The Rise and Fall of Absalom
Download MP3If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to 2nd Samuel chapter 18. Although, we will be looking at 6 chapters this morning. 2nd Samuel, chapter 18. It's also there in your worship guide. We're going to be looking at the massive fallout, the consequences of David's sin.
Jeffrey Heine:And if you were thinking, wait. I I thought we we looked at last week and the week before that, how David has been forgiven of his sin, and so there there's not any consequences. Well, you're right that David has been forgiven of his sin. This is not a punishment for his sin, but there is there are still consequences for sin. If you get in a fight with one of your friends, and you punch your friend, your friend might forgive you.
Jeffrey Heine:Your friend might not retaliate against you and make you pay for your sins. But you know what, there's still a consequence to that sin. Your friend still has a fat lip and a swollen eye. Those things don't just magically go away. David is about to lose children, wives, lose his throne, Lose the respect of all of his people.
Jeffrey Heine:Be thrown into exile. All of these things are a direct consequence of his sin. I mean, the his life and the lives of of all those around him are about to be completely destroyed. And I realize as I as I'm preaching this, I've gotta walk a very thin line this morning. Hopefully, I can do it well, but I might fail in this.
Jeffrey Heine:But on the one hand, I want to scare you straight. I'm a child of the eighties, and so, I grew up, you know, with the scared straight programs. These were not done in my elementary schools. They were done in my church. They would send people in to try to scare me straight.
Jeffrey Heine:During Halloween, we had the judgment houses. You ever been to a judgment house? You know where they set up a fake car crash scene, and they talk about the horrors of if you drink and drive. And I remember going through those and I was, you walk through scene after scene, and finally the last scene, no lie. It was me standing before Satan.
Jeffrey Heine:And, Satan was rattling chains saying he could not wait to torture me for all of eternity. And then they ushered me in another room and said, Do you know Jesus? I'm like, I have no idea, but right now I will sign the dotted line. I'll do whatever it takes. I've been saved so many times.
Jeffrey Heine:So I I grew up with that, you know, that that kinda you wanna scare a person straight. I want to do that. I want you to know the horrors of sin. However, I on I also want you to know that sin doesn't have the last word. And for those of you who are currently feeling the consequences of your sin, and you are in a mess right now, I want you to know that Christ does redeem that.
Jeffrey Heine:Romans 828 still holds true. God works all things together for your good. Even your sin for your good. David, at the end of all this, he could still say, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I wanna walk that line. I I want to scare you straight, yet at the same time, give you hope in Christ. Alright. We're gonna read 2nd Samuel 18. Once again, we're gonna be covering 6 whole chapters, which is way more than we can read.
Jeffrey Heine:I didn't even know where to start, so I'm actually gonna start at the very end and just read you the last lines there that you have in your worship guide from 2nd Samuel 18, so at least you know where we are going. We'll begin reading in verse 33. And the king was deeply moved. And went up to the chamber over the gate and he wept. And as he went, he said, oh, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would I have died instead of you?
Jeffrey Heine:Oh Absalom, my son, my son. Pray with me. Lord, I pray that you would be with us as we take a look at your word. May we heed the warnings you have before us. May we learn the lessons you have before us.
Jeffrey Heine:And most of all, may we just grow in our love and trust of Jesus. Pray that my words will fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:I encourage you to read chapters 13 through 18 on your own if you haven't already. But I gotta warn you, they are hard to read. You'll read about incest, sexual abuse, murder, rape, adultery, more murder, substance abuse, theft, even more murder. One of the reasons I decided to preach all of these chapters in just one sermon, because I just wanted to rip off the band aid. I wanted to get it all done in 1 week.
Jeffrey Heine:And just get it over with, because I didn't wanna have to just keep doing this week after week. I mean, you're gonna read through all these stories and and you're gonna be like start grasping for any redemptive straws that you can find towards the end of it. Chapter 13, when the story begins, it it begins with David's first born, Amnon. He has developed strong, perverse feelings towards his half half sister, Tamar. He thinks it's love, but it's it's perverse.
Jeffrey Heine:It's just lust, but it's all he could think about. You actually read that she has so consumed his thoughts. He can't even eat anymore. He desires only her. She keeps putting them off.
