The purification of Zion

All right. So, yeah, no PowerPoint this morning. I had considered a couple of different things. You know, early in the week, I kind of got to start on the lesson, and then, you know, I kept thinking, well, you know, I'll have another day at some point here, and so... We understand. We understand. Towards the end of the week, I thought, well, maybe we'll do something kind of creative for PowerPoint.

Maybe I'll just put the verses up there, and, you know, we got nothing. It's fine. It's fine. So if you have your Bibles open to Micah 5, that'll help you. A couple other scriptures we'll turn to. I think we can do this out of the text fairly well. So we're in Micah chapter 5, verses 10 through 15, so down to the end of chapter 5 this morning, and the title that was on the schedule.

It's called The Purification of Zion. Where do those titles come from, Roger? I can't remember where you... Actually, what I did, I didn't spend a lot of time. That's actually Constable's titles. Yeah, that's what I... Okay, yeah. It's his titles that he... and his outline of Micah. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's great. And it is a good title. I just... I didn't come up with it myself. It's called The Purification of Zion. And that fits very well.

And we'll see that. So, last week we looked through verses 5b through 9, which dealt with Jerusalem's deliverance from the hand of the Assyrian. And are there any questions or comments or thoughts that anyone had just in hindsight on that lesson? Would you like a reminder of what we covered last week? Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Please, go on. Yeah, let's read verses 5 and 6 out loud here and then we can comment on it.

So it says, this one will be our peace. Now Bob covered that phrase, but it's important to tie the context together. This one will be our peace. When the Assyrian invades our land, when he tramples on our citadels, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight leaders of men. They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod at its entrances, and he will deliver us from the Assyrian when he attacks our land and when he tramples our territory. So, we clearly have the Messiah being referred to in verses 2 through 4, and that's through this one, that will deliver Israel from the Assyrian, is the Messiah. So we know that, I think, quite clearly. But we talked about the question, who is the Assyrian that is invading the land of Israel here?

Isn't it symbolically for the enemies to come? Yeah, so that's good. I mean, it's interesting, right? I mean, we don't like to jump immediately to symbols and things, you know, when we come to prophecy. you know, the literal meaning is, you know, it's important to understand that prophecy is fulfilled literally. But understanding that, we also have, you know, figures of speech and things like that, symbols and so forth in prophetic language that we have to navigate and interpret.

And so what we talked about last week is that the the nation Assyria at that time, in Micah's day, was the, what we could say probably is the kingdom of Satan, or the satanic kingdom of man on the earth in that day. Which is really just an earlier form of the exact same kingdom that will exist under the Antichrist. And we see that in Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the five metal statue. It's all really one kingdom. And so the head of that kingdom or the king of that earthly kingdom will be antichrist during the time of the tribulation. Yes. Also Babylon is a part of Assyria. Right. That's right.

Yeah, we had that map up last week and we showed that Nimrod built Babel and Nineveh and of course then during Micah's time Assyria ruled over Babylon and then of course Babylon kind of rose up and took over Assyria and expanded and all these things but really it's all been one one kingdom all the way down through history, and right now we're kind of in this in-between time during the Roman Empire, which will revive and be what the Antichrist rules over. in the end. And so, though we can see similarities if we look at the account of Sennacherib and Hezekiah, we can see similarities with Assyria surrounding Jerusalem in that day.

I think that in context it seems better here to take this as a reference to that future attack by the Antichrist against Jerusalem, the end of the Tribulation. which would be the final stage in the whole campaign of Armageddon. So, what we've said is this is really that final moment when Jerusalem is surrounded and really all hope seems lost for Israel and then Jesus returns from heaven.

In all his glory and he just destroys these armies with the sword of his mouth, right? And you know that fits really well with the context here because in verses 7 through 9 we see that following this victory over the Assyrian, Israel will enter into a situation where they are two things. They're both the channel of divine blessing to the nations of the earth, but they're also the channel of Jesus' governmental authority over the earth.

And that really describes the kingdom situation very well. We certainly didn't see that after Assyria was defeated in Hezekiah's time by the Lord. So that is very similar, and perhaps prefigures, in a way, this battle at the end of the Tribulation. But I think this fits better because of the circumstances that we see following it.

