Jacob's sons prophecies
Genesis 49 · Vern Peterman · Mar 29, 2009
Genesis, No. 59
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926128543609

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. Isn't this a good morning? Praise the Lord. Just looking at this passage here, I kind of grabbed the immensity of it in my mind and think about how big a moment this is. Here is a man, Jacob, in the last hours of his life, most likely, spending time with his sons and telling them, you know, this is what's going to happen.

This is consequences of decisions you've made and not made. This is what's going to happen to the people who are descended from you. And as he begins to look at this, he even gives an indication here of the coming of Christ in this time. So this is a momentous time in Jacob's last hours. And so you can imagine the immensity of the moment, how full those times are. And if you can imagine yourself being one of those sons, This is a time you would never forget.

This is a time that would be fixed in your mind. And so that's the time we're going to be studying here this morning. You have, I believe, on page one of your handout, this chart, and you may find that interesting to refer to. We won't be going down this particular chart, but it's a kind of an interesting way to have everything summarized in front of you in one appearance there.

So he calls his sons together. He's just gotten through blessing Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And he calls his 12 sons together to tell them what's going to happen to them. And the words there are literally in the end of days. So this is time, you know, into the future. But actually almost an implication, at least some of this is towards the end of days on planet Earth. So he is looking far ahead. Isn't that something? In doing so, he pulls together their personal past and ties it with the future of the tribe that's going to come from them.

You ever kind of think that what's going on in my life doesn't matter so much? It's kind of insignificant? You ever have that feeling? These guys are going to get the feeling that that's not the case. Okay? that there's a whole lot in front of them and their lives are significant. I think it's an important thing for us to take a look at, though. We're not one of these twelve sons.

But the Lord's focus is, yes, your life is significant. Yes, you do count. One of the things we talked about some weeks past in our study of the book of Revelation was at one point the Lord says, and I will give you a white stone, which in those days was representative of you're invited to the victor's banquet, and it'll have on there a new name for you that nobody knows but you and me. The Lord wants there to be intimacy between us and him, and his relationship with us, his fellowship with us, is significant. It does matter to him. So here's this very momentous special time. He is also going to bless them, and we'll talk about that a little bit because as we step our way through this, as a matter of fact, I'll let you in on a secret.

As much as I can, I try to have Nancy proofread my stuff, because I don't trust my own proofreading. So one of the things she was looking at that, she was saying, it's hard to see how some of these are blessings. And she's got a good point. But we'll see in a minute what that means.

Here are the sons of Jacob put out on a chart. You don't have this on your sheet, but we've been looking at this off and on as we've stepped our way through the last part of Genesis. Here are the sons of Jacob and then, of course, Joseph's sons. We see coming from this that from Levi is Moses and Aaron and the priests. We see from Judah is King David and, of course, our Lord Jesus Christ. We see that from Benjamin is King Saul. Anyway, we'll step through these in a bit more detail as we go through the passage. Paul, as we'll make note, was also the tribe of Benjamin.

Some of the prophecies, and it's interesting, not all of them. As a matter of fact, you're going to find these prophecies vary. Some of these prophecies have to do with their location in Israel after the Exodus and conquest, which isn't going to take place for several centuries. So some of it, you're going to get some location information for here's where you're going to settle in the land that God promised. Now, according to the tradition, Jacob would have given the eldest son, Reuben, special status and roles and honors and inheritance as the eldest son. That would have been, of course, assumed in any usual case. The eldest son gets this.

Now notice, he's already given an indication. Remember what he did with Joseph's sons? Crossed hands, right? So there's a little bit of crossing to be done here as well, and we'll see that. This eldest son would have preeminence among the brothers, a superior position. Let's break that down.

There would be leadership of the tribes. There would be, okay, here are the tribes, but this eldest son, it would be assumed anyway, would be the head. Priesthood within the family, having a special place of standing before the Lord for the whole family, that would be assumed. in a double portion of the birthright as the eldest son that is having twice as much of earthly goods. I think that means getting more sheep. But that would go along with the pattern here of being the eldest son. That's what Reuben probably could have anticipated and assumed had everything gone normally according to tradition.

