Nahum

Morning Port City for our Bible reading.

This morning we will be reading a selection of verses from the

book of Nahum. You can find Nahum on page 734

if you're using the Bible under your chair.

If you don't have a copy of Scripture of your own, we invite

you to take this copy with you today.

We're going to start by reading the first chapter in its

entirety, and then we will read chapter 2, verses one through 4

and then eight through 13, and then chapter 3, verse 1 and 19.

An Oracle concerning Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum

of Elkhosh. The Lord is a jealous and

avenging God. The Lord is avenging and

wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his

adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord

will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the

dust of His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it

dry. He dries up all the rivers.

Bashan and Carmel wither. The bloom of Lebanon Withers.

The mountains quake before him, the hills melt.

The earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.

Who can stand before his indignation?

Who can endure the heat of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken

into pieces by him. The Lord is good, a stronghold

in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge

in Him, but with an overflowing flood He will make a complete

end of the adversaries and will pursue his enemies Into

Darkness. What do you plot against the

Lord? He will make a complete end.

Trouble will not rise up a second time, for they are like

entangled thorns, like drunkards.

As they drink, they are consumed like stubble fully dried.

From you came one who plotted evil against the Lord, a

worthless counsellor. Thus says the Lord, though they

are at full strength, in many they will be cut down and pass

away. Though I have afflicted you, I

will afflict you no more. And now I will break his yoke

from off you, and will burst your bonds apart.

The Lord has given commandment about you.

No more shall your name be perpetuated from the House of

your gods. I will cut off the carved image

and the metal image. I will make your grave, for you

were vile. Behold upon the mountains the

feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace.

Keep your feasts, O Judah. Fulfill your vows, for never

again shall the worthless pass through you.

He is utterly cut off. The scatterer has come up

against you, man the ramparts. Watch the road.

Dress for battle. Collect all your strength.

For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty

of Israel. For plunderers have plundered

them and ruined their branches. The shield of his mighty men is

red. His soldiers are clothed in

scarlet. The Chariots come with flashing

metal on the day he mustards them.

The Cypress Spears are brandished.

The Chariots race madly through the streets.

They rush to and fro through the squares.

They gleam like torches. They dart like lightning.

Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away.

Halt, halt. They cry, but none turns back.

Plunder the silver, plunder the gold.

There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious

things, desolate, desolation and ruin.

Hearts melt and knees tremble. Anguish is in all loins.

All faces grow pale. Where is the lion's den?

The feeding place of the Young Lions, Where the lion and the

lioness went, where his Cubs were with none to disturb.

The lion tore enough for his Cubs in strangled prey.

For his lionesses he filled his caves with prey and his dens

with torn flesh. Behold, I am against you,

declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your Chariots and

smoke, and the sword shall devour your Young Lions.

I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your

messengers shall no longer be heard.

Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder.

No end to the prey. There is no easing your hurt.

Your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you

clap their hands over you, for upon whom has not come your

unceasing evil. This is God's true word.

Good morning. Poor city, family and friends.

How are we doing? That was OK Hope you guys are

doing better than that was. But my name is Ron.

I am one of the pastors here. And last weekend I was at one of

my boys YMCA basketball games and there was this parent that

was about to absolutely crash out because their team was not

getting fouls called against them or for them rather.

And so I'm thinking to myself, man, like, calm down.

This is just YMCA basketball. It's not a big deal.

They are doing the best that they can.

But if I'm honest with you, you know, let it be my child who is

on the other side of that and he's getting hacked.

I'd be like, I, I need to see the supervisor.

Like right now, I would 100% be sort of irate as this gentleman

was. You know, it's, it's funny how

calm, you know, we can be if things are going, you know, for

us or if it's affecting someone else.

But how passionate we become when it's about us or when it

affects us, right? So if someone, you know, lies to

you or dishonest, you want justice, right?

If someone exploits the vulnerable, you want justice.

If somebody what's in front of you at the Chick-fil-A line,

which is already long and you're having to wait even longer, you

want justice. But when you fail, or when you

speak too fast, or when you compromise, or when you do

something that is dishonest, you want mercy.

We instinctively long for justice when we are wounded, but

we want mercy when we are exposed.

And I see that tension in my job every single day as the Dean of

students. When students are wronged, they

want accountability. They want consequences.

