Isaiah 36:1 - 37:7 - Don't Fear the Accuser

Okay, as you know, pastor Doug and pastor Micah are preaching through the book of Isaiah and church friends, we've come to chapter 36 today.

So turn there with me Isaiah, chapter 36.

Isaiah 36 · chapter mention

Actually, our text for today is 36, verse 1, through 37, verse 7.

Isaiah 36:1

Isaiah chapters 36 to 39 serve as a turning point in the prophecy of Isaiah.

Isaiah 36 · chapter mention

These chapters consist of narratives that are also contained in 2 Kings, chapters 18 to 20.

2 Kings 18 · chapter mention

They're nearly identical.

There are some differences, but they're nearly identical and they function both as a conclusion to chapters 1 to 39 and serves as a transition to what follows.

These chapters chapters 36, 37, 38, and 39, focus on three events involving Hezekiah and Isaiah First of all and we'll deal with that today and next week the Assyrian invasion of Jerusalem's miraculous deliverance.

Second, we'll be looking at Hezekiah's fatal illness and his miraculous healing.

And third, we'll look at a visit by a delegation from Babylon.

These chapters bridge the present threat of Assyria and the future conquest by Babylon, and they set the stage for the themes of exile and the comfort and hope for restoration that dominate the latter part of the book, chapters 40 to 66.

So let's go to God in prayer.

Heavenly Father, I ask that you open our eyes so that we see wonderful things out of your word.

Show us your ways, o Lord, and teach us your paths, amen.

In ancient times, sailors would look to the stars in the heaven for navigation, but when clouds start to come in, in the cloudiness of storms, they relied on their knowledge, their expert knowledge.

They called it dead reckoning, but that's a fancy term for best guessing.

Who or what can you trust to guide you through situations like that?

In the same way your own lives?

Storms often cloud our vision.

This is really tested when we face life's fiercest storms.

Storms in your life have a way of producing anxiety and fear.

Sometimes the stormy waves bury you under and you might doubt God.

You might even forget God in your situation and end up making decisions in your life without God.

This may prove to be disastrous.

Today we'll take a look at the life of Hezekiah.

The Bible tells us that he did what was right in the Lord's sight, just as his ancestor David did.

That's 2 Chronicles 29, verse 2.

2 Chronicles 29:2

But there was a season in his life when he faced one of his fiercest storms and was challenged by this question who can I really trust?

Some of us may be going through our own storms right now or about to enter a storm that we don't even know about.

So the practical question for you and me is how can fear, even the most intense form, turn into trusting God's promises?

We'll tackle this question by examining three aspects of Hezekiah's life as he weathered through this storm.

The first identify intimidation and fear.

Second, ignore the insulting influences.

And third, invoke God's intervention.

So our first point identify the intimidation and fear.

There are two sources of intimidation and fear that Hezekiah, king of Judah, identified.

The first is the intimidating power of the massive Assyrian army and the second one is the intimidating power of the Assyrian royal spokesman.

So let's look at intimidating power first of the Assyrian army.

Let's look at intimidating power first of the Assyrian army.

During the course of our studies in Isaiah, we've had various encounters with the Assyrian empire.

In Isaiah's prophecies, assyria's rise as a consolidated, expanding empire was reaching its height during the reigns of King Ahaz and now here in King Hezekiah.

Assyria built up its reputation as an intimidating force to be reckoned with.

This was due to three success factors First, its military innovations.

Second, they had an empire-wide communication system that was second to none.

And third, there was a resettlement policy.

First, the military innovations.

They had the use of a cavalry that was a shock force, that was well-equipped, well-trained and they effectively neutralized enemy defenses.

They were also effective in reconnaissance, effectively neutralized enemy defenses.

They were also effective in reconnaissance.

But one of the highlights of their military innovations was the development of siege warfare.

They built battering rams, siege towers.

They were incredibly effective and they had their mark now in military history.

The empire's communication system allowed the Assyrian king and his officials to communicate empire-wide.

This was through a relay system and this depended on well-constructed and well-maintained roads throughout the empire.

