Well, good morning to everyone. Good to see you all here this morning. We are working through the book of Daniel, and we've come to chapter 9. In our text today, God's going to give a revelation to Daniel to give him wisdom and understanding, and we're going to see that God is planning to move concerning Israel in the short term with Nehemiah and Ezra under the command of Artaxerxes to go back and rebuild the temple, and also in the distant future when God will bring to consummation all the promises He made to Israel, not for their sake, but for His great namesake and His glory. 

I want you to keep that point in mind. It's so crucial to our understanding. I just wanted to read to you again a few verses from Ezekiel that highlight this. In Ezekiel 20, verse 9, God says, "But I acted for My namesake, that it should not be profaned before the Gentiles, among whom they were, in whose sight I had made Myself known to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt." Verse 14, "I acted for My namesake, that it should not be profaned before the Gentiles, in whose sight I had brought them out." Ezekiel 20, 22, "Nevertheless, I withdrew My hand and acted for My namesake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the Gentiles, in whose sight I had brought them out." Verse 44, "Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have dealt with you for My namesake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel, says the Lord God. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy namesake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went." Chapter 38, verse 23, "Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, then they shall know that I am the Lord." We read last time that that was through Israel.

Last week we began our study in this great ninth chapter of the book of Daniel, and in this chapter we see Daniel still in captivity in Babylon, now Medo-Persia, under Darius, and Daniel is studying the Word of God. He is searching the words given to Jeremiah the prophet. And he comes to understand that the captivity of his people is about to be completed and God is about to move to deliver the people and rebuild the city of Jerusalem as well as the temple. There was another prophet in Israel that Daniel would have known well, the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah lived and ministered about a hundred years before Daniel.

In Daniel 6:28, we saw Darius and Cyrus mentioned together. Some believe they are the same person; the conjunction there decides that it could be Darius and Cyrus or Darius even Cyrus. Some people think he's the same person as others believe that Cyrus appointed Darius to rule in Babylon, but regardless, Cyrus was ultimately the man in control. Now I want you to turn back to Isaiah 45, and let's see what God said over 100 years before this time of Daniel 9. 

Isaiah 45 at verse 1. "Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors so that the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, this is a hundred years before Cyrus, am the God of Israel. For Jacob, my servant's sake, and Israel, my elect, I have even called you by your name. I have named you, though you have not known me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. There is no God besides me. I will gird you, though you have not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other." 

Well, this is truly an amazing prophecy which Daniel would have been familiar with, God predicting what would happen, even naming Cyrus by name, but notice the intent, the purpose of God is to glorify himself through his people. Now this becomes crucial to our understanding of Daniel chapter 9. In Isaiah 44:28, it says, "'Who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, he shall perform all my pleasure,' saying to Jerusalem, 'you shall be built, and to the temple your foundation shall be laid.'" So we see there that through Cyrus and the commands that come from Artaxerxes, we're going to see the city rebuilt, and we're going to see the temple rebuilt.

We see in 2 Chronicles 36, and in several places in Ezra, that this decree was issued, this prophecy came to pass, 2 Chronicles 36:20, "'And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill seventy years.'" This is that text that Daniel was studying. Verse 22, "'Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, 'Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me, and he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah, who is among you of all his people. May the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.'" 

So here we see this fulfilled. So Daniel's studying the word of God to know and understand the time of the captivity in Babylon and the time in which God would rebuild the city and the temple, and he puts this all together, and this revelation, this understanding moves him to prayer. We're going to review that prayer again this morning in our text, but what I want you to see and to keep at the forefront of your minds is the context in which this amazing prophecy and explanation from Gabriel comes to Daniel. 

How would Daniel have understood these things? What was this revelation about? Who was it for? What did it concern? The text is explicit. And I beg you to study God's word here particularly, but always by observing what God says. By starting with the words, setting them in their context. Please do not bring everything that you think that you know about the rest of the Bible to bear on your interpretation of any given text. Observe what is there. Understand its audience, its intent, and the context in which it is written, and interpret it on its own long before you bring other texts to bear. 

