes one to whom exaltation will come, who will be exalted to the right hand of God. In the name of him, in the name of Jesus the Christ, every knee shall bow on heaven, in heaven and on earth and under the earth. But how does Jesus get to that place, Paul tells us? It's the same one who humbled himself. the same one who became obedient even to death on a cross. That's the one Paul says is exalted to that royal place of preeminence in the right hand of God the Father. The one who for sin became a sin atonement, became sin itself, as he says elsewhere. But all those with faith in the promises of God, that through that one and through that one only, the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation would come. and that we could dwell with Him without sin forever in that sea to shining sea realm that Psalm 72 so gloriously describes. But think about what I just alluded to from Philippians 2, where Paul says that every knee shall bow. This is not a voluntary, that is to say, this is not a kingship that some will acknowledge and that others will not. Now the question is not will you or will you not acknowledge this King, the Lord Jesus Christ, as King. The question is will you welcome him as his willing servant, willingly bowing your heart to him, or will you welcome him as a enemy of him, one on whom he must place his hand on your neck in submission, as verse 8 of this chapter tells us will happen. For all will bow, friends, before this King, one way or the other. Will you be one of those from among the nations who gladly brings his tribute? One who to the King of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the great descendant of this chapter, the one who even now rules with that scepter that shall not depart from him forever. Will you bring him? Your heart. Will you bring him your soul? Will you will you bring your very self to the one who gave all of himself? For you. I hope you see now the meaning of my sermon text this evening out of many one. Out of out of many brothers, the Lord was bringing one nation, bringing these 12 tribes into one place as one people. But he was also bringing one individual. That these 12 tribes will funnel down to this great king to represent the people before God and God before the people. As their king. The one to whom the Lord declares in Psalm 110, sit at my right hand until they make your enemies your footstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Friends, the lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered. He rules. Jacob's prophecy has been fulfilled. Let us bow before him. Let us serve him. Let us love him. As we pray, as I close to pray this evening, allow me to use the words of our catechism that ask us what it means for Jesus to be king. as we pray together to close our time. Father God, we are so grateful that you've given us Christ to fulfill the office of a king. We're so grateful that he has called us as his people out of the world to himself. We praise that he's given us through him the visible government of this church that he has given his saving grace upon the elect, that he has rewarded us for obedience, that he has corrected us and does correct us for our sin. Lord, we are so grateful you've given us a king who preserves and supports us under all our temptations and all our sins and all our sufferings. One who has restrained and has conquered our enemies. or we're so grateful that you have given us a king who powerfully orders all things for your glory, not our own, for our good, or even and especially thank you that you are one who has taken vengeance on those who refuse to bow willingly to you so that even those who refuse to express faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are not outside of his sovereign power, for he rules all. And like Paul, we can reflect on the words of Isaiah, that in the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, heaven and earth and under the earth. But we praise you and long for that day when that will be made sight. We can bow before the Lord our God. So it is indeed in that great name, the name of Jesus, that we pray. Amen.