 At the time of our sermon tonight, a devastating decline, a devastating decline, Judges chapter 18, verses 1 through 31. Well, Judges chapter 17 verse 6 describes the prevailing attitude of this dark period, this very dark period in redemptive history. When Judges chapter 17 verse 6 says, In those days there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes. That very sobering statement comes immediately after the account of gross idolatry in the house of a man from Ephraim named Micah in chapter 17. And that statement comes again immediately preceding the unchecked depravity displayed by the tribe of Dan now in chapter 18. In those days there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes. It's not that our author in making that statement merely thought that the presence of a king would solve all their problems. In fact, there were many godless kings that would later rule Israel and those godless kings would prove to be worse for the nation than having no king at all, leading them into further idolatry and further sin. But our author has in mind here a specific king, a particular kind of king, a king after God's own heart, a king that would uphold the law of God, uphold the authority of God, uphold the worship of God. So it's not simply a king that is needed, it's a godly king that's needed. It's not simply authority that is needed, it's godly authority that's needed. The kings of this earth time and time again prove themselves to be fallen and faltering failures, but one day the king will come. Amen. One day the Lord himself will rule as king over all the nations. He'll rule them with a rod of iron, out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations. The scepter of his kingdom is a scepter of righteousness. That kingdom cannot come quickly enough. Daniel chapter 7 verse 14, to him, we're speaking of Jesus Christ here, to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. Lord Jesus come quickly. He rules now, doesn't he, even now over his church in the hearts of his people and churches where the church is honor the Lord and practice discipline and exercise authority. These churches are godly churches that exercise his rule and reign even now. There will come a day when he will rule over all and all of his enemies will be placed under his feet. Well it's in defiance of this king, this coming king that Micah sets up for himself now an illegitimate place of worship. He makes an illegitimate shrine. He makes illegitimate articles of worship. He creates and then hires an illegitimate priest, an illegitimate worship leader and all of this worship is of his fake, man-made illegitimate idols and over and over again in the text we hear those words, household idols, a carved image, a molded image. You notice the repetition of those words in the text. It's as if the judgment of God against this is clear even in the very words that are used to describe the sin involved. The second commandment says, you shall not make for yourself a carved image. Words are pretty clear. And yet the author refers to it as a carved image. Micah's mother refers to it as a carved image. Micah himself refers to it as a carved image. The priest thought of it as a carved image. Dan refers to it as a carved image. It's as if they're getting our attention, aren't they? That this is abject wickedness and everybody knows it. And yet they continue to play around with carved images. Most importantly, God is the one who's making it clear that this is a carved image and it's an abomination in his sight. Deuteronomy chapter 27 verse 15 says, cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman. Now notice the inconsistency at the outset here. Micah seemed very concerned about the curse that his mother placed on the stolen silver. That curse that he heard in his ears and he immediately turns and confesses his thievery, gives the silver back. Micah seems very concerned about the curse of his mother. He is tragically unconcerned whatsoever about the curse that God himself has placed on Micah's use of that silver. God has said a curse. It is the one who makes a carved or molded image. It's an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman. Well Micah, we see, escapes the curse of his mother but there will be no escape from the judgment of God without repentance from sin and faith and the promised Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll see how the nation itself, Dan included, Micah included will not escape the judgment of God against idolatry. Yet for all that and for all the darkness that looms in these chapters as we reach the end of the book of Judges, yet for all that chapter 17 seems to end on a high note in the heart and mind of Micah. Micah seems upbeat. He's optimistic. Verse 13, Micah said, Now I know that the Lord will be good to me since I have a Levite as priest. Micah feels good about the way that things are going. He feels optimistic about how things are at his house. He's got a Levite for a priest. Well, apparently this attitude of willfully oblivious and misplaced optimism so characteristic of Micah is also characteristic of the Danites as well. It doesn't take evangelism to spread a lie, does it? Isn't that interesting? It doesn't take a lot of work or effort to spread error. It just seems to leech around on its own. And that ungodly