This is what we call the inductive method: observe, interpret, apply. We must start with these fundamental hermeneutical principles if we're to cut the pieces straight, particularly in a text like Daniel 9. Otherwise, we force our understanding onto the text and set it in the framework of our system of theology rather than understanding what God says and letting his word, one piece at a time and then with proper understanding, fitting them all together, form our system of theology which we hold loosely to and are willing to tweak and adjust as we come to know more of his word and his person. 

This is a significant and somewhat complicated text before us in Daniel 9:20 to 27. Alex is going to love this. It's mathematics all the way through. However, there are many clear truths here to guide us if we start with what God says. 

For example, we have already seen that the broader context of what we have before us is Israel's captivity in Babylon. And we have Daniel, who has been here now from his youth for about 69 years. Daniel's been in Babylon. He's studying the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah to know and understand the things concerning the end of the captivity, the rebuilding of the city and the temple, and his people moving back to the land. These are all very clear words found in our text and the broader context, and these things should guide us. 

We see also that Daniel's prayer is about God's glory. It's about his name, his holy mountain, Jerusalem, and the glorification of God through his people, Israel. In verse 24, we see some very clear and important words. It says, "70 weeks are determined for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint or present the most holy." 

Whatever's going on here, it concerns Israel, particularly Judah and Jerusalem. It lists six specific things that God's going to accomplish in these 70 weeks, or more specifically 70 sevens. Now the question becomes, what are these sevens? Seven days? Seven years? Seven what? And thankfully we have other scriptures that do help us here. We see the same term used in Numbers 14. It says, "And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and bear the brunt of your infidelity until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness." According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years. 

Same term used here of years, Ezekiel 4:6, "And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side, then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days, I have laid on you a day for each year." Here the term represents years. We see the same thing in Leviticus chapter 26. This is interesting because it ties into our text. Leviticus 26:34 says, "Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemy's land. Then the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbaths." Israel violated the Sabbaths, so what did God do? He took them out of the land. And while you're out of the land, he says, the land will enjoy the Sabbaths I intended. As long as it lies desolate, it shall rest for the time it did not rest on your Sabbaths when you dwelt in it. 

Now compare that with 2 Chronicles 36:21, it says, "And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia. Why? To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill 70 years." In Exodus and Leviticus, we see the law of the Sabbath rest for the land. He tells them, "Six years you shall sow your field, six years you shall prune your vineyard, gather its fruit. On the seventh year, the land shall rest, you'll take no food from it." God prescribed a rest for the land on the seventh year. 

Now in 2 Chronicles, he said that Israel would be in captivity one year for every time they violated this Sabbath rest for the land. How long would it take to violate 70 of these Sabbath rests for the land? Took seven years, right? Times 70, 490 years. We will see that this becomes crucial to our understanding of the 77s and the fulfillment of the prophecy before Daniel. The point is that there's a lot of clear revelation here to set our context and our frame of thinking as we observe and seek to start with what God says and allow that to guide our interpretation. 

Daniel is thinking in years, 70 years of captivity, according to Jeremiah. Isaiah says Cyrus will issue the decree to rebuild and Israel will go back to her land. He's now ruling, this is coming to pass. The Sabbath rests were in years and 77s would equal 490 years, the same as the violation of these Sabbaths by Israel resulting in this captivity for 70 years. These are all observations, my friends, starting with the text and seeking to understand what God says. 

How should we understand the 70 periods of sevens as years, 490 years? I give you this example because if you pick up a commentary from a covenant theologian on this text, as I did, it will tell you that the 77s are typological and figurative and framework and they are not literal years. Now why would one say that based on observing the text in its context in Daniel 9? Only because of presuppositions based on his own system of theology. Let's start with the words and see where God takes us in our understanding. 

