Abimelech's Crushing Downfall

We sort of start every chapter almost in the book of Judges by that same refrain again. The people of God did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And they fall into horrendous sin, idolatry, and then God sends an enemy to sort of reign over them, to oppress them, and they cry out to the Lord eventually. The Lord rescues them by sending a rescuer, a deliverer, in the form of a judge. But today, we have a bit of a different start, because we come to Judges chapter 9, and we see that the bad guy in this story now is not some enemy outside the gates.

It is an enemy within. It is one of Israel's own. The man named Abimelech, who is the son of Gideon. Gideon was the last judge that we dealt with last week, and his son Abimelech rises to the fore to eventually oppress and cruelly rule over Israel. So we're going to read Judges chapter 9, the whole chapter, and then we'll start.

Judges 9:1. Now Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, his other name, went to Shechem, to his mother's relatives, and said to them, and to the whole clan of his mother's family, say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, which is better for you? That all 70 of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you? Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. And his mother's relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech.

For they said, he is our brother. And they gave him 70 pieces of silver out of the house of Baal Berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows who followed him. And he went to his father's house at Ophrah and killed his brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal, Gideon, 70 men on one stone. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth Millo, and they went and made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar at Shechem.

When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim, and cried aloud and said to them, listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you. The trees once went out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, reign over us. But the olive tree said to them, shall I leave my abundance by which gods and men are honoured and go hold sway over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, you come and reign over us. But the fig tree said to them, shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees?

And the tree said to the vine, you come and reign over us. But the vine said to them, shall I leave my wine that cheers gods and men, and go hold sway over the trees? Then all the trees said to the bramble, you come and reign over us. And the bramble said to the trees, if in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade. But if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

Now, therefore, if you acted in good faith and integrity when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him as his deeds deserved, for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian. And you have risen up against my father's house this day and have killed his sons, 70 men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the leaders of Shechem, because he is your relative. If you then have acted in good faith and integrity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth Millo. And let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth Millo, and devour Abimelech.

And Jotham ran away and fled. And he went to Beer and lived there because of Abimelech, his brother. Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem. And the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, that the violence done to the 70 sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hand to kill his brothers.

And the leaders of Shechem put men in ambush against him on the mountaintops, and they robbed all who passed by them along the way. And it was told to Abimelech. And Gaal, the son of Ebed, moved into Shechem with his relatives, and the leaders of Shechem put confidence in him. And they went out into the field, and gathered the grapes from their vineyards, and trod them, and held a festival. And they went into the house of their god, and ate and drank, and reviled Abimelech.

And Gaal, the son of Ebed, said, who is Abimelech? And who are we of Shechem that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal? And is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

But why should we serve him? Would that his people were under my hand, then I would remove Abimelech. I would say to Abimelech, increase your army and come out. When Zebul, the ruler of the city, heard the words of Gaal, the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled, and he sent messengers to Abimelech secretly saying, behold, Gaal, the son of Ebed and his relatives have come to Shechem, and they are stirring up the city against you. Now therefore go by night, you and the people who are with you, and set an ambush in the field.

Then in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, rise early and rush upon the city. And when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you may do to them as your hand finds to do. So Abimelech and all the men who were with him rose up by night, and set an ambush against Shechem in four companies. And Gaal, the son of Ebed, went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city. And Abimelech and the people who were with him rose from the ambush.

And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, look, people are coming down from the mountaintops. Zebul said to him, you mistake the shadow of the mountains for men. Gaal spoke again and said, look, people are coming down from the centre of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the diviner's oak. Then Zebul said to him, where is your mouth now? You who said, who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?

Are not these the people whom you despise? Go now and fight with them. And Gaal went out at the head of the leaders of Shechem and fought with Abimelech. And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him. And many fell wounded up to the entrance of the gate.

And Abimelech lived at Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his relatives so that they could not dwell at Shechem. On the following day, the people went out into the field, and Abimelech was told. At this, he took his people and divided them into three companies and set an ambush in the fields. And he looked and saw the people coming out of the city. So he rose against them and killed them. Abimelech and the company that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city, while the two companies rushed upon all who were in the field and killed them.

And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed the people who were in it, and he razed the city and sowed it with salt. When all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of El Berith. Abimelech was told that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem were gathered together, and Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bundle of brushwood, and took it up and laid it on his shoulder.

And he said to the men who were with him, what you have seen me do, hurry and do as I have done. So every one of the people cut down his bundle, and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold. And they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the Tower of Shechem also died, about 1,000 men and women. Then Abimelech went to Thebes and encamped against Thebes and captured it. But there was a strong tower within that city, and all the men and the women and all the leaders of the city fled to it and shut themselves in.

