Gooding, David: 2 - Overview & Trial of Jealousy

And therefore it appeals to us because, as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, we have been redeemed by the blood of our Passover Lamb, that is Ja- J- our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are journeying on towards our inheritance, incorruptible, untainted, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for us. Therefore, their account of their journey and what happened on it will immediately speak to us, and its relevance will be obvious. One possible analysis of the book is to read it as the first ten chapters are God's provision, his rules, his regulations, his guidance, his provision for the people. It begins after they had arrived at Sinai, and at Sinai, not only were they given the law, but they came perilously near to complete apostasy, and only by the mercy of God was the nation allowed to continue its journey on towards their promised land. So before they marched on from Sinai and began to resume their journey, God laid down a number of rules, regulations, and provisions for them, to prepare them for the rigors of the journey that lay ahead. Then we notice that when it comes to the actual journey itself, there's a recurrent theme, uh, on, uh, rebellions, which makes it, as some have observed, a melancholy analysis. And so, um, a little homework, and then I'm done. A little homework for next week, because it is a tradition of these ses- sessions, you see, that we have audience participation. No one is compelled to speak, but around wake you up unnecessarily and get you to participate. Of course not, I can't do that. Gentlemen might need to be in that fashion. But you see, we do have audience participation, and therefore, to make that do in the ensuing weeks is as follows. God willing, there will be another session next Thursday. See, uh, the question will arise they are all the same or whether they are different. We shall ask what the rebellion is about on each occasion. Secondly, we're going to ask how many of these rebellions are mentioned in the New Testament? I can think of one at least, you'll see. And when the New Testament quotes the, uh, rebellion from Numbers to us as Christians, and that is evidence, isn't it? We ought to take these rebellions seriously and not to suppose that we are completely proof against any rebellion. The New Testament itself mentions some of these rebellions, doesn't it? So one bit of homework for next week and the ensuing weeks is to ask how many of these rebellions are mentioned in the New Testament, and where are they mentioned, and what does the New Testament say about them, you see? And, uh, next, beginning next week, teacher might ask, you see, how many you have found and, uh, how they relate to us and what they signify. And then, of course, we shall ask about how these sacrifices on each time relate to the rebellions. But that's enough for now, because tonight you can forget all about that, because we're having something new tonight. You see, the Athenians in the New Testament, uh, get a great deal of fame for this reason. They spent most of their time listening to something new, do you see? Always interested to hear something new. It kept them alive, of course. And tonight we have an opportunity to listen to something new, do you see? Because, um, we have our dear brother with us from Singapore, and we're going to look at the Book of Numbers through Eastern eyes, do you see? That will be exceedingly interesting, will it not? Uh, do you see, as we should get, uh, uh, uh, uh, that particular slant on it. He has graciously consented to, uh, talk to us as long as he likes. There is no, uh, uh, limit put on his talking, uh, supposing only he finishes by the end of Thursday. And, uh, you'll see he's also graciously, uh, indicated that he is prepared, uh, to accept questions, uh, after he has talked, uh, to us. We won't expect him, of course, to follow this analysis. I happen to know, and I won't tell you how I know it, that he has a very bet- much better analysis of the Book of Numbers than this, so we shan't expect him to keep to this analysis, but we are looking forward with great interest, sir, to what you have to say. I- I am very sorry, uh, if you were expecting Dr. Cutting to talk to you this evening. Actually, I put the blame on him because he did ask me ten days ago to come and, uh, say this so that, uh, uh, you know, I'm sure if you were expecting him to talk, as I have, uh, been several times, and somebody else does, you end up, uh, being very disappointed. So, uh, I- I want to, and I didn't hear what he said last week, so that makes it doubly dangerous. Uh, but the Book of Numbers, if I may sort of, uh, state, is, as far as I know, again, please correct me, uh, is entitled In the Wilderness in the Hebrew Bible. And certainly that set the theme for, uh, the book and would certainly be the guiding principle in how we understand that book. It