And thirdly, assyria's resettlement policy.

We see this in how they treated the conquered peoples.

This resettlement policy had two purposes.

The first one, a negative one, is to break their identity and their spirit so that they will no longer rebel against Assyria, and Assyria did this by relocating the populations into areas across the empire.

The second one was a positive one for the empire.

The second purpose was that they used these peoples and relocated them so they could bring new agricultural techniques to develop new lands for the empire.

Well, using these advancements, assyria conquered Samaria in 720 BC, taking the northern tribes of Israel into exile and settling them across Mesopotamia.

Almost 20 years later, the Assyrian king Sennacherib, in our text today, continued to expand the empire and launched a military campaign into Judah in 701 BC.

These mighty Assyrians thought they were invincible.

So this brings us to verse 1, chapter 36.

Turn with me there.

In the 14th year of King Hezekiah, king Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

Then the king of Assyria sent his royal spokesman, along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.

The Assyrian stood near the conduit of the upper pool by the road to Launderer's Field.

Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, shebna, the court secretary, and Joah, son of Asaph.

The court historian came out to him.

Housed in the British Museum in London is Sennacherib's annals.

This was a collection of his military campaigns written on a stone prism.

These also include the account of his invasion of the kingdom of Judah.

These annals state that Sennacherib laid siege to 46 of Hezekiah's fortified cities from north to south of Judah and conquered them using siege, siege rams and battering rams and his foot soldiers.

And in the wake of this destruction, sennacherib destroyed Tyre and Philistia.

Sennacherib also defeated Egypt, and you remember who Egypt was and how Egypt played into this whole story around here.

But he defeated the Egyptian army which came up to help Hezekiah, but they were no help.

Hezekiah's alliance in Egypt for assistance failed.

Isaiah had previously warned Hezekiah multiple times against seeking alliances with Egypt, but Hezekiah took matters in his own hands.

Judah's neighbors also, edom Moab, were just as weak as Judah and were preoccupied with their own survival.

To help, to help offer any help, hezekiah was left alone.

He was isolated, no longer with any nation to turn to for assistance.

So why did Sennacherib seek to destroy Judah?

Well, isaiah here does not tell us.

But 2 Kings 18, verse 7, indicates that King Hezekiah rebelled against the king of Assyria.

2 Kings 18:7

Remember, judah became a vassal state of Assyria under Hezekiah's father, king Ahaz.

He made an alliance with Assyria in 2 Kings, chapter 16.

2 Kings 16 · chapter mention

When Sennacherib conducted his military campaign into Judah and conquered those 46 fortified cities and numerous villages along the way, he came to Lachish and sieged it.

Lachish was one of the most important cities in Judah, it was second in importance to Jerusalem and Lachish was only 35 miles southwest of the capital city, jerusalem.

Sennacherib had his crosshairs really targeting Jerusalem, though Hezekiah acknowledged the slaughter that had already occurred throughout the land.

It was a result of his poor decisions and he left only a small portion of Judah's population living only in Jerusalem.

The threat of the Assyrians so intimidated Hezekiah that he thought he could use gold to buy peace.

And we see this in 2 Kings 18.

You don't have to turn there.

I'll read from verses 14 to 15.

Kings 18.

You don't have to turn there.

I'll read from 14, verses 14 to 15.

So Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish.

I've done wrong.

Withdraw from me.

Whatever you demand from me, I will pay.

The king of Assyria demanded 11 tons of silver and one ton of gold from King Hezekiah of Judah.

So Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in the Lord's temple and in the treasuries of the king's palace.

Sennacherib accepted this tribute, but he then abandoned his agreement.

He proceeded to send a massive army from Lachish to Jerusalem.

He demanded total submission from Hezekiah.

Sennacherib planned to permanently eliminate any further trouble from Judah.

Hezekiah's plan of self-reliance, his self-reliance to remove Assyrian domination, failed again.

First time it was the failure of the Egyptian alliance.

The second time now it's the failure of the tribute payment to bring peace, although Hezekiah genuinely trusted in God, and we see that in 2 Kings 18 and in 2 Chronicles 29.

