Moses: A Journey from Bondage to Freedom: Our Objections and God’s Provisions

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you enjoy this sermon. God bless. Let's pray

again together. Lord, we're thankful that as

we read in your word that the grass withers and

the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands

forever. So Lord, we ask again today that you

would speak to us that these texts that are old

for us, seem forever old to us, might be made

fresh and new and alive, that you can use the

words of my mouth, that the meditations of all

of our hearts might be pleasing in your sight,

oh Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. Amen. You

may have noticed on the front cover of our bulletin

in this little series we're in in Exodus, there

have been paintings from Mark Chagall's work

on Exodus. He actually did a whole collection

from the Exodus narratives. And I have a Mark

Chagall lithograph sort of framed in my house

that is not from that, but instead it's from...

the call of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 6, some of

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

you might be familiar with that famous passage,

it's a great passage. And there in chapter 6

verse 8 of Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet,

you know, he's writing and he says, I heard the

voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send?

Who will go for us? And in this lithograph, there's

this six -winged seraphim pointing and Isaiah's

kind of looking like this, like me. And you might

know how it goes because Isaiah responds like

this, then I said, Here I am. Send me. Or maybe

he said, here I am. Send me. I love that passage

in Emight too. And part of what I love is the

eagerness and the willingness, the readiness

that Isaiah has to hear the Lord's voice, to

go where he is called, right? And in our best

moments, in our places of deepest and widest

faith in our great days, we can kind of associate

with it. But I think also, the fact is that we're

also often, maybe more often, comforted by the

words of the father with the convulsing son in

the gospels that says to Jesus, Lord, I believe,

help my unbelief. Or maybe we are comforted by

Gideon in Judges chapter six, when the Lord comes

to him, and this is what the Lord says. Go in

this might of yours and save Israel from the

hand of Midian. Do I not send, do not I send

you? And Gideon's responses, please Lord, how

can I save Israel? Behold. Look Lord, that's

kind of what he's saying. Behold, look. God had

just said, in this might of yours, he says, behold,

my clan's the weakest. in Manasseh, and I'm the

least in my father's house, which is like, I'm

the wrong guy here. Or maybe you're comforted

by Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter one, the Lord comes

to him. This is what the Lord says to him. Before

I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before

you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed

you as a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah's response?

Ah, Lord God, behold, look. I don't know how

to speak. I'm only a youth. I have inability.

I have inexperience. You probably got the wrong

guy here. And the fact is I can give you more

examples from scripture. I can give you even

more from church history of people hearing the

words of the Lord, hearing what they're called

to do, where they're called to go, and saying,

I don't know about this. questions arise, doubts

surface, objections abound, rebuttals resound,

right? And that's part of what we have going

on in Exodus four for us this morning. Remember,

we're looking at the life of Moses and part of

what we're doing is we're looking at the narratives

primarily in Exodus, but through the life of

Moses. So we're seeing Israel's story, but more

than that, we're seeing God and actually we're

seeing ourselves. It's God's story and our own

story. And we're here at chapter four, and here

in chapter four, it's beginning, sorry, it's

not beginning, it's continuing the story that

began in chapter three, really they're together,

because here we're still at that burning bush

event, right? That we talked about last week,

you remember back to last week, God said that

he had seen the affliction of his people, he'd

heard their cry, he knew their suffering, he's

come down to bring them out. And he said to Moses,

I will send you to Pharaoh. that you may bring

my people out of Egypt." And what was Moses's

first question? Who am I? Who am I? God's response

is, I'll be with you. And Moses basically says,

who are you? Who am I? Who are you? I don't know.

So today we're going to continue this dialogue.

And mostly what we're going to see is Moses has

quite a few objections. And yet with his objections,

God gives his provisions, okay? So let's look

it up. And actually you'll notice that the sections

that bring up the objections always begin with

but, which is exactly how we so often bring up

our objections. But have you thought about this?

So we begin. Now, I think the first one is, Moses

really, he's like, what if they don't believe?

What if they don't believe? That's his first

objection. What if they don't believe? Meaning

the Israelites, right? Now, I know this, that

Moses does not really ask the question necessarily

here. Actually, here, yeah, that's okay. Verse

one, but behold, it's that same word. that Gideon

used in Jeremiah's Lord Look, have you considered

this side of it? Can you turn this around and

see that it's not really gonna work? But behold,

they will not believe me or listen to my voice.