describes, therefore, the Christian life. Uh, in a way that would lead us to expect that it will not be like a walk through botanic gardens. No. And not only will it be through the wilderness, the one other feature is that it was a journey through the wilderness of the entire camp of Israel. The entire camp of the children of Israel journeying together through the wilderness, not individuals. This is not Pilgrim's Progress in which I can go with my own map, and I wander on my way as best as I can to find the different oases. So, some of the lessons there, of course, are tremendous numbers, are tremendous individual application. But some of the, uh, understanding of the book will require us to think perhaps of a bigger picture. And third point, of course, as I'm sure any one of us who have read through the Book of Numbers would realize that it is a book that, uh, denotes the Christian life, our journey through the wilderness as one in which there will be warfare occasionally. Warfare within the groups and warfare from outside. And even though it's mentioned only in a very minor way, the precautions here, uh, will be very important in keeping the children of Israel sufficiently strong and healthy to go through the wilderness together and complete their journey. And in order to do that, in order to go through the wilderness together and face the enemies within and without, God makes certain provisions and commands. First of all is that there needs to be an order. And of course, if you have read through, that's about, I suppose, one of the more easy parts to see, that there will be a need for order and the numbering. And I think, uh, we can say that if you get numbered, it's a form of subjection, isn't it? As in a census, when David numbered the people. So here they are being numbered for warfare. It means that they are placing themselves under subjection to command, along a chain of command. Whoever the leaders would be, that they subject themselves to that command and accept the place within the order for the journey. And in, and this is the second point, which is what, uh, I will be concentrating on. Uh, I mentioned this, and I'm sorry if you had no prior notice of it, that this evening I shall start off with a little bit of, uh, um, the, an alternative division of the book into three sections, and then a little bit on the trial of jealousy, because I think that is something that is, uh, very rarely talked about. So, uh, in order to journey through the wilderness, you need that order. And secondly, you will need to have a healthy camp. Any uncleanness that is obvious will need to be strictly kept out of the camp. Any unhealthiness, uncleanliness that is obvious, that will spread the unhealthiness throughout the camp, has to be excluded. Then there is something which is deeper than the physical uncleanliness. How can anyone fight in a battle side by side if they have transgressed against one another, and there is sort of old scores to be settled? If you were going to fight the enemy and you have a grudge against your fellow soldier, you would have to be very careful that accidentally you might not get a cut that is straying a bit too far and chop off your own arm or your head instead. So that sort of uncleanliness has to be dealt with, and the particular, uh, mention here of, uh, that particular trespass has an emphasis on a restitution of whatever has been wronged, with one fifth extra repaid. And then, of course, that's the trial of jealousy. The soldiers are there to fight, and if their wives are unfaithful while they are away, how can there be a real heart to fight and to sacrifice if at the same time they do not trust what is there? So, those are the provisions and the blessing as well, and then you have the dedication, and then here the guidance of the Holy Spirit of the entire journey of the camp. It was not up to the wisdom of Moses, the wisdom of the spies to see when they should move, where they should move, the timing. It was up to the guidance of the cloud, the Holy Spirit of God, as to when movement would occur and where it would go. And, uh, then we have the second section, and the division that, uh, I had thought of was was applicable was a geographical one. If you look at the first ten chapters, they were all at the camp, and this would be in the wilderness of Sinai. All right? So all of this is in the wilderness of Sinai. And somewhere here, uh, from chapter ten verse twenty eight, the journey begins. And at chapter twenty two, if you look at chapter twenty two verse one, they are camped again, and they stay there till the end of the book. So you will read from chapter twenty two, verse one, The sons of Israel journeyed and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan, opposite Jericho. And you can see that again in twenty six verse three, And Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them. This is at the second census now, where the new census occurs