And they went up to the roof of the tower. And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech's head and crushed his skull. Then he called quickly to the young man, his armour bearer, and said to him, draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me a woman killed him. And his young man thrust him through and he died.

And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone departed to his home. Thus, God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his 70 brothers. And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal. Lots of details there, but the story comes full circle. Abimelech's rise to power we see in the story is completely different to the other rulers of Israel, rather, in this time.

The judges like Othniel, Ehud, and Deborah. He, in fact, is not a judge that is raised up by God like those who have gone before him. He is an illegitimate king who sets himself up as the ruler of Israel through violence and through intrigue. He is described as the son of Gideon, the former judge. But he is not a legitimate son of Gideon.

In fact, the Bible says in our passage that he is the son of Gideon's concubine. This places Abimelech in a unique situation, however, because he has two sets of brothers. The brothers, the 70 brothers of his that belonged to Gideon, but then the brothers that belonged to his mother, who seemingly were influential people in this town of Shechem. He goes on to exploit this unique situation by turning one set of half brothers against the other set of half brothers in such a way that he will be the only son surviving Gideon. He and the half brothers in Shechem capture the other brothers from Gideon's side.

They raise up an army. And verse 5 says that 70 men, 70 of these brothers, are killed that day on one stone. So probably one sort of execution platform. Gideon's entire family is eradicated in one day. But there is one survivor, Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, who escapes the massacre.

And his prayer proves to be Abimelech's undoing. He confronts the people of Shechem with the evil that they've done. And he tells them, Jotham tells them a fable about a story of the kingdom of the trees. The trees of the field, he says, wanted a king to rule over them. And they begin by asking, firstly, the most noble of all the trees, the olive tree, to rule over them.

The olive tree says, no. They move on to the next one in line, the fig tree. And the fig tree says, no. Each time they move down a level, to the point where they ask a grapevine, not a tree, a grapevine to be their king. And even then, the vine says no.

Finally, they go to the bramble. They go to the thorn bush. And they ask the thorn bush to be king over them. And the bramble says to them that he will be their king. Now, in ancient Israel, this is saying something.

The thorn bush becoming king is unusual because thorn bushes, brambles, are notoriously annoying. They caught people's sheep in their thorns. Rams, the story of Abraham, sacrificing is a goat that's stuck in a bramble bush, in thorn bush. The weeds of these bramble bushes choke out people's crops on their farms. Brambles catch fire.

They start field fires that devastate farmers. And yet, this is the tree that the kingdom of the trees' citizens ask for. Now, the story that Jotham tells is designed to show the ridiculousness of choosing Abimelech as their king. Essentially, Jotham is saying, if you have been fair to Gideon's family in making Abimelech king, and let's face it, you haven't, then may you find great blessing in the rule of Abimelech. But if you haven't been fair, and let's face it, you haven't, then may you get what you deserve.

May the bramble bush that is Abimelech choke you out and start a fire that you cannot put out. And so what follows is exactly the outworking of this prayer. It is a raging fire that cannot be stopped until it has burnt out. Abimelech's rule is short lived, a mere three years. But no doubt for those living under his oppressive rule, three years too many.

Like all tyrants, his ability to impose his authority is dependent on the loyalty of people that he has won through money. He gets 70 pieces of silver by which he hires reckless fellows, the Bible says. Scoundrels. He rules over the village. He rules over his people through oppression, and intrigue, and violence.

The town of Shechem developed some sort of grievance in those three years against Abimelech. We don't know what exactly that is. But it's sharpened by the arrival of a man called Gaal. A man who presents himself as an alternative to Abimelech in verse 26. But like every tyrant we know, and we have seen throughout history, Abimelech tries to crush his opposition, and he goes out to fight Gaal and to retake Shechem.

He does. He is successful in doing that. He obliterates Shechem and all its inhabitants. And we can't underestimate just how sad and ironic this is. He destroys Shechem, which historically was so significant to the Israelites.

Abraham, when he called in Genesis 12 to leave his pagan people, to be the founding father of Israel, goes down from Ur of the Chaldeans down into Canaan, and he stops at Shechem. The Bible says in Genesis 12 that this is where Abraham called upon the name of the Lord. Abraham worships God here. Hundreds of years later, when Joshua and the Israelites come into their promised land for the first time, they also stop at Shechem. And this is where they worship the Lord and build an altar.