This is actually an exact contradiction. of what

the Lord said in 318. If you have your Bible

open, you can look back up there, verse 18 of

chapter 3, and they will listen. This is the

Lord speaking, and they will listen to your voice.

Moses says, but behold, Lord, they will not listen

to my voice. I want you to first understand that

I think Moses' objection is not with some reason.

It's not like it's not warranted. Think with

me back not long ago, not five verses earlier,

but two chapters earlier. What happened the last

time that we had read about Moses talking to

some of the Israelites? Did they listen to him

when he said, why do you strike your companion?

No. No, they did not listen right. What did they

say? Well, he who made you Prince over us So

he's got some reason right that's that was their

response this objection this objection is unreasonable

They're not the excuses that we might make up

the dog ate my homework My baby sister ate my

homework. My mom washed my pants that had my

homework in them you know they're not kind of

like dismiss dismissive he's like they don't

listen to me lord i've got an example they don't

listen to me and i mean he knew that he had left

as a fugitive under sentence of death he knew

that he had spent half of his life not in egypt

40 years now um would the israelites risk confrontation

with pharaoh over this guy who had fled and been

gone for 40 years coming back say hey y 'all

listen to me let's uh go to pharaoh and say let's

let let this whole slave people go please why

would they risk being worse off for that kind

of effort really why would they believe some

reports of having met with the lord so i i think

firstly let's just say like it's kind of reasonable

we're like how They're not gonna believe. They're

not gonna listen to me. And I think this is kind

of reasonable actually even because of God's

own response to Moses. Almost sort of reminding

us of Genesis chapter three where Adam and Eve

sin and God doesn't first come in and say like,

oh, what'd you do? Do you know what that's gonna

cost me? God doesn't say, hey, five verses ago,

I told you they were gonna listen to you. What

are you saying? How dare you contradict what

I just told you? He doesn't say that. Instead,

what he does is he provides some signs for Moses.

Okay, so let's consider these three signs. First,

it's the staff, right? God first says, hey, what's

that in your hand? Most like a stick, it's a

staff. God says, throw it on the ground. And

he throws it on the ground and it becomes a snake.

And, you know, you kind of wonder like, is God

just showing, we were going to find out this

isn't just the case later on, but is God just

showing, ah, look, I can transform things? Is

it a magic trick? Is it more than that? Is it

a sign maybe that God can take ordinary things

and make them extraordinary? I think maybe it's

partly that. I think it's more than that though.

God tells him to pick it up. And if you notice,

there's a funny detail there. He says, pick it

up by the tail. well you don't pick up snakes

by the tail you pick them up right behind the

head because you don't want them to bite you

and Moses probably very fearfully is like um

okay but even in that small act what's happening

is you've got to trust me i can take care of

it i can take a stick turn into a snake and you

are not going to get bit you are going to be

okay reach out take hold you can trust me and

the second sign is this leprous hand And I imagine,

I do not like snakes. Actually, one of the most

fearful scenes in any movie that I watched growing

up was the scene with the snakes in Indiana Jones.

You know what I'm talking about, right? So I

would hate that idea. I'd be so scared to do

that. Pick it up by the tail and I'd be like,

okay, well, maybe I can trust God. But then he

takes his hand and he sticks it in his cloak

and it comes out and it's leprous. It's deadly.

And it's not just something that's deadly that's

outside of him, like the snake, but it's actually

a part of him. He's frail, he's fragile. This

hand that he has is now useless and God heals

it. Christopher Wright, one of the great contemporary

Old Testament scholars who I hope some of you

have read. He's one of the really great writers

on missions in our day too. Says Moses' hand

symbolized Moses himself. then he too was being

transformed from uselessness to useful again.

And you gotta keep in mind, leprosy, it was a

pretty common disease, and actually it was a

common disease in Egypt, and it was a common

disease in Egypt that was widely considered as

totally incurable, which is to say that God can

actually cure things that we think are incurable.

