We are going to be looking at the book of Obadiah tonight, and I will give you a minute to find it. It's a small book, and it's the next one in the line of the prophets here as we've been going forward. And so from Daniel, which is fairly easy to find from Daniel to Hosea to Joel, Amos, and then Obadiah. That's where we've worked our way to here looking at the prophetic books on Sunday nights here. And Obadiah is unique in a couple of ways. First, it is a single chapter. It's a relatively short book. Obadiah is also one of two books that of scripture that is specifically addressed to a foreign nation. The message of Obadiah is specifically to the nation of Edom, to the Edomites. Now, we've already seen in the other books of prophecy sections, in many of them actually, many of them, sections and verses and things that are directed at them in passing almost. Even in some of the major prophet books, there were entire swaths of scripture, three, four, five chapters in some cases, where the Lord was declaring his intention, his will against the enemy nations around Israel. But this, never before and never up to this point here has there been one book that was only or exclusively addressed to a nation that was not Israel. And here is the book of Obadiah, a book written to the Edomites and we'll get into that here in just a minute. Now, another thing that's kind of interesting about the book of Obadiah, just in the general sense of it, is that we don't really know who Obadiah is. We don't know when, really, in particular. We don't know absolutely with certainty when the Lord called him and gave him this message and had him declare this against Edom. Based on the evidence of the text, and we'll probably get to it, I mean, this is one of the few books that we'll actually get to read the whole thing in a Sunday night like this, but based on the text here, It's very likely that Obadiah is a contemporary of Jeremiah's, that his ministry, his message comes against Edom at the time when Jerusalem was falling to the Babylonians. Because what seems to have happened is that while the Babylonians were besieging and attacking Jerusalem, the Edomites had fortified themselves in their cities, and they thought that they were safe. They thought that, yeah, Jerusalem is vulnerable, and they sat back. In fact, what the Lord condemns here is they sat back and kind of laughed at and took delight in the fact that Jerusalem was going to fall, that the Jews were going to be taken captive, but they thought in their own heart that they were safe from that. And so the message of Obadiah comes against the Edomites, either prophetically into that day, either by, which is absolutely a possibility, is that Obadiah lived well, well, well before that, and that prophetically the Lord allowed him to prophesy their fall against them, or at the very least, he lived in that day and while Jerusalem was falling, the Lord gave him insight and perception into the prideful spirit of the Edomites toward Jerusalem and told them that the same thing and worse was going to happen to them. And we'll see that it is the same thing but yet worse because when the Lord speaks against Edom here and other places in prophecy, He says the same captivity that happened to the people of Judah is going to happen to you. The difference is that the Lord was going to be gracious to Judah after 70 years. The Jews were going to return to Jerusalem. The Edomites were never going to return. The Edomites were going to suffer the fate more like the northern kingdom of the Israelites, where they were going to be taken away and dispersed into the captive nation, and they were never going to experience a return back to their lands again. There's real evidence here that the that the prophecy took place there in that period right there around the same time that Jeremiah's ministry was taking place. And it really comes down to verse 11 to just kind of determine where this falls. It says, in the day when thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away captive his forces, foreigners entered into his gates, cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. And so if Obadiah, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is looking forward into that day, then Obadiah would be placed somewhere farther back. But if not, then Obadiah was actually kind of reporting on exactly what was happening. The Edomites were actually participating to a degree in the captivity of Jerusalem. Now, there's a possibility that some would take Obadiah, and there's several people in the Bible named Obadiah. It's actually a fairly common name. In the Old Testament, there's some half dozen or more different Obadiahs that are named, and we know that based on the timeframes in which they are named. It could not possibly be the same guy over many, many, many, many decades and centuries and things that the same guy would still be alive. But there's a possibility that that there's an Obadiah that is named during the time of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah. There's a possibility that that Obadiah was the Obadiah that's named in his days, and potentially it's him, but the book tells us nothing about this Obadiah. tells us nothing specifically about him. It literally just starts with the words, the vision of Obadiah. And even with the book we looked at previously here, Amos, Amos