They want fairness, right? But let it be them who was

caught. They want understanding.

Please don't tell my Mama, you know, my hand accidentally hit

him. You know, like he ran into, I

get all kinds of stuff, right? And so, but if we're honest,

right, we often want a guy that operates in the same way.

We want a guy that is patient with us, but swift with them.

We want in the pride of our hearts, we want a God who judges

them but yet forgives us. And that tension, that sort of

internal contradiction is exactly where the the book of

Nahum meets us. If you are new, I want to say

welcome. We have been journeying through

a series in the Minor Prophets and today we are looking at the

book of Nahum. And so for context, Judah has

been God's people has been living under fear.

The Assyrian Empire is a superpower and they have crushed

nations, they've destroyed cities, they've deported

families, they've ruled in terror.

And Nineveh is the capital city and it's it's infamous for its

violence, for its brutality. This is not like a mildly fault.

Flawed people, like they are violently oppressive.

And so God's people are asking God, you know, where is God?

Does God see what's happening? Does evil?

When is violence the final word? And into that fear comes the

prophet Nahum with a message of comfort.

That's what his name means, comfort.

And he has a message that says, no, God sees, God remembers, and

God will act. And the book of Nahum also

forces us to wrestle with this question that, you know, is a

God who never judges. Is he really?

Is he really good? See, at the core of Nahum's

message is judgment and really the, you know, the violent fall

of an empire. Through that judgment, we see

something essential, and this is the main idea for the text

today. We see that God's goodness is

revealed in his refusal to allow violence and evil have the final

word. Regardless of where you are

today, whether you are a believer in Christ or whether

you are seeking, you know, you are exploring the faith, don't

you want that to be true? Don't you want there to be a God

who sees what's evil and judges it rightly?

In light of what we are facing right now, I think the book of

Nahum is a very timely word. And so I'm going to pray for us

really quickly and then we are going to dive in to what is not

an easy book. Will you pray with me?

God? I only want to bring you glory.

Father, would you please use me? Holy Spirit, speak through me.

God, would you open our eyes to see?

Would you open our ears to hear your word?

Would you open our hearts this morning to receive your word?

It's in your beautiful name we pray.

Amen. All right, so a century earlier,

this very people, the people of Nineveh, God has sent a prophet

to them. His name was Jonah.

And Jonah brought this message. They repentant and God relented,

right? And so in our series, you might

have noticed we did skip the book of Jonah.

That is because Pastor Tanner is going to be preaching Jonah for

Easter. All right, so you should come

back. In some ways, you know, Nahum is

a sequel to the book of Jonah. So I guess you got to come back

for part A because this is kind of Part B.

But we hope you you'll come and be with us for Easter.

And so, you know, again, the but it by the time Nahum comes

around, the people have returned to their wickedness.

They have returned to violence, return to cruelty.

It has escalated and their pride has deepened.

And so again, I mentioned the book of Nahum is not a, it's not

a soft book, it's not an easy one, but it is a comforting 1.

And it certainly was comforting for the people of Judah.

And so we're going to take the book in three turns, all right?

And so I've kind of set this up in a way that we're going to, in

the backdrop are going to be 3 questions that you can use when

you are doing your personal Bible study.

You anytime you're reading a text, you can ask these three

questions and they will help you sort of get to the, the heart

and the meaning of the text. The 1st is what does it say

about God? What does it say about humanity?

And how should this shape us? What should we do in light of

this text? All right.

And so the first point we're going to see is we're going to

see God's character and and we're going to see what this

reveals about God. And so Nahum, it does not begin

with Nineveh, it begins with God.

So starting in verse 2, it says the Lord is a jealous and

avenging God. The Lord is avenging and

wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his

adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power.

And the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in the whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the

dust of His feet. Now that is not sentimental

language at all. If you were looking for a new

throw pillow, you are probably not going to have those verses

on it, right? Not on a mug, right?

But it is deeply revealing about God's character.

So let's walk through it carefully.

God is jealous. Say jealous.

Now listen, when we think jealous, we immediately think

insecurity, right? So, you know, like being jealous

of someone's shoes or their outfit, you know that you ain't

got it. But God's jealousy is not, not

that way at all. God's jealousy does not come

from lack. It doesn't come from insecurity.