And by the way, that's the point of this text, of this explanation of Gabriel to Daniel, that he might gain understanding, that he might know. He's commanded to pay attention, to understand. That's what it says in our text. I'm going to give you skill to understand. Pay attention. Think. I ask the same of you as we work through this over the next couple of messages. Pay attention. Think with me. Come to understand what God is saying here in Daniel 9 and then in the whole of His word concerning these things. That's the way we'll come to a right conclusion. 

Let's look at our text, Daniel 9 at verse 20. "Now, while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God. Yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. And he informed me and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. At the beginning of your supplications, the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved, therefore consider the matter and understand the vision." 

"Seventy weeks are determined for your people, for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy." 

"Know, therefore, and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, until the end of the war desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate." 

I've given you four points on your outline. First, a right prayer. Second, skill to understand. Third, greatly beloved. And fourth, seventy-sevens or seventy weeks. 

I want to spend a little time reviewing the prayer of Daniel in the first part of this chapter, just because it's such an important lesson for us. What makes this a right prayer? We saw last time that this prayer was inspired by the study of God's Word. Daniel had been reading, studying God's Word in Jeremiah, perhaps Isaiah; he had come to understand by God's Word the length of the captivity in Babylon for Israel. 

So if we're going to pray rightly, we must have our prayers inspired by, in consistency with, the Word of God, which requires diligent study of the Word of God. If you ask Him, my name, Jesus said, it will be granted you. What does that mean? In consistency with Him, in consistency with who He is, with His Word. So we learn this from Daniel's prayer. We also see that Daniel has a right perspective of himself, of his relationship to God under the covenant and time in which he lived, and he knew his sin and the sin of his people and the righteousness of God in bringing judgment on them. He had a right estimation of himself, according to God's Word, and a right estimation of God and His character and nature. 

Next, we see that Daniel's prayer was focused on God's name and on His glory. Verse 16, "O Lord, according to all your righteousness, I pray, let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain, because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are a reproach to all those around us." Why is that a problem, if His people are a reproach, if they've profaned His name among the nations? Because God's very intent is to bring glory to His name among the nations through His people. 

So Daniel says, this is the situation, Lord. "Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of your servant and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake, cause your face to shine on your sanctuary which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see our desolations in the city which is called by your name. For we do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous deeds, but because of your great mercies. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act. Act how? Act according to His Word, what He said He would do. Daniel's saying, do it. Act. Do not delay. Why? For your own sake, my God. For your city and your people are called by your name." 

Daniel's not concerned about his own exaltation or material things for himself, his health or anything else, his situation in captivity, but he's focused in his prayer on the glory of God, on the name of God, and therefore the people of God and their witness to the nations according to God's intent. We saw that this is precisely God's plan and purpose through His Word. Let's look at Ezekiel 36, it's just a tremendous passage concerning a time far in the future when God will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 

Ezekiel 36:24, this is God's purpose for the consummation of His creative intent concerning Israel. Let me ask you, when did that happen in history with the nation of Israel? Never. Never. "Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good. You will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. Not for your sake do I do this, says the Lord God. Let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel." 

"Thus says the Lord God, on the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities and the ruins shall be rebuilt, the desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. So they will say, this land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden, and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited. Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I the Lord have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it. Thus says the Lord God, I will also let the house of Israel inquire of me to do this for them. I will increase their men like a flock, like a flock offered as holy sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem on its feast days. So shall the ruined cities be filled with flocks of men. Then they shall know that I am the Lord." 

It's through his people that he will bring glory to his name in his holy mountain. So Daniel's prayer reflects God's will and his word. He's asking him to do what he said he would do, and he asked God to perform all that he has declared in his word for this purpose, God's glory. That's what this is about, that's the purpose of the revelation given to Daniel and Gabriel's explanation to him. When will this happen? 

Daniel makes a right prayer, and then we see that God gives Daniel skill to understand. Verse 21, "Yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, because being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering." This was Daniel's custom to pray every day at three o'clock. 

"And he informed me and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. At the beginning of your supplications, the command went out." As soon as Daniel started praying, God said, Go. And apparently, Gabriel's pretty fast, right? He wasn't even done praying, and Gabriel was there. "I've come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, consider it, think on it, ponder on it, study it, and understand it." 