attitude, the ungodly attitude of Micah, their false, syncretistic worship base idolatry precipitates the devastating decline of Dan in Judges chapter 18. It's tragic, isn't it? How someone can be so convinced, how someone can be so secure, so confident, so sincere in what they believe to be right religious worship and yet be so abysmally wrong in their error. It's amazing, isn't it? And that is something that's so prevalent today. People believe themselves to be worshiping the true and living God and in idolatrous and worldly error. Why? Because they don't consult the word of God. We have the word of God revealed to us exactly what God calls for in his worship. And yet here Micah, Dan, eventually the nation, is just operating apart from, set apart from the word of God, everyone doing what is right in their own eyes and confident and secure and sure all the way to damnation. Look at verse one with me. In those days there was no king in Israel and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in for until that day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them. That's helpful in considering the beginning of our text here, where we are to know where we are in the history of Dan to this point. God, if you remember, had led the nation of Israel out of bondage in Egypt and due to their faithlessness, their disobedience, they wandered the desert for 40 years and the entire emancipation generation, that generation that God brought out of Egypt, minus the children of course, has died in the wilderness. God swore in his wrath they would not enter his rest. And it will now be the second generation, this inheritance generation that will take possession of the promised land. That generation under Joshua, under the elders, they cross the Jordan River, enter Canaan and take possession of the land. However, after taking possession of the land, there is an allotment given of territory of land to each tribe as their own inheritance. And that tribe then is to go into their allotment of land, drive out the Canaanites before them in the power of God and establish themselves in their territory. Of course, to do this, they have to rely on the Lord. They have to trust the Lord, they have to obey his word, and the Lord promises them victory if they do. Well, what happens when Dan attempts to take their allotment? Flip back to Judges chapter one. Judges chapter one, let's remember what happened with Dan. We find that Dan doesn't trust the Lord, does not obey his word, and Dan does not get the victory. Judges chapter one, look at verse 34. And the Amorites who were in the land that Dan was going to take as their allotment, the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains for they would not allow them to come down to the valley. The Amorites were determined to dwell in Mount Harry's and Aijalan and in Sha'al Vim. Yet when the strength of the house of Joseph became greater, they were put under tribute. Notice not driven out, notice not wiped out under the band that God had placed upon the Canaanites, but rather allowed to stay, allowed to live there and put under tribute. And that was a violation of the law of God. It was against what God had decreed for them to do. Chapter three verse six says that they took their daughters to be their wives, gave their daughters to their sons, and they served their gods. Exactly what God warned would happen. Dan didn't follow through in obedience to the Lord. Now, God had warned them in chapter two that those people would be thorns in their sides, and their gods would be a snare to them, and that is exactly what happened. They would fall into idol worship, worshiping the pagan gods of those peoples, and God in response would deliver them into the hands of their enemies in judgment. That's exactly what we see happen to Dan. So Dan now, chapter 18 verse one, Dan is left without an inheritance, without an allotment for itself to dwell in. Rather than driving out the Amorites who are in the land, Dan has finally been driven out themselves. Dan has been dispossessed and displaced. Their inheritance sitting there in Israel unclaimed due to faithlessness, right? Due to their disobedience. It's like that unfinished tower we talked about in Luke, isn't it? Didn't have what it takes to finish the job. They weren't relying on Yahweh. They disobeyed God's word. And so rather than doing it God's way, rather than coming back now, recognizing the error of their ways, rather than repenting, rather than doing what they should do, Dan decides now to take a different course. Everyone doing what is right in his own eyes. Verse two, so then the children of Dan, they sent five men of their family from their territory, men of Valor from Zora and Eshtal, to spy out the land and to search it. What does that sound like to you? It sounds like the children of Israel in the wilderness spying out the promised land, doesn't it? And isn't this an interesting contrast to that event in the wilderness? We know the story of Israel in the wilderness. They sent the spies out. The spies come back with a great report of the land, but it wasn't a report that was good in terms of the people who were there inhabiting the land, and Israel in their faithlessness decided not to go in. Now we have Dan, which is essentially a tribe on their own. They are renegade, right? AWOL as