And I'm guessing, at least in this moment, when

Moses contradicts what God had just said, is

that he's saying, you don't know how fearful

I am. You are sending the wrong guy. I'm not

the one for this. And of course, our fear can

feel totally incurable. You all have probably

heard that in 1977 in the Book of Lists, Death

actually got second place to people's greatest

fears behind public speaking. It's like, Lord,

they are not gonna listen to me. How are you

gonna take what is so fearful, who's willing

to contradict the I am himself? that's as you

can take your hand in and you are in a way and

of yourself incurable and I can cure you you

can be changed from useless to useful I can cure

your fears too you can trust me I can cure your

fears too then we have the Nile and this is kind

of interesting verse 9 says you shall take some

water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground

and the water that you shall take from the Nile

will become blood on the dry ground You know

what's so interesting about this, unlike the

first two where it happens with Moses right there

on Mount Sinai, on Mount Horeb, they're interchangeable,

is that this can't, he's not gonna see this miracle

unless he goes, unless he goes. Sinai can't be

done unless, well, unless Moses is in the land

of the Nile, unless he's down in Egypt. And it's

not so much a sign there of convincing Egypt

or Moses or even the Israelites. This is a sign

that we'll learn later is for the Egyptians.

But how's that a provision for Moses' objection?

Well, in a way, God is saying right there, I'm

not just going to have the Israelites listen

to you. You're going to do some wonders. You're

going to see some things that even the Egyptians

cannot deny. They will not be able to deny them.

So God is God is speaking to him, but he's also

speaking to the Israelites, and he's assuring

him that the Israelites are going to hear, and

he's assuring them not just the Israelites are

going to hear, but also the Egyptians. And you've

got to think of the importance of the Nile. The

Nile was one of the Egyptian gods, but it's also

the source of their life. It's not just the source

of their life. The Nile is the reason Egypt was

there. It was the source of their abundance,

of their prosperity. If God can control the source

of life for that great nation on earth, he can

also control whether or not they hear Moses.

He can meet Moses and his doubts and fears and

insecurities and all of his objections. And he

can do that for us too. So this is Moses' first

objection, right? They're not gonna listen to

me. You got the wrong guy. Behold, just like

these others later on, say behold. But there's

more, right? The second but here that Moses brings

up, but Lord. Verse 10, but Moses said to the

Lord, I'm gonna paraphrase it first. I can't

speak. Okay, we're gonna get to that, but I actually

wanna take a pause in a moment here, for a moment

here, okay? Because I think Moses knew in a way

that signs aren't always enough. And I think

maybe it's a temptation to think, oh man, if

I was just there at the time of Jesus and I saw

him, heal the blind man, you know, allow the

lame to walk again. Miracles, you may know this,

they're not like spread evenly throughout the

Bible. not even close actually, you have largely

Moses, you have Elijah and Elisha, the beginning

of the prophetic movement. You of course have

Jesus. And sort of like those events, you know,

Pharaoh doesn't necessarily believe. The Egyptians

don't necessarily believe because of the signs

at the time of Elijah and Elisha. People didn't

necessarily come flocking to the Lord because

of what they did. And certainly at the time of

Jesus, it wasn't necessarily that people were

like, oh, look at this. Let's listen to him.

He actually says as much. But miracles are a

kind of accreditation to these major turning

points in salvation history. And that's what's

happening here for Moses. He's saying, I'm with

you. You can trust me in this. Another interesting

thing, kind of just to pause to think about this,

is that the Egyptians didn't deny that the miracles

were happening, just like the people in time

with Jesus didn't deny it. They just rejected

God still. The Pharisees weren't like, oh, that

didn't happen. They're like, we don't buy you.

And I think why I pause there is because Moses

knew there was a possibility of that kind of

thing. We can see wonders, Jesus says. Blessed

are those who... believe without seeing. In fact,

he says, it's better that I leave than the of

the spirit, right? Moses knew this was a possibility.

And so he has more objections. He's like, okay,

you give me signs, but I've got more for you,

God. I can't speak. Actually, what he said is,

oh, my Lord, I'm not eloquent, either in the

past, or since you've spoken to your servant,

which is just these last few minutes, probably

for him. I've never been eloquent. But I'm slow

of speech and of tongue, which literally means

I'm heavy of speech and I'm heavy of tongue.