Jeffrey Heine:She says, you know this is wrong. You know this, we can't do this. She, she finally says, we need it. Let's just go talk to dad about this. But eventually, none of that mattered.
Jeffrey Heine:This unchecked desire grew so much into him that he eventually went into her room, locked the door, and he violated her. When he was done violating her, he discarded her like trash. Said with the love that he had for her initially, it now turned to hate. He couldn't even look at her afterwards. And while the story we have of David and Bathsheba, the details in that story are pretty sparse.
Jeffrey Heine:Bathsheba never speaks. You don't have that in this story. We are given so many details, and Tamar has a voice, and she is pleading, and she is screaming throughout this. It's it's terrible. When Amnon leaves Tamar, she she tears her robe, she throws ashes on her head, she pulls her hair, she runs out screaming and crying.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a terrible story. It's the story of the sins of a father being passed on to the child. Only more violent, more perverse. And you might be wondering when you read this, how in the worldwide do we have stories like this in the bible? Well, we have them in the bible because the bible's about real life.
Jeffrey Heine:And real life is about sin and brokenness. That's the world that we live in. God doesn't gloss over sin. He said, hey. If we're gonna talk about sin, we're gonna take a good hard honest look at sin.
Jeffrey Heine:He doesn't gloss it over. God wants us to see the horror of our actions. He also wants us to see Tamar because he wants to know that what happened to her did not escape his notice. He saw what happened. He saw her.
Jeffrey Heine:These things will not be swept under a rug. For all of those of you here who have suffered abuse or sexual assault, I hope you know that God sees you. That what happened to you was abhorrent. It was evil, but God does not sweep that sin under the rug. He calls it evil and he sees you.
Jeffrey Heine:And he wants you to know that he would he loves you immensely, and He wants His church to come alongside you and to love you as well. He wants us to notice you. If if if you have an unknown in a room this this size, we have both men and women who have been sexually abused. If that is you, I would encourage you to reach out to someone. We have on staff, we have Michael Coggin.
Jeffrey Heine:We have Crystal Brumut. They are safe people for you to go to. We have their contact information in the worship guide. If you want somebody to talk to, you can start with them. But the church wants to be a safe place for you to be heard and for you to be known.
Jeffrey Heine:We won't sweep these things under the rug, and And I want you to know that you don't have to go through those things alone. Thankfully, in this story here, Tamar didn't have to go through this alone. She did have a brother. In many ways, at first, the ex, like the church should, He comes alongside her. He cares for her.
Jeffrey Heine:He actually invites her to live in my house, feel safe in my house. She lives in his house to the end of her days. Absalom has a child. He actually names his child after her, Tamar. And so you can really just see this this sweet tenderness of her brother here doing what the church should do and taking care of her.
Jeffrey Heine:In contrast to this, I want you to notice what King David did. You read in verse 31 of chapter 13 that when David heard about what happened, he was very angry. He was very angry, and he did nothing. You keep waiting for, like, the anger to stir something in him to act upon it, to act upon that injustice, but he did nothing. He just heard that his daughter was violently raped by his own son and he did nothing.
Jeffrey Heine:David is so hard to figure out. Isn't he? I mean, I don't know how long we've been studying him. I I've studied David for a long time. This is, I've taught through his life before.
Jeffrey Heine:I have spent so many hours studying his life. And can I tell you, David is still a mystery at times to me? I mean, there's times he he just achieves such greatness. He he he surprises you and he the way he trusts in the Lord and he just does something so glorious and great. And then there's times he does this and he just you he's so hard to figure out.
Jeffrey Heine:But for some moment, for some reason, he he decides to not do anything here. Perhaps he thought he lost the ability to speak into his children's lives. It is hard talking to family about sin. Perhaps he didn't wanna confront Amnon only to hear Amnon say, but dad, I was just doing what you taught me to do. Dad, you did it.
Jeffrey Heine:Isn't that what we do? Isn't that how you groom me to be a king? I I just do that. Parents, isn't it really painful for you when you see your sins being lived out in your children? And you're like, oh, so cute.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, my my child that she has my my hair, she has my eyes. Wow. She has my temper. She's got my stubbornness. Like we don't just give the physical traits to our children.