it were, looking for an allotment for themselves, and they're sort of imitating the wilderness, wandering a bit here and now sending spies into the land to spy out this territory. And it's interesting. We're going to see an entirely different result. It's fascinating. Children of Dan in verse two sent men of Valor from Zora and Eshtal. So the children of Dan sent five men of their family from their territory, men of Valor from Zora and Eshtal to spy out the land and to search it. They said to them, go search the land. So they went to the mountains of Ephraim to the house of Micah and lodged there. There's no coincidence here, no coincidence. The two segments of our account now converge. Disobedient Dan runs into malpractice Micah. Verse three, while they were at the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. In other words, they recognized his accent. They recognized his accent, realized that he wasn't from around there, and so they turned aside and said to him, who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have here? They said to him, thus and so Micah did for me. He's hired me. I've become his priest. So they said to him, please inquire of God, that we may know whether the journey on which we will go will be prosperous. They decided to inquire of God. Dan does. Interesting, isn't it? The Danites are out spying out the land to find a place to take. Is there inheritance? They want to know if that endeavor will have God's blessing. They've run across a priest. They've run across a Levite. Well, let's ask him. Don't they absolutely blinded to the will of God that has already been revealed to them? That's fascinating to me. Isn't it fascinating to me that so many, this is not isolated to Dan. This happens all the time, it seems. We have the revealed will of God written on the pages of Scripture. We have the perceptive will of God right in front of our face, and yet somehow seemingly blinded to the will of God that's been revealed to us on the pages of Scripture, we go looking for another answer. An answer that would suit us better, an answer that we want, and only too ready to sort of accept any hint that direction that would make it seem okay. Well, the wind blew, and I knew that the Lord was telling me it was right. It's absurd, it's ridiculous. We have God's revealed will. Dan has God's revealed will. And what is Dan doing? They're going off looking for an answer that's going to suit them. They're not willing to do what God has called them to do. There's nothing new under the sun. Nothing new under the sun. The evangelical church today is full of Danites. Don't let it be said among us, right? Don't let it be said among us. We need to trust the word of God. We need to submit ourselves to the word of God. So many professing Christians today absolutely blinded to the same error. God's word is clear. God's perceptive will has been revealed in their circumstance here. They pray seeking an answer that is different from the one that God has already given to them. Well, what does the priest do? Verse 6, the priest said to them, go in peace. The presence of the Lord be with you on your way. Doesn't that sound like a modern day charismatic prophet? I have seen a vision of great things concerning you. I've got a word of great things concerning you. Absolutely absurd. You know, if those words line up with the Bible, then they're entirely unnecessary. If those words don't line up with the Bible, they're wrong. Don't listen to them. And so in either case, what do you end up with? You end up with words that are entirely unnecessary. We have the revealed word of God. We have the preceptive will of God written for us. We need to follow it. We need to heed it as a light in a dark place. The priest said to them, go in peace. The blind leading the blind, and they both wind up in a ditch. Verse 7, so the five men departed and went to Leish. They saw the people who were there, how they dwelt safely in the manner under the influence is what that means. They dwelt sort of under the influence of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. In other words, no one yet seeking to defeat them militarily. They were far from the Sidonians, most likely over a coastal mountain range that lied between Dan and the coast. And they had no ties with anyone. This seems to be an indefensible place. But they were under the umbrella, so to speak, of the Sidonians, enjoying a similar way of life, but far from the coastal Sidonians, outside the protection the city might offer, frankly, outside of anyone's help, outside anyone else's rule. Well, verse 8, the spies came back to their brethren at Zor and Eshtal, and their brethren said to them, what's your report? So they said, arise, let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and indeed it is very good. Would you do nothing? Do not hesitate to go and enter and possess the land. When you go, you will come to a secure people in a large land, for God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth. You notice the inconsistency here, how ridiculous this is? Well, the children of Israel in the wilderness stood at the border of the promised land. They have God's promise to them. Go in, and I will give it into your hand, right? And what does Dan do? Now Dan, going entirely AWOL off the written page, so to speak, to do