But as we'll see, Jacob doesn't follow the tradition. Reuben had been, and by the way, this was about 40 years before, 40 years earlier, had been intimate with Rachel's slave, who was Jacob's concubine, Bilhah. Jacob gives none of the eldest son's traditional status and roles and inheritance to Reuben directly. None of it.

Instead, he gives the leadership to Judah, and that's why we have reference in the book of Revelation to the Lion of Judah, who is Christ, the descendant of Judah. A double portion inheritance to Joseph. Why? Two sons, right? That's how he gets the double portions, each one of the sons is included as a half-tribe.

And later on, that is many centuries later, the priesthood was given to the tribe of Levi, but they had no land inheritance. The Levites, none of them had any land. They were scattered throughout the tribes. They lived wherever they could find a place. No assignment or allotment for that tribe.

The next two in line, Simeon and Levi, were also passed over for the eldest son's privilege. Reuben's problem had been unbridled lust. His problem had been that his sexual passions had completely taken him away, and Jacob said, I'm not giving this guy with the unbridled lust problem leadership over the family. Simeon and Levi were passed over for their eldest son's status, roles, and inheritance because of their unbridled rage and violence. Remember, in Shechem, again this was about 40 years before, in Shechem, in retaliation for their sister Dinah having been enticed by this kind of the prince of the town, They went in and in a sort of a nighttime raid, went and killed all the men. And so for that, Jacob says, I'm not giving you, you two, with your unbridled rage and violence, I'm not giving you headship in this family.

Now Jacob, as we've made note of, is really late in addressing these character flaws with these guys. One of the things we made note of when we were going through the chapters is Jacob didn't say much when these problems occurred. He didn't say much to prevent it, that we can tell. He didn't say much when they occurred. He didn't even seem to talk to him too much afterwards. So he is late. But he finally does, so he tells them about the problem and tells them what the consequence is going to be.

So let's step our way through it. He says to Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. So far so good, right? Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence. The word there for uncontrolled as water is a word that's like a river overrunning its banks, out of control, flooding and damage. And he says, you will not have the preeminence because you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled it. Then he gets personal. You went up to my couch. You can imagine he's there with the sons. You went up to my couch. You're not getting it.

The tribe of Simeon produced no notable person, no judge, no king, no prophet. The next one there, Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are implements of violence. Let my soul not enter into their council. Let not my glory be united with their assembly. Because in their anger they slew men, and in their self-will they lamed oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath for it is cruel.

I will disperse them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. Simeon's people were spread among a few cities in southern Judah at first and then they were eventually just kind of absorbed into Judah and then later on a number of them moved up into the northern kingdom when there was the two nations divided, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Then Judah, in Genesis 49, 8 and 9, Judah, your brother shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies, that is, having them under control, right? And your father's sons shall bow down to you. Notice that what had happened in this particular generation, everybody had bowed down to Joseph. He's saying, no, going through the sequence, Judah is the eldest one who is qualified. Now you say, qualified? Wasn't Judah this awful man? By the way, that's chapter 38 where it's described in his many errors.

Yes, he did. But, as we talked about when it was time to come down to Egypt for food, Judah was a changed man. He had repented. He even was self-sacrificial. He said, I will be a lifelong slave here so that Benjamin can go home. This guy was different. He talked to Joseph. He talked to his father and put himself in the place of making a sacrifice. He put himself in the place of doing the right thing, even at his own expense. Judah is a lion's whelp from the prey. My son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares rouse him?

The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Now I may ask, what's so special about a scepter? It was a symbol for the rule of a king in both the Bible, we have several references there on your handout and on the slide, and in other literature of the day. So a scepter was very clearly something understood as a rule of a king.

We have a picture in here, and we'll explain it a little bit more in a minute, of the ancestry of Christ as given in Genesis. This is the last one. where Christ is now prophesied. We saw that beginning in chapter 3 and now we have each of the particular passages where the descendant on down to Judah who will ultimately bear Christ is shown.

In Revelation 5, 5 and 6, It's spelled out this way, Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a lamb standing as a flame. A lamb and a lion. Here are some key points here about this passage so far.