Now, this ruler of Israel that the people of Israel asked for, massacres the people of Shechem, raises its buildings to the ground, and then in order for it to be left barren forever, Abimelech scatters salt all throughout the fields, so that no one can grow crops there, and no one will resettle in that place. It will be barren forever. The thorn bush has choked out the crop. It has entangled the sheep of Israel. It has consumed them with an unquenchable fire.

In a last ditch effort, the Shechemites take refuge in a tower fortress in verse 46. With his rage still burning, Abimelech orders men to burn the tower down by piling wood against its base. Verse 49 says that a thousand people are burnt alive in this tower, both men and women. But still, Abimelech's rage isn't sated. He goes on to attack a nearby town called Thebes, and it looks like they are going to suffer the same fate.

But that is where God's justice says, no more. As he approaches the entrance to that town's fortress tower, a woman on the roof drops a small millstone on his head and cracks his skull. Fatally injured, Abimelech, with the presence of mind in his vanity, the insecure tyrant that he is, asks his servant to finish him off so that no one could say that a woman had killed him. When Abimelech's army see that he's dead finally, what happens? They all go home.

These are men not faithful to a good man, not roused by his charisma or leadership. They've been paid for in silver. Once he's dead, they go home. And so we come to the end of this horrific moment in Israel's history, and the end of both Abimelech and the town of Shechem. So now we have to ask the question, why is this in the Bible?

What do we make with this? What is God firstly teaching the people of Israel? And what is he teaching us today? Well, overall, you and I probably would say that it's about retribution. It's about Abimelech and Shechem's comeuppance.

It's God's justice that drives this story. But the interesting thing is God is hardly mentioned in this story. Did you notice that when we read it, and when we worked through it again? Only at the end of this chapter is God mentioned. Verse 45, this is what it says, thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his 70 brothers.

And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham, the son of Gideon. Only at the end is God explicitly mentioned as the driving force for this retribution. But there is one verse, verse 23, where God is also mentioned. And that verse simply says that God sends an evil spirit amongst the men of Shechem. But it's exactly this that sets in motion the events that will take place with the destruction of Shechem and the destruction of Abimelech.

It's an important point for us to remember and to know as we understand and we see God's wisdom and His perfect knowledge and how they work in order to accomplish His justice. God, with His perfect understanding, needs to adjust only one thing, and everything else falls into place. From our earthly perspectives, from the perspectives of Israel or the people of Shechem or whoever in that time, Abimelech was over it all. He had the money, he had the personality, he had brawn, the strength to rule. From our situations, in the heat of the battle, situations can look hopelessly unjust.

How can someone kill 70 men in one day and get away with it? When we take hope, what we can take hope from in the story of Judges 9 is that while we are tempted to think very quickly that things are untouchable, some things are unchangeable, locked into unjust sin. We need to be reminded that we are sometimes too quick to think that the brokenness in which we live cannot be fixed. Yet the story of Abimelech and Shechem shows us how God unravels injustice in just a moment. Like a game of Jenga, God pulls out one single block, he sows disunity among the people of Shechem, and the whole tower comes crashing down.

In His perfect knowledge, God knows the pride of Abimelech. In His perfect knowledge, God knows his lust for power. He knows all that Shechem will do to rid themselves of this oppressor. And God shows His complete control over the situation by making the whole thing turn on its head. Listen to the irony of this story come full circle.

At the start of the story, Abimelech goes to Shechem to incite the leaders of Shechem to conspire with him against the sons of Gideon. But then, Abimelech's enemy, Gaal, later incites Shechem's leaders in the same way. The way that the men of Shechem ambush Gideon's sons is exactly the way Abimelech ambushes his attackers. And then finally, Abimelech himself, who kills all his brothers on a stone, it says, is killed by a stone dropped on his head. In the story of Judges 9, we see the God of justice.

The God who does right every single time, and it is glorious. It is encouraging for us. It is strengthening for us because we realise that God's vision of our situation is limitless. It does not stop in the power of man. It does not become manipulated by intrigue.

He sees the infinite possibilities of every single situation. He knows them from beginning to end. And because God sees it all, because God knows it all, He is the perfect judge. He is the one who will and can judge and act swiftly. Many people of my age, perhaps a bit older, perhaps a bit younger, know of this really great perk from when you were sick as a high school student and could stay home.

The perk was daytime TV. When everyone was either at work or also at school, you would find yourself watching a bit of daytime TV, and the show that was the most daytime TV esque was Judge Judy. Who doesn't love a bit of Judge Judy? It was always in that time, that sort of like lunchtime ish, you know, that golden hour where you could just be lying on the couch, eating a whole bag of chips or biscuits yourself. Again, king of the house, no one to tell you you can't.

