Law and Life

The Faith of Rahab

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Law

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 3 of 39

Track: 114

Dictation Name: RR156B3

Date: 1960s-1970s

[Rushdoony] Let us worship God. Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causeth to approach unto Thee that he may dwell in Thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple. Oh come let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise unto the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with songs. Let us pray.

Glory be to Thee, oh God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, that hast choosen us before the foundation of the world to be Thy people and hast given us such glorious promises in Jesus Christ. We come into Thy presence, mindful of how rich we are in Thee, mindful oh Lord of the certainty of Thy government, and Thine unfailing mercies. We come to render Thee Thy due praise, to rejoice in Thy love, in Thy grace, in Thy loving-kindness, to praise Thee for all Thy wondrous works, to commit unto Thee all our hopes, the cause of Thy true church throughout all the world, our land, our families, our loved ones, beseeching Thee to undertake for us. Bless us now by Thy Word and by Thy Spirit and grant us Thy peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our Scripture lesson is Joshua 2, 1 through 15, and James 2, 17 through 26. Our subject: the faith of Rahab. First of all, Joshua 2, verses 1 through 15. “And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country.  And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, ‘There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were: And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them.’ But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof.  And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate. And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof; and she said unto the men, ‘I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token: and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.’ And the men answered her, ‘Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when the Lord hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee.’ Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall.”

And now, from the epistle of James, the second chapter, verses 17 through 26. “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

Rahab is a problem to many people. They are very much embarrassed by the prominence the Bible gives to her. Not only does the Bible give her more than a little space in the book of Joshua, it also refers to her in the genealogy of our Lord, as an ancestress of Jesus Christ. She is set forth as an example of faith in Hebrews and again as one of the two great examples of faith together with Abraham in the epistle of James. But there are people who are distressed when the Bible speaks well of Rahab and they have to insert some kind of condemnation of her or try to explain away the text. First of all, they are distressed because she is a harlot. Every attempt has been made to try to read this as an innkeeper. As a matter of fact, one modern translation has rendered it ‘innkeeper’. There is no ground for this whatsoever. The Hebrew clearly refers to her as a prostitute, and not even a sacred prostitute, which would have given her some dignity, but as a common, commercial prostitute. Then second, the fact that she lied to the men of the king of Jericho is also a problem, especially since this is what is praised in the New Testament. This lie is uniformly condemned by legalists, although it is called a virtue in Scripture. In our study of Biblical Law, we saw that there is no obligation to tell the truth to those about to commit sin, who want to use your truth to further their sin. Under those circumstances, we owe the truth to no man, and in fact we become an accessory to the crime if we aid them in the commission of their crime by providing them with the information they want. This was recognized by such Reformed thinkers as Dabney, a long time ago. Now the Bible is never academic. It never provides information to satisfy our curiosity. As a matter of fact, it avoids this. It always closes the door on our curiosity. Its purpose is to reshape our lives, to instruct us, to lead us into more conformity with God’s Word, His law and His image. Therefore what we are told about Rahab is aimed at us as is all of Scripture. And when we have the emphasis we have on Rahab over and over again, it is very clearly aimed at us as an example of faith to follow. We need to know therefore what we are to emulate. Moreover, we have, as we have begun our new series of studies, considered the Sabbath, Caleb, and now Rahab. Previously, we studied Biblical Law, we studied the doctrine of man and the doctrine of salvation. Now we are going to see the implications of these things, and in our next study, we will deal with an all important matter of faith, which has never even been mentioned in the pulpits for perhaps a century, almost two.

When we dealt with the Sabbath, we saw that the Sabbath was a type of the Promised Land, the fullness of rest in the new creation, and that Joshua was seen as a type of Christ who led men into Canaan, and we were told, Hebrews tells us, that this was not the fullness, the true rest. There remaineth, therefore, a rest, a Sabbath for the people of God in Christ. Therefore, we saw the Sabbath and appealed to the book of Joshua as basic to the typology of Scripture. We saw the significance of Caleb for us and for basic doctrine, and now Rahab as an example of faith. So that we can see what it is that is required as the preliminary to conquest, and what the great stumbling block to conquest is. (And we shall come to that later) Thus the Bible is not academic. And Rahab is important for us to understand if we are going to move forward in terms of the Biblical mandate, that is the redeemed people of God, bought by His blood, obedient to His law, we are now going to conquer. So the step toward what that conquest involves, and what perils must be avoided, is Rahab, the example of faith. Now in terms of this, let us examine what Rahab was and did.

The very first verse of the second chapter of Joshua immediately embarrasses many commentators. Because very literally, it says that when the spies came to Jericho, they came into a harlot’s house named Rahab and lodged there. Well the Hebrew word which you will find in the marginal notes, is they lay there. So immediately, they’re very much flustered and embarrassed, what went on? Was there sexual intercourse with Rahab, the prostitute, when they got there? Well now the Bible is very precise in their language, and when it says that someone lay with a woman, it says so. There is no equivocation. Again and again in the book of Judges, we have such language used about people like Samson, one of the judges of Israel. What it says here is that they laid there in the house, not with Rahab. So their fears here are through careless reading. Nonetheless, some commentators have troubled themselves on that score. Then, most commentators look at the Bible with a wooden perspective. Let us abandon that kind of stiff, wooden perspective. These are real people, this is a real situation, what does it involve? Two spies sent out by Joshua into Jericho.