at least told us his father's name, at least told us where he was from, where he began, a shepherd and a herdsman of Tekoa, right? We knew that about Amos. Nothing about Obadiah is told to us, and so that shrouds it a little bit in mystery, makes it a little bit unique. Most of the prophetic books tell us a little bit about the prophet's background, his pedigree, maybe his place of origin. Obadiah is completely a mystery that we get to learn more about when we get into eternity, right? I mean, we'll get to meet Obadiah in heaven one day, we'll get to ask him all these questions. Right now, we have no idea who he was. We just know that we have his book of prophecy here. Now, speaking of the name Obadiah, his name means servant of the Lord. And some would look to that meaning of his name and kind of draw some conclusions that, well, that's why Obadiah is essentially anonymous in his ministry here is because a servant, his background, his pedigree, all that doesn't really matter. What matters is what his master, what his Lord has given him as a job to do, what task he has been assigned. And we find here kind of a correlation to that, certainly, that Obadiah speaks not of himself in any way at all, but only speaks that which God has told him to speak. Now, again, I've said here, and we'll look here at a few verses, look at verse one, and then I'll give you a few other thoughts here as we get into this. It says, the vision of Obadiah, thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom. We have heard a rumor from the Lord and an ambassador is sent among the heathen. Arise ye and let us rise up against her in battle. Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen thou art greatly despised. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, that saith in his heart, who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord. If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, how art thou cut off? Would they not have stolen till they had enough? And if the great gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes? How are the things of Esau searched out? How are his hidden things sought up? Now, before we get into the themes here in the book of Obadiah, let me just remind you who we're talking about, the Edomites. And it uses a couple of terms here for them that ought to give us some reminders here. But the Bible tells us very, very clearly that Edom is the nation that came out of Esau. Maybe you go back into the book of Genesis. Again, Jacob and Esau, twin brothers who struggled with each other pretty much their whole lives. Jacob, who becomes Israel at length, was a supplanter, a trickster, a deceiver, if you would. He grabbed his brother's heel. from the day of their birth was causing Edom trouble, Esau trouble. Esau, by his own, in his own right, was kind of a worldly guy, a worldly-minded guy. And I don't mean that he was, you know, seeking after, necessarily, possessions or riches or things like that, but he did not care about eternal things, he did not care about spiritual things, which is evidenced by his selling of his birthright to Jacob. There was the birthright, there was the blessing, and by that, Esau being the firstborn of the two, Esau was next in line to be the patriarch and the inheritor of the covenant, but it also came with responsibility, it wasn't just all privileges and no responsibilities the birthright and the blessing from the father to his eldest son came with some grave responsibilities for the family and for the spiritual leadership of the family going forward and Esau didn't want anything to do with that and he despised that and so it came an opportunity for him he came out of the field he hadn't taking anything and hunting and he was hungry. And Jacob had been at home making a pot of beans and of lentils, right, and pottage. And he sold his birthright to Jacob for a meal, for a bowl of stew, right? And then when it came a little while later and it was time for Isaac to to formally bless one of his sons, Jacob, and with his mother conspired and deceived Isaac, and Isaac placed his blessing also on Jacob, and Jacob was able to gain the birthright and the blessing, and for that Esau was mad, he was angry, and when his father died, he had vowed that upon his father's death, he was going to kill Jacob, so Jacob fled to Haran, and then spent 20 years up in Haran away from there. And when Jacob begins to come back, hears that Esau's coming to him with 400 men. That doesn't sound good, right? He's coming at him with 400 men. And so Jacob begins to send gifts to him in waves, send servants with cattle and servants with goats and servants with sheep. And then one concubine and her kids and the next one, and then Leah and her kids, and then finally, Rachel and her two kids with him, and they sent, I guess, just Joseph at that time. When Jacob and Esau came face to face, they sort of, kind of reconciled, but not really. And there was always, in this relationship between Esau and Jacob, there's always some tension. There was always some animosity. There was always some disease. And that carries forward into their next generations. I believe it's in Exodus. I'm so used to saying Exodus. Now, Genesis chapter 36, and it just gives the, really, it's a genealogical chapter. It's Esau's genealogy, and we find out that Esau, like his brother Jacob, had 12 sons. and