Judah's brothers and their descendants are going to bow down to Judah. He will be the king in the line of the king to Judah's descendants since Judah's tribe will be the one in authority over them. He will be the one in charge. Ultimately, Christ himself being the last and final king from the line of Judah.

Isn't it interesting? Our Savior in his earthly being is from this guy Judah. That is amazing stuff. Christ, the last and eternal King from the tribe of Judah, will be the one who fulfills this and reigns. Judah's like a lion, he says in verse 9. And it just obviously pictures great power.

The word Shiloh that you see on the slide here and some of the translations is the English spelling of the sound of the Hebrew word, but that doesn't tell you what it means. Until Shiloh comes, if we translate the meaning as this, means that the kingly line of Judah will not end until he comes to whom it, the scepter, belongs. Until the one to whom it belongs, Christ.

Now we step into this next one here. He ties his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine. Now, I've got to explain this. And you're probably saying, I got to explain this, right? Okay. Here's why. Why do you tie a colt to a vine? You don't. That's why. Okay. You don't. And the reason is, if you tie a colt to the vine, you know what's going to do the vine? Eat everything on it. Okay. Now, if you're trying to keep a productive vineyard, you don't want to tie a colt to the vine.

But verses 11 and 12 describe a time during the millennium, during the time of the reign of Christ, which is yet to come, when things will be so plentiful on the earth, and especially in Israel, that you don't worry about tying Donkey's colt to the vine, feeds it up because there's plenty. You don't worry about it. As a matter of fact, what's the next part of verse 11?

He washes his garments in wine and his robes in the blood of grapes, which sounds very odd, except what is that saying? It's his wine is as plentiful as wash water. Wine is plentiful as wash water. It's a picture of abundance. His eyes are dull from wine, there's plenty of it. His teeth white from milk, there's plenty of that. Hopefully white, especially with all the brighteners they've got these days.

Okay. The next verse there, starting verse 13, Zebulun will dwell at the seashore and he shall be a haven for ships and his flank shall be towards Sidon. Now, I first looked at this and I thought, okay, Zebulun is going to have a patch of property there that doesn't front on the water. So what's that about? Well, it turns out that Zebulon doesn't have a place on the water but had arrangements with the tribes on either side to have access to the water and to cooperate and be able to deal with that. So Zebulon actually did have access not only on the Mediterranean but on the Sea of Galilee as well and traded between those two places. So there's the location of the tribe of Zebulon there with access both directions to the bodies of water. The next one, Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between the sheep folds.

That's it. When he saw that a resting place was good and the land was pleasant, he bowed his shoulder to bear burdens and became a slave at forced labor. Wow, that doesn't sound great. It's not. It means this guy is going to work. He's going to find some rest and then it's going to get tough, okay? And it's because they will be one of the tribes taken away under the captivity, under Assyria. The tribe of Issachar settled in prime agricultural land, great place there. And so you see a picture of it there, very prime green territory.

Then, Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Now, one of the things that we don't catch in our English, the word Dan means judge. So judge will judge. Judge will judge his people as one of the tribes. Samson was one of the fulfillments of this prophecy. Samson was, in the book of Judges, a judge, right? So Dan, which means judge, shall judge, and Samson, who is from the tribe of Dan, judged.

Am I repetitive? Maybe. Okay. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a horned snake in the path that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backwards. Now you say, well, what is that? Think about this. A snake in the path is one that surprises the horse, okay, and ultimately causes the rider to fall backwards.

This is what Samson himself did. Remember in his last days? Here's Samson, and we got Samson chained. We got Samson, and he can't see anything. He can't do anything. What happened in Samson's last day? He put his hands on the pillars and, as the picture shows, broke down the pagan temple there and took out a whole bunch of the enemy, the Philistines.

Jacob interjects in this, for your salvation I wait, O Lord. Jacob knows that his sons will have various places in a future and will do this and that. Things will happen to them. In the end, he knows, I've got to trust the Lord. In the end, the Lord is salvation. My sons will do various things. Some of them will do good things. But in the end, my confidence is in the Lord. Here in my last hours, I trust the Lord.