Jeffrey Heine:We often, we see our sins being passed on to them, and it makes it so hard to discipline them for the things you know you're guilty of. Over and over, his parents are like, do as I say, not as I do. David does nothing. The bottom line is the man who fought and killed Goliath did nothing. When his family was threatened, not just the armies of Israel, but when his own family was threatened, he did nothing.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, David had he had to be a hero to his children as they grew up, because he was a hero all throughout the land. I mean, he was an absolute legend. Everybody knew the story of David taking on Goliath. I mean, kids all throughout Israel would have reenacted that scene. I'm sure his own children would have reenacted the scene, and and they had their dad to tell them the story.
Jeffrey Heine:And dads love to tell those stories. I mean, I I love to tell all about my glory days in high school. You know, I was amazing at basketball. I was Mac McClung. You should have like seen me.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, if YouTube was around, it would be filled with my highlights, but you're just gonna have to take my word for it. We we love to share those things. David would have told the kids about, you know, I had the sling, just a shepherd's sling, and I took on the giant. They hung on his every word. That was their their dad was their hero.
Jeffrey Heine:Where is that dad? Because he's certainly not here. Tamar is wondering where that man is. Absalom is wondering where that man is. And because their dad let this sin go unpunished, Absalom decides to take matters into his own hands.
Jeffrey Heine:He's gonna kill his brother. Now, what he does is evil. He's not looking for justice. He's actually looking for revenge. We're gonna see his heart begin to get darker and darker and darker throughout this story.
Jeffrey Heine:Absalom never prays to the Lord. He never asked the Lord for justice. He decides to take all this upon himself. So he decides he's gonna kill his half brother Amnon. He's cold and calculated in the way that he does it.
Jeffrey Heine:He waits 2 whole years to do it. So Amnon thinks he could get away with it. After 2 whole years, he decides to throw a party. He's gonna invite Amnon to this party, and he plans to kill him there. In order to remove suspicion about what he's gonna do, he actually invites his dad to the party first.
Jeffrey Heine:Because he knows his dad won't go. Hey, dad. I'm throwing a party over here. Will you go? His dad's like, you know, I've got this thing with the person biz like, you know, I I can't do it.
Jeffrey Heine:He responds exactly how Absalom thinks he's gonna respond. And so Absalom says, well, since you can't make it, can I invite all of my brothers? Sure. You can invite your brothers. And so he invites them.
Jeffrey Heine:Absalom gets drunk. Amnon gets him drunk at this. And when he's drunk, he tells his servants to kill him. The rest of the king's sons as they see what's happening, they all flee. Word gets back to David first that all of his children are dead.
Jeffrey Heine:They're like, no no no. They're not all dead. Just one. It's just Absalom. I mean, it's just Amnon.
Jeffrey Heine:He's been killed by Absalom. And David responds to this act of vengeance by doing nothing. Once again, there's all of these if you read the story. There's there's what I like to call hyperlinks in it. Going back to Genesis, those early chapters of Genesis, The the way the author uses words, he uses phrases.
Jeffrey Heine:He keeps saying, go back to Genesis 3. Keep reading the fall. Read it. Read it because it's replaying. There's the temptation.
Jeffrey Heine:There's the taking. There's the grabbing. There's the sin. There's the exile that's about to happen. There's the 2 brothers who go and one of them gets killed.
Jeffrey Heine:There's it keeps saying point, go back. Go back and read Genesis. It's just history repeating itself. It's violence begetting more violence. But one of the sins that it's pointing out is a sin of omission, the sin of apathy.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, before there was ever the sin of even Eve taking the fruit of the forbidden tree, there was a sin of Adam watching her do it and doing nothing. I mean, He You you read through Genesis 3. He was there. He was there with her and He did nothing. He didn't remind her of truth.
Jeffrey Heine:He didn't step in front of her, you know, between her and the serpent. And say, I'll take No. I'll protect you. He he did none of those things. He passively watched as she took and as she ate.