that Esau's 12 sons, they call them the Dukes of Edom, but they all go forward and they all go to build cities and have families and become a people and the Edomites become a strong nation and grow into a mighty people just the same way that that Jacob's family did, albeit down in Egypt. The family went from a family to a nation in Egypt. Well, Edom's family or Esau's family became the Edomites in that same period of time and grew and proliferated and built cities and strongholds. Now it makes some references here to a couple of things in these verses that we read, especially there in verse three. He says, thy heart hath greatly deceived thee, thou dwellest in the clefts of the rock whose habitation is high. And one of the reasons that the Edomites felt so secure and so lifted up in pride was that they had built cities into the mountains. And there's one that's been famously discovered and portrayed and used in different ways down through the ages. It's what we call Petra now, but it was a city literally built into the cliffs of the rock. And the access to it was a very narrow passageway, canyon really, to get through into where this city was. And it was a very defensible position in that a very small fighting force could protect the one entryway into this place. And they could withstand a pretty significant assault with a very small fighting force because of this very defensible, naturally defensible position. after which you got through, there was actually room for just a great city behind that. And that's exactly where they had built that. They had some high fortresses and cities that were built on some high mountainous regions and some places that were very naturally, again, very naturally strong and defensible. And they believed themselves, though they were not a populous people compared to the enemy nations around them. They felt like they were very, very secure where they were. And so this is the pride that they were lifted up in their hearts with, and God is going to prove to them that pride goeth before destruction. And that's really kind of the idea behind the vision here of Obadiah, the prophecy of Obadiah was that Esau had been in Egypt And Esau, the person, and his family, and the Edomites, and the nation, they had been lifted up in pride and full of bitterness toward the Israelites for all of these years. In fact, we see kind of a pattern emerging out of the Edomites throughout scripture. This is really kind of an interesting thing that you can look at when you go through the word of God, that pretty much when you see an Edomite, and they're actually known to be a person of the land of Edom, of the heritage of Esau, they're almost always, almost always, a bitter person and a negative character in Scripture. I won't say always, always, but almost always a negative character in Scripture, almost always an embittered person. When the Israelites were coming out of the wilderness and coming up to the borders of the land of Canaan, this is in Numbers chapter 20. This is after their 40 years and God's finally going to lead them out of the wilderness and into the land of Canaan. They're going to cross over into Jordan. They come to the borders of Edom. They send a messenger into the king of Edom and they say, let us pass through your land. We won't do any harm, we won't do any damage. We've got our own things. If our cattle eat any of your grass, if they drink any of your water, we'll pay for it. We'll stay on the main road. We won't turn to the right hand or the left. We just need to pass through the shortest route to where we're going is through your land. And would you please just let us pass through?" And the king of Edom said, no. The king of Moab did the exact same thing later and they actually go up and they go to the Amorites, they go through their land eventually, but the king of Edom said no. And why? Because he was embittered against the Israelites because of the heritage that at this point goes back like 400 years. I mean, this is like Hatfields and McCoy's kind of stuff, man. They're mad about how Jacob treated Esau 400 years ago. The Israelites had been in captivity in Egypt, had been enslaved in Egypt for hundreds of years at that point, had been wandering around in the wilderness for 40 years at this point, and leaving them alone. And then when all they needed was short passage through their land, the king of Edom said no. In the book of 1 Samuel, when Saul was pursuing after David, David had been really the son-in-law of Saul and had been a member of Saul's inner circle in his court and was as a family member and as a member of the captain, the general of his army, was expected at times to be present and at the king's table. And Saul was just, Every now and again just trying to kill David and so David was kind of getting suspicious of it all and so David finally fled I mean he like finally really fled and Saul begins to pursue him and he David comes to where the Tabernacle is at the time and he goes in and he speaks to the priest the high priest that was there The priest has really no idea what's going on David tells the priest that he's on an errand from the king and asked him if he has any any any bread to eat if he has any sword there and that he can take and David leaves the tabernacle with the sword of Goliath and with some old showbread from the table of showbread and