And then, of course, we see there, you know, in verse 7, we saw Israel described as dew from the Lord and showers on vegetation among many peoples. And that phrase, many peoples, describes the Gentile nations of the earth. So the nation Israel will be a blessing to the nations.

And in verses 8 and 9, we see that Israel will be among the nations like a lion among beasts of the forest and among flocks of sheep. And so we said that the idea there is the idea of total supremacy. just like sheep are completely defenseless against a predator, the nations of the earth who will rise up in rebellion against Israel and against Jesus during the Millennial Kingdom will be totally defenseless against Jesus. And so, Jesus will be the one reigning on the throne in the kingdom, and his authority will be unchallengeable. And during the kingdom, Israel will be the only superpower on the earth.

So, sorry to have said that to America. It's okay. It's okay. That's good. Yeah, there will be only one superpower, and it will be Israel. So today's verses are 10 through 15. Let's just read those. I'm reading from the NASB. You'll see a few differences in wording on some of these things, depending on your translation, but let's read that together.

"'It will be in that day,' declares the Lord, that I will cut off your horses from among you and destroy your chariots.' I will also cut off the cities of your land and tear down all your fortifications. I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you will have fortune tellers no more. I will cut off your carved images and your sacred pillars from among you, so that you will no longer bow down to the work of your hands. I will root out your Ashurim from among you and destroy your cities, and I will execute vengeance and anger and wrath on the nations which have not obeyed.

So we have a very typical Hebrew poetry pattern in this section. This is synonymous parallelism in these verses. And we'll talk about that in a minute. But I want you, first of all, to notice who's speaking in these verses. Who is it? Who's the speaker? It will be in that day. declares the Lord. And that is the Tetragrammaton. That is Yahweh, the personal name of God, who is speaking. So these are God's words Himself.

We want to understand that. And what is the... Of course, all scripture is God's word. We've got to clarify that. But this is a direct quotation, I guess you could say, perhaps. I don't know how to phrase that any better. But what time period is the Lord speaking about here in the beginning of verse 10? How do we take that? What does it say there?

Yeah. Well, isn't there a big clue there with it? It says that day. That's kind of. Yeah, that's right. It will be in that day. So what is that day a reference to? Is anyone? Awesome. Day of the Lord? I think it's the Day of the Lord. Okay, I hear you. Yeah, it was Bonnie. Okay, I heard the Day of the Lord. I think I heard the word millennium. Very good. So, yeah, this is a reference to what Scripture often calls the Day of the Lord. And sometimes the prophets just shorten it up to that day or the day. And so it's a very common term in Old Testament prophecy.

And, yes. I have a question. Would you say that Israel is still in exile today, even though there was a partial return with Ezra and the rebuilding of the temple? That was just a partial return, so that exile is still going on and will continue to go on throughout the tribulation? Yeah, that's a really good point, Bob. There was only ever a partial return, and that happened so that enough of the nation was in Israel when Christ came the first time.

He had to be born in Bethlehem. He had to be in and around Jerusalem. He had to be crucified outside. Jerusalem and so forth. So yeah, that partial return was critical to the unfolding of God's plan. But then, of course, the Jews were dispersed again, by and large, in the first century. And today, again, our regathering in part, but this isn't the regathering that is prophesied to take place at the beginning of the Kingdom, or kind of in the transition between the Tribulation and the Kingdom time.

It's a really good point. It seems to me, since the Babylonians exiles all the Jews, it seems to me like there's always been more Jews living outside of Israel than there has been inside. It's only been a remnant that's been returned for all these centuries.

No, that's right. That's really good. That's true. Yeah. No, good points. And we've got to keep those things in view, you know, when we're studying eschatology. You've got to really put together the whole picture, right? And what's going on and where are we now? And so that's really good. So we're looking here in verse 10 at that day, which we say is the day of the Lord. And what would we say that the day of the Lord is a reference to? I think I heard the Someone say the millennium. What else? Or is there more to it than that? It's an extended period, so the tribulations included, which I think that's the focus here, it seems like. Yes. Okay. Very good. I also think the Day of the Lord has to do with judgment. So we're talking about the end of the tribulation before the millennium starts and then on into the millennium.