And I love judge Judy. One of Judge Judy's most famous cases is the one that was also her shortest. The case lasted a grand total of thirty seconds. The plaintiff, who is the person that has been wronged, claimed that two men had stolen her purse and all her valuables inside. Judge Judy asked her for the list of the things that were stolen.

She said, I had gift cards, a calculator, and an earpiece in there, she replied. Before the woman could finish, the defendants interrupted. There was no earpiece in there, ma'am. Case is over. Judgment for the plaintiff.

Judgment came in thirty seconds. Don't we wish sometimes that God's justice would come that swiftly? Sometimes God does, but oftentimes, God is busy achieving a whole lot more by being patient. For three years, Abimelech is allowed to be a tyrant king in Israel. Now, that's not too long.

I mean, Israel has endured some pretty horrendous kings before this. Twenty years? Thirty years? Why three years before Abimelech is overruled? Well, because Israel is also receiving their justice.

Israel, in this time, is also being punished. Punished by having a tyrant king, their own flesh and blood rule over them. Israel has fallen back into idol worship. The 70 silver pieces Abimelech is given to hire his thugs comes from a temple to Baal. The story of Abimelech, as we read, is also a story of towers.

There's towers here, there's towers there. There's a tower in Shechem, there's a tower in this town called Thebes. And scholars point out that these towers were towers built in temples. Towers built to the gods that they worshipped. These strongholds, where people sought refuge from Abimelech, are also spiritual strongholds of idolatry.

And we know, don't we, as we work through Judges, that God will give punishment to Israel to bring them back to faithfulness. Here, God is allowing a tyrant to rule over them for three years as an act of justice. But for Jotham, for his family that's been eradicated, it feels like there's no justice. Abimelech is still king. Even as the people of Israel sought protection in their temple strongholds, Abimelech seeks to fortify himself against the rule of God.

He creates his own fortress or his own stronghold, which would protect himself against God's justice. He creates a kingdom for himself. He manipulates things in such a way that he will be king. Remember, there is no king in Israel. He sets himself up as king.

He buys people's allegiance. But we see that there is no stronghold that matches the power of God. The powerful message of this story is that just like the strongholds of Shechem and Thebes crumble, so too does the fortress and the stronghold of those who have set themselves up against God. And for them, justice is justice, and it is swift, and it is crushing. Hebrews 10:31 says, it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

So we have to remember this first point, that God delivers justice because of His perfect knowledge. The danger, of course, is that while bad things, evil things are happening, and we can't see a quick end in sight, we might also become discouraged. We might even be tempted to jump in and think that we can do these evil things ourselves because nothing is being done about this. Psalm 73 captures this issue perfectly, and it begins with this statement. So our first point is that God delivers justice.

The second point is that our feet will slip when we focus on the prosperity of the wicked. Psalm 73 begins with these words, truly God is good to Israel. God is good to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. In this psalm, for 16 verses, the psalm writer explains all the reasons for why his feet nearly slipped. And by slipped, it means walked away from God, stumbled into a life of unrighteousness. They were rich, he says. They were healthy, he says.

They were well regarded within their communities. And the psalm writer watches this, and he is tempted to a breaking point in wanting to pursue those things because it seems that there is no justice for all their unjustices. But the turning point comes in verse 17, where it says, and then I went into the sanctuary of God, and I discerned their end. Verse 18, truly, God, you have set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin.

Where once this person's feet, this psalm writer's feet had nearly slipped, now it is God who will set these on slippery places. But notice how this man's heart is changed. It is changed when he enters the sanctuary of God. It changes in the worship of God. His heart and his head is turned when he comes and faces God.

Our hearts are calibrated and recalibrated by our worship and our return to God. Because this man has entered the sacred space of God, the psalm writer says in verse 23, nevertheless, I know that I am continually with you. You, God, hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterwards, you will receive me in glory. Who do I have in heaven besides you?

There is nothing on this earth that I desire besides you. My heart and my flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. And so while God, in His perfect knowledge, allows injustice to continue for a thousand different reasons, the truth is He will finally win. The truth is there will be justice. And whether that is justice to crush His enemies who have set themselves up as God and king, or whether that is justice to discipline His own kids, God's justice will be done.

What we must do is to delight ourselves in the Lord. To come habitually into worship and into the presence of our God. Enter His sanctuary. Because when we do that, we realise who is there, in heaven or on earth, beside you. This earth can give me nothing.