Now some years back, I had the opportunity to talk at great length with a man who was very, very active in espionage behind enemy lines in the Balkans during World War II. It was very interesting and it cast a great deal of light on this incident for me. Why? Because he said, no one ever is sent behind enemy lines cold turkey. That’s suicidal. You don’t throw men away like that. What do you first have? You have an extensive dossier on every kind of possible friend or sympathizer behind enemy lines. You have also extensive contacts because there are people there who either because of principle or for profit are ready to contact you and provide you with information. So that before you send anyone there, you first of all have an extensive amount of information about people to contact. So that every step of the way, as any agent goes behind enemy lines, he has a full knowledge of the terrain, of the people to contact, of the dangers to avoid. Then another thing, he said you then also try to send someone in who is from that general area and speaks the language like a native. So if someone were sent into Serbia, we sent someone from America who was Serbian born, who spoke the language like a native, with the accent of the localities involved. Or if it were into Croat territory, it was a Croatian, and so on. And he said this is standard operating procedure, and if you cannot get someone of that nationality who speaks the language, then you get someone who knows the language or the local dialect and has a full mastery of it. Now, espionage was a highly refined art long before Joshua. Therefore, before he sent anyone in, knew whom to contact. Therefore, we can presuppose very safely in terms of standard espionage tactics from far antiquity that before the two spies went in, either they knew that Rahab was going to be sympathetic, or Rahab (more likely) had contacted them, because they went directly to her house. So there was an established contact of some sort. Then next, these men were obviously not foreigners, they didn’t stand out as foreigners. They are spoken of as being men from the Hebrews from the Israelite, but they are referred to over and over again as the two men, not as two foreigners. We know that Israel left Egypt as a mixed multitude. That generation died in the wilderness, but their sons were now mature years fighting men. And it’s quite likely that these two spies were men who left Egypt as children, were now mature, spoke the language of Jericho, and therefore were not readily identifiable unless there were an informer of some sorts. But under the situation, you see Rahab could say they were two men. How was I to know who they were? They had to be able to pass; otherwise, even her ability to protect herself would be gone. Now this is the reality of the situation, and we have to recognize that there was a background to their journey to Jericho to Rahab’s place. Their purpose was to collect data, information in terms of the military campaign. Now we are not given the military data that was accumulated by the two spies from Rahab, but we know that something that must have been passed by Rahab to the spies to Joshua in terms of her comments when she asks them to protect her life and her loved ones.

She says first of all that Jericho’s people were intensely afraid of the Hebrew army. Their reaction was not one of initiative, but terror. The Jewish translation of the book of Joshua reads for verse 11, “And as soon as we had heard it, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain anymore spirit in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now, the Hebrew commentators from ancient times have said that the meaning of that is a kind of veiled reference to the fact that the people, the men of Jericho were so filled with terror that they lost their virility. They became sexually impotent out of sheer terror. Now that is a tradition among the Hebrew rabbis from ancient times, so there may be more than little truth to it. But the expression of Rahab certainly conveys the fact, there was total panic and terror. This was an important fact for them to know. Then second, the thing that comes through is that these people, in their total panic, were paralyzed. They made no attempt to secure military aid from other cities, from other areas of Canaan. Thus, here alone we have important military information. When Jericho was besieged by Joshua, it meant that he had no problem to fear as far as an attack on his rear was concerned. This was important to know. Because when you invest a city, and surround it, you’re extremely vulnerable then, you’re at maximum vulnerability, if there’s some kind of alliance whereby another army will attack you as you besiege the city. Thus, here is an important military fact that was conveyed by Rahab. Moreover, Rahab’s statement tells us some very interesting things about Rahab. First of all, Rahab is concerned not primarily with self-preservation, but with the preservation also of her father’s family and all its members. This was not always true of Canaanite culture, it was not true at this time. It was a period of radical social degeneracy, including the decline and collapse of family life. Therefore, despite Rahab’s lawless profession, there was something there in the way of character; a strong sense of the family, which coming in the culture of the day was quite remarkable.

Then second, in citing the terror of the Canaanites, Rahab attributes the power of Israel to the total power of God. She not only recognized the source of this power, but she did not wait for death but moved towards salvation, and for this she is cited as an example of faith. Hebrews 11 tells us that she is like Abraham, and like others of faith, who looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. This is an important thing. We are told indeed that she is one of those who had an eye to the future. And Hebrews tells us in the same chapter that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were formed by the Word of God, so the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Now grace and faith are God’s gift, “for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God”: Saint Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8. The sovereignty, the initiative, the power in salvation, originate entirely in God. This however, does not deny the reality of our secondary initiative and power in the exercise of grace and faith. It is a gift, but it is a gift to us, to be exercised by us. Recently, someone wrote to me, insisting that we do nothing, that it is all of God, which is true, as far as the primary, the initiating power is concerned. But we are not nothing; we are secondary causes, and there is a reality to our secondary initiative. Salvation, the grace of God is a gift to us, to be exercised to us. It is a gift which is now inseparable from our life and its use by us brings a reward. {?} not when she received the spies with peace. She protected and defended them out of faith in God and His kingdom and as a result, she was rewarded. In other words, God recognized her faith and her works.

