Well do keep your Bibles in hand and turn with me now to the book of Joshua chapters 20 and 21. Joshua chapters 20 and 21; page 194 if you’re using one of the church Bibles. These two chapters constitute the last part of that section of the book where the allotment of territory to the tribes of Israel as an inheritance is now being given to them in the conquered land of Canaan. You may remember when the allotment began back in chapter 13, in verses 14 and again in verse 33, we learned that alone among the tribes of Israel, the Levites were the only ones not given a territory; they did not receive a territory of their own. Their inheritance, we were told, is the Lord Himself whom they will serve as priests and temple servants. Nevertheless, the Levites still needed a place to live and so here finally at the end of this whole extended portion of the book of Joshua, provision is made for the Levites to occupy cities within the territories of the other tribes.
If you’ll look at these two chapters for a moment you’ll see chapter 20 deals with six of the cities that will become Levitical cities. They are designated as cities of refuge. Cities where someone might flee after having committed manslaughter or caused an accidental death and so find a safe place from vengeance until their case can be adjudicated. And then chapter 21 lists the locations of all the towns, including these six cities of refuge, given to the Levites according to their various clans. And so here we are again in a portion of Joshua that we often struggle to plow through in our own regular reading of the Scriptures. It doesn’t feel particularly relevant, not terribly uplifting; we’re really not sure what to do with yet another list of places and names. And so if we’ve managed to persevere in our Bible reading to this point, we tend to skim this section and move right along. But like prospectors grubbing through mud, there is gold in these chapters, and if we’ll exercise a little patience sifting through them, they will reward us richly.
I want us to focus on three things here in particular. First of all in chapter 20, we are going to see that the Lord is a just Judge. The Lord is a just and merciful Judge. Then as we turn our attention to chapter 21, two further things. First, the Lord is a just Judge. And then secondly, the Lord is a good Shepherd. He is a good Shepherd. And finally, the Lord is a faithful Promise Keeper. So the Lord is a just Judge, the Lord is a good Shepherd, and the Lord is a faithful Promise Keeper. Before we dive into the teaching of these two chapters and look at those three headings, let’s pray and then we’ll read God’s Word together. Let us pray.
O Lord, we come to You pleading now for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We want to understand the Scriptures. We want to know You. We want to be drawn into renewed fellowship with Christ. We want the ministry of the Spirit of Christ to show us ourselves and bring us to renewed repentance, to instruct and form us into the likeness of Christ. So come now, please, by the Holy Spirit, and wield Your Word with power in all our hearts, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Joshua chapter 20, beginning at the first verse. This is the Word of God:
“Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Say to the people of Israel, ‘Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the manslayer who strikes any person without intent or unknowingly may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood. He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and explain his case to the elders of that city. Then they shall take him into the city and give him a place, and he shall remain with them. And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not give up the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor unknowingly, and did not hate him in the past. And he shall remain in that city until he has stood before the congregation for judgment, until the death of him who is high priest at the time. Then the manslayer may return to his own town and his own home, to the town from which he fled.’’
So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. And beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they appointed Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland, from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh. These were the cities designated for all the people of Israel and for the stranger sojourning among them, that anyone who killed a person without intent could flee there, so that he might not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, till he stood before the congregation.
Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites came to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel. And they said to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, ‘The Lord commanded through Moses that we be given cities to dwell in, along with their pasturelands for our livestock.’ So by command of the Lord the people of Israel gave to the Levites the following cities and pasturelands out of their inheritance.
The lot came out for the clans of the Kohathites. So those Levites who were descendants of Aaron the priest received by lot from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin, thirteen cities.
And the rest of the Kohathites received by lot from the clans of the tribe of Ephraim, from the tribe of Dan and the half-tribe of Manasseh, ten cities.
The Gershonites received by lot from the clans of the tribe of Issachar, from the tribe of Asher, from the tribe of Naphtali, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.