As for Gad, raiders shall raid him, but he will raid at their heels. Again, the name matches up with what he keeps referring to, this raiding and raider. Gad is a territory right on the edge that was subject to being attacked from the outside. and one of the first ones to take the attack and also well prepared to take the attack and fight back. As for Asher, his food shall be rich, and he will yield royal dainties.

Oh, excuse me. Asher has this land up along the northern coast of Israel, and it's a very fertile land, up in the high areas of forest. Of course, along the coast land there is the Mediterranean Sea, but the area in between, a very fertile land, and so rich agricultural area.

And that's what the reference is to there. Naphtali is a doe let loose. He gives beautiful words. Wow. Where did that prophecy come from? Naphtali would be a very free spirited mountain people. A very free spirited mountain people and famous for their literature and art. famous for their writings and poetic and song accomplishments, but a free-spirited people.

Some years ago, a fellow that Nancy and I knew that was a recording artist wrote, He makes beautiful words And it's just kind of a picture of here's this guy naftali and he's given he has a free spirit but he's also given a kind of a here's an artistic talent a literary talent and So Jacob pictures that Now he gets to Joseph and the words are abundant The slide is only half of it He starts off with, Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring.

Now, just so we know, Ephraim, remember, the son that was blessed, the younger one, but blessed because Jacob crossed his hands, Ephraim means fruitful. So that's why right at the start, Joseph is an Ephraim bough. an Ephraim bow by a spring, right? Its branches run over the wall. In other words, there's so much branch and fruit that it's got plenty for the place there and even more for those on the outside. The archers bitterly attacked him and shot at him and harassed him, but his bow remained firm and his arms were agile from the hands of... and here's something very interesting.

He starts off with a list of terms for God. The mighty one of Jacob, From there is the shepherd, and it's the second time in two chapters that he makes reference to God as a shepherd. The stone of Israel, the rock of Israel. And finally, in verses 25 and 26, from the God of your father, there's another name for God, who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you. And now he goes on with bless, bless, bless, bless, bless, right? The Almighty who blesses you with blessings of heaven above, looking at rain and snow and things like that, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, down below you, and blessings of the breast and of the womb. Reproductive. Here he goes with the word blessings again.

The blessings of your father have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers. Hear anything bad in there? Not so much. It's pretty solid stuff.

The last one blessed, and by the way, these are not blessed in birth order. The last one blessed is Benjamin, who is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he devours the prey and in the evening he divides the spoil. One of the fulfillments of that comes in a line of very aggressive people.

Here is Benjamin. He's kind of the young one out of all these twelve. And young ones can respond in different ways in a family. Benjamin responds by being real aggressive. Eleven older brothers makes it tough. And that's what happened to this guy, Benjamin. He kind of carried on a toughness.

And so one example of that is right into the period of the judges. Ehud, like Samson, was one of the judges. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. Ehud was particularly known as being a lefty, which I am. Nancy is. None of our kids are. Okay. And then King Saul, and also son Jonathan obviously, also from the tribe of Benjamin. The Apostle Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin. So there's, and by the way, here's Paul and what is he? He was aggressive. He was aggressive before he became a believer, he was aggressive afterwards. So that characteristic was carried on in the tribal character. Benjamin was the one tribe who stuck with the tribe of Judah when the others rebelled.

Now, let's talk about this because we made mention of the fact that Jacob is blessing his sons. But what does that mean, bless? In some of those descriptions, you say, does that sound like a blessing? It's like Nancy's observation. When we step through it, we find out, yeah, it is a little tough to view those as a blessing, but they are blessings.

The outlook varies for each of the sons, and we saw some of them talk about things a long time away, some talk about things that are closer, some talk about the character of the people, some about the land that they're in. But all of the sons have a future. He doesn't say, you eleven get to go, but you stay here. All of them have a future. Some of them have a specific land, some do not, but all of them have a future. All of them will go into the promised land.

And we find, in fact, that's exactly what happens. The tribes have a future when Christ reigns in the millennial kingdom in a time yet to come when Christ will reign upon the earth. and into eternity. Here's a map that we made available some months ago, last summer, and we'll do so again. There are some copies there.