His desire to be entirely free from Assyrian domination led him, in his own thinking, to formulate his form and policy without regard for God and without considering the message from God that Isaiah presented.

So the first source of intimidation was the mighty Assyrian army.

Let's take a look at now how the Assyrian royal spokesman created the intimidation.

The Assyrian royal spokesman, also known as Rabshakeh in other Bible translations, was joined by two other leading Assyrian officials With the massive Assyrian army behind them.

They stood at the wall of Jerusalem, a short distance from King Hezekiah's palace, and, as a representative of the Assyrian empire, that spokesman spoke on behalf of the king, king of Assyria, king Sennacherib, to Hezekiah's three officials, and this is recorded in verses 4 to 10.

That spokesman used verbal bullying and he used persuasive logic to undermine Judah's confidence in Egypt, in King Hezekiah himself and God.

If the Assyrian envoy was able to achieve success in causing Hezekiah's surrender, the Assyrians would have accomplished their goal without any losses, without military effort.

So let's see how the Assyrian spokesman tried to achieve this.

First is verbal bullying.

Let's look at verses 4 and 5.

We see this there.

First is verbal bullying.

Let's look at verses 4 and 5.

We see this there.

The royal spokesman said to them Tell Hezekiah the great king.

The king of Assyria says this what are you relying on?

You think mere words are strategy and strength for war.

Who are you now relying on that?

You have rebelled against me.

Observe the tone of these words spoken by the Assyrian spokesman.

In verse 4, he referred to the Assyrian king as the great king, the king of Assyria, but he called out Hezekiah by name only, without addressing him as king, disrespecting him as the king of Judah.

He also dismissed King Hezekiah's confidence by saying that it was supported by mere words.

That was not supported by a sound strategy nor by the force of arms.

That was verse 5.

The Assyrian king's spokesman mocked Hezekiah by challenging him on whom and on what he was trusting in.

The word translated in the Christian Standard Bible text as rely on or relying on, is mentioned six times in seven verses.

Here, for example, we read in verse five who are you now relying on that?

You have rebelled against me.

The Assyrian royal spokesman used also persuasive logic to further intimidate King Hezekiah, and he said this and made four points.

First, sennacherib thought through.

His spokesman mocked Judah's trust in Egypt.

Look at verse 6 with me.

Look, you are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who grabs it and lean on it.

This is how the pharaoh, king of Egypt, is to all who rely on him.

By the time that Sennacherib besieged Lachish, he had already defeated Egyptians' army.

He had already defeated Egypt's army.

Second, the royal spokesman questioned Hezekiah's religious reforms.

We see this in verse 7.

He mistakenly interpreted Hezekiah's earlier removal of the high places, the altars, as an insult to God, when in fact these actions were really aimed at eliminating idol worship for the Jews.

Yet the Assyrian spokesman figured that Hezekiah alienated Judah's God by removing all the places of worship except for the altar in the Temple of Jerusalem.

Third, we see in verses 8 and 9 that the Assyrian spokesman sarcastically challenged Judah's military strength.

He offered to provide 2,000 horses if Hezekiah could find riders for them, and he knew that Hezekiah could not.

Fourth, the Assyrian royal spokesman claimed that the Assyrian invasion was divinely sanctioned, and we see this in verse 10.

Turn there, verse 10.

Have I attacked this land to destroy it without the Lord's approval?

The Lord said to me attack this land and destroy it.

He asserted that the Lord had instructed him to attack and destroy the land.

This rhetoric was delivered loudly in front of Jerusalem's walls, to all those who were sitting on it and could hear it.

This intimidation by both the Assyrian royal spokesman and the Assyrian army show us how fear can easily overwhelm us when we focus only on the visible circumstances.

The visible circumstances Losing 46 fortified cities, along with the many, many villages in Judah severely shook Hezekiah's composure.

The Assyrians' message focused on the visible path of Sennacherib's destruction, and now the present siege of Jerusalem pointed to an unavoidable destruction of Jerusalem itself.