The Merarites according to their clans received from the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the tribe of Zebulun, twelve cities.
These cities and their pasturelands the people of Israel gave by lot to the Levites, as the Lord had commanded through Moses.”
Then in verses 9 through 19 there are thirteen cities allocated to the sons of Aaron the priest located within the territories of Judah, Simeon and Benjamin. Then in 20 through 26, ten cities for the Kohathite clans of Levi from the territories of Ephraim, Dan and Manasseh. Then 27 to 33, the thirteen cities allocated to the Gershonites are listed within the territories of Manasseh, Issachar, Asher and Naphtali. Then 34 through 40, the twelve cities allocated to the Merarite clans from Zebulun, Reuben and Gad are all listed. And then we pick up the reading again at verse 41:
“The cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the people of Israel were in all forty-eight cities with their pasturelands. These cities each had its pasturelands around it. So it was with all these cities.
Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.”
Amen, and we praise God that He has spoken in His holy and inerrant Word.
On Wednesday past at Hampden Park Stadium in my hometown of Glasgow, the Scottish National Team played Ukraine at real football in a qualifying match for the World Cup. Ukraine won the match, three goals to one. Not to belittle Ukraine’s achievement in any way, but just to give some context, Scotland is terrible at soccer and hasn’t qualified for the World Cup since 1998. So from a Scottish perspective, at least, it wasn’t a terribly surprising outcome. Nevertheless, I was tearing up reading about the game. But it wasn’t because Scotland lost; that wasn’t at all a surprise. If you’re Scottish, you’d rather come to expect that. No, I teared up reading about the stories of Ukrainian refugees who are living in Scotland and what that match meant to them. I was really moved to find that even the Scots were conflicted about who they wanted to win the game. Shops in Glasgow were selling soccer scarves that were half and half Ukrainian and Scottish colors. Local bagpipers had learned the Ukrainian national anthem to play at the match. In the days before the game, an app for your phone produced the words of the Ukrainian national anthem that could be pronounced phonetically so that the Scots could sing it along with the Ukrainians at the start of the match. The crowd applauded the Ukrainian team as they marched onto the field and then applauded them after their victory as they marched off the field. The governing body for Scottish soccer paid for nearly 70 Ukrainian orphans to attend the game. Eight thousand six hundred people in Scotland have signed up to welcome Ukrainian refugees into their homes and the Scottish government has made it as easy as possible for Ukrainians to find refuge in my homeland.
We often struggle with passages like the two chapters before us this morning, don’t we? They can seem culturally and historically very distant, making them rather hard to relate to. But as I was reading about Ukrainian refugees celebrating their historic World Cup victory in Scotland, I couldn’t help but think about Joshua chapter 20 and the cities of refuge. It struck me that the concept of a place of safety to which a person might flee from danger is not nearly so very alien as it may at first appear when you read through a chapter like this one. And I think it’s especially important for us to read chapter 20 and see the provision of the cities of refuge here in Joshua because they remind us about the character of God in some really very important ways. They balance the picture of who God is and what He is like in this book really very helpfully. We’ve seen a lot about God’s wrath in the book of Joshua, haven’t we, destroying His enemies in the holy war that Israel was commissioned to prosecute in the land of Canaan. And sometimes it has made for tough reading, hasn’t it? But here we are reminded that the God who destroys His enemies is also the God who provides refuge for all who seek His mercy.