There was land apportioned to each tribe in the Millennial Kingdom. And what's interesting is when you look at Genesis 15 and Ezekiel 48, you find that the future land that is called Israel extends all the way from the Mediterranean, and it's much more than what is currently Israel, and all the way to the Euphrates River, practically down to Ur, which is near the Persian Gulf. A huge chunk of land compared to what Israel is now. And those are the portions for each of the tribes there. Each of them gets a place. Each of them does in the coming millennial kingdom.

We also have a handout, Were the Ten Tribes of Israel Ever Lost? Ever hear about that? Ever hear about the Lost Tribes? We have a four-page handout that you can feel free to grab there. So anyway, that'll help address that question if you've ever come across that.

Now it says there at the very end of the chapter, Jacob is gathered to his people. This gathered to his people is a phrase used only here in Genesis and then again in Numbers and Deuteronomy just a few times. And it speaks of the life after this one, doesn't it? It doesn't say just stop being. It doesn't say, Jacob died and they buried his body and that was the end of him. He said he was gathered to his people. It speaks of a life after this one. The phrase gathered to his people died out and the one that replaced it in the Old Testament was he slept with his fathers, which that sleeping as a euphemism for death was one that was carried over by Paul in the New Testament. where sleep is the euphemism for death. Now, God's written word, fortunately, gives us a lot more information about what's due when we're done here. What happens when this life is over? Now, one of the things that's very fortunate is when you go to be with the Lord, you will not need a login name and password to get to heaven.

That's not how it works. You will be delighted that that's not the case. And by the way, they don't change the password every five minutes, right? So you won't need that. It won't be necessary. What does get you into heaven is not the login name and the password. What does get you in is believing that Christ died for your sins and was buried and rose again. That's it. That's what gets you in, not the login name and password.

But there will come a time When we will, as we studied in this morning's revelation class, we will step into heaven's throne room and we will be there with the Lord and we'll see him face to face. The Apostle John says that we shall be like him or we will see him as he is. So we've fortunately been given a whole lot more insight into what's next for us. What happens when we're done here?

And I put this picture here because there is communicated that there is also intimacy and closeness with the Lord. It won't be a matter of, well, there's millions of Christians and I'm somewhere in the back of the crowd and I wonder if the Lord sees me. In spite of the great numbers of those who believe, Scripture has multiple indications that there is also intimacy with the Lord. We will see him face to face. Not as a dot off on the horizon. Face to face. Personally.

Some of the other things that come out of this time that Jacob has with his sons. He ties together actions and inactions. We've talked over the chapters. Jacob's many years of inaction when his sons were growing up and even inaction when they did the wrong thing.

Certainly a great deficiency. He should have instructed them beforehand and trained them along the way and certainly corrected them. The indications we have is that he said little to nothing when these horrendous things took place. But his sons, on the other hand, did make choices. They did choose this and that. And they're responsible for those choices. And our choices can have consequences for generations too, for better or for worse.

You know, I think in my own family, my grandfather, I think I mentioned last week, my grandfather became a believer at age 20. And his mom said, you didn't need to be saved. You were such a good boy. She didn't understand. Because he tells me stories. Anyway. But so my grandfather then, he became a pastor. And as the years went by, I had a son and then a daughter. And the guy who became my dad was interested in his daughter. But he didn't know the Lord. My dad didn't. But my grandfather led him to the Lord.

And so there's a neat thing there in the family heritage to look back and say, there are consequences. So now, now that that's taken place, my parents did in fact get married, as you can tell. And then each of our children then know the Lord. There are consequences, aren't there? And they can be good ones. Now, it's never too late.

That's only the first half of the title. Judah was an awful man in his earlier years. Genesis 38 summarizes his awfulness. But God can change hearts. So it's not appropriate for us to say, it's too late for me or it's too late for somebody else. God can change hearts. There was a change that was evident there in Judah in Genesis 43 and 44, where he even said, I'll be the slave instead of Benjamin. I'll lay my life down for his. I'll pay the price so that he can go free. It's never too late until it's too late.

