Happy Golden Days of Yore

Father, we look again to You tonight, thanking You for all that we have already seen of Christ and how You have ministered to us and given us avenue to bring our cares and concerns, anxieties to You. You are truly good to us. So be good to us now through the preaching of Your Word, soften our hearts, help us to see Christ. Father, prepare us and equip us to walk faithfully with You. For Your glory’s sake we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Well, good evening again. If you haven’t already, go ahead and open your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 10, or if you want to take the pew Bible in front of you, we’re resuming our evening series tonight as we continue our look at the life of King Solomon through these first 11 chapters of 1 Kings. We paused briefly last week for the sake of our Faithful Conference. If you were able to be here, I’m sure you would agree with me it was a great blessing to have Carl Trueman with us for the preaching and the teaching. But we’re returning tonight and looking once again at the life of Solomon.

I don’t know if this curiosity of mine will resonate with anyone else here tonight, but I have this curiosity this time of year just wondering when it is when the Christmas decorations will start showing up. I mean, partly in my neighbor’s yard, but also at the stores when the Christmas trees and the large yard inflatables and the Christmas lights will be present for my perusing when I walk in. I wonder when I’m going to go into Lowe’s and find them there.

This year it was two weeks before Halloween. I don’t know if they were there before that, but I remember walking in a week or so before Halloween. It was quite a juxtaposition, the Halloween decorations with the Christmas decorations there, but it must work out somehow.

I do find myself wondering just how early can we push that. Can we sell Christmas trees in September? We do Christmas in July, so maybe we could just start it off there or just leave them up all year ’round.

Anyway, I think I’m making an apology of sorts here for my sermon title tonight, that if it’s okay for Lowe’s to put out Christmas decorations a couple of weeks before Halloween, maybe I can get away with using a Christmas tune line for the title of a sermon that comes before Thanksgiving. Plus, Kevin said this morning that my sermon title gets me points somehow, so I’m not sure what those points go to, but I take it as a compliment. I’m not sure what it says about my prior sermons because it’s the first time he’s ever said that I get points for my titles, but I look forward to finding out what I can use those for. I’m not giving them back.

I do think the line, you recognize it from “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” captures something of the sense that we see tonight in this look at the kingdom of Solomon in this moment, in chapter 10, at least at first glance. These happy golden days of yore. Of course, we’ve already seen in our series that not everything is glistening underneath, but it seems fair to say that these were a golden days of sorts. Quite literally, actually, and yet we should also remember that in the original context, the first readers here probably couldn’t chime in with the other half of that line from that tune, “here we are as in olden days, happy golden days of yore.” Of course they weren’t, they were in exile. Even after the decline and the eventual destruction of all that we’ll see here tonight, even their own deportation, so we might ask ourselves as we approach this text, what was the point of re-telling a story like this one. Wasn’t that sort of like pouring salt on the wound of those who no longer live in the happy days of yore? What could be gained for them by looking back at those days?

Or maybe more to the point for us this evening, what could be gained for us in taking a look at these verses? I hope we’ll see that there are some good things that they could have gained, that we could gain as well. We’ll look at our passage together then to do that. I’ll ready the whole chapter, then I want to make some brief observations, three actual just brief observations about the text, things we’ll see as we read along, but want to expand just a little bit to give us some measure of context for that. Then after that we’ll consider three brief points of application, three things that we can sort of see through the text and that the Lord, I think, would want us to remember this evening.

First follow along with me as we read from chapter 10. 1 Kings chapter 10.

“Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.”

“And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, He has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.”

“Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones. And the king made of the almug wood supports for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, also lyres and harps for the singers. No such almug wood has come or been seen to this day.”

“And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.”

“Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land. King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of gold went into each shield. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. The throne had six steps, and the throne had a round top, and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of pure gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.”

“Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.”

“And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. And Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price. A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150, and so through the king’s traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.”

This is the Word of the Lord.