their own thing, everyone doing what is right in their own eyes, they stand on the border of this territory that is not allotted to them, and they think to themselves, well, of course, God's going to give it into our hands, we need to go in and take it. It's crazy, isn't it? Interesting. Land is very good, they say. The people there feel secure, we can take them by surprise. The land is large, there's plenty of room for all of us. Land is plentiful, no lack of resources available to us. You heard the priest, God has given it into our hands. Stop dragging your feet, rise up, let's take it. That's not exactly how the priest put it, was it? The presence of the Lord be with you. The presence of the Lord is omnipresent. But people in this position hear what they want to hear. This would be so good for me, so good for us. God must want us to have it. Besides, where we are now is not good, Dan might have thought to themselves. This isn't a place large enough for us. We're surrounded by hostile Amorites. We don't have free access to all the resources. We have our answer from God. This whole scenario looks ideal for us. What are we waiting for? So, verse 11, 600 men of the family of the Danites went from there, from Zor and Eshtal, armed with weapons of war. This was not to be a peaceful endeavor. They intended to take Leish by force and put a peaceful people to the edge of the sword. Verse 12, that they went up and camped in Kyriot, Jerim in Judah, and therefore they called that place Mahaned Dan, or the camp of Dan, to this day. They camped there at Kyriot, Jerim, west of Kyriot, Jerim. Verse 13, they passed from there to the mountains of Ephraim, and they came to the house of Micah. What would they do? Then the five men who had gone up to spy off the country of Leish answered and said to their brethren, Do you know that there are in these houses in Ephod household idols, a carved image, a molded image, a carved image, a carved image, a carved image. Right how many times we can hear that word. A molded image. Now therefore, consider what you should do. It's actually in the form of an imperative. They said to them, you know what to do. There's a molded image here. There's a carved image. You know what to do. Verse 15, they turned aside there, came to the house of the young Levite man, to the house of Micah and greeted him. 600 men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. This was essentially blackmail. This is going to be a shakedown. The five men who had gone to spy off the land went up. Entering there, they took the carved image, the Ephod, the household tinker toys, and the molded image. The priest stood at the entrance of the gate with 600 men who were armed with weapons of war. It's interesting isn't it that Micah originally stole from his mother, Dittany, the silver that he used to make the tinker toys. Now Dan steals from Micah. Dan thinks it's going to set up his own worship site, their own shrine. And think about it, the root, the foundation on which their cultic idolatrous worship is built is double fevery. They're going to set up worship, what they presume to be worship of God, on the basis of two thefts. It's hopeless, right? Nothing good is going to come from this. This will not end well. Verse 18, when these went into Micah's house, they took the carved image, the Ephod, the household idols, molded image. The priest said to them, what are you doing? They said to him, be quiet. Put your hand over your mouth. Come with us. Be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest to the household of one man or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel? Come be our pope, Micah. You were a hireling to Micah, young Levite. Come be our hireling. We're giving you a promotion, right? You get to be a pastor of a bigger church. No real sense of loyalty. No devotion, responsibility, or love on the part of this Levite for Micah. Not that we would expect that. But not unlike the lack of that character displayed in the hirelings of the Christian churches who essentially do the very same thing today, right? Move from place to place. The average tenure of the average pastor in America, last I heard, was three years. That is shameful. That is shameful. I feel led to take this bigger post. I feel led to take this more prestigious job. Amazing. Verse 20. So the priest's heart was glad. He's happy to betray Micah for a better job, for better income, for more prestige, for a bigger church. And he took the e-fah, the household idols, the carved image, took his place among the people. Verse 21. Then they turned, departed, put the little ones, the livestock and the goods in front of them. If Micah decides to chase them down from the rear, he's going to come in contact first with 600 armed men and not the idols that they stole or the women or the children, right? So they've ordered the people. Verse 22. When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah's house, gathered together, overtook the children of Dan. And they called out to the children of Dan. Zahak. It's the word that, same word, that Israel has often used in the book of Judges to cry for help to the Lord in their misery when they were under oppression from their enemies. Zahak, same word. The oppressors now, however, aren't the Philistines, they're not the Midianites. The oppressors aren't