The Lord is a Just Judge
And so as we think about Joshua chapter 20 first of all, let’s recognize once again that the Lord is a just Judge. He is a just Judge. Look down and notice the purpose of these cities of refuge in chapter 20 verse 3. Chapter 20 verse 3. Do you see it? They are provided “that the manslayer who strikes any person without intent or unknowingly may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood.” So the idea was, if you caused an accidental death, you could flee to one of these six cities and the person who is described in verse 3 as the avenger of blood was a close relative of the deceased whose role it was to execute justice upon the guilty party. The Hebrew term “avenger of blood” is “goel hadam.” You may remember from the book of Ruth the role that Boaz played in Naomi’s family. He was, in the English translation he was called a “kinsman redeemer” and it was his responsibility to protect and to preserve the family in that particular case by marrying Ruth. But the term translated in Ruth as “kinsman redeemer” is the same word used here for the “avenger of blood.” He is a “goel.” So this isn’t some sort of random vigilante who takes it upon himself to exercise vengeance. This is a recognized role for a family member within the ancient Israelite justice system.
But having established that role, the Bible is incredibly realistic about the human heart. And God knows that we are not able to be objective. And so the provision is made for the alleged perpetrator of a crime to flee for refuge to these six cities in order to ensure that he receives a fair trial. And that is the point of verses 4 through 6. Do you see them? In verses 4 through 6, you couldn’t just commit a violent crime and then pitch up at the gate of one of these six cities of refuge and claim that it was all just a mistake and automatically receive asylum no questions asked. No, when you showed up at the gate, there was a kind of pre-trial that took place before the elders of the city who decided whether or not to allow you to remain based on the credibility of your case. And verse 6 tells us that later on there was a full trial before the whole congregation who would determine your guilt or your innocence, if you had been guilty of causing an accidental death or if in fact you were a murderer. And yet nevertheless, even if you had been allowed to remain it was clear that a life had been lost as a result, perhaps, of negligence of misadventure and so there were still consequences, which is why the manslayer, after taking refuge in the city, was not allowed to leave. The city became not just a place of safety but actually a kind of prison to him. He would have to abandon everything from his old life – his family, his business, his home, his community, and flee to the city of refuge and never stray beyond its walls.
So I hope you are beginning to see something of the careful ordering of justice in God’s plan here. We are meant to remember this is what God is like. He is not arbitrary or despotic. He affirms the need for just judgments but He also recognizes the need for checks and balances, for wise constraint on the all too human tendency to take vengeance rather than pursue justice in a way that is proportionate to the crime. Unlike us, the book of Joshua wants us to see justice never fails with God. It may fail in the world, but it never fails with God. It’s also worth noticing at this point not just the wisdom of God’s justice and the way that He has ordered all of this, but the wideness, the width of God’s justice. No doubt you noticed that these six cities of refuge are well scattered, well distributed all across the Promised Land. Did you see that? Three on the east side of the Joran, three on the west, so that they would be accessible to everyone throughout the country. And look down at verse 9. Who could access this provision? For whom were these cities made available? What does the text say in verse 9? These were cities designated for all the people of Israel and for the stranger, the foreigner, sojourning among them that anyone who killed a person without intent could flee there. The provision of refuge was not just for some but for all; not just for the Israelite but for the foreigner too. Anyone in the land could make use of them.
The just judgment of God is for all, toward all, accessible to all. That’s part of the message the provision of these six cities was designed to teach. They tell us about the character of God, about His generosity, His equity and His justice. And that’s why, in verse 7 by the way, we are told that these cities were not simply assigned or designated or allocated as cities of refuge. The word is “set apart,” literally consecrated, appointed to a sacred purpose. It’s also why, as the next chapter makes clear, all six cities were given to the Levites. These cities, you see, were consecrated places run by the spiritual leaders of the community. They were not nearly an administrative provision of a secular judicial system. They are sacred places administered by holy people because ultimately these cities and the role that they were to fulfill were designed to remind us what God is like. They point us to God and to His character and to His nature. And when you see that, it really shouldn’t surprise you then to discover that in the rest of Scripture the language of refuge is used not about these cities particularly but about God Himself. He is His people’s refuge and place of safety.
So for example, 2 Samuel 22, David sounds very much like a manslayer who had fled from the avenger of blood to a city of refuge except that he tells us he has fled for refuge from his sin not to a city but to the living God. Second Samuel 22 verse 2, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.” The avenger cannot touch him because he is safe in the Lord, his true city of refuge.