Yeah, the Day of the Lord is an interesting one because it, you know, depending on where you read, it sounds different, right? Sometimes it sounds like a time of judgment and sometimes it sounds like it's actually a time of the Lord's blessing. And in fact, we did talk about this earlier on, I think in Micah 2, I brought this up. But the Day of the Lord has been referred to as having a dark phase and a light phase, because that's what a 24-hour period of time includes.

But the Jewish reckoning of the day was that it began at sunset. So it began with darkness, which continued for some time, and then became light. So what we have to both points there. The dark phase of the Day of the Lord is the Judgment Period, or what we typically call the Tribulation, and the light phase would be the Kingdom of God on Earth.

But what's interesting is that the Scripture also describes, you'll remember the phrase, before the Day of the Lord. So, Scripture also describes things that take place before the Day of the Lord, and it also describes things that we could call, that fit into what we could call a transitional period between the dark and light phase.

And I'm borrowing here from, again, from Alva McLean's book, The Greatness of the Kingdom that I quoted last week. I really, as far as I have read, can't recommend a better book in terms of putting together the big picture of eschatology than The Greatness of the Kingdom by Albert McLean. And in his chapter titled, The Establishment of the Prophetic Kingdom. He divides the Day of the Lord into four categories that he sees in prophecy, and the first is preparatory events. before the Day of the Lord.

And these would be events that take place after the Rapture, but just before the Tribulation begins. And I say after the Rapture, because if we knew they happened before the Rapture, then we'd know when the Rapture happens, and it's a fun, dateable event. It's imminent. Then he talks about penal events during the darkness of the day of the Lord, so that would be tribulation period, and then he had these two categories called transitional events and constitutive events.

And so transitional events is an interesting one, and he describes that this would be events surrounding Christ's arrival on the earth when his feet touched down on the Mount of Olives, and he destroys the Antichrist's armies and so forth, and then it initiates the conditions that will be necessary for the coming kingdom. And what I think is that these verses here that we're looking at in 10 through 15 really fit into this transitional period or right kind of between that transition and constitutive, if we can make that division, but it's essentially in those very early stages right after the return of Christ to the earth where he is establishing the necessary conditions for his kingdom reign.

And actually, if we think about this, this has a lot of parallels to what Hezekiah did when he became king in Judah. In 2 Kings 18, verse 4, it says he removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, and so forth, because they were worshipping it. And so, Hezekiah purge these things out of the land at the beginning of his reign, and that is again a foreshadowing of what Jesus will do at the beginning of his reign.

So we can say that Jesus is cleansing the nation of Israel, or as the title said, purifying Israel in preparation for his kingdom. And what we want to understand here, I think, as we look at these things, is that this all has to do with Israel's dependents. What are they depending on? In reference to these verses, Charles Feinberg says, in order that Israel may be usable in the hand of the Lord, he will remove all carnal supports in which she trusted. So it has to do with the things that Israel was depending on and was being propped up by, or will be, this is all future, I've got to keep my tenses straight here.

But if we divide these verses into two sections, we can see the two aspects of Israel's false dependence. In verses 10 and 11, we see that Christ will cut off Israel's dependence on their own military strength. And then in verses 12 and 13 we see that Christ will cut off Israel's dependence on demonic powers. So let's look at verse 10. It says, I will cut off your forces from among you and destroy your chariots.

Now, like I said, this is Hebrew poetry. This is synonymous parallelism. And so, each of these phrases are roughly synonymous. And it really is a genius way of communicating. You know, a single word or phrase on its own can leave some uncertainty, perhaps, about what's being spoken about. But when we combine the two phrases together, we get a very clear picture of what's being talked about. So, If verse 10 just said, I will cut off your horses, we might be somewhat uncertain about what that means, but with the parallel phrase, and destroy your chariots, then we get a lot more clarity about what God is intending to do. So cut off and destroy here are used synonymously, and the horses and the chariots are used to refer to the same thing. St. Miles?