There’s a lot here. Some things we don’t have time to get to tonight, but one thing that’s very hard to miss in this is the emphasis the author’s trying to make – there is a lot of wealth in Israel under Solomon. It’s actually the first observation to see here. There’s this pinnacle of wealth of sorts. It’s impossible to read through this chapter and not pick up on the emphasis of the wealth of Solomon and Israel under his reign. It’s repeated over and over. Not just the gifts that were being brought, which we’ll see, but it seems like Solomon had developed profitable international trade relationships and operations. He was gifted at that and effective at using it to generate wealth. We see that in verses 11 and 12 here, reference this trade connection with Hira, king of Tyre; we’ve heard about him before in this series.

It says that they were bringing in gold from Ophir, which was known to be a rich source of gold, also precious stones and almug wood. We don’t know for sure what kind of tree produced almug wood, but it seems from the text it is something with connotations of luxury. Solomon’s administration saw the high water mark, if you will, of its import. It says “no such almug wood has come or been seen to this day.” Also verses 14 and 15, the recorded weight of gold Solomon took in in one year was 666 talents, or well over 20 tons.

You could see there, there’s plenty of sources of revenue not even included in that number. There was so much gold here that Solomon starts making shields out of gold for decorations. 200 large shields is something like 15 pounds of gold each, 300 regular shields were just around 4 pounds of gold each. Then there’s the throne, the likes of which it says was never made in any kingdom. It looks like you couldn’t find a silver cup lying around Solomon’s house; it wasn’t worth anything.

A few weeks ago my wife and I were able to take our oldest daughter Ellie down to Auburn for a little bit of a college visit and we were privileged to take in a football game while we were there. We couldn’t take all the kids with us, so afterwards my wife, being the sweetheart that she is, wanted to bring some little souvenirs home. So what she did, also being very frugal, is started walking around the various seats and picking up, you know those commemorative plastic cups that you can buy a cup of soda for about $17 in? And some people don’t seem to really value that, they just kind of toss it aside, so one man’s trash… We’re collecting them. I think it was one of Ellie’s prouder moments of her parents. I will say we did buy a couple ourselves, so we did contribute something to it and I could say for sure it felt like it cost as much as a silver cup, but there they were, just laying all over the place, people tossing them out.

I guess Solomon’s house was sort of like that. Just toss the silver cups out when you’re done. They’re not really worth anything. It says the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone. There was just gold everywhere. Literally, the writer uses the word “gold” ten times just in verses 14 through 22. He’s making a point. That’s not to even mention this little replacement exotic zoo that seems to show up every so often.

The wealth is just simply incredible. It seems that Solomon’s notoriety for wealth and wisdom is well-known and this international awareness is attracting attention, including this queen who shows up from Sheba. We don’t have her name. She is not Queen Sheba, but she’s the Queen of Sheba. We don’t know for certain where Sheba was. Scholars suggest possibly a location south of Jerusalem, probably somewhere in the southwest corner of the Arabian peninsula, which would be more than a thousand miles away.

What’s clear is that she came a long, long way out of a desire to see this Solomon guy and all that’s going on with him for herself. And that she did not come empty handed. We read what she brought. Verse 3 says she brought camels and spices and very much gold and precious stones. In fact, later in verse 10 it says she gave Solomon 120 talents of gold. That’s like over 4 tons of gold. I don’t know what kind of camels the Queen of Sheba had got herself, but it seems like they were some pretty sturdy animals. Or else she had a whole lot of them to carry all of that gold. It also says that she gave such an abundance of spices that never again was such an amount brought into Solomon as what she brought.

The point is, this queen was no pauper herself. She had a lot of resources. Yet, what she encountered in Solomon’s kingdom took her breath away. Literally. That’s what the writer says, verse 5, it took her breath away. She encountered this pinnacle of wealth and also unparalleled wisdom in Solomon. In fact, there seems to be a suggestion as a second observation of this sort of primacy of Solomon’s wisdom and what’s so awe-inspiring and attracting, primacy of wisdom.

Did you notice that when the Queen of Sheba came, the first reason given for her visit here was to test him with hard questions? Most likely maybe these were some difficult spiritual or even theological questions, or maybe they were just some general wisdom-related questions. It could be sort of perennial questions, or questions of the day, maybe some riddle type questions. Maybe these were questions more personal to the queen herself. What’s clear is that no matter how difficult the question, none of them were too difficult for Solomon to answer, that his reputation for possessing profound, God-given wisdom was confirmed.