And so look, here’s the point. Sometimes when we become aware of our sin we find it hard to turn to God. We are ashamed. We’re overcome sometimes with self-reproach. We feel terribly unworthy. And so like Adam in the garden, you remember, we hide from Him instead of running to Him. But doesn’t Joshua 20 remind us God is a refuge for all people, accessible to all people, available to everyone – to you! Like the cities of refuge within reach of anyone in the land, the Lord is a refuge for every sinner who seeks Him. He has put Himself within your reach. You mustn’t run from Him in your guilt. You must run to Him because the truth is, we’re all manslayers; we’re all guilty, condemned before the bar of divine justice. And outside of the city of refuge, we are not safe! So run for refuge with your sin to the Lord. Take refuge in Him. He alone provides sanctuary from the fury of just judgment.
One more thing before we move on from this point. Look back again at verse 6. After the congregation had adjudicated the case, the manslayer is not allowed to leave the city. He can’t leave. Now you may know that in the Mosaic Law, a redemption price could be offered to atone for lesser transgressions. But there was no redemption price for murder. And at first, it looks like there would be no redemption price available for a manslayer either. He would never be able to leave the prison of the city. You stepped outside the city walls, you would face the death penalty. Except, that most scholars agree that when verse 6 tells us about the death of the high priest, that is intended to function like a redemption price on behalf of the manslayer who has fled for refuge to this city. “He shall remain in that city until the death of him who is the high priest at the time. Then the manslayer may return to his own town and to his own home, to the town from which he fled.”
So do you see, the life of the high priest seems to serve here as the price of the sinner’s freedom. The death of the high priest is the price of the sinner’s freedom. Isn’t that a beautiful proclamation of the Christian Gospel? Here is the fullness of the provision of God for sinners. Can you see it? This is the nature of divine justice. Not only is He an available and accessible refuge for any and all, even for you, He has provided the price of your redemption, your freedom, your pardon in the death of our great High Priest, His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Justice has spent itself upon Him that you might live. And so look, there is no reason, no logic, no point in running away from God, in holding back from God, in trying to hide from God. And it’s not safe to do that. Is it? What danger you are in, this passage is reminding us, when you refuse to come to Him for refuge. You are exposed to judgment! So why would you refuse? Why would you refuse when He has made Himself so available to you, so accessible in His grace, near at hand for any who call upon Him? You can go to Him any time without delay, without condition, without hesitation, and you will find in Him a hiding place, a refuge. And what’s more, He has paid the redemption price for you in full Himself. Your guilt atoned for. Your sin taken away in the death of Jesus Christ. He has done everything needful. Don’t you see that? Everything necessary. Made every provision. Put Himself within your grasp to make sure that if you would but come to Him, the blood of Jesus His Son will cleanse you from all sin. So what are you waiting for? You should flee this minute to the city of refuge. Right now, to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is only refuge there; only pardon there. Get yourself to Jesus Christ. The Lord is a just Judge.
The Lord is a Good Shepherd
Secondly, notice in chapter 21, the Lord is a good Shepherd. The Lord is a good Shepherd. In verses 1 through 3, the Levites remind Joshua they’ve been promised cities by Moses, places to dwell in of their own. In much the same way – do you remember this – that Caleb demanded his inheritance, and the daughters of Zelophehad, they demanded their inheritance; now the Levites do the same and they plead the promise of God. And so Joshua casts lots for each of the clans of the Levites. And really the rest of chapter 21 lists out how the lots were cast and which cities were designated, proportionate to the needs of each Levitical clan.