enemies from without some Canaanite country. It's an enemy from within. It's the apostate tribe of Dan now, is the oppressor that Micah is calling out, crying out for help from. So they turned around, said to Micah, what ails you? You've gathered such a company. A sarcastic taunt. They knew exactly what they were doing. Verse 24, so he said, you've taken away my gods, which I made. And the priest, and you've gone away. Now what more do I have? How can you say to me what ails you? The children of Dan said to him, do not let your voice be heard among us. I think a better translation of that is, shut up. Shut up, lest angry men fall upon you. You lose your life and the lives of your household. These are brutal thugs, do you see? This is a shakedown. It sounds like the Philistines, doesn't it? We're going to burn you in your house with fire. Then the children of Dan, verse 26, went their way. Micah saw that they were too strong for him. He turned and went back to his house. Notice the gods he made. What an absurd contradiction, isn't it? The God, this God could be stolen away. It was the God he made with his own hands. It's a God that can be stolen away. This little pagan tinker toy can't protect himself. And he can't protect the one who made him. Reminds me of chapter 6, verse 31, Joash, right? When Joash said, would you plead for bail? Would you save bail? If bail is a god, let bail plead for himself. We're seeing the same kind of thing, the irony of this. In chapter 18, now, this God can't protect himself and can't protect Micah. Micah has been doing what is right in his own eyes. And it's caught up with him. He's been violating the law of God. His worship is an abomination. And he thinks to himself, now I know that the Lord will be good to me. Things aren't so good right now for Micah, are they? Maybe you'll wonder with me. I wonder, how do you think that Micah will now interpret these events? To this point, Micah has been interpreting everything very rosy toward him. God is certainly going to be pleased with me. I have a Levite for a priest. And he's made a carved image and a molded image and household idols. And Micah has been ignoring the word of God, ignoring the command of God, thinking that everything's going great and seeing all this is a blessing of God to him. He's got an Ephot and he's got a Levite, not just any Levite. He's got the grandson of Moses as his Levite. He's got his own shrine. But now things turn sour. And I wonder if they turn sour as foreboding of the judgment of God upon Micah's abominable actions here. How do you think Micah will now interpret these events? Do you think you'll see them as a judgment of God on his wickedness? It's crazy to me that oftentimes people do not. In other words, we set out to interpret providence in exactly the way that we want to interpret providence. And it's often bent to our preferences and our desires, our will. It's only too easy, right? This is something that I want. And to make that sound legitimate by saying, well, certainly then it's something that God wants. I wonder if Micah will see this as the judgment of God on his abominable worship. We don't know. The text doesn't tell us, but likely not. Micah has the revealed word of God to him. The Jews were given the oracles of God. So Micah knows about the law. We have more of the word than Micah did, and we do the same in our day, don't we? We should know better. We should know better. And yet this happens. It seems like it happens pretty consistently. Nothing new under the sun. Micah got caught attempting to interpret providence when he has the revealed word of God to obey. And not just interpreting providence, but bending providence to his own will, bending providence to his own desires, and calling it providence. That's even shameful in and of itself, isn't it? Because then you're shifting responsibility for that to God himself. I was providentially hindered. Be careful with those words. Be careful with those words. Micah was absolutely convinced, chapter 17, verse 13. Notice how providence could be so easily misinterpreted. Confession, think with me. Confession led Micah to getting the silver and then getting the tinker toys. Started off with his confession of the fevery. He gets a priest out of it. Dan even comes asking for counsel, verses 5 and 6. So Micah thinks, surely God has pleased with me. And the Danites come along, and the Danites make the very same error. Right, the Danites, they run into a Levite that they know. Must be God's favor upon us. The spies come back with a good report. Surely God is pleased with us. They got a good report from the Levite. God will be with you. They began a cult worship site with their own stolen Levite. And what a Levite, none other than the son of Moses. God is good. You can almost hear them making those statements, thinking along those lines. And what they actually have is false, so-called gods that Micah made that are an abomination to God. They have a false illegitimate priest who is a hireling that could be bought with money. They have a city that couldn't be defended, cut off from everyone. And now they'll face the judgment of God for their actions. And Dan would consider all of this a success. Micah and Dan are prime examples. They are exhibit A for the fact that you can be so convinced that you are