It seems that this demonstration of wisdom, maybe as much or maybe even more than the material wealth, is what overwhelmed the queen. Do you notice it’s what actually headlines the list that originally leaves her breathless? Then once she recovers, it’s what headlines her response. Verse 6 – the report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and your wisdom, yet the half was not told me.

So no doubt the material prosperity contributes, but also it’s Solomon’s wisdom that she directly credits for the happiness of his servants. She says they’re privileged simply for being regularly in his presence to overhear it.

Did you notice also how the blessing is just spilling over? It’s not just the Jerusalemites here who are getting the benefit, who are being blessed. The blessing is spilling over and spilling out to the nation. Verse 3 – Solomon answered all of her questions, this foreign queen. Verse 13 – he gave to her all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon.

Or maybe most especially verse 24 and 25. It says the whole earth sought out the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put into his mind and from which they presumably had received and benefited because you see their gratitude in the gifts that they keep bringing to him year after year. The nations are being blessed and they are blessing God and bringing gifts of gratitude in return.

There seems to be something of a realization of sorts, yet also an anticipation of something greater that was still to come of God’s promise that the nations, that the nations would be blessed through Abraham’s offspring. You notice the nations are coming and the nations are being blessed.

So there’s this pinnacle of wealth, there’s this primacy of wisdom. One last observation briefly to make – we need to notice just in these last few verses there’s also a continued prospect of waywardness.

Haven’t really mentioned these last couple of verses in our catalog of the wealth and the wisdom yet, but look briefly at them. Verse 26, it says Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen. Verse 28, it says and Solomon’s import of horses, notice was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price.

Now on the one hand, perhaps it’s just more commentary on Solomon’s trade exploits and his expertise in that area, capitalizing on Israel’s relative kind of geographical, geopolitical position. Kue was a nation just to the north of Israel. Egypt was a nation just to the south of Israel. So perhaps there’s something just commenting here on Solomon’s capitalizing that trade route between the two and facilitating it and benefiting from it materially.

But if we were the original hearers here, however, maybe we would pick up some shadow of concern. A number of commentators have suggested this. Perhaps these original folks would have remembered something like Deuteronomy 17 where God said before Israel came into the land, I want to tell you something you need to know about kings, your kings. When you come to the land that the Lord your God has given you, God said, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, “I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,” you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. But then He goes on to give several instructions, commands, warnings if you will, those kings need to heed. One of them, verse 16, “only he the king must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you you shall never return that way again.

So it seems at least possible that Solomon is violating a fundamental instruction for Israel’s king here. Perhaps he’s just forgotten it or overlooked it, but either way we see again this continued hint of growing waywardness. We’ve seen this effusive picture of prosperity, this unparalleled wealth and wisdom, and yet also here this continued growing prospect of waywardness. That’s where this particular chapter ends. We’ll pick it up again next week with chapter 11.

But what are we to make of this? What do we take home with us tonight?

I want to make three brief applications, three things we need to see sort of through these observations, and if we were to double-click on them, I think some things we might find by encouraging way of reminder.

The first of those is the faithfulness of God. The faithfulness of God. The Queen of Sheba can actually help us with that. Look again at her response there. Verse 8, once she recovers her breath, because it’s incredible what she sees, but maybe even more incredible what she says. Verse 8. She says, this is a foreign queen, happy are your men, happy are your servants who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom. Blessed be the Lord your God who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord loved Israel forever, He’s made you king that you may execute justice and righteousness.

It’s a reminder from the lips of this foreign queen what is the ultimate source of all of this wealth? What’s behind all of this wisdom? It’s God’s power, it’s God’s gift, it’s God’s favor, and ultimately it’s God’s faithfulness to His own word because this is actually simply what He said He would do.

Flip back if you’d like, or you can just listen, to chapter 3. It’s a couple of pages back. We could look there again at God’s response kind of gave Solomon a blank check. We covered this a few weeks ago. A blank check. What should I give to you, Solomon? Solomon asked, of course, for wisdom and that request, it says, pleased the Lord.

Then in chapter 3, verse 12, this is God’s response, what He promises to do – Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you, and I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor so that no other king shall compare with you all your days.