Some take that to mean that Moses is saying I

have a speech impediment. It's not just that

he wasn't adept at speaking in front of others,

but his tongue didn't work well is what he's

saying. It's heavy. Others of course say that

what most things I'm not a good public speaker

You put the wrong guy for this job He's saying

the training that I had in Egypt, you know Lord,

you know that even back then when I went through

this great, you know Egyptian University education.

It didn't really stick a Slow speech or you know

either in the past or since Maybe others think

that he's just saying, hey, I've been in Midian

now for 40 years. I've lost much of my knowledge

of Egyptian culture and Egyptian customs. I'm

the wrong guy for the job, Lord. And think about

this. I think this is reasonable, again, in a

way. It would be bad enough to be the one that

has to go before Pharaoh. kind of the greatest

ruler of the day and say hey you should really

let this whole population that does all this

brick work and all this work for you just you

should let him go but imagine doing that with

a stammering tongue looking like a goof he's

like no lord this is this is not this is not

really what i want to want to do you know he

knows he's not like Winston Churchill and Frederick

Douglass and Martin Luther King jr he doesn't

make the list of like great orators And I love

this part. I love this for a number of reasons.

I love this part where Moses is dialoguing with

God because it feels so human. It just feels

so real. Like, Lord, I have these inabilities.

He has fear of rejection, right? He has doubts

of his own competencies, his own abilities. You

know, we can think of, Lord, I don't know how

to help. tell people about you. I haven't studied

apologetics. I don't know how to make a convincing

argument. Lord, I don't know how to raise a child

to nurture them in your ways, to discipline them

with love and grace and care and attentiveness.

I didn't receive that. What are you calling me

to? I love this because because it feels so human

and I also love it in part because it feels a

lot like my own story. I had four years of mandatory

speech class in high school and I emphasize the

mandatory because if it was not mandatory, I

wouldn't have been there. I remember very clearly

sweaty, sweaty palms. you know, double layering

the deodorant in the morning. Actually, I remember

pretty clearly, at least twice, fidgeting so

much with my flashcards that they got out of

order and kind of freaking out inside. I remember

preparing, rehearsing my first sermon that I

was supposed to give in one of my first sermon

practicum, like a practical thing where you were

giving it in front of others in seminary. I remember

exactly where I was practicing it in Edwards

Hall at Covenant Seminary. because frankly, I

didn't really wanna give it. And shockingly,

I did not win the speech awards in high school

and I did not win a preaching award in seminary.

When I was in high school, I signed up my senior

year for the play, Much To Do About Nothing.

It was fantastic. I mean, it's one of Shakespeare's

funniest, for sure, greatest, and you probably

are familiar with it. I got... the smallest role

possible, Virgis, who's just clotting behind

agreeing with everything that Dogberry says.

That's what I got. And while I felt called to

go into vocational gospel ministry, at first

and at second, and maybe at third, I didn't really

think. Sign me up to be a preacher, Lord. This

just feels so relatable. My guess is it feels

relatable to you too, on many levels. You've

got the wrong person. I'm not able. It's so human.

But I also love God's response. Who's made your

mouth? Who makes you mute or deaf or seeing or

blind? Is it not I, the Lord, and that the Lord

is his name that he had just revealed? chapter

before Yahweh. One who is. Now therefore go and

I will be. That's that same word when he says

I will be who I will be or I am who I am. It's

the exact same word. I am and I will be with

your mouth and teach you what to speak. If most

did have a speech impediment that says I know

I'm with you in that. If he had forgotten the

speech and the customs of the Egyptians after

all he'd been away for 40 years, God says, I

know your story. I've woven it together. I'll

be with you in that. See, God is not just saying,

I understand your objections, but I provide you

with my very self. What God is not doing in this

is giving him a motivational pep talk, right?

Motivational speech. Moses, stop saying all of

that. Think positively. You can accomplish all

that you put your mind to. It's not in this text

at all. There's nothing like that here. He doesn't

even say, ah, you're giving yourself too little

credit. You are the Prince of Egypt. You have

the finest education. You're just the man for

it. Though we may be able to see that. No. His

answer is, is it not I, the Lord, who will be

with your mouth? I am. I will be. I read this

week actually from a sermon from my pastor going

up about this great revival that broke out in

Scotland during the first great awakening. So

the first great awakening didn't just happen

here in the US, just 1730s, 1740s. think of George

Whitfield and that whole crew. But actually,

some of it happened. There was a great revival

in parts of Great Britain, what we think of today

as Great Britain. Well, one of those towns in

Scotland was the town Campbell's Sling, and the

pastor there was William McCullough. He was such

a poor preacher that it took him nine years having

graduated seminary to convince a pastoral search

committee, I don't know what it was called then,

to hire him. Nine years. His own son said he

was not eloquent. And he actually got a nickname.