right, so sure of yourself, so sure that you're on the right track, so sure of your actions, and yet stand condemned under the judgment of God. Why? Because all of that confidence means nothing if it's not lined up with God's revealed will. We have his word, which we would do well to heed as the light that shines in a dark place. Often judgment falls as it has upon Micah now. People face the bitter consequences of their unbiblical error, and then they fail to add insult to injury. They fail to attribute the bitter fruit to their own actions. They don't see it as consequences of their sin. So many examples, right? So many examples of this. You just think on that truism for a minute. So many examples of this. Let me just give you one. You boil salvation down to a decision that is ungodly, unbiblical error. You boil salvation down to a simple decision. You use a sinner's prayer methodology that is absolutely nowhere in the Bible. Then you argue to defend it, tooth and nail, excusing it as somehow lining up with the Bible. And then your church is packed full of weeds, people unconverted, sin run amok, and you call it, there must be a bunch of carnal Christians, and you don't attribute that to your unbiblical failure to abide by the word of the living God. That's a bunch of wicked fools who would do something that foolish. So many examples of this very thing. Well, the Danites march on now in their confidence. I wonder what's going to happen with Dan. Verse 27. So they took the things that Micah had made. There it is again. And the priests who had belonged to him, and they went to Leish to a people quiet and secure, and they struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire. There was no deliverer because it was far from Sidon, and they had no ties with anyone. It was the valley that belongs to Beth Rehob, so they rebuilt the city and dwelt there. They called the name of the city Dan. After the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel, was Leish. Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image. Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, as we said before, that in several of your translations reads Moses. It was actually in the manuscripts that they believe later scribes would come in and insert a superscriptive noon. It's a little Hebrew consonant, if you will, into that name so that it would be Manasseh and not Moses. The thought behind that is they were trying to reduce the shame associated with the family of Moses and the actions of this Levite. It's amazing how far things have fallen now. The nation of Israel, the chosen people of God have plummeted to this low depth. And that's even seen in the actions of this grandson of Moses, Gershom, the oldest son of Moses and Zipporah and his son here, this Levite. They set up for themselves Micah's carved image, which he made all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. It's as if to say this should be shocking. This should be absolutely astonishing. And it points to a coming judgment. Coming home to Roost we'll see later in the exile to Assyria. The law calls for the death penalty against such an offense. Micah should have been put to death. Dan should have never allowed this to happen. This error spreads like a cancerous leaven. Here it's infiltrated the priesthood. It's infiltrated the Levites. It's infiltrated not only isolated individuals, but now an entire tribe of Israel and it will continue its devastating spread until the entire nation is in ruins. Moem, son of Nebat, later would set up an idolatrous altar in Israel in 1 Kings chapter 12 after the kingdom becomes divided. One, he would set up at Bethel. Where do you think he puts the other one? In the heart of Dan. The nation is taken captive to Assyria 2 Kings chapter 17 and Dan would be blotted out of the list of tribes in Revelation chapter 7. It's suddenly spread through Israel just like it continues to spread to this day in the false worship of much of the professing church. The king tarries in his coming and everyone does what is right in his own eyes. Come quickly Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Lord come quickly. We're on a greased slope here with the world running headlong after their sin and much of the professing so called church drooling after the world and it appears as though that these things are entirely beyond our influence to improve. Of course you're the only one who can you're the only one who can set things right you're the only one who can rule and reign Lord we pray your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Hollow it be your name we praise you we worship you Lord we know that your kingdom is the kingdom of righteousness the scepter of your kingdom a scepter of righteousness and we long for that to be established on the earth. We thank you Lord for the promises that you give us in scripture of that very thing. We look forward to great anticipation to that glorious day long to be with you. Thank you Lord for this time and while we're here in our sojourner in our pilgrimage in our wilderness wandering as it were I pray Lord that your kingdom would be built you would gather in those that are yours your name would be exalted you would be magnified and that the temple would be built stone upon stone for your glory and we pray all these things in your name. Amen