of the whole children of Israel by the, uh, in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. So, um, I have taken that geographical indication and so on in chapter thirty three verse fifty. now and then in these chapters, you have that reminder that they're still at the plains of Moab, opposite or near Jericho. So chapter thirty three verse fifty, you have that verse again, the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho, saying, and chapter thirty five verse one, again, the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho. And finally, in chapter thirty six, last verse, these are the commandments and the ordinances which the Lord commanded to the sons of Israel through Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho. So my division, which is subject to lots of error, uh, is that geographically, here were the commands given before they started journeying. Preparation for the journey through the wilderness as an entire camp. Once they started journeying, they realized how unprepared they were. And in the middle section, you do have rebellions. You also have the failure of, uh, an emphasis in that the failure of not just the people who were grumbling about the food, about this, about that, but failure in the leaders, primarily. Failure, I would see, in Moses. Failure in Moses at the beginning and at the end, and, uh, various leaders, failure in the spies who were selected, failures of the, uh, rebellion, you may call it, and, and so on, a series of them. And when it starts in the third section in Numbers chapter twenty two, you have the beginning of that preparation for entry into the promised land. And I would perhaps then, uh, not call chapter twenty five rebellion, because there they committed adultery, but maybe call that unfaithfulness towards God. And similarly, uh, in chapter thirty two, where the two and a half tribes say, we like what we see here, we are not going to go into, uh, we are not going to get land across the Jordan, and, but they agree to go with Moses in there to take part in the fight. That, again, I wouldn't call that a rebellion, perhaps. But there you have the new census, the new children of Israel, the new man, the new creation, as opposed to the old man that has just come out. So, uh... And the kind of question I would sort of be asking, uh, that I feel that the Book of Numbers would address, would be where the mention of the furniture of the tabernacle. It's only the lamps, the altar and the lampstand that is emphasized. The lampstand as a light. Uh, we are in a journey in the wilderness together. The objective here is not to fight every tribe we meet and to beat them up and to conquer them and to destroy them. You go through where possible, and if it's not possible and you have to fight your way through and they choose to fight you, yes, you fight. But it is the lampstand going across the light. The lessons are not that of fellowship with God in the table of, uh, fruit bread. It is not that of the, uh, laver. It is not that of the altar of incense. It is the lampstand going through, and the books in the New Testament, and of course you'll have to do your homework, but, uh, the First Corinthians and Hebrews would seem to mention a lot about the book of Numbers. And certainly in the book of First Corinthians, you would see that Paul is writing to the body of Christ that is at Corinth. Yes, of course, there's specific lessons to the individuals, and a lot of it is to do with the leadership, and a lot of it would follow some of these lessons about how the uncleanliness within the body of Christ has to be strictly excluded. There has to be strict discipline within the body of Christ, or else the whole body is corrupted and is unable to be a lampstand that is of any use. If brother will go to court against brother, that sort of infighting, that will certainly again destroy the lampstand that is there. So, um, now I have to... I ask myself one or two other questions. When I look at this bit where it is the Lord who chooses the timing to move, and it is the Holy Spirit who guides. And also the question of how the leaders determine such a lot for the people. If you, or one of you, certainly forty or fifty years ago, a lot of the leadership of the Christian missions and, uh, organizations came from assemblies that were, that meet like you do. They were very well. If you had come here forty years ago, perhaps, uh, the warfare and the spirit of movement would have been different from maybe today. You would think that? Eighty years ago, it would have been different. And the Lord's Spirit seems to move at certain times, uh, of his choosing. Thirty years ago, who would have dreamt that the Iron Curtain would have just disappeared almost overnight to some of us who saw what was happening? And suddenly, the freedom of the gospel and the hunger of the people when they could have sudden freedom and the movement of God's spirit. And of course, as