Can you feel the weight on Hezekiah now self?

Can you feel the weight on Hezekiah now?

The Assyrian threats symbolize the external challenges that you and I face.

Are you facing opposition?

While you encounter opposition, the world can tempt you to compromise your values and can cause you to distance yourselves from your Christian convictions.

The demands of the workplace, for example, can lead to increased responsibility and pressure, potentially putting a strain on your relationships at home and at church.

For Christian parents, they are heavily challenged every day with the values promoted in public, schools, the media and society and how they affect our school-aged children.

And if you find yourself facing constant criticism or even harsh behavior from family members about your faith in Jesus Christ.

You might even find despair closing in on you.

These barriers can seem insurmountable and we often ask does God really have this under control for me?

But wait, identifying the source of your intimidation and fear is only the first step towards turning your fears into trusting God's promises.

The second step is to ignore these insulting influences that usually cause you to feel the fear, and this is our second point.

Ignore the insulting influences.

Influences, the ridicule that Hezekiah received and the futile negotiation attempts that went on put a damper on Hezekiah trusting God.

Worldly voices often dismiss God's power and dissuade us from trusting in him.

How were these worldly voices affecting Hezekiah?

Well, let's look at verse 11.

Then Eliakim Shebna and Joah said to the royal spokesman please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it, don't speak to us in Hebrew, with an earshot of the people who are on the wall.

Hezekiah's royal officials were well aware of the psychological impact that the Assyrian spokesman's words were having on those gathered on the city walls while watching the events in front of them unfold.

Hezekiah's three officials protested immediately that he was not following diplomatic protocol by delivering a message to the king in a way that others could understand.

You see, aramaic was the common language of the Assyrian kings and was spoken for international diplomacy, but only later was it expanded to be used in trade and other communication.

The ordinary people of Judah at that time didn't know how to speak Aramaic.

They didn't understand it.

It was not until their return from the Babylonian exile that Aramaic became commonly used in Judah, and that was 200 years or more after this incident with Hezekiah.

So now let's look at the content of these worldly voices that Hezekiah heard.

We see this in verses 12 to 16.

Verse 12,.

But the royal spokesman replied has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?

Then the royal spokesman stood and called out loudly in Hebrew Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

This is what the king says Don't let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot rescue you.

Don't let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the Lord, saying the Lord will certainly rescue us.

This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.

Don't listen to Hezekiah.

You see.

The Assyrian royal spokesman highlighted the dire consequences of a prolonged siege and mentioned the shortage of food and water.

The Assyrian spokesman's words were meant to instill fear and panic and to undermine their trust in King Hezekiah as well as their trust in God.

The Assyrian spokesman reminded the general people of the hard facts of siege warfare, calling out to the people in Hebrew.

The Assyrian spokesman ridiculed Hezekiah.

He urged the Jerusalem residents not to let Hezekiah deceive them into thinking that God, their God, will deliver them.

The Assyrian spokesman tried to convince the people that Sennacherib promised them prosperity in another land.

That's verses 16 and 17.

He says make peace with me and surrender to me.

Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you.

The spokesman from Assyria also exhorted the people not to be deceived by Hezekiah, saying that even the gods of the other nations who were conquered by Assyria were not able even to save them.

And you see that in verses 18 to 20.

Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying the Lord will rescue us.

Has anyone of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?

Where are the gods of Sepharim?

Have they rescued Samaria from my power?

Who, among all the gods of these lands, ever rescued his land from my power?

So, will the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?

Will the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?

So why should we ignore such insulting influences?

The Syrian spokesman's speech planted seeds of doubt.

He set up Hezekiah to question God's capacity to save.

Worldly voices can cause us to doubt God's power.

They can be very persuasive and particularly effective, especially when we're already feeling dejected.

This point should encourage us, as believers, to discern and silence these negative spiritual influences and to cling to the trustworthiness of God's word rather than the worldly voices that we hear when we're not firmly grounded in God's word.

Those worldly voices sound like megaphones to our ears and can successfully persuade us to turn away from depending on God.

Have you ever tried to shout over a megaphone?