Think of that in light of turning to our chapter, chapter 10, verse 23 – Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.

God was faithful to His promise and that promise actually built on other promises that God had also kept. Just like the Queen of Sheba here in chapter 10 is blessing God, back in chapter 8 it was Solomon blessing God at the dedication of the temple, specifically for keeping promises. Chapter 8 verse 15, Solomon says blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with His hand has fulfilled what He promised with His mouth to David, my father.

Or chapter 8, verse 56. Again Solomon says blessed be the Lord who has given rest to His people Israel according to all that He promised.

Then listen to this – not one word has failed of all His good promise which He spoke by Moses’ servant.

It’s a reminder, isn’t it? That God will do what He says He will do. That is why chapter 10 exists because God did what He said He would do. Certainly in this part, this is part of what the writer would have wanted those original readers not to miss. They were not in exile because God had been unfaithful, but it’s also part of what God means to show to us, that God is faithful. God keeps His Word.

Friends, we need to be reminded of that all the time. Our circumstances can be so difficult to interpret at times. We need to be reminded that God is a God who keeps His Word, who keeps His promises.

I was praying with a group of men a little bit earlier this week. We were just praying prayers of praise and as we kind of went around, as they came around the circle, one of the men prayed something like this. He said, “God, I praise You that You are a God who keeps Your promises. You have never broken one promise. Not one.”

I wonder if you can say that tonight, or if you could pray that tonight, because it’s true. It’s the faithfulness of God and we need to be reminded.

We also need to be reminded of the deceitfulness of sin, the deceitfulness of sin, because this chapter admittedly is something of a highlight reel of sorts for the most part, but the progression of these chapters we’re walking through in these last weeks from 9, 10, 11, is something moving towards failure and decline. It’s really the beginning of a sad end to a very promising start.

Again, we saw back in chapter 9 a couple of weeks ago, Bruce showed us God’s warning to Solomon, the dangers of spiritual drift. We saw at the end here of chapter 10 some concerning warning signs. Then we’ll see sort of the wheels actually come off next week in chapter 11. We didn’t have to read past the first verse of 11 to set the tone – Solomon loved many foreign women. It’s not a commendation.

So the progression here as a whole at this point is something of a warning. But I do think there’s something here in chapter 10 that makes a particular contribution to that warning, to sort of underscore it of sorts with a question that it poses to us, which is this – Why would he turn in the first place? Why would Solomon turn? Why would these kings turn?

I wonder if you’ve ever wondered that, maybe reading a passage just like this one, because if nothing else, things were going so very good. So why would you deviate?

I couldn’t help think here of maybe your favorite football team, if you’ve got a favorite football team, and your team is doing well, they’re driving down the field, maybe they’re running the ball. It seems like the defense can’t stop them. So they just keep rushing the football. Then all of a sudden the offensive coordinator calls some kind of trick reverse pass play that ends up failing and the whole drive kind of dissolves and you think, looking at your TV, why would you do that? Because you would make a great offensive coordinator in your spare time. But you do wonder why change it up? It was working.

Of course, faithfulness and obedience to God is not really about just what’s working for us. That’s part of the point here. But did you notice this? That pleasant circumstances, that just things going good for us, is not proof against a drifting heart. Sometimes it may actually accelerate it.

Sometimes we may think things like, well, God, if only things were different, or if only You would, if only my circumstances were better I wouldn’t struggle so much, I wouldn’t give in to that temptation, indulge in that sin quite as much. Yet here we see something contrary. It’s hard to think circumstantially speaking, that things could have gotten much better and yet a turning was happening. A drift had begun, slowly but surely.

This passage seems to shout to us, why would you do that, Solomon? Yet I think it also wants to ask, why do we?

Friends, the problem with sin is never ultimately in our circumstances. It’s been said often, but it’s true, that the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart.

James 1. Each person is tempted when he’s lured and enticed by his own desire and then desire when it is conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Verse 16. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Friends, tonight, are there warnings of God that you’ve grown insensitive to? Are there promises of sin you’re entertaining? This is a reminder that God keeps His promises, but sin does not. God keeps His promises to bless. It may not always seem like that in the short run, but He does. Sin always defaults on its promises. Again, it may not seem like that always in the short run, but it will. So as long as we’re in the flesh and in this world we must be on watch for the deceitfulness of sin.