Yes. Would that be synonymous with turning your weapons into plowshares? Yeah, that's a good connection to draw, I think. Very good. Because horses and chariots represent military power, right? Military strength. And so that fits very well with that whole idea that Israel will do away with their military arms, their weapons. They won't need them. And in Micah's day, horses and chariots were the ultimate in military offense.

We'll see in verse 11, military defense, but this isn't an offensive weapon. And so the idea is that the Lord is going to cut off Israel's military strength. And we know that Israel was never supposed to amass for themselves great military power, right? Right in Deuteronomy 17, verse 6, The Lord said, moreover, you shall not, or he shall not. This is referring to the king, when Israel would get a king. He said, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, you shall never again return that way. And so why didn't the Lord want Israel to have a powerful military? Because he wanted them to trust in him. Right. Exactly. Exactly. The Lord would tell him, you know, I will fight on your behalf. The battle belongs to the Lord. We know that. phrase, right?

Psalm 20 verse 7 says, Some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the Lord our God. If we amass military strength, then our confidence is in our own strength. So in the Kingdom, Israel will not have a powerful military, but, like we said, they will still be the world's superpower. And, of course, that's because the Lord Himself will undertake on behalf of Israel. Just like He did at Jericho and in the other battles of the conquest, you know, the Lord will be that to Israel. A quick thought here, if we have probably a little bit of time.

Are the horses and chariots literal or figurative? You know, these days, within the last hundred years, I guess we could say, everybody has taken the view that, well, this must all be figurative prophetic language because we don't use horses in warfare anymore.

Very little. They still have a very small place. My son, Tim, is kind of interested in military history because Alyssa's grandfather was mounted in the Second World War, actually, which is rare, because horses were used very little in the Second World War, though early on they had a place. Anyway, horses have almost become obsolete in military today.

But, I personally believe that we should always tend towards straightforward, literal interpretation of prophecy unless it's very clear that it's figurative or unless there is something in the text that tells us what that is a figure or a symbol for. And not that it's necessarily worth taking a lot of time on this morning, but but it's all of the language referring to the tribulation times, the battles of Armageddon and so forth, make reference to military weaponry and so forth as it existed for really the last 6,000 years up until this last century. And so it's quite possible, I think even likely, that something for whatever reason, will cause militaries to revert to what we would consider primitive weaponry.

And so that this could be a literal cutting off of horses from Israel. But either way, we know that he will cut off their military strength. Now, verse 11. I will also cut off the cities of your land and tear down all your fortifications. So like we said, verse 10 was about military offense. Verse 11 is about military defense. You know, good walls have always been the best form of military defense.

Ask Donald Trump, right? Jesus will dismantle that kind of military defense at the beginning of his reign. And again, we can ask the same question, why would that be a good thing? Why would Jesus do that to the nation of Israel? In fact, when you first read verses 10 and 11, it almost sounds like a judgment text, like the Lord is being hard on Israel here, but it actually is a good thing. What he's doing is he's dismantling Israel's military, which is arguably one of the best today, one of the best in the world. You know, they're very advanced militarily. For their size, they probably are one of the best militaries per capita that the world has.

No. No, amen. They have to. Yeah. Yeah, they have to. Say, Michael. Yes. You probably don't need the walls around your city because you'll be living under the rule of Christ and everything will be peace. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's very good. And. And so.

And so Israel will have their military defense dismantled as well in verse 11. Let's move on into verse 12 because we kind of changed the perspective here and look at a different thing that the Lord will do. Verse 12 says, I will cut off sorceries from your hand and you will have fortune tellers no more.

The Hebrew for sorceries and fortune tellers are very similar definitions, very close. Like I said, these are synonyms. Except that the sorceries is a noun and fortune tellers is really a verb. We could say the telling of fortunes or something like that. The definitions given for the Hebrew words also aren't very specific. The scholars have a hard time understanding if this refers to a very specific activity or activities, but they do know just by use, contextually in the Old Testament, that they're related to all things related to the occult, magic, sorcery, and divining, and so forth.