Biblical jealousy is covenant language, right?

Think about a marriage, right? A you know, it is a covenant

commitment, like a husband who refuses to share his wife,

right? If if the husband didn't care

who the wife went home with, that'd be a problem, right?

Wouldn't be loving at all. And so this jealousy gets at

covenant faithfulness. God is jealous for his people.

God is avenging and wrathful avenging, you know it.

And wrathful avenging doesn't mean explosive or impulsive, you

know, it means morally serious. In other words, it it means that

injustice will not be ignored. It means that violence won't be

shrugged at. It means there is no excuse for

the the I'm sorry. The oppressed will not be

excused, right? God's wrath is not allowing evil

to go unanswered, right? And his anger is not moodiness,

right? I know my, my, I'm sorry, my,

his wrath isn't moodiness. I know often times that is mine,

right? I am, you know, if I did not

sleep well or if I'm hangry, right again, God didn't wake up

in a mood and said who didn't have their quiet time?

Let me get him. You know, like that's not.

We tend to imagine anger as losing control, but God's anger

is not that. It is controlled.

It is purposeful. It is just.

And so again, if somebody was to walk in here right now and they

begin harming the little children in here, and I said,

whoa, buddy, let's just talk about our feelings right now,

you would be like, what? Like absolutely not.

Like that would not be the right response.

That would be disturbing. Why?

Because there is a right response that is like, no,

that's a right response to evil. And so that gets at, you know,

God's heart in terms of being eventual and avenging and

wrathful. God is slow to anger.

I love this right after describing God's vengeance,

Nahum reminds us that the Lord is slow to anger and great in

power, right. His judgement is not it's not

impulsive. It is measured is it is

intentional. Nineveh had already experienced

God's mercy in the days of Jonah and God relented and they, you

know, when they repented. So his patience was real in

that. But his patience is not

permission, right? Delay is not a denial of

justice. Unrepentant violence will not

last forever. And and you know, guys, delay is

not him not caring it it is not that great empower.

If God delays judgement, it's not because he lacks power.

It is because he is merciful and he has a plan and there is an

intention, you know, in in thinking about God's power.

There is no empire that's too big for him, too strong for him.

There is no injustice that is too entrenched that he can't

deliver or redeem. There is no oppressor beyond his

reach. Nineveh in the ancient times

looked invincible and God says I am greater.

One way he is showing his Nahum is showing his power is through

his control over creation. Look at verse 4.

It says he rebukes the sea and makes it dry.

He dries up the rivers Bashan and caramel Bashans known for

his rich pasture land. Caramel is some mountainous

areas that are known for his beauty.

The bloom of Lebanon Withers. Lebanon being mountains regions

in north of Israel. The mountains quake before him,

the hills melt. The earth heaves before him, the

world and all who dwells in it. God rebukes the sea, He drives

up the rivers. Mountains quake.

You see, mountains in the ancient world symbolized

permanence, and Nahum says that even what looks immovable,

right? It melts before me like He is

above it all. He is in control of it all.

He's sovereign over it all. And this is not a tame or mild

God. Let's continue.

Again, in the middle of that judgement language comes this

anchor. The Lord is good a stronghold in

the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge

in him. Guys, the the placement of this

verse is extremely intentional. I want you to notice the timing.

It's it says not after the storm, not instead of receiving

judgement, but smack dab in the middle of it.

God is good. He is a stronghold in the day of

trouble, and I want don't want us to miss this.

God's anger is not the opposite of his goodness, but it is the

expression of his goodness. In other words, God goodness is

not, it's not suspended. It's not, you know, revoked when

he judges, but God's goodness is displayed when he judges.

And so again, he is a stronghold.

It's and, and again, I know I before really this week and

deeply studying this passage, I didn't, I've used the word

stronghold before. I don't know if you knew exactly

what it meant, but I did not. But a stronghold is not like the

absence of trouble, but it's safety in the midst of it.

And so I, you know, I was looking at a couple analogies to

try to drive this point home. And does it anybody know what a

breakwater is? A breakwater.

OK, all right, I expected that guy to know.

So a breakwater, right? Is is this engineering sort of

offshore? It really is just like rocks and

concrete and it's designed to protect harbors, right?