we look in, look back at the history of the Christian church, we can see how when the Lord's spirit moved and the difference there, and it is in God's timing. If we lived, for example, um, under the leadership of, let's say, in the time of Wesley, um, that would have influenced where we were, wouldn't it? So, some of it, as I say, is very much related to, uh, if I look at that big picture of how the church is moving and think of it that way. I hope I'm getting clear. I'm getting it, uh, the reason I'm not so clear is because I'm still not fully clear in my own head. Yeah. So, um, if I look at that and that big picture and the lessons for Christian leaders today as well, I can see some of the lessons here. If, uh, one of you should now become, uh, one day a leader in a big Christian organization, Archbishop of York, some would say, God forbid. Uh, but if you were to minister to the Archbishop of York, um, would you talk about the book of Hebrews, how he has to go without the camp? Uh, or would you maybe start off with the book of Numbers? One of the lessons from the book of Numbers is that what the leaders do affects the camp significantly, and, uh, the responsibility is, uh, very, very serious one, and of which the most serious, of course, was that of Korah, so much so that the daughters of Zel- Zelophehad were able to say of their father, of their fathers, that, uh, our fathers did not partake of this rebellion, but died of their own sins. So they could have died here, they could have died here, because there were some rebellions there, but they were not considered as serious as those that participated in this particular rebellion, and therefore they claimed the right of inheritance. So, um, within the rebellions, that one certainly was the most serious in determining inheritance, and Kadesh Bania would have been very serious at determining the fate of those, uh, and the ability to enter the land, but not their inheritance. So, that is the division that differs a little bit from this, and uh, you know, I would like to be here, but unfortunately I can't be here to listen to your journey, uh, in the book of Numbers. So I will hope I'll be able to have access to all that is said. Now, I have to just spend a little few minutes on this. I have already mentioned how the trial of jealousy is part of this aspect of keeping the camp clean. It- there was a provision for res- re- resolution. Here is the provision for restitution, and here in the trial of jealousy was really a provision for the resolution of jealousy. It was really a merciful thing because it would involve both parties. First of all, certainly you would want a husband, a man who is giving his life in hardship and sacrifice in the arena of warfare to expect faithfulness in his wife who is left behind. There are many, many unreasonable husbands, as those of us who are, those of you who are married would know. Husbands can get jealous for no particular reason, as well as getting angry, as well as getting short-tempered for also no particular reason. And, uh, if a husband should perhaps be jealous, and wrongly so, both parties could then go and take part in this trial of jealousy. It is probably never carried out much. If there had been real grounds for the husband to be jealous, in other words, if there had been real adultery, it would be a very brave wife who would dare to go and face the Lord and take those curses and drink of that water and say amen to those curses from the priest. If she did, it is well known now what, what, what is described there, that her abdomen would swell, and then she would die. Uh, this phenomenon is described as pseudopregnancy, or the technical term amongst the medics is pseudociesis. I think it's C-Y-E-S-I-S, pseudociesis. Now, this is well known in animals. Um, it can be induced in rats and mice. I, I don't induce pseudopregnancy in rats and mice, but if I wanted to, I could do it, um, fairly easily. Dogs have that, uh, and regularly the vets who look after dogs will tell you that some dogs get into a pseudo-pregnant state, and they don't know why dogs, they don't know how dogs get jealous and, uh, what curses the dogs or whatever it is, but dogs do get pseudo-pregnant, and it can be treated very easily now with certain medications. Uh, you can talk to your friends who are vets, and in certain troops, uh, of monkeys, where the female dominant monkey wants to bear children but doesn't want to nurse them, there will be always a few other female monkeys who will go through pseudo-pregnancy, and then they will feed the newborn monkeys while the dominant female monkey continues and doesn't have to nurse the newborn monkeys. So this is apparently well known. Now, in human beings, this pseudo pregnancy rate has been described in certain societies. There is a book called A Pattern of Islands, and then it's been described in other people, in some of the, uh, tribes, where, again, for the same reason, curses