continues on his way. Well, there was an Edomite herdsman that was nearby. His name was Doeg and Doeg saw that David came to the tabernacle and then he left and that the the priest didn't report it to Saul. And so when Saul and his guys show up there and ask about it, Doeg tells them that, oh, this guy, this priest helped David escape. And so Saul gets angry. and tells his men to kill the high priest and all the priests, it's like 45 priests, and the Israelite men, under Saul's command, refuse to do that because they're not going to rise up and kill all of the priests at the tabernacle, but Doeg the Edomite did. And he slew 45 priests of the Lord. And again, yet just another example of an Edomite bad guy. Even into the New Testament, the family of the Herods, the kings, kind of the client state kings of the Roman Empire in the time of Christ. The Herods were put into power by the Romans, put over the lands there around Israel and Judea. And they were not Jewish kings. They had no Israelite heritage. They were Edomites. They hailed from what in the Roman times they called Edomea. Edomea was Edom. And of course, we know that when the wise men did not return back to King Herod, that in fearfulness and in bitterness, he commanded that all the children under the age of two or three would be slain. Just another example of an Edomite showing up in scripture as a prideful, a bitter bad guy, And that unfortunately kind of becomes the idea that is attached to the Edomites is this pattern that started in Esau himself. Even the book of Hebrews talks about this, and I'm going to turn there, but it's in Hebrews chapter 12. And if you get there, I'm gonna begin reading, but it's Hebrews chapter 12, and it begins in verse 14. And this is just some instruction that's being given here toward the end of the book, but it says, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And then it says, interesting verse, verse 15 says, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, for you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." And so, throughout scripture and even on into the first century Hebrews, the book of Hebrews being written sometime in the New Testament era, first century, that still this biblical association with Esau and thus with all of his family, the Edomites, is this idea of of profanity and bitterness and pridefulness and an insincere repentance and ineffectual repentance. And sadly, this is exactly what we find as a response and as a product of exactly what Obadiah is prophesying against here. This prophecy of Obadiah comes in response to, just broadly speaking, the attitude of the Edomites toward Israel. Anytime in prophecy where the Lord speaks through the prophets to the nations surrounding His people that have been enemy nations, it always has to do with their part in contributing to the downfall of Israel and of Judah. And the Edomites would be as guilty as any. And really what is a shame in it is that many of the nations that are spoken of in prophecy don't have any real historical connection, familial connection, relative connection to the Israelites, but the Edomites did. I mean, the Edomites and the Israelites were essentially cousins. The Edomites were not a people that when God said, you're gonna go into the land of Canaan and you're going to eradicate, the Edomites were never listed as one of those. The Moabites were never listed as one of those. The Ammonites were never listed. Those were all kind of like sort of cousin nations twice removed from the Israelites. They were to be left to themselves. They weren't to partake in their sins and they weren't to adopt their gods, but they also were not supposed to go in and wipe them out and take over their lands. And the edamites should have had at least somewhat of a of a loyalty, I don't know if loyalty is the right word, but they certainly should not have been so oppositional to the Israelites, and yet they were. And it all goes back to their common ancestry, right? When Jacob and Esau, twin brothers, at odds with each other for a lifetime, and then just the bitterness that was passed from generation to generation to generation, until it was literally just their national spirit Bitterness is a dangerous thing. That's why what Hebrew says about it is that a root of bitterness springing up can defile many. The nation of Edom is proof of that. There was an entire nation of people who hated the Israelites because Esau was bitter at his brother Jacob. And carry that forward I don't know, eight centuries by the time you get here? 800 years? And now it's not just one guy who's mad at his brother. It is a nation of people bitter against an entire other nation of people for a grievance so far back in the past that nobody was there to witness it. And even one that was more or less reconciled between the two brothers before their deaths. Bitterness is a dangerous thing, and as far as a practical lesson really comes out of Obadiah, it is that. It is that bitterness undealt with carries forward and it passes on and it defiles the next generation, it defiles other people around, it defiles the people in your home, it defiles the people in your sphere of influence. And this is the cautionary tale. of the book of Obadiah. So just quickly, I'm gonna give you a quick little outline of what's going on. This is only 21 verses in the whole book. In the