What we mustn’t miss as we scan through all of that, before our eyes glaze over and we switch off, what we mustn’t miss is that none of these cities are clustered together in a territory that the Levites could claim as a land or an allotment of their own. They are all scattered throughout the whole of the land of Israel in territory already allocated to the other tribes, so that in every region and in every tribal inheritance, there would always be Levites living in their midst. Now why is that so important, do you think? Remember the role of the Levites. What are they for? They are priests and shepherds and teachers of the Word of God, to tend the flock of God. That’s their role, their particular ministry. And so God – do you see this now – God has scattered His shepherds among His sheep to ensure that they would always have access to a faithful ministry to care for them and to teach them and to feed them with spiritually nourishing truth. That’s what’s going on here. Isn’t it wonderful? God cares for His flock and He ensures they will be shepherded. In the very way that He has arranged and organized their national life and the dimensions and geography of the land in which they live, He is ensuring that they will be shepherded.
And as we see that, it really ought to remind those of us who are called by God to shepherd the flock of our primary task and responsibility. We must be with and among the people of God – not distant from them, not disconnected from them, not inaccessible to them, but living and serving and ministering to them in their midst. Billy Dempsey, one of our ministers here, likes to say that “Good shepherds smell like the sheep.” Good shepherds smell like the sheep. That’s part of the point. Shepherds smell like the sheep because they’re always with the sheep; they’re always among the sheep. They tend the sheep. They know the needs of the sheep. And that is why God has organized the arrangement of the land in the way that He has for the Levites in their midst.
So teaching elders, ruling elders, here is a reminder of your most basic ministry. Do you see it? Whatever else you do in the service of the Lord and in care for this congregation, never neglect this. This is the basic business entrusted to you. The apostle Peter puts it this way. He says, “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you; not for shameful gain but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock” – 2 Peter 5 verse 2. And the apostle Paul puts it this way. “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which He obtained with His own blood” – Acts 20:28. So elders, brother elders, let me ask you, “Have you been investing yourself in a lot of busy work lately in committees, in planning and finance, in administering the good order of the organization of the local church to the degree that you have no margin left for the flock of God? Have you excused your neglect of the sheep among whom the Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has planted you? Do you find yourself appealing to all the many meetings that you attend and all the important decisions you’ve been involved in to get yourself off the hook from shepherding the people of God?” Meanwhile, the sheep go astray. Or as the apostle Paul puts it in Acts 20, “They are being preyed upon by fierce wolves who have come in among us not sparing the flock.” The Lord Himself is a good Shepherd.
We have a testimony to it here in this passage. He orders life in the Promised Land in such a way that in every tribal inheritance there would be a city of Levites living right in their midst to care for them, to shepherd them, to see to their spiritual needs. He positions undershepherds to feed His lambs. He is still a good Shepherd like that, isn’t He? Praise God that He has given us faithful elders. Brothers and sisters of First Presbyterian Church, give thanks to God that He is a good Shepherd who has sent undershepherds among you to care for you and to tend your souls.
The Lord is a just Judge. The Lord is a good Shepherd.
The Lord is a Faithful Promise Keeper
And finally, the Lord is a faithful Promise Keeper. A faithful Promise Keeper. Look at the end of chapter 21, verses 43 through 45. Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” It’s a lovely doxology, really, isn’t it? A hymn of praise to God for His faithfulness to His people, now that the conquest of Canaan is at an end and the people have received their inheritance in the land at last.
And I’m sure you heard the recurring theme in these three verses, didn’t you? What’s the recurring theme? What is it that makes the narrator sing here at the end of all these chapters – chapters 13 through 21 – listing strange places and hard to pronounce cities? It doesn’t usually make us sing when we read this part of Joshua, does it? But the author breaks into doxology. Why? Because he sees in these long lists of which cities were distributed in which fashion to which tribe, he sees in them all the unshakable faithfulness of God who keeps His promises. “Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that He swore to give to their fathers. The Lord gave rest to them on every side as He swore to their fathers. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.”