will be upon them, and, uh, they get into pseudo-pregnant state, and then they die, and when they die, the swelling just disappears within a few hours or minutes. Um, so this would be, uh, coming before the Lord in which they had to resolve this. This cannot could be allowed to continue, because as long as it continues, the husband will be unable to fight. Not only that, it will lead to the splitting of the camp along those who think that the wife's being unfairly, uh, suspected of something that she's not doing, and those who are on the husband's side, because these sort of distrust don't exist and don't remain as that of individuals, but spread and will lead to spread of that dissent within the camp. And so they would then go and go through that trial of jealousy. It would also teach the children of Israel of what an important principle that is, that if they could see the value of this, I'm sure, that if the man was to go to warfare, to go through hardship, to go and fight and risk and put in all that. How could he do it? And then, in the meantime, his wife remains in the camp, and she is unfaithful to him. And yet that is exactly what Israel did. If you will see at chapter twenty four and twenty— uh, chapters twenty two to twenty five. From chapter twenty two onwards, the Lord was fighting while Balaam was cursing the children of Israel as they were camped on the plains of Moab. And Balaam was sacrificing on several of the mountains and attempting to curse the children of Israel with all the spiritual curses that he could think of with those sacrifices. And then while the Lord fights for Israel, Israel was unfaithful. And they could see how that, you know, and, uh, what a sin and how awful that unfaithfulness to God would be from this. So I don't know if I can then balance it somehow, but that would be where I would see that trial of jealousy and the dedication of the Nazarites is coming there. One other more, uh, detail about that trial of jealousy. I'm not sure where that water would come from. I'm wondering, would it be the water that comes from the red heifer? Um, the red heifer, again, is a very unusual sacrifice. Um, it is mentioned in the book of Hebrews as that which cleanses, whether that water would come and be there and to restore and cause a resolution of any uncleanliness. So I'm wondering if in the three, those would balance one another. Uh, as I said, I'm very sorry. I would have preferred to listen to Dr. Goodington to me, so I'll try my best, uh, and if there are any questions I can't answer, you know, I'll just pass it on. Let me start it off here. I will get more rolling, uh, Josie. I was very interested to hear that remark about, uh, did you say the new man or the new birth? The new man. The new man, talking about a second census or something. Ah, no, more in the Corinthian sense, in the second, yes. Is there a second census in, in Numbers? Yes, the second census where, uh, that there... Aha. That comes quite, um, that's in twenty six in the third section. That is, uh, my third section began at 20- at, uh, two. Yes. And you are suggesting it was supposed to be a new lot, a new generation. Uh, the picture is of that the new lot who would have learned the lesson of this lot, and, uh, ready now for entry into the land. Yes. As you see from the others, the, the who were condemned to die out in the wilderness. Yes. They were the bad lot. They were the lot that were in that state not fit to fight to enter the land. They would have the inheritance nonetheless, because the inheritance here is not an individual inheritance, which is described. This is an inheritance of the tribe of the name, isn't it? So that even the fathers of, uh, the daughters of, uh, you know, Zelophe had, I mean, would have an inheritance in the land. I see. Yes. So that marks a very, uh, significant move. Uh. They're now getting prepared to enter the- Yes, at the plains of Moab, opposite Jericho. So that geographical cut off there. Yes. I want to say something about it. I assume that this second numbering Yes. that was actually the army that went with Joshua into the land. Yes. Yes, yes. The army that was now fit to do that, that would, uh, have some, and it describes some of the features. The over twenty, on the first time. Yes. Because of their rejection, because they wouldn't win. Because they, they didn't believe that, yes, that they could overcome the giants of the land. And here they are led, and it ends with them having gone back to where they were, I would see it, and, uh, you know, fighting against Kadesh Bani, defeating them for the rest of the other armies in the fights in twenty one. So tell me, I'm sitting here and I'm on my journey. I- I'm getting towards the end of it, you see, at my age, as you understand, and I'm looking forward to going into my promised land. Aha. I will do any fighting when I get there. Ah. Uh. Well, you may be surprised. Surprised? I, I'm, I'm not, I'm... I