first six verses, what we read first is a description of Edom's pride. It's a description of Edom's pride. Edom took pride in their fortified cities. They took pride in their high mountain fortresses and garrisons and things like that, they felt like that they could withstand really almost any test based just on the harsher conditions of their land. I mean, the lands of Edom were pretty pretty arid and desert and dry and rocky and mountainous and not exactly the easiest kind of place to attack. And then the fortified positions that they held, they felt like they were invincible. And yet Babylon proved them wrong. Babylon just threw overwhelming forces at them until they defeated them. But they thought that their defense positions were impregnable. They thought that they were going to stand, withstand any assault, withstand the test of time. They thought that they were durable. And for that, they rejected any warning, they rejected any call to repentance, they rejected any reconciliation with God's people, because they felt like they didn't need any of that. And so they were lifted up in pride. Verse 6, it makes kind of an interesting statement here. These two exclamations that are given there in verse 6 is, how are the things that Esau searched out, are his hidden things sought up. And really what that is saying is that everything is going to be laid bare. It's going to be exposed. All of your strongholds and your defense positions are going to be overrun. You are not going to be safe. We are going to expose all of your weaknesses here, their pride was, they were so lifted up in pride that they were going to be abased in kind. And that's kind of also an idea we get from this is that the more lifted up in pride you are, certainly the farther and harder that you fall when you do fall. And for Edom, it was really permanently destructive for them. Then into the next few verses, in verses seven through 14, we see really what it was that provoked the Lord to come to this. It says in verse seven, all the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border. The men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee and prevailed against thee. They that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee, there is none understanding in him. Shall I not in that day say that the Lord even destroyed the wise men out of Edom, understanding out of the Mount Esau, and thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed to the end that every one of the Mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter. For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off forever. In the day thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother, in the day that he became a stranger. Neither shouldst thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah, in the day of their destruction. Neither shouldst thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. Thou shouldst not have entered into the gate of my people, And in the day of their calamity, yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity, neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway to cut off those of his that did escape, neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress." And so they confederated with Israel's enemies. And really that was what led to their downfall. What allowed for Babylon to overthrow them was that Babylon deceived them into joining forces with them and then turn the tables on them. The Edomites essentially gave access to their defense positions and to their strongholds, to the Babylonians in a confederacy with them, and then they were overthrown. It was one of the evils that they had done, they had confederated with, they had supported and joined forces with those who would destroy Jerusalem, and God saw that. They participated in the violence against them. They looked on and rejoiced at their calamity. These verses are all talking about how they, thou shouldest not, thou shouldest not, thou shouldest not. All these things that they were doing, they were helping to capture those who were escaping. They were taking part in capturing and killing those who were of the Israelites. They looked on and rejoiced at their calamity. They went into the city of Jerusalem and at least to some degree took part in spoiling the city and spoiling the palace and spoiling the house of the Lord and spoiling the houses and the homes of the people that were inhabitants of Jerusalem. They took part in all of that. And God saw that. And they provoked God to a point where they would be destroyed themselves. And so in verse 15 and 16, We see their punishment it says for the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen as thou has done It shall be done unto thee thy reward shall return upon thine own head For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain so shall all the heathen drink continually yea They shall drink and they shall swallow down and they shall be as though they had not been Essentially what these verses are saying is that they would reap what they sow And that's a universal law, I mean, found throughout the scriptures, right? The law of sowing and reaping. I mean, it's evident in creation, and it's evident in spiritual things as well. And we reap what we sow, and the Edomites had sowed violence, and they had sowed deception, and they had sowed bitterness, and they