Jeffrey Heine:And then the disastrous consequences that fell because of that. This is why after Eve took of the fruit, God went looking for Adam. Went looking for Adam, not looking for Eve first, looks for Adam to hold him responsible because he was. JD Greer and Heath Thomas, they wrote a commentary about this. And I just want to read you, what they say about this passage.
Jeffrey Heine:They say, the greatest temptation that men face then as now is not outright wickedness, but to the smoother and equally destructive path of apathy and inaction. When we look around at the family situation in the United States today, we are grieved by the failure of fathers to fulfill their role God has given them. In some instances, this manifests itself in outright abuse, but far more often in absent dads. Men who would rather know what is happening on ESPN than in the lives of their sons and daughters. Were most of the men in our churches to show the same level of apathy in their jobs as they do in their home lives, they would have been fired long ago.
Jeffrey Heine:I wanted to read it from them so you wouldn't be mad at me. Thankfully, I know many, many, men who that is not true of at this church. But husbands, fathers, your family needs you to sacrificially lead them. Tamar, Amnon, Absalom, all needed David to step up and be a dad. But because of his apathy, the destruction's actually just beginning.
Jeffrey Heine:It's just beginning. After killing Amnon, Absalom runs off to the land of or the city of Geshur, where he's gonna live for 3 whole years in exile. During this time, David's heart is in turmoil. I mean, he's furious at Absalom for what he did. But at the same time, Absalom's his son.
Jeffrey Heine:So he also loves him and his heart breaks for him. And so he's both. He he's he's, oh, he's so angry at him, yet he loves him. And with all those emotions churning into him, he decides once again to do nothing. The commander of David's army, Joab though, he will do something.
Jeffrey Heine:He sees the pain that's in David's heart, and he knows that this situation cannot go on indefinitely because it's gonna tear David apart. It's gonna tear this kingdom apart. And so, he convinces David to let Absalom return. And so he does, but it's not the joyful reunion that you would think. Chapter 14 verse 23, we read this.
Jeffrey Heine:So Joab arose and he went to Geshur, and he brought Absalom to Jerusalem. And the king said, let him dwell apart in his own house. He is not to come into my presence. So Absalom lived apart in his own house and did not come into the king's presence. I don't know what Joab expected, but this was not a joyful return.
Jeffrey Heine:Absalom was never to be allowed near the king. So there's no resolution. There's no reconciliation. There's no justice. There's only isolation.
Jeffrey Heine:Yes. Absalom was allowed to return to the city, but he was quarantined off. And it actually makes the situation far worse than it was before. 2 more years go by with Absalom being now kept in isolation from his dad. So just, if you're keeping tally, this is now 5 years in which he has not seen his father.
Jeffrey Heine:7 years since Tamar was raped. Absalom cannot take it anymore. And so he just starts setting things on fire. I actually read a great sermon about this and it was just called setting expletive on fire. Absalon.
Jeffrey Heine:It's what he does, not metaphorically, literally. He just starts setting things on fire just to get attention. He reaches out to Joab. He's like, Joab, can you, can you just get me into to see my dad? Come on, just take me to see my dad.
Jeffrey Heine:But Joab won't even return his calls. And so he goes over to Joab's field. He's like, fine. And he torches it. Joab comes running to him.
Jeffrey Heine:He's like, what the heck are you doing? He goes, why are you ghosting me? Return my calls. Take me to see my dad. I mean, this is this is what kids do when they're trying to get the attention of their parents.
Jeffrey Heine:They start setting things on fire. It's the reason why sometimes daughters dress the way they do. Why they're just trying to get a reaction from their fathers. It's the reason you might have a son, you know, drop an f bomb at the dinner table. Why?
Jeffrey Heine:Trying to get a reaction from their fathers. Look at me. Would you please just pay attention to me? Any attention is better than no attention. That's what we see Absalom here.
Jeffrey Heine:You you can see him through this teenage lens if you want to even though he's not a teenager. Now these these sins setting things on fire, they're they're wrong, but they're understandable. Aren't they? He's just looking for a reaction. Any type of reaction was better than no reaction.
Jeffrey Heine:He'd rather be hated than unnoticed. And so Joab listens to Absalom, kinda doesn't have a choice, and he says, okay. And he goes and he talks to his dad. And so in 2nd Samuel 14:33, we read this. Then Joab went to the king and told him, and he summer summoned Absalom.