So again, the the ocean is violent, but the breakwater is

there. It takes the impact of the waves

and the ocean. And so right behind the, this

breakwater, this, this, I mean, slab of concrete and rocks on

right, on the other side, the ships are just chilling, right,

because the breakwater is absorbing the impact, absorbing

the, the contact, you know, And so in, in other words, you know,

God being our, our stronghold really gets at that.

You know, he is the one who is absorbing and taking, you know,

what is coming to us. Again, he's a stronghold that he

is. Again, it's not that the, the,

the, the, the storm is not existing, but he is with us in

the midst of the storm. He absorbs the force.

And I'm going to come back to that.

Another helpful language for the folks that don't know, you know,

breakwaters and can't visualize that, you know, just imagine

this idea of, you know, a parent being with their kid and you

know, what if, if some danger comes, what is the first action

of the parent? It is to get in front of the

child, right? It is to protect them from the

threat that is coming toward them.

That that is the image of a stronghold he's getting in front

of doesn't mean that the threat's not there.

The you know the the issue isn't there, but he is there with us

in front of. What is coming?

And that is you know what Nahum wants the the people of Judah to

understand? See for the oppressed, this

judgement of God is is rescue, is is relief, it is vindication.

If God never judges evil, then evil wins.

But Nahum is saying no, God won't let it.

So how can God be good and judge so violently?

We got to understand that judgement and Nahum is not just

aggression, it is it's intervention.

God is intervening on behalf of His people.

Let's look at turn 2, which is Nineveh's fall.

And as we look at Nineveh's fall, again, the question we're

going to answer is, what does this teach us about man?

And so chapters 2:00 and 3:00, there's a lot of verses that we

skipped again, if you go back and read it again, it's not an

easy read, very descriptive of the fall of of Nineveh.

But let's look at verse 13. It says, behold, I am against

you declare the Lord of hosts. Is there any more terrifying

verse in all the Bible then for God to say I am against you?

You see again, Nineveh thought they were untouchable, but God

said you're not. And listen to how he describes

the fall. Go back up to verse three.

He says the shield of his mighty men is red.

His soldiers are clothed in scarlet.

The Chariots come with flashing Meadow on the day he musters

them, the Cypress Spears are brandished.

The Chariots race madly through the streets.

They rush to and fro through the squares.

They gleam like torches. They dart like lightning.

This should kind of envision or invoke like panic, battle chaos.

All right then verse 8 and 9 just jump down.

Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away.

Halt, halt. They cry, but none turns back.

Plunder the silver silver plunder the gold.

Who was the plunderer now becomes the plundered.

Verse 10 desolate desolation and ruin.

Hearts melt and knees tremble. Guys, the terror that Nineveh

was once or the Syrians were once inflicting upon others.

Now it's filling their own streets and God mocks them.

He in in verse 11 he says where is the lion's den, the feeding

place of the Young Lions where the lion and lioness lionesses.

He filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

Again, what he's saying here is, you know, you guys, you know,

even viewed yourself as they called themselves lions because

they were just walking around devouring lands and attacking

people, right? And again, there was the lion

was a symbol of strength. But God is saying like, where is

your roar now? And chapter 3 verse one, it

intensifies it. Woe to the bloody city, all full

of lies and plunder to no end to pray.

And it the book closes, there is no easing your hurt.

Your wound is grievous. For upon whom has not come your

unceasing evil again. We could keep going.

There's so much that I could say, didn't say.

But you know, this judgment was complete.

It was final. Even that question at the end

where it says you know who, whom your for whom has not come

unceasing evil again. They were a superpower.

They hit. They were known for their

violence, known for their brutality.

God had even used Assyria as an instrument of discipline against

Israel for their rebellion. They had destroyed the northern

Kingdom of Israel, carried his inhabitants into captivity.

But God is saying your violence will not have the last word.

And so Nineveh fell in 612 BC and it fell again, the verses

say. So it was a complete judgement

that historians have even questioned whether or not it

existed. So this great empire, it rose

and it failed just as God said it would see, you know, power,

that the power that Nineveh had did not equal permanence.

The strength did not equal sovereignty.

The violence did not equal victory.

Again, you know, to, to illustrate this, you know, I

think basketball season is kind of ending.

And so there's some teams that are going into the playoffs and,

and one of my from North Carolina, A-Team reached out to

me because they were going to be playing nearby.