had sowed anger and wrath and malice, and they were going to reap all of these things. And what was different about their situation and Israel's, the Jewish people's, was that when they were carried away captive, they were going to be consumed, and they were going to be forgotten to time in history. The Edomites would never really ever return back to their lands and have control over there. There's no land of Edom today. I mean, there's still some lands in the Middle East that bear more or less the names of the historic people that are there. Cities and places and towns, there's no Edomites. There's no land of Edom in the Middle East right now. They consumed and put out of time and space. And so they were punished and punished for how they had and treated the Israelites. And the Lord turns here in verse 17, and He turns from Edom and He turns to Israel, and He speaks to Edom, the Edomites, on behalf of the Israelites. And He shows this contrast and this difference between how the Lord was going to deal with them and how the Lord was going to deal with His people. Because in verse 17, it says, And that's Israel, that's Jerusalem. That's the city of David, but upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness, and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions, and the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, excuse me, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them and devour them, and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau for the Lord hath spoken it. and they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau, and they of the plain of the Philistines, and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead, and the possession, I'm sorry, and the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath, and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south, and a savior shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. And so while the Lord is pronouncing thorough judgment against Esau and against Edom, the Lord is making a promise of return and restoration to the Israelites, that of deliverance, that of a return of holiness and sanctity and sanctification and blessing. Israel will overcome their enemies and their oppressors, but Edom will be annihilated. It says that, again, that There shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau. It says that in verse 18. Not any remaining of the house of Esau. And that their lands that they had possessed and really controlled since the time of Esau, hundreds of years at that point, generation after generation, they would never again possess that land. They would be completely taken off of their own lands and none shall remain of the house of Esau. God's, God's people instead would, would possess and rule over those lands and it would be a part of the, the kingdom of the Lord. And the book closes with that phrase, the kingdom shall be the Lord's. And again, Obadiah, is a warning to those who would stand against and rise against and participate in that which would do harm to God's people in some way. Through pride, through bitterness, and through selfishness and all of that, those things just lead to destruction and missing out on the potential blessings that they could have received. Esau received somewhat of a blessing from his father Isaac, not the blessing, but he received a blessing of sorts. And the Lord did out of Esau make him a donation. And that could have been something the Lord blessed and there could have been a camaraderie there. There could have been a cooperation between Israel and Edom down through the ages and down through the years. And when the enemies came up against Israel and Judah, the Edomites, the Moabites, the Ammonites are all these nations that were of really of the same heritage. Out of the lineage of Abraham, essentially, they should have been able to cooperate together and stand together, confederate together against these great enemy forces that were coming up against them, but because of pride and because of bitterness and because of selfishness, that never did happen. And it's a shame when that happens on a national scale like that, but it's a shame when it happens on a personal scale. where people, rather than being forgiving and reconciling and finding restoration, rather allow their pride and their bitterness to continue forward, a hurtful spirit down to the defiles many around, down to other generations and out to further and further circles of influence. It really is a shameful thing. And Obadiah stands really as a cautionary tale against living a prideful and embittered existence. And we should certainly take note of that. We should certainly be careful about that. That is not who we are or what we are becoming, prideful and embittered for offenses well in the past, where we have been given truth and instruction about how to forgive and how to reconcile and how to address and confront those kinds of things so that we can move forward and not be defiled by bitterness and not be lifted up in pride unto our destruction. And so with that, let's go ahead and close tonight. We'll take just a few moments here this evening to pray before we conclude and dismiss the service tonight. And so if you would, join me with your heads bowed for a time here of prayer. We'll have a few moments here where the music will play and give us an opportunity to