Now God is going to give Daniel revelation and give him the ability to understand. And he says again, pay attention, get this straight, Daniel. It's going to take some musing, some meditating, some pondering and rolling over in the mind and study and work, but the point of this prophecy is your understanding. And I will give you that understanding. My friends, God's not trying to hide things from us in his Word. He gives them so that we might understand. 

And this is particularly true in this context for Daniel. In answer to his prayer, Gabriel tells him that he's greatly beloved. This is a tremendous word. Greatly beloved. God loved Daniel, and he wanted him to understand. Understand who God is, understand God's plan and purpose for Israel, for all things, the consummation of all things even in Christ. 

I think about this in the context of Jesus' words concerning John the Baptist in Luke 7:28. Jesus said, "For I say to you among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist," including Daniel, right? "Not a greater man than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." God loved Daniel and Daniel was faithful to God. And look at the amazing things that God did through Daniel, how he brought glory to himself through Daniel in so many ways. 

Daniel knew justification by faith; he knew his relationship with God, but he did not experience the blessing spoken of in the new covenant in Ezekiel 36 or Jeremiah 31. He did not understand regeneration or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit or the life of Christ in and through him. The New Testament says that we have been made accepted in the beloved. We have received the divine nature. We are in Christ and all that this means. We no longer live under the law with blessing for obedience, but it says we are blessed in Christ. Did you know that my brother and my sister in Christ, you are greatly beloved? 

And God wants you to know that. He wants you to trust him and know that you are secure in Christ. And God's very purpose in saving you is to glorify himself through your life and witness in this world. Daniel was greatly beloved, and God, in response to his prayer, gave him skill to understand through the prophecy beginning in verse 24. 

"Seventy weeks, seventy-sevens, are determined for your people in your holy city to do these things. To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and anoint the most holy." Think about what these things might mean. To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and anoint the most holy. 

Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. The street shall be built again and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood until the end of the war; desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; there's your missing week. But in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate. 

We're just going to begin to look at this with the remainder of our time and then we'll pick it up in more depth next time. We need to understand what God is giving to Daniel here. He's answering Daniel's prayer concerning what? His people, his city. In the short-term deliverance of Judah from Babylon and the rebuilding of the temple and the city, God answers this prayer, he's showing what's going to happen, those first seven sevens, but this prophecy also extends to God's final plans for bringing to pass His will and purpose, the 62 weeks; now 69, speaks of Messiah being cut off, Jesus coming and sacrifice on the cross, the things He accomplishes there. And then the 70th week, the consummation, the consummation of all these things, His creative intent in establishing the nation of Israel. 

So we'll see that these verses span from the time of Daniel all the way to the kingdom for Israel and the establishment of the righteous rule of Jesus on David's throne and the new heavens and the new earth. We're not going to seal up vision and prophecy until the new heavens and the new earth, right? So please pay attention to the words with me, 70 weeks are determined for your people, your holy city. 

Notice first of all that these 77s are for Israel, for Jerusalem. This prophecy concerns Israel and Jerusalem and Daniel's people and the holy city. We've shown already that these sevens are years, so the term of this prophecy and its fulfillment in time is 70 times seven, or 490. Just as we saw that Israel had profaned the Sabbath rests for the land for 490 years, so we see that the remainder of God's dealings with this nation to accomplish these six things in particular will be accomplished over a 490-year period. 

The question is, when does this period start and when does it end? Verse 25 in our text says, "Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks." So the starting point is the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem. 

And notice it says for the city and the temple, because there are four such commands, two from Cyrus, two from Artaxerxes. So which one do we use? Well, only the second command from Artaxerxes includes the city. The first three only are commands to rebuild the temple. So we have in the fourth command the city and the temple. And I think that determines, besides that, the math works out from that command. But I believe that points us to that second command of Artaxerxes is the beginning, from the going forth of that command. 