His nickname was the ale preacher. We might say

the beer preacher. Not because he drank beer

while he was preaching, but because as soon as

he got up to preach, most of the men in the congregation

went to the pub. Like, okay, I'm out. But it

was through his poorly composed and even more

poorly delivered sermons that in 1742, 3 ,000

people came to faith in Jesus in that small town

on the outskirts of Glasgow. 3 ,000 people in

one year. I mean, that's like 10 ,000s in Harrisburg

from somebody that no one thought was a great

preacher, like nobody. You probably know that

John and Charles Wesley were the brothers who

were raised in the Anglican Church and then,

you know, were in the States for a while down.

And now it is sort of the coastal Georgia and

Carolinas a little bit, with George Whitefield

and all. And they led part of what became the

first great awakening in the United States. Same

time, 1740s -ish. I mean, on a little bit. Well,

you know, there are some of the greatest hymn

writers. We sing some of their hymns. We didn't

sing any today, but we sing their hymns. still

today. They're some of the greats. They started

the Methodist Church. These great wordsmiths

haven't read much of their sermons, but I've

heard they are better than melatonin. Next time

you're struggling to sleep at night, grab your

volume of John Wesley. Give that a try. How does

God work? He so often uses the people that we

go there's that's the least person we would expect

But Moses goes on God says I'll be with you and

with your mouth and Moses has another but Lord

verse 13 But he said oh my lord, please send

somebody else The Hebrew is actually a little

bit different. That's really a paraphrase. Literally

translated it's more like, pardon my lord, please

send by the hand who you will send. Which is

a little clunky and so some other translators

trying to get closer say something like this,

please my lord, send anyone you decide. Which

some commentators say this is like Moses kind

of. grudgingly submitting to the possibility

that maybe possibly in some way God might use

him, but he'd rather use somebody else. He's

like the child with his parent. All right, you

win. Send whoever you want, I guess, whatever.

And I sort of love the picture of Moses, 80 -year

-old Moses as a 14 -year -old. Okay. You know,

shrugging his shoulders, muttering under his

breath. But most people do think it's best to

translate it, please send someone else, Lord.

And again, we find God's provision. And his provision

is not him giving in. This isn't plan B for God,

right? But Aaron is not like, ah, hey, what have,

well, how about Aaron? It's his provision. And

you can see, he's not a fan of our reluctance

obedience, or disobedience, but he works with

it. Our objections, he goes, okay, I can work

with this, right? He works with them. God already

has Aaron on his way, sort of a providential

family reunion at play here. And there are two

things again here that are worth noting. One

is that the work that God calls us to do is almost

always him calling us into his community. It's

not a shock on God that we are not able enough

ourselves He calls us into the life of his body

You're you aren't called to parents alone. You

aren't called to evangelize alone. You aren't

called To seek the welfare of those who are suffering

in the world by yourself Right. I mean we just

heard from logos. We are not called by ourselves.

You are not called as individual take on the

question of telling little kids about Jesus and

helping them learn to read well and turn to the

wide body of Christ. The I cannot say to the

hand I have no need of you. But the other thing

that we learn is that while we don't do God's

work alone, we are not off the hook from doing

it. Aaron's gifts will compensate for Moses'

deficit. Like the whole operation is not like,

if I can just find the right guy, then it'll

come about. But God still will use Moses for

what God called him to do. So verses 15 to 17

say this, you, speaking to Moses, you shall speak

to him and put the words in his mouth and I will

be with your mouth and with his mouth. He's not

just saying like, okay, I'll just reuse him.

and I will teach you both what to do. He shall

speak for you to the people and he shall be your

mouth and you shall be as God to him." Meaning

God actually, I'm actually speaking through him

to the people. And taking your hands to the staff

with which you shall do the signs. So I'm saying

God provides but God also equips. The objection

of Moses here is God providing, but also God

equipping him both through Aaron and also saying,

I'm going to use you as I said I will. So let

me get back to the beginning. The Bible seems

to share some lessons just again and again with

us. Have you noticed that? Like when you start

reading the Bible, you're like, I think I heard

that before, or there's an example of that elsewhere.