The faithfulness of God, the deceitfulness of sin. One last reminder – the greaterness of Jesus. (I know greaterness is not a word, but it works.) The greaterness of Jesus.

Of course, Solomon should have been more watchful for sins. He should have been even more trusting of God’s faithfulness. He ultimately failed to maintain justice and righteousness in the land. His weaknesses were real, just like yours and just like mine. His sins and failures would be great and because of his position as God’s anointed covenant king, they would be massively consequential.

But it’d be easy to overlook, perhaps, tonight that if even just for a moment things were really good here. That his wisdom, though as has been helpfully observed, his wisdom ultimately insufficient to overcome a divided heart, and yet for a moment truly remarkable, that his kingdom really was for a moment incredible, that’s God’s blessing of him and through him was truly great and that it wasn’t just Israel, that the whole earth was seeking out his presence and was blessed by his wisdom. The Queen of Sheba traveled many arduous miles just for the chance to see him. It says what she found did not disappoint.

For just a moment, friends, Solomon really was great. And in that moment, there was a picture, admittedly very imperfect, but a picture, a picture, a glimpse, of what the world needs.

Yet in the end, Solomon was not great enough, because the world needs something greater than Solomon. Praise God, something greater was on the way, that God would send something, someone greater, that God Himself was going to come many years later, standing maybe not too terribly far from where the Queen was marveling at Solomon’s wisdom and all his glory, Jesus Christ would criticize some religious skeptics because something greater had actually come to them and yet they didn’t see it, or wouldn’t.

Matthew 12, verse 42 – Jesus says of Himself the Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something greater than Solomon is here.

Friends, something, someone greater than Solomon is here, though sadly many still won’t or don’t recognize Him. But if you have faith of, eyes of faith to see, listen one more time to the Queen of Sheba. See if you can’t hear whispers and hopes, longings, pointings to someone greater in her words. See if you couldn’t apply these words in a fuller, greater perfected sense to the Lord Jesus.

“Your wisdom, your prosperity, surpass the report that I heard. Happy are your men, happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom. Blessed be the Lord your God who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord loved Israel forever, He has made you king that you may execute justice and righteousness.”

Kevin said it again this morning, he says it every time we do a baptism – Jesus is the only King and head of His Church, He’s the King of the Church now.

And if you are a part of the Church tonight, I wonder if you can join with the Queen and say, “Blessed be the Lord God who has delighted in You, Jesus, and set You on the throne.” Are you happy to be His servant? To stand before Him and to hear His wisdom? Do you see in Him God’s love for His people? Do you pray for justice and righteousness in the Church to abound? That the Church would be a light for the world to show off the light of King Jesus so that the nations would continue to come to Him?

Friends, it’s a gracious and glorious thing to be a part of Christ’s Church, to be a member of His kingdom now. Yet Scripture is whispering that brighter things are coming still if you are in Christ.

Solomon’s Jerusalem would not last. But perhaps tonight we can see the picture of something greater that will, a golden kingdom overflowing with good and beautiful things, transcendent material bounty, but also justice and righteousness and truth, where wisdom prevails perpetually and wealth overflows, where none go without and the blessings overflow, where all the servants are happy to stand before the King all of the time and to hear His wisdom and where glad and full hearts stream in with gifts of joy and gratitude and love. There is a Jerusalem coming just like that. Because of Christ, it will never fail.

We get a picture in Revelation, I won’t read the whole thing, but Revelation 21, just a glimpse as we close.

“The twelve gates were twelve pearls, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.”

Friends, this is really good news tonight, for every single person in this room, this is truly good news because if you have believed in Jesus Christ, then for you the true happy golden years are still to come, and it’s sure. Friend, if you have not yet, not yet believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, the way is still open to get there. If you have eyes of faith to see it, something greater than Solomon has come.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word tonight, the chance to pray, the chance to hear, the chance to listen, the chance to respond. God, would You work in us such an adoration and worship of the Lord Jesus Christ? Would You kindle in us hope? And if there is one here hearing tonight who has not known Him as their King, would they even now put trust and faith in Him and join that new city forever. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.