And so the basic idea in verse 12 is seeking guidance from spiritual beings. And we're familiar in our own day with things like Ouija boards, or well-witching, or tarot cards are popular, even things like seances, you know. communicating with your dead relatives and so forth. We may not dabble in those things, but you go into the world, you find that no, people are actually quite involved in many of these things. A lot of people think that they're just fun or harmless or whatever their view of it is, but But we do need to understand that in reality these kinds of things are the means by which demonic spirits bring people into deception and bondage. And these sorts of activities have taken on hundreds of different forms, and they've been common all the way down through history.

But for Israel, they were strictly forbidden. Deuteronomy 18, verses 9-12 says, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, You shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable things, the Lord your God will drive them out before you."

And of course, Israel violated this command and engaged in these kinds of practices. And actually, you'll remember Saul, who goes to the witch of Endor, the medium at Endor, in 1 Samuel 28, to try to call up Samuel from the dead. And these sorts of things, like I said, are still very common in our world today. And the Lord is going to purge all of this kind of thing out of the nation of Israel at the beginning of the kingdom. I don't know if there will be an escalation in that kind of activity for Israel in those last times. I don't know, but it will exist there. It will be present within Israel, and the Lord's going to do away with all of that.

And then verse 13, same kind of context, a bit of a different angle. So in verse 12, we had seeking guidance from the spirit world. In verse 13, we have really worship of these spirits. So he says, I will cut off your carved images and your sacred pillars from among you so that you will no longer bow down to the work of your hands. And so here we have people worshiping and idols and pillars, and of course we need to understand that behind these idols there are really demonic spirits who crave this kind of worship.

And all of these things from verse 12 and 13 kind of blend together into various different forms. But if you learn to see what is at the root of this all, you can identify this kind of idolatry in every single religious system and every non-biblical worldview that exists in the world.

Because what these things are is always a counterfeit of God and what should be directed towards God. So God is the one who should be worshipped as all-powerful. And then God is the one to whom we should pray and from whom we should seek revelation, of course through his written word. But Satan always offers mankind counterfeits. If you learn to think of all these other things as a counterfeit, you get a better understanding of it.

We can ask an interesting question here. I've been saying I think this will help us kind of understand, because we look around today and we think, well, we don't see people bowing down to idols. We don't see, you know, the nation Israel carving little images to bow down to. So I want to explore that a little bit here. We've been saying that all this is future to today, right? These events could be as soon as about seven years from today, if the rapture were to happen today. And I've been saying that we should be taking these things as straightforward and literally as possible. But like I said, we don't see the Jewish people bowing down to carved images. So what is this all about? What is this talking about? Maybe they will. Maybe they will begin to engage in literal carved images to which they bow down.

But I think in order to understand this, we have to understand what idols were to the people who worshipped them in Micah's day. It's not really that the people believed that this little carved image or pillar was powerful in itself. These were the images through which people worshipped unseen forces or spiritual forces or powers. And so they believed that there were powerful forces going on all around us that needed to be appeased and needed to be sought for help and for prosperity and fertility.

And they understood that these forces, they understood them as personal beings. Now, of course, there is no such thing as forces of nature, right? We know that. There's only God. And He is supreme over all creation. But when people suppress the knowledge of God, they inevitably turn to worshipping nature or the creation as supremely powerful. And of course Satan and his demons are more than happy to intercept that worship and to keep men blinded to who God is.

Romans 1.21-23 says, For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible men and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures." So they're exchanging the worship of God for the worship of creation, creatures. And there's a particular way that the worship of creation has manifested over and over and over down throughout history. We always see the concept of a fertility goddess.

And she has had many names down through time. In Jeremiah, she is referred to as the Queen of Heaven. You would see that in Jeremiah 7, 18 and other places in Jeremiah. But she has personal names in different cultures as well. In Babylon, she was Ishtar. In Egypt, she was Isis. We also see the name Astarte, Ashtaroth, a number of variations. Some of them sound quite similar.

But in verse 14, we see a word that comes from the Canaanite name. Asherim is a plural word, really, that refers to the many pillars. that were set up to worship the goddess Asherah. So Asherah is the personal name of the Canaanite goddess of nature. Feinberg refers to Asherah as the Canaanite goddess of nature. That's really interesting, because no matter what the name is, whether it's Asherah or Ishtar, this goddess is seen as responsible for all life and fertility and prosperity.