And this team had, you know, they were undefeated on the

season. And I had some girls that were

on this team. And so I did not get to go, but

you know, they were going to be playing nearby undefeated.

They were excited going in and they thought that they were kind

of on top of the world, untouchable.

You know, they were undefeated. And it was a long, quiet Rd.

home. They got handed to him.

I mean, they just met and faced a bigger and better opponent.

So much so here. Nahum 1 three.

God does not clear the guilty. And so as we take this this last

turn, we're going to look at the comfort for Judah, the comfort

for Judah. See, Judah was, as I mentioned,

was living in an under intense pressure from the Assyrians.

And being under all of this pressure, they were certainly

tempted to, you know, assimilate to survive.

They were maybe tempted to lose hope in light of all of what

they were under, maybe even compromise morally, you know, to

be accepted. Maybe they were even tempted to

fear Assyria more than Guy, but God speaks into that fear in

verse 13 one chapter one verse 13, he says, I will break this

yoke from you and I will burst your bonds apart.

This oppression that they were under would not last forever.

Verse 2 of chapter 2 says for the Lord is restoring the

majesty of Jacob, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined

their branches. I love this, this, this idea

that God doesn't just remove the enemies, but he restores

dignity. He says he restores the majesty

of Jacob. You know, when you are

oppressed, it has a way of kind of distorting how you see

yourself, right? And so the Assyrians, they

didn't just conquer people, but they humiliated them.

They renamed him. They tried to erase their

cultural identity. But God says I'm restoring the

majesty of Jacob that you are not what they did to you.

You are not the season you survived.

You are not the shame that you carry for Judah.

They were you are Jacob, you are chosen the people of God and for

us in Christ, if we're in Christ, we are sons, we are

daughters and that is such good news.

Chapter 2, verse 2 says that they ruined the the branches.

I'm I'm going to skip past some of that.

But again in the ancient world, defeat and shame.

Again, it was it really was disgraceful, you know, or I'm

sorry. In the ancient world, defeat

meant shame. And so God judges.

When God judges Nineveh, he was publicly vindicating Judah.

And so we now get to sort of, you know, as we shift to sort of

apply this to ourselves, like the uncomfortable question is

when we think about this text, when we think about our lives,

when we think about what's going on, the question is, are we

Judah or are we Nineveh? The honest answer is that we are

both right. We cry for justice when we are

harmed. We crave mercy when we are

exposed. Yeah, we might not build up

military terrors, but we certainly build empires of

pride, self protection, reputation management, you know,

advancing at the expense of others.

We participate in violence with our words, indifference and

greed, prejudice in our hearts. We want justice until it is

aimed at us. And really, the same pride at

the heart of the Ninevites is present within us as well.

Nineveh was. Nineveh was proud and and so are

we. They trusted in their walls, and

we trust in so many of our resources, so many of our skill

sets, so many of what we have, the possessions.

There's so much that we trust in and so pride it.

It not only lived in Assyria, but it certainly lives in

Norfolk. It lives in church leadership.

It lives in polished resumes. It is pervasive.

And so Nineveh says, you know, who can stand against us?

But we, we say all the time, like I got this, like I'm strong

enough, I'm, I'm good enough. I, I, I can do it Like I don't

need God. I can we, we trust in ourselves

where Nineveh trusted Chariots. We trust our own control all the

time, My reputation, our influence.

I know I am guilty of this, our security, the things that we

have. But again, back to that

terrifying question. You know, behold, I am against

you, declares the Lord. That is not just a sentence for

ancient empires apart from us having refuge in Christ.

That is the sentence that is over us today.

Because the problem of the word is not just violent empire

empires. The problem in the world is our

proud hearts. And Nahum says that he will know

by no means clear the guilty. So where does that leave us?

Right in the middle of judgement, the Lord says he is

good and he is a stronghold in the day of trouble to those who

take refuge in him. So how can it be true that God

would say I will no means clear the guilty while also being a

stronghold in the day of trouble?

How can he be against sin and yet be a refuge for sinners?

It only comes because somebody stands in between, and if

somebody absorbs the storm, and that is exactly what Jesus does,

He is the one promise to come from the line of Judah.