Jeffrey Heine:So he came to the king and he bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom. Once again, they haven't seen one another in 5 years, and all Absalom gets is a cold kiss. There's nothing warm about this kiss at all. He never is called David's son. David is never referred to as his father.
Jeffrey Heine:This is a very kind of official royal thing here. Absalom is certainly not pleased with how this unfolded, which we'll see in just a a moment. And I just wanna say here what, you know, what a different picture we have as Christians. Don't we? I mean, how did Jesus talk to us about the father's love for when the prodigal son returns?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, when the prodigal son returns, there's no cold kiss. The father waited day after day looking, hoping for some day that child's return. And when he finally sees his son, He doesn't wait for the child to come to Him. He runs to His son. Embraces Him.
Jeffrey Heine:Kisses His neck. Puts a finger or the the ring on His finger. Throws a huge party for him. Jesus says, that's how I want you to know. That's how the real king, your dad responds when you go back to Him.
Jeffrey Heine:He's looking for you. Don't ever expect a cold kiss from him. He will embrace you and he draws you into your family. What a completely different picture Jesus gives us about the love of our father. And I just wanna make sure we're clear on that because you never need to fear getting a cold kiss from Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, immediately after this, after this cold kiss, Absalom, he begins plotting how to overthrow his dad. He actually he goes to the city gates. He just he hangs out there. We read that he has these luscious locks. He's a really good looking man.
Jeffrey Heine:There's I mean, it goes on and on talking about his hair. Once a year, he cut it, and everybody would come and just watch him cut it. So it had to be some kind of hair. But, but he would go and he would go to the gates. And as people would come in, he'd strike up conversation with them.
Jeffrey Heine:And he'd just start schmoozing. Oh, you're here to see see the king for, for a case you want him to decide? You know, I've heard he's a really busy man. Why don't you just tell it to me? Oh, man.
Jeffrey Heine:You would certainly win your case if I was the judge. If only we had a judge like me. I mean, he is shaking hands, kissing babies. He is doing everything. And he does this for 4 years, winning the hearts of Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:You actually read at the end of that chapter says, so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. And then he finally determined the time is ripe. It's time to begin his coup. He sends messengers throughout all of the land. He goes, alright.
Jeffrey Heine:Go. And I want all of you in this moment just to start screaming, crying out loud, Absalom is the new king. So it's the heralds going throughout the land and they just start crying out. Absalom is the new king. David hears it and terror enters him and he immediately flees.
Jeffrey Heine:He doesn't even put up a fight at all. He just he runs. And those who are loyal to him run as well because he knows that Absalom will not hesitate to kill him. That's how dark Absalom's heart has become. Now I know I've painted David in in a pretty negative light here, rightly so, but he's not a completely bad.
Jeffrey Heine:Yes. He's he's apathetic towards his children, but he doesn't deserve this. If you read through this time, these chapters, you will see that David actually has a number of gospel moments. He is humble. He is very kind to those around him.
Jeffrey Heine:He is prayerful. I mean, the Psalm we started off when it should say, it's about Absalom. Psalm 3. He's writing this during this time. Oh, Lord, how many are my foes?
Jeffrey Heine:Many are rising against me. Many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. But You, O Lord, shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head. David is, throughout this, he he is trusting in the Lord. So I I don't want to paint a completely terrible picture of him.
Jeffrey Heine:And here we come to one of the saddest verses in the life of David. He probably would say this is his saddest moment. Chapter 15 verse 30 are one of his saddest moments. David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered. And all the people who were with him covered their heads and they went up weeping as they went.
Jeffrey Heine:You actually read earlier that David stopped at the very last house to just turn and to look back. David, the one who was anointed by God, blessed by God, and David who once had gone in mighty procession into that city, singing, dancing, and now he leaves it weeping. And as he left, Absalom quickly claimed the throne. And then after a few days, he it's hard to read. David left behind, 10 of his wives or concubines that were there, possibly because David didn't think he was gonna be gone that long.
Jeffrey Heine:Absalom takes him up to the roof. He actually builds a tent up to the roof, and he sexually assaults them for all of Israel to see. He wants to completely shame David. He wants it to stick it to him. Once again, the sins of the father have passed to the sons, but Absalom takes it to a whole new level.