She's seen as being the one who sustains life. And she's still worshipped today, even in America. Who can tell me what she is called today in our public school classrooms? Mother Nature? Mother Nature. Mother Nature, Mother Earth. And we think that we don't believe in idols, and we believe that we're very scientific, but you'll hear that You know, from scientists, even, talking about Mother Nature. And do people worship Mother Nature today?

You've got to believe it. Look at the trillions of dollars that are spent on green initiatives, right? all to protect and sustain Mother Earth, right? That's what I call that worship, right? And you'll hear the word today sustainability over and over and over again, right? That's really just the modern term for fertility. You know, if crops are going to keep growing, if carbon isn't going to raise the global temperature, if forests aren't going to be all cut down, you know, we're told that that we all have to make sacrifices for the sake of global sustainability.

So really, we live in the same idolatrous worship under new terminology, and we don't even realize it. And so, you know, This is really just as foolish as bowing down to a carved image. We put our faith in solar panels and wind turbines rather than the Lord God. Our world worships at the altar of environmental sustainability, but Jesus will not allow that. in his kingdom. He is the only one who sustains life, which was really made clear to us in the last week. No one else can take credit for the sustaining and provision of life on this earth.

So when Jesus sets up his kingdom, he's going to purge from Israel every form of idolatry, whether they realize it's idolatry or not. And he's going to destroy these things. We've got verses 14 and 15. I look at verse 14 as kind of a recap statement here in reverse order. It says, I will root out your ashram from among you and destroy your cities. Just kind of restating what we just saw in the previous four verses. He's just saying, yeah, I'm going to dismantle your idolatrous practices and your military strength.

St. Miles? Yes. I think you've already answered this, but everything that's going to happen in verses 10 through 13, we're only talking about Israel, not the whole world, right? That's right. Yeah, that's right. That's a good point, Bob. Because we do see that during the first thousand years of the kingdom, during the millennial time, there will be hostility against Jesus on the throne. And verse 15 kind of deals with that. It says, I will execute vengeance and anger and wrath on the nations which have not obeyed. And, you know, that verse doesn't deal with Israel. That verse deals with these Gentile nations outside of Israel.

And it seems crazy that with Jesus Christ physically present on the earth, reigning on the throne of David, that there would be nations who would be hostile against him. But we have to remember that the sin nature never changes. And what Jesus was on this earth physically present the first time, he was rejected and despised by men. And no different, those who enter into the kingdom period in physical unresurrected bodies and have children and grandchildren and so forth and repopulate the world, many of them will not put their faith in Jesus Christ. And there will be hostility against him. And so, Jesus will strike down all of those hostile enemies very effectively and very quickly.

And so, yeah, verse 15 then deals with the nations outside of Israel. So, we're past time. Kind of sped through the last couple of verses there, but any other closing thoughts or questions, things I might have jumped over? So what I'm gathering from all this is that Jesus is going to take everything away that we depend on, or that Israel depends on, so they can trust only in Him. Yes. That is a really great summary, Jim. That Jesus will take away everything that Israel could place their trust in, and it will be Him alone to depend on. That is really good. All right, and that I think is a great takeaway for ourselves. Of course, we are not a nation of Israel.

We will be in resurrection bodies on the earth at that time with Christ. So we'll see these things, so they don't relate directly to us. We'll be somehow involved with them. But you know what? Right now, the Lord wants us to depend on Him in that same way. Our dependence is not to be on any earthly thing. It is Him that sustains us. It is Him that has us here for His purposes. And so we rest in that. So, that's good. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we just thank You for the opportunity to spend some time in Your Word this morning.

I thank You for just drawing out that application for ourselves here today. as the body of Christ, we are not citizens of this earth. We are heavenly citizens who are in this world as strangers and aliens. So nothing in this world is to be the source of our dependence or our security. But Lord, I pray that we would find our security in you alone, and that we would find tremendous rest in that truth, and that you would be glorified through your body as the world witnesses truly heavenly citizens who dwell here. So Lord, we thank you for your wonderful work in your body, the Church. In Jesus' name, Amen.