We see these four decrees that mention the temple rebuilding from Cyrus and Artaxerxes, but only one of them commands to rebuild the city as well. He says first there'll be seven sevens, 49 years, then 62, making 69 sevens. So why this division? Here's the 77th period. You know, we could all sit around, like I used to do in college with my buddies and have a few beers and talk about all these things and probably come up with all kinds of stuff that the seven represents and the 62 represents and read the book of Revelation and get the Ouija board out. 

What does it say? It says there's going to be seven sevens, 49 years, and in that time this will be accomplished. Then there's going to be 62 sevens, and in this time this is going to happen. And after this time, Jesus is going to be killed. We have to answer these questions. We're going to endeavor to do this next time when we dig into these 70 weeks of years for Israel and Jerusalem, the consummation of God's plans concerning this nation. 

But it says what it says, and there's a lot of other scripture also to help us. But we don't need to spiritualize all these things. We don't need to come up with all kinds of fanciful ideas. We need to see what God says. 

Now as we close, I just want to remind you of the importance of starting with the words when we study any part of God's Word, to remember the context, the audience, the author, the intent. How did Daniel understand? How did Daniel understand the 70 years of Jeremiah 25 concerning the captivity in Babylon? Did he sit around with the soothsayers and the Chaldeans and look at the stars and try and figure out what the 70 meant? What did it say? 70 years. Why 70 years, God? Well, let me tell you, because they profaned 70 Sabbaths. For 490 years, Israel profaned the Sabbath. 

So for each profaning of a Sabbath on the seventh year, I'm going to keep you in captivity in Babylon for a year, which means 70 years. So when Daniel read that in Jeremiah 25, how did he take that? He took it as 70 years, because that's what it says. And then he said, "Wait a minute, I've been here for 69 years. Let me dig around here some more in God's Word and try and put the pieces together and understand what's going to happen." 

And then because I'm so excited about what I'm learning in God's Word, I'm on my knees in prayer, and now he's going to send the angel to explain it to me and give me understanding. He wants us to know. So he understood it as 70 years, not some metaphor or allegory, but as 70 years because this is what the context indicated. 

Daniel also knew the Leviticus passages concerning the Sabbaths and all those things in 2 Chronicles 36:21. Daniel knew all these things, and this was his frame of reference when God said to him there'd be 77s in our text. Daniel must have understood this as years, as 490 literal years. 

And he could have only understood this as referencing Israel and Jerusalem, for God explicitly states this truth. Sometimes I see reels on my phone of Reform guys making fun of guys like me, right? And they say, they have some, they're dressed up in Bible clothes and they're back in Nehemiah or something, and they say, "Is this for Israel?" And he says, "No, it's for Jeremy in Pittsburgh in 2026." 

Let me just say right here, Daniel could have only understood this concerning Daniel and Israel and Jerusalem. He couldn't understand this as a spiritual application in 2026 in the church age. So the person it was written to, with the intent to give him understanding, understood it as a 490-year period to finish these six things concerning Israel and Jerusalem. God explicitly states this truth. 

This prophecy's not about a spiritual application in church; it's about God's plans for Israel and Jerusalem in the near term for Daniel, we're going to see this in Ezra and Nehemiah, but also in the distant future when God will establish the kingdom and Jesus will reign on David's throne, and God will consummate all the promises made to the fathers. And we see that in verse 24 with those six things. Six specific things that God will accomplish in this 490 years. Some at the cross when Messiah's cut off after the 69 weeks, but some not until the kingdom time on earth and even into the new heavens and new earth to make an end of sins, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and anoint the most holy. 

My friends, these things are not all accomplished in our time in the church age, but they will be in the final consummation of God's plans concerning Israel and Jerusalem, and we're going to dive into this deeper in the truce next time as we study this amazing prophecy. But I just want you to know that there are clear things here that guide our understanding. We can know, God gave it so we would know, and we don't have all the answers to all the questions, and we don't know how some of the pieces fit together. That's our endeavor, right? To study, to know, to pray for understanding. But there are some clear things here if we start with the words that point us in the right direction. 

So praise God for that. Let's close in prayer.