Jeffrey Heine:After a while, Absalom, he finally he decides to to go and to kill the head. He's going to take an army outside of Jerusalem. He's going to find his dad and he's going to kill him. And so he goes out, there is a huge battle. David's men are winning.
Jeffrey Heine:And so Absalon has to flee. He's fleeing on a mule and you actually read that his head hits a tree branch and it gets caught in it. We don't know if it was his luscious hair that got stuck in the branches or if it was just his head. But the mule keeps going. He is suspended in the tree.
Jeffrey Heine:You actually read that his body was suspended between heaven and earth. Soldiers see his body there, but they don't kill him because David gave explicit orders to deal gently with my son Absalom. David still doesn't wanna kill him. Deal gently with him. Joab, however, has no intentions of dealing gently with Jo with, Absalom.
Jeffrey Heine:Perhaps, he remembers his fields were torched by him. So he does not hesitate to take 3 spears and put them all through Absalom's chest. And so Absalom dies. David receives word of this. He falls apart weeping, and then he says those words that we began the sermon with.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would I have died instead of you? Oh, Absalom, my son, my son. In the Hebrew language, to emphasize something, you repeat it. They don't have exclamation points. You just repeat it.
Jeffrey Heine:My son is mentioned 5 times. Five times. My son. My son. Here's the sad thing.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the first time David ever calls Absalom his son. Over 6 chapters over 11 years, this is the first time David calls Absalom his son. Oh, my son, Absalom. My son, my son, Absalom. Would I have died instead of you?
Jeffrey Heine:Oh, Absalom, my son, my son. This is the cry of a father who realizes it's too late. It's too late to, to correct all the mistakes he has made. It's the cry of sorrow of a father seeing the massive consequences of his sin. Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:We'll stop there. What's the takeaway from a story like this? I mean, why do we have the story of the rise and the fall of Absalom? There's many. And once again, I encourage you to read it.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, you'll certainly gonna learn about the nature of temptation. You're gonna learn about what happens when justice is denied. How people just start setting things on fire. You're gonna read about the the need for fathers to lead and to protect their families. There's a lot of lessons here because we actually barely touch the story.
Jeffrey Heine:But I want to go back to the 2 things that I mentioned at the start. That line that I was I was trying to to keep. First, I want you to see that sin destroys lives. David's sin, Absalom's sin, Amnon's sin, they all had disastrous consequences. So many lives are needlessly ruined here.
Jeffrey Heine:So many hearts broken. So many people died all because of sin. But second, I want you to leave with the hope of Christ. This story leaves you longing for a better king, doesn't it? This is Israel's best king.
Jeffrey Heine:Sometimes you need to be reminded of that. This is Israel's best king. This is King David, Yet it leaves you longing for a better man. Someone who will fight for justice. Someone who will love and protect his children.
Jeffrey Heine:David here does point us at least dimly point us to Jesus. After Absalom died, David cried out, would I have died instead of you? Well, David didn't die, but the son of David did. We read that David, he took the path up the Mount of Olives in order to escape death. And yet, He crosses the Kidron Brook and He He goes up the Mount of Olives and He does that all to flee and to escape death.
Jeffrey Heine:You'll read in all the gospels that Jesus took that exact same path, but he didn't take it up to leave. He came down in order to die. He's he's the king who's gonna deal with justice, who's who's gonna deal with or deal with injustice to deal with our sin. He's the king who doesn't go to flee to save his life, but the king who's going to give his life in order to save ours. He's the king who loves and protects his children, protects us even from sin and death itself.
Jeffrey Heine:So Jesus died in our place, took our sins upon him. Because of this, we are reconciled to our heavenly father, and we never need to fear being rejected. And like David, we can say despite all the mess that we find ourselves in, remember, David still believed this. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Pray with me.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord Jesus, those were not easy words to read. Thank you for having those words written and preserved for us for 3000 years so that we might learn of your heart for us. So that we might see the horrors of sin, but also see how much you love us. Jesus, thank you that you did die for us, that we might be saved. And we remember that in this moment.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