Hearts and flesh may fail, but God is the strength of our heart. He is the portion of our lives forever. But then, finally, we also know that sometimes, we don't see justice fully and finally in our lives. We don't see it fully and finally in our times. It's not that the Bible promises us that we won't see justice, but we just know we may not see it in this time.

But the Bible does promise us something even greater. It promises a full and a final vindication, that God will have a final victory over all sin. A full and final conquering of all those who have set themselves up against Him, like the Abimelechs of old. And that brings us to our third and our final point. The final judgment of God is the Christian's greatest hope.

One day, Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, will return to His world. The world that He has created for Himself. And He will judge the earth, the Bible says. He will divide men from men, women from women, even as Abimelech divided his brothers from one another. Jesus will put the righteous on His right side and the unrighteous on His left.

And it will be as stark as that in a moment, in a moment, for all the times people have excused their sin, who have convinced themselves that what I'm doing here is a grey area. Who have said everything else I'm doing, everyone else is doing. For those who have said, no one has seen me do this, in a blink of an eye, all of us will realise both the greatest sins to the least that we have been exposed. Jesus Christ has seen. He has always known.

And on that day, it will be a dreadful thing to fall into the hand of the living God. Why? Because justice will be done. And to those on His left, He will say, your time is up. Your rebellion has now ended.

Abimelech, so far and no further. Shechem, you destroyed, but I will not let you destroy. Thebes. But to those on His left, He will say, you will depart from the sanctuary of God forever. The God of whom the writer of Psalm 73 said, He is the strength of all human hearts.

They will be removed from His presence, and the justice of God will be done. Let me ask you the question. What will you say on that day? What will you say to Him when you see Him? I'll tell you what will happen.

You and I will realise our guilt quicker than the thirty seconds it took for Judge Judy to lay a verdict down. When we see Him in light of His glory and His perfect holiness, you and I will be found totally exposed, standing before the God whose eyes burn with unrelenting knowledge. And for those hearing those words, nothing that they have ever said can stack up. Hiding behind lies, rejecting the will of God. Perhaps for the first time, people have considered then and there that they might have to give an account for the things that they've done.

Whether we are hiding behind lies about who we are, whether we call ourselves Christian or not, we will have to give an account. We will be exposed. There is no alternative, and today is a warning. But in this final judgment, for those who have placed their trust in Jesus Christ, for those who have gladly taken Him to be their lord, their king, their saviour. The final judgement becomes that person's greatest hope.

Because at once, even while you mourn for your sin, which made it necessary for Jesus Christ to have died, you will rejoice that that sin has been punished. That sin has been done away with in Jesus Christ. Justice has been done. At once, you will mourn that your sins and the sins of Abimelech could have existed, could have seemingly run its course. Yet before the seat of Christ, you and I will raise our hands in praise as we thank Him.

Because now, finally, our God has said, it is enough. Sin, you will have no more place in my kingdom. So for those listening, for the unrepentant, you may fall into the hands of a living God, and to do that will be a dreadful thing. But for the saved sinner, saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, when you find yourself in the hand of the living God, you'll be able to sing. We have found our sanctuary in Him.

He is our stronghold. He is our fortress. And in Him, our hearts have found strength. Now He will be our portion forever and ever. Amen.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your truth that we may hear again this morning. We thank you for your justice. We thank you, God, that you will not stand idly by. That things will run their course in order to achieve your full and final purposes.

And Lord, while we suffer in the three years of the reigns of Abimelech, while we suffer for short times, while we wait for justice to be done, give us the determination and the vision to trust and believe that vindication will come. And so, Lord, help us to walk in step with the Spirit who has set us free. Help us to endure with love, joy, patience, peace, kindness. Where there is division and dissension in our lives, where there is pride and the breaking down of good things, Lord, bring us to a point of repentance.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that you took the justice that we deserved. And the beauty of this grace is how unfair it is even in the way that you have so loved us when we have loved you so little. Lord, help us to find hearts that will explode with gratitude and thankfulness. Help us to know exactly our condition before you apart from the saving grace of Jesus. That there is nothing in our hands that we bring to you.

With empty, soiled hands, we cling to the cross of Jesus. Forgive us for our sins, Lord Jesus. Help us to live lives committed to you again. Continue to work your precious works of sanctification in our lives, that we may dwell in the sanctuary of our God forever, and that we will be satisfied that He is our portion forever. In Jesus' power and His grace, we pray. Amen.