It's impossible to hear anything else In our lives.

We often let the megaphones of social media, gossip and even busyness drown out God's whispers.

It's like standing next to a loudspeaker at a concert, completely missing the beautiful melody God is trying to share with us.

Let's turn down the volume of distractions and turn in to his voice instead.

So, when facing the storms of life, identify what is causing fear and then ignore the insulting influences from the world.

And lastly, we need to invoke God's intervention.

This is our third point Invoke God's intervention.

Hezekiah's response was to go to God in prayer.

Hezekiah approached God with a penitent heart.

How did Hezekiah demonstrate his penitence?

First, hezekiah owned up to his sin.

Hezekiah accepted full responsibility as king for the disaster that the nation had come under.

We see this in chapter 37, verse 1.

It reads when Hezekiah heard their report, the report from the three officials, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went to the Lord's temple.

This act was more than just the formal expression of distress and penitence.

Wearing sackcloth was a sign of mourning for the dead or of penitence, deep penitence for sin.

In dressing this way, hezekiah publicly confessed that he had misdirected the people of Judah as he walked, dressing like that, to the temple.

And in addition, probably running through Hezekiah's mind as he walked to the temple, he might have been ruminating over the promises that the Lord had already spoken to him through Isaiah, such as in chapter 31, verse 8,.

Hezekiah said a message from the Lord.

Then Assyria will fall, but not by human sword.

A sword will devour him, but not one made by man will devour him, but not one made by man.

He also may have been thinking about another promise that Isaiah brought to him from the Lord In chapter 38,.

Chapter 38 is coming up and we'll be getting to that.

But I'll mention, though, that chapters 38 and 39, the events there in chronological time sequence occurred before chapter 36 and 37.

But in chapter 38, verses 4 to 6, isaiah writes Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah.

Go and tell Hezekiah this is what the Lord, god of your ancestors, david, says I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears and I will rescue you in the city from the grasp of the king of Assyria.

I will defend this city.

We're not told what Hezekiah did in the temple in this text, but he undoubtedly would have offered sacrifice for his sins and brought the nation's situation before God in prayer, and he called upon God to intervene.

Hezekiah also acknowledged God's displeasure in him In chapter 37, verse 3, 37, verse 3.

This is what Hezekiah says.

Today is a day of distress, rebuke and disgrace.

No-transcript distress.

Distress is a result of external pressures and constraints that produce internal anxiety.

There is no doubt that judah was in extremely bad circumstances.

Rebuke the word used here points to the lord not being pleased with the behavior of Judah and her king.

Judah found herself on the verge of national collapse, so it was not a simple verbal reproof or condemnation.

Judah received the just penalty for her sin, and the word disgrace Disgrace is the result of God rejecting those who rejected him.

As Isaiah introduced his prophecies.

He said in chapter 1, verse 4, o sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, brood of evildoers, depraved children.

They have abandoned the Lord.

They have despised the Holy One of Israel.

They have turned their backs on him.

Judah used to enjoy God's favor, but now, having forgotten God and failing to honor him, god left Judah to experience his rejection.

The tension inside Hezekiah now caused him to realize that the predicament that he and Judah found themselves in was more than just a political and military crisis.

At the very root of this situation was a crisis of faith.

It's the result of the sin of not believing in God's promises, the sin of not believing in God's promises.

So when Hezekiah's heart reached brokenness, when his pride was broken, he called on God, through Isaiah, to rebuke the king of Assyria.

Let's look at verse 3, the second part of verse 3 and verse 4.

It is as if children have come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.

Perhaps the Lord, your God, will hear all the words of the royal spokesman, whom his master, the king of Assyria, said to mock the living God, and will rebuke him for the words that the Lord, your God, has heard.

Therefore, offer a prayer for the surviving remnants.

Note that Hezekiah was conscious of the extent to which his own conduct had distorted his relationship with God.

Hezekiah could only venture a perhaps.

In making his request to Isaiah, he said perhaps the Lord, your God, will hear all the words, and then he also speaks of your God.