think that the books have a slightly different emphasis. Um, Exodus does bring them into Sinai, but I think the emphasis in Exodus is not for the journey as seeing what Egypt was and getting out of Egypt and the picture of the absolute contrast in the tabernacle as against to Egypt. It was not provision for the journey. Here it is the provision for the journey and the features of the new man in their ability to fight. Now I see this, I don't know what to see about that, that's Joshua, on what the fighting will be in the land. And, uh, you know, there are many who see Joshua as the mature Christian life, as being able to, uh, partake in warfare in a way that, uh, an early journeying person cannot, perhaps, uh, perhaps, you know. Would you, would you allow that notion, Caleb, that, uh, there is a sense in which we don't have to wait for heaven until we come into our inheritance, but we can enter our inheritance now? Very much. So, first of all, it's in the New Testament, and uh, and secondly, uh, that would be a very nice picture of that in the two and a half tribes that, uh... Here and now. Yes. But entering into our inheritance Any entering into our can involve a fight. Yes. I'll be corrected. We're studying Ephesians chapter 6 later on, so go back and we'll talk about the fight then. Okay. But, but cert- certainly, uh, the promised, promised land was not the end of the journey. Certainly. In one sense, it was a start. In fact, it should have happened forty years earlier, shortly after they left Egypt. Yes. They should be then, um, fighting for the land and living for God, but that, that didn't happen then, and it doesn't happen now to us. Uh, heaven, heaven is beyond the fight to earth, and people you've been talking about tonight, uh, don't ever go through a big fight, uh, compared to what we're doing. Uh, and we're still rejoicing in the promises that they've got, uh, but there's something on beyond that. Yes. Can I ask a very, uh, uh, we're living at chapter chapter please. And this is the time when Moses said to his, said to his father and all, why don't you come along with us? We would be included. Now I'm reading here verse thirty one. Chapter Numbers verse thirty one. Verse thirty says, I will not come with you, rather I go to my own people and my relatives. Now here's what Moses says. Please do not leave us, in as much as you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you will be eyes for us. Why did Moses say that? Had Moses not heard that the child of Pharaoh showed Uh, before and after, it seems to be, um. Was that just a question of a chatting, a chatting up the father-in-law, or trying to... it looks like that he really believed this man can show them where he can, he's not trusting the Lord for guidance. Could I, can I make a suggestion? Uh, Moses was forty years learning how to live in the wilderness before he was quitting this job. Uh, he was in China, but part of that he was with this, this man, uh, and learned from those people who were familiar with that, and he knew he was someone who could help him. Uh, later on he he asked for help, but he gets seventy five men, wasn't it, that that were given to him, to help to share the journey and the burden that was on him, and he realized this man would be a big help in the practical running of everyday life in the wilderness. And that's why we asked him to come. Someone who had the experience, be useful. Some translations clean us up and say not where to encamp, but how to encamp. That's lovely. But that would support Reggie's point, wouldn't it? The Lord guided them where to encamp, but when the Lord's town goes somewhere, they stop for the night there. It would be jolly useful to have a man who knew the wilderness could tell them where the nearest water was, or in that sense, the nearest desert, because, uh, the desert was crossed and recrossed by, uh, caravan trails of traders that came. So that, uh, I mean, if, if, if I imagine I was sent to, uh, somewhere in the middle of the Amazon, uh, forest, and the Lord guided me there. That's not one thing. But would it be wrong of me to ask the natives, where can I get a bit of bread or fish to eat around here? Certainly not, and provided it's a pure analogy. Maybe the lesson in this is that we can trust the Lord for something, and then we bring in a psychiatrist to help us make a decision, would that be more? Do you see that today, is there a modern trial of jealousy? Uh, not perhaps from a matrimonial point of view, but uh, between us and our Lord, do we have a trial of judgment? I, I hadn't thought on that in my, I would, I would certainly see it as there is, uh, let me, let me describe the situation that came to my mind as I was looking at this. We, you're aware of, uh, how there's an underground church and how there's a church that has been officially recognized by the authorities. And if you speak to the people in the underground church, they will say that these