Now it’s sometimes pointed out that there appears to be a discrepancy here between the pronouncement of the total conquest of the land – God gave them all the land; none could stand before them. All their enemies were given into their hands. There appears to be a discrepancy between that statement and the reality that although the conquest was now complete, Israel hadn’t actually taken possession of all the land. There remained many enemies in Canaan who were as yet unconquered and in not a few places as we have seen, Israel compromised, having failed completely to drive out their Canaanite enemies. And so doesn’t the doxology here at the end of Joshua 21 seem premature? Maybe the narrator got a little over excited and swept along as we, no doubt always are when we read these chapters by the wonders of yet another long list of weird sounding cities. Just overcome by the wonder of it all! But couldn’t you say the same about Romans 8:30, for example? You remember Romans 8:30? “Those whom He predestined, He also called; those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also” – what? “He glorified them.” Now hold your horses, Paul! Predestined, okay – got it? Called – great. Justified – for sure. But haven’t you gotten a little carried away when you said that we are glorified? We’re not glorified yet, Paul. The work isn’t done yet. The conquest is not complete yet.
But aren’t we missing the point of that final past tense – glorified? It’s not because we already are glorified in possession, but because the word and promise of God is utterly sure and so we are glorified in promise. And that promise is as good as reality as itself – as sure and certain as history. “Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord has made to the house of Israel failed; all has come to pass.” You know, many believing scholars suggest that the incompleteness of the conquest of Canaan and it’s apparent contradiction with the statements here at the end of chapter 21 telling us that the conquest is complete, both are meant to be taken equally seriously. And I think that’s right, because that’s how the Bible speaks about the Christian life this side of the new creation. Isn’t that so? It tells us that we live right now in the age of resurrection. This is already the realm of Jesus Christ victorious, exalted and reigning over all. During His earthly ministry, Jesus said He saw Satan fall “like lightning from heaven.” Because of His life, death and resurrection, the strong man has been bound. Christ has conquered. Death is dead in the death of Christ. All of that is true, and yet, the age of glory, the age when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, the age when Satan and all who have embraced his lies will be cast into the lake of fire, when wickedness will meet final justice and the elect of God will be swept into that vast congregation to adore the throne of God and the Lamb, the age when the dwelling place of God will be with men and He shall dwell with us and be our God and we shall be His people and He shall wipe away every tear from our eyes for there will be no more sin nor sorrow nor crying anymore for the former things shall have passed away – that age is still “not yet.” And yet still Paul says “those whom He justified, He glorified,” as if the “not yet” of glory was already, right now, today.
That’s the dynamic, the certainty, of the not yet glory to come that allows Biblical writers to speak of as though it had already happened, as if the glory to come was already ours in possession. And it’s that certainty that gives us reason for singing. Our destiny is sure. You’re not living the Christian life hoping maybe, perhaps, somehow, eventually if you’re good enough to arrive there. No, no, no. Because of the death of our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, your destiny is sure. Not because we are competent of ourselves to finish the conquest of Canaan, but because God has promised and none of His words fall to the ground, not one. None of His promises ever fail, not ever. What confidence should be ours as we face mundane Monday or tangled-up Tuesday or worrisome Wednesday or thankless Thursday or frightening Friday or stressful Saturday or sad, sad Sunday. We can face all of it confident, can’t we, not that we have the answers – not at all – not that we can fix the problem, hardly. But we can face it all confident in the promise of grace and the assurance of glory, that “those whom He predestined, He called, and those whom He called, He justified, and those whom He justified, these He also glorified.” There are no hollow words on the lips of your God. No empty promises with Him. Do you believe that? If you believe it, you should sing. What a glorious destiny is yours! You are held in the unbreakable grip of omnipotent grace. Praise the Lord!
Let us pray.
Our God, how we do praise You. We sing Your praises for the wonder that we are saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, our great and perfect High Priest. How we bless You that He has given Himself for us and secured our destiny yet to come. Help us to run, therefore, our own races with perseverance, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. For we ask it in His name, amen.