The wrath of Nahum that Nahum describes didn't disappear in

the Old Testament. It it fell.

It fell on Jesus at the cross because he bore our sins on

Himself and justice wasn't suspended.

Evil was not excused. Wrath was not erased.

It was absorbed in Jesus. The judgment that swept Nineveh

is the judgment that should sweep us.

We may not be as violently brutal as the Ninevites or as

Nineveh. We deserve that judgment too.

But Christ as our stronghold, he stepped in front like a

breakwater, absorbing the impact.

Christ is our stronghold who absorbs judgement at the cross.

Again, let's just imagine, right?

Evil thought it was victorious. It thought it won.

Violence thought it won after Jesus was crucified and put into

the grave. But the Son of God was crushed.

But three days later he rose, and violence did not get the

final word, resurrection does. All along He had a plan, and he

has a plan in they whom He promises the fall of the city,

the gospel promises the fall of death itself.

Again, God's goodness is shown not in His refusal to allow

violence and evil have the final word and injustice.

That refusal is shown. It's both just and merciful.

At the cross, God's justice and mercy meet.

And so how should this shape our lives?

What should we do in light of this test text?

Right. If if we believe that God will

judge evil, then that means that we don't have to take vengeance

into our own hands. If we believe that God sees the

injustice, if he sees what's broken, then it will protect us

from growing cynical or or numb. If we believe that God reigns

over the nation's, then we won't panic every time there's an

election cycle again the the the troubles there.

It's real, it exists, but God is our stronghold and they whom he

teaches us we cannot not panic, but covenant confidence because

of the Lord is our stronghold. So as we close again this whole

series we've been talking about turning back to the Lord.

What does it mean in they whom to turn back?

It means to rest in our stronghold verse chapter one

verse 7. The Lord is good a stronghold in

the day of trouble, so we can turn back.

It means turning from the fear, maybe the, you know, cynicism,

the, you know, ideas of getting revenge.

Maybe the fantasies of, of getting back at that person who

is wronged you, maybe turning from the, the, the ways that you

have compromised or assimilated to the, the culture around you

and you've partaken in those things and turning to trusting

God, him being our refuge, faithful obedience.

Again in this in doing these things and turning to God and

entrusting him, we're not earning God's protection, but we

are responding to his covenant love for us as we need refuge

from the penalty of sin, not just relief from our enemies.

The greatest enemy is sin. Sin plunders us, shame

humiliated us, death enslaves us.

But in Christ our identity is restored, our honors covered,

our inheritance is secure. And God doesn't just remove

enemies, He restores sons and daughters.

He doesn't just win battles, but he rebuilds people.

And that is good news for us. And so again, the call is to

turn back to turn back to God and to trust in him as being our

our refuge. I'm going to end the sermon with

the verse Greta started with Psalm 46.

One God is our refuge and strength, our very present help

and trouble. Listen, there's there's many of

us who you know they're we've been deeply wronged.

They're again, there are things that have happened to us that we

injustice is that we have been affected by that are real.

And I don't want to dismiss the pain of those things, but there

is a God who is who is with us in those things and we can find

comfort in him as we trust them. Let's pray.

Father, you, you reign over all the nations.

God, you judge evil, God you protect your people, you keep

your covenant. God, you refuse to let violence

and evil have the final word. And God, that is such good news.

And Lord, there are, yes, they're real enemies out there,

people that are attempting to, to harm us, to, to do evil

against us. But there is a real enemy

warring in our own souls, God. And so I thank you that in

Christ, Lord, you, you stood in our place, you absorbed the, the

wrath that our sins deserve. And God, because of that, we

can, we are, we are restored, we are redeemed, we are delivered,

we're made new. And so Father, I thank you that

life with you is not necessarily easy, nor is it always safe, but

it but we are secure always because you have the final word.

Violence won't end, evil won't win.

You always win. And so Father, I pray that that

would be a comfort to us. Lord help us apply this and

whatever it is that we are facing in our lives.

God help us to see that you are good.

God that even when the the world was happening around us, scream

and and tell us something different.

Father, I pray that that we would think back to all the ways

that you have revealed your goodness to us and creation and

in our own lives, that we would trust You.

God, help us by the power of your Spirit.

Help us trust You in the storm. Be our stronghold.

We love you and see your beautiful name.

We pray. Amen.