people were unfaithful to the Lord and to us. We really suffer, and we really suffer for the Lord. And yet, we know how some of these believers, even with the official church, the leaders suffered a lot too. But in their own conscience, they felt that they should remain with the official church and provide open guidance. This was the same situation in Germany, under Nazi Germany. There were some who were in the underground church who refused to cooperate with Hitler, and there were some who didn't, and both sides were caught. Who are you to accuse me of? And at some point, they had to come before the court and, uh, say the, the ability to come before the law and say, I did what I thought you wanted me to do. And before one another, you have that reconciliation. That happened in Germany, and there would be many other small situations in which that, and that has yet to happen in China. That may have happened in some groups, but where there is then renewed friendship, renewed working together, and renewed trust, and that is a very good thing and, uh, very practical thing and a very necessary before they can work together and fight alongside each other. I wonder, KO, and, uh, and you must put a stop to my wild thoughts, if you. But I have thought that there is an analogy between that trial of jealousy and our participation in the Lord's Sup. You think that's possible? But let me tell you what I mean. Uh, this thing that sounds a bit barbarous, eh, uh, wasn't. It must be distinguished from the brutal things that we English did in many centuries gone by. If a man was thought to be a thief or a murderer or whatnot, uh, do you see, they would heat a bar of iron hot, and he had to hold it in his hands, and if he wasn't burnt, he was innocent. If he was burnt, he was guilty. Well, there wasn't much option, really. To see. This wasn't so, was it? They were supposed to stand there, and the priest got the, the dust of the holy place, a reminder of where they were standing before God, and put it in the water, and she was to drink it. They called on God to judge. If she were innocent, as she may well have been, she was okay, nothing bad happened. If she were not innocent, uh, she and uh was calling on God, prepared for God's judgment. It's that element in it that makes me think of the Lord's Supper. How do you trust me? You don't know what I get up to when I'm not in the assembly. You don't see me most days of the week. How can you trust me? When we come to the Lord's Supper, we have to examine ourselves and confess our sins. If we don't, if we come with sin in our lives allowed and unconfessed, the Lord will judge us. That is a very serious thing that the Lord suffers, isn't it? We're standing on holy ground. And in that sense, saying, Lord, if I've not been sincere in this and if I'm allowing sin, I now invite your judgment. That's what I should be saying. And you trust me on that account, though? Do you think that's part of it? It's very much in the relevant epistles. That judgment of ourselves is very much hard. But the, the emphasis on the seriousness of it, the seriousness of it is, uh, magnified, and this, the, the seriousness of unfaithfulness, when one is fighting and risking his life for the other, is, uh, emphasized. For sure. Okay, let me thank you very, very much on behalf of this gathering for your kindness for the book on the spot. It's not very fair, but, uh, thank you very, very much for those thought-provoking insights in this book, uh, and you will engender discussion that will go on for yet many weeks to come. So thank you very much, and we wish you Godspeed as you leave us and go. Uh, uh, and now please stay with us, and anybody else who likes to stay, there is a traditional cup of tea and funds and time for further discussion, if so you wish. Let's commit ourselves to the Lord. We thank thee, our Father, from our hearts, for the wonder of the family of God that thou has brought into existence through the sacrifice and resurrection of thy dear Son. And so we thank thee tonight for thy word, for freedom to come and read it together and discuss it together. We thank thee for thy servant, KOD, and now together we commit him into thy good hand. Bless him, we pray, on his journeys. Bless his family at home and the sacrifice they make as he travels to these different countries. Bless the work in Vietnam we do beseech thee. Bless the work in Malay, in Malaysia. Bless the work in China. Lord, keep him, guide him, that in his mature years he may be a beacon light for thee in the Far East, as he has been here in our part of the world. So we commit ourselves to thee. Help us now to take what we have learned from thy word, make it real in our lives, that it may bring forth fruit for thine eternal cause. We thank thee now for the food that we shall enjoy together. Bless our fellowship, we pray, for the strengthening of our hearts through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.