Other sons of Jacob seem to have changed, but by this time the impact on the generations to follow was known at least to the point where Jacob could say, this is what's going to happen with you. This is what's going to happen with you. Now, bless them. And this time there's nobody sneezing, so it would just have to be that. I say that because there was some other time I had blessed you and somebody had just sneezed, so anyway. Parents, and even most especially fathers, do bless your children. Bless them.

And by the way, if you don't feel like you have, Jacob started late. But you don't need to wait until you're 147 years old. Really, you don't. Bless your children. You can bless them at any and every age, as long as you're still around. But do bless them. Do bless them. You can bless them with words and touch. Jacob, we saw especially with Joseph's sons, put his hands on their heads there. You can bless them in godly instruction and training if that opportunity is in front of you. You can bless them even in later years by praying for them and even letting them know about it. Bless them. Bless them. The reality is if you're hearing me this morning, you probably have an opportunity to bless. Do bless them.

We are, to use the modern analogy, passing the baton. When I was running track, I was often on the second leg and I ran just about every relay that they had, you know, and usually the second leg, taking the baton from the one guy and then passing it along when I was done running. When I talk about this, these are meant to be words of reflection. I'm not recommending that anybody beat themselves up, you know. But each of us is, in fact, passing a baton. We are, whether we know it or not. We're passing a baton to those we're in contact with of various kinds.

In some cases, like with children, it can be pretty obvious. But really, you think about it, we are entrusted with relationships we have even with one another. Is that something to ponder? We are entrusted even with the relationships that we have here among us in this church body. It's not just I happen to come here and then I go away and that's it. It is we are entrusted with the relationships that we have with the other people who are here that are part of this body. God has entrusted those relationships with those people to you. We're passing a baton even to those people.

By God's gracious provision, and the Lord has been gracious, we've been empowered and enabled and energized for the opportunities that God has placed before us. We have a grace motive, we have his means, that empowerment and enablement and energizing, and we have his opportunities. He's prepared every good work that we should walk in them. Motive, means, and opportunity.

Sounds like you're guilty, but that's not the point, okay? There's the other part of it. Not only is there a place of passing the baton, but receiving it. As Jacob's sons heard what their father said, they were receiving the baton, right? Here's what's happening, okay? God will, in fact, place people in our lives that He intends that we learn from. And we may find them in surprising places. Oh, there's some obvious relationships, but maybe some that aren't so obvious.

I put pictures of a lamb here because there was a guy when I was kind of in my high school years that I used to go do some work for. And he had sheep on his property. He had about 160 acres. And it was, I was always eager to work with him because not only did he tell me how to, you know, take care of the sheep.

That was interesting and kind of fun. But he also, and it's funny, he's not a talkative guy. But the words that he had to say were always worth remembering. Always. He didn't say much, but if he said something, you'd best listen. And that was really neat. He was a guy who could pass a baton, eh? And it was important that I catch those things.

Here is Nancy's house. And she and her sister are there on the porch, if you can see them. Two sisters. This was when Nancy was about four. Anyway, it's also the house that I got to know Nancy and her family in. And Nancy's dad was one of those pass the baton kind of people. And when her dad passed away, one of the things I said was, I wasn't through learning from that guy yet.

There will almost certainly be a time, it'll be your turn to pass the baton on to others. God has in mind that we receive it. God has in mind that we pass it along. The opportunities are plenty. There are many. There are many opportunities. to receive from others what the Lord has given them to pass along and for us to pass it along to others. That's God's intent. That's what he has in mind. We have a particular entrusting with one another and those that the Lord brings us in contact with to learn and to grow and to carry it along. Let's pray.

And Lord, as we look at this passage, as we look at the men who are gathered there, a momentous time. The last words that they're going to hear from their father, and most certainly they considered it carefully. But Lord, we also would ask that we would consider it carefully. that you would open our eyes to the opportunities you put in front of us, to bless where you've given us that, to bless those that you put us in contact with. Opportunities, Lord, to pass a baton and to receive it as well. And we just pray that our eyes would be open to those people that you've entrusted to us. We thank you for those relationships, those precious moments and precious times. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.