And a lot of times those are the lessons that

are said again and again because we need to hear

them. again and again. And this is one of those.

God's showing us that we have all these objections.

God, I'm not the right person to do this. I know

you told your people live this way. I don't think

I can do that. Like we bring these objections

to God and again and again, God still calls us

and he still provides for us. He still equips

others. He still brings us into the life of his

body. And part of what I think is telling us

is that in some ways you can't, you can't do

what God calls you to do. None of this was a

surprise for God that Moses was saying that.

My God, the speech impediments, they're not gonna

listen to all this stuff. You can't do it on

your own strength. In some ways, Moses is totally

unlike us. I mean, he literally brings people

out from Egypt, right? The great superpower of

the day, to worship the Lord. But in some ways,

he's exactly like us. I mean, we cannot do what

God calls us to do in our own strength. You can't

keep the law of God in your own strength. You

can't put sin to death in your own strength.

You can't share the good news of Jesus with your

neighbor and expect that that neighbor will turn

to faith in your own ability. That never happens.

We cannot worship Him as we should. We cannot

live into the life of the body of Christ as we

should. None of these things, there's nothing

that God calls you to do that he thinks you can

do it on your own strength. None of it. It is

always God meeting us in our inability, in our

weakness and saying, I am, I will be. Think about

this one example I didn't give at the beginning.

but that kept kind of coming up in my mind was

Mary, the mother of Jesus. She's met by Gabriel.

Gabriel says, greetings, O favored one, the Lord

is with you. And the first thing we read is Mary

is very troubled, greatly troubled, right? And

of course I've always thought of that as like,

that makes sense. I don't really see angels.

Some angel shows up to me. I'm like, this is

a little bit scary. But actually maybe she knows

the story of God's people. All these stories

like Moses and Gideon and Jeremiah and others.

And she's like, oh dear. she's told what's gonna

happen and she says, she asks the question too,

how will this be? She says, for I'm a virgin,

how will this be? Because I'm not able, how will

this be? Because from my own experience, right?

She's sort of questioning God, but she's also

questioning herself. And yet her song becomes

the song that we say so often if you read. sort

of the daily prayer book you know her song is

every day said by many in the church but what

she does in her song is she constantly says what

has God done who is he it's not look at me so

she says stuff like this his mercy she sings

rather his mercy is for those who fear him he's

shown strength with his arm He has scattered

the proud and the thoughts of their hearts. He

has brought down the mighty from their thrones

and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled

the hungry with good things and the rich he sent

away empty. He's helped his servant Israel in

the remembrance of his mercy. You see, it's again

and again, his, him. I mean, the truth is that

none of this she can do on her own. And that's

the same story that you live into. It's the same

story of Moses, same story of Gideon. Same story

of Jeremiah. His power of inability that is met

with God's power. And so when God speaks to Paul

in his weakness with his thorn in the flesh,

he says, my grace is sufficient for you. My power

is made perfect in weakness. Our objections to

what God calls us to may arise, they do arise.

But God's provision is found just in those places

where we're frail, when we're unable, when our

inabilities are so present. It's there that God

shows us that he provides and that his strength

is at work even through us, can use even us,

can do great things even through us. Friends

and sisters, his grace is sufficient for you.

Whatever he calls you to do, wherever he calls

you to go. He will provide His powers made perfect

in weakness Lord This is a lesson that we are

told again and again Because we need it again

and again We're so eager to think Well to fall

into one ditch we can do it all or we have nothing

Neither of which is true we can't do it, but

we have you The God who is, the great I am, and

the God who will be, I am with you. I pray that

in this, we would press on to what you call us

to. That we would live lives of great hope, of

great faith, of great belief, not in what we

can do, but in your great work in and through

us. In Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you for listening

to Second City Sermons Podcast. We hope this

sermon has encouraged you to worship God and

to celebrate the gospel of Jesus. Please consider

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God bless.