He implies that Isaiah, by his obedience, had maintained a closer relationship with God in a way that Hezekiah and his officials did not.

These are the words of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah's pride had been broken.

But let's look at Isaiah's message.

Now Back to Hezekiah.

In return, it affirms God's intervention.

In contrast to Hezekiah's sense of despair.

Isaiah spoke with calm deliberation and pointed the king to God's promises.

Isaiah said to Hezekiah in verse 6, don't be afraid because of the words you have heard with which the king of Assyria's attendants have blasphemed me.

What was called for was trust, complete trust on the part of Hezekiah, and the promises of God.

These promises had already been revealed to him.

Isaiah assured Hezekiah that God, the covenant-keeping God, the God who established David and the throne of his kingdom forever, david and the throne of his kingdom forever would remedy the threat that the Assyrian army presented.

Back in chapter 9, isaiah said he will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.

Now this sentence is so important.

The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this.

God responded to Hezekiah's call to intervene.

God announced that he was going to do three things in verse 7.

God will put a spirit in Sennacherib.

This was a spirit of deception, such that the Assyrian king would be mentally predisposed to responding to events in the way God wanted.

So, in addition to putting a spirit in Sennacherib, god will cause him to return home after hearing a rumor.

It's not clear what this rumor was, but some have interpreted it to be a rumor that Sennacherib would hear after 185,000 of his troops were slaughtered by God's angel.

We'll see that later on in this chapter next week.

The third thing God said through Isaiah is that God will cause him to fall by the sword.

He will not die from natural causes.

He will not die while directing a military campaign in a foreign land, like Ahaz's his father did.

But the Lord will sovereignly orchestrate the events such that Sennacherib will meet a violent death where he would least expect it.

It would occur in the security of his own homeland.

In fact, his death occurred 20 years after this announcement was made, and we'll talk about that next week.

These three promises imply that Jerusalem will not be defeated, and it wasn't.

But most importantly for Hezekiah is that Hezekiah learned from these words that Sennacherib's end would be dictated entirely on God's terms and by God himself.

There is no room that he could change any of this.

God determined all of this in his own design and plan.

So, friends, in times of crisis, hezekiah's decision to turn to God rather than rely on human strength illustrates true faith, while trusting in his own schemes, whether they are alliances with Egypt or paying tribute to the king of Assyria to get him off his back, to the king of Assyria to get him off his back.

His fears persisted.

In fact, all these things he did didn't help King Hezekiah one bit, but in fact it made things worse for him.

Knowing and fully trusting God's promises, as Hezekiah eventually did, is the basis of reassurance and deliverance for believers.

While identifying his fears before the Lord and ignoring the insulting influences from his enemies, hezekiah turned to holding fast onto God's promises and then invoked God's intervention.

The loud threats of the enemy were replaced with a gentle and quiet strength found in faith.

The season of Hezekiah's life demonstrates how God hears and acts on behalf of his people, and emphasizes that faith in God's promises will lead us away from fear to trusting in God's steadfast promises.

It may require that your pride be broken, though this passage ultimately foreshadows Jesus' victory over our greatest fears, sin and the wages of sin death, reminding us that, just as Hezekiah found deliverance, we too can find deliverance to an internal hope and reassurance through Jesus Christ alone, who is our fortress and refuge.

If you haven't trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I ask you consider how you will face the death penalty for your sin?

Will you be like Hezekiah as he faced the Assyrian army?

Who can you trust to deliver you Yourself, your own good work?

Is that your pride or the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who knew no sin but became sin?

For us to become the righteousness of God and therefore we no longer fear death or sin.

Romans 8 tells us for there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

For there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

By keeping our eyes on the Lord and holding fast to the promises found in his word, like the ancient sailors who looked into the stars for navigational guidance, we can trust that the light will return as life's storm clouds pass, and through faith, our fears will turn into trusting in what God has promised.

Let's pray, heavenly Father.

I pray that when we face life's fiercest storms, we can say Lord, I trust in you and you alone.

Remove our fears and anxieties.

Cause us to hold fast to your promises.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.