But James, as he singles out Rahab as an example of faith, introduces a startling change in the wording. He says in James 2:25, “Likewise also, was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way?” Now this is interesting, because the word messengers which is here used is identical with the word that is also translated in Scripture as angels. It is true that we can see these spies as messengers from Joshua to ask Rahab what information can you provide us. But, there is another word for messengers which could have been used, but the word that is used is the word which means literally ‘a human being who is a messenger’, but it also means ‘angel’. The use of that word can not be here accidental. In what respect were the spies messengers; in some special sense. In Hebrews 13:2, we read, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Can we see the spies then symbolically as angels, messengers of God; giving life to Rahab as well as receiving it from her because she saved them? Rahab and others are cited in Hebrews as all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. They are links to the future, they are soldiers in the cause of the kingdom. Still, each gained something. Rahab’s life was saved and she became an ancestress of Jesus Christ. Moreover, as we are told with regard to entertaining angels unawares by Lenski, and I quote, “The thought of the statement can hardly be that by entertaining strangers, we too may have the good fortune of sometimes receiving angels into our homes. The Old Testament incidents are too exceptional to admit of such a generalization. It is sufficient to say that as some were unexpectedly blessed by receiving strangers, so we too may thus be blessed. We may go a bit further. Christ identifies Himself with His saints, so that what we do for them, we do for Him, according to Matthew 25:38 and 40. Now this indeed is the key. And it is important to realize that in this sense, the strangers, the spies, were angels unawares, unawares to themselves and to Rahab. There is, moreover, an interesting episode that gives us reason to believe that what I said earlier about contact between Rahab and Joshua, some kind of word going back and forth, in terms of standard espionage throughout the centuries, has grounds in Scripture. There is a very remarkable episode in Joshua 5, verse 13 to 15, which gives grounds for this. “And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, art thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said unto him, what saith my Lord unto His servant? And the captain of the Lord’s hosts said unto Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy feet, for the place where on thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.”

We will return, at a later date, to the implications of this, but briefly now. We note first of all, Joshua did not assume that the man with a drawn sword with an enemy. Obviously, there were men crossing the lines with information, with peace, who were potential allies ready to help Joshua. Then second, the man with the drawn sword identified himself as the captain, or can be translated as ‘prince’ of the host of the Lord; as Jesus Christ. And Joshua worshiped Him. Then third, we expect a word revelation at this point; that our Lord is somehow going to tell something to Joshua. But there is none, simply His manifestation and that Joshua should stand barefooted for the place was holy ground. The words are the same as those spoken to Moses by the burning bush. Moses then called to deliver the people of God, and Joshua now to lead them into conquest and to recognize that it is the Lord’s battle. God is present, with drawn sword because this is His battle. The glory in the battle is His and the fruits thereof. And therefore, Jericho must be a devoted, a dedicated city, and no man can lay a hand on anything therein because the battle is the Lord’s and the first fruits of Canaan; Jericho, are the Lord’s. We will return to that subsequently, at a later date. The ground is holy because God is present with drawn sword as the man of war. Jericho was the Lord’s. Therefore no man, like Achan, could put his hand out and take a thing without being guilty before God. Everything therein belonged to God. And therefore, one of the first things to be taken and separated unto God was Rahab and her household; the Lord’s. She is a type of faith. Thus, Christ by His appearance declared, the ground is holy, it is mine, it is dedicated, it is separated unto Me and no man can touch anything that is Mine, or he shall be accursed. And Rahab is mine. And therefore Rahab was separated unto Him, because she had eyes seeing the invisible, looking ahead to the future, recognizing the power of God. When Rahab, in talking to the spies, speaks of the terror of the Canaanites. It is interesting how she distinguishes between the direct power of God as manifested at the Red Sea crossing, and the indirect power of God as He uses Israel to accomplish His purpose. The captain of the Lord of hosts used the spies to save His elect, His dedicated Rahab. They were angels unawares to themselves and to Rahab. And Joshua kept his promise made through the spies. Rahab had moved forward in faith in God’s future, and God made her a part of that future. She is thus a type of faith.

Joshua is a book of conquest. It is a book that is rich in typical meaning, and it declares that when we move forward in faith, then too God considers us as dedicated, separated unto Himself, under His protecting care. Faith, hope, and victory are necessarily related, and when Abraham, as one who moved seeing the invisible in terms of the city whose builder and maker is God, is set forth as an example of faith. He is followed by another great example, Rahab, who in like faith was chosen by God as one of His dedicated ones; holy and elect unto Himself, and made an ancestress of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we too should move forward in faith in God’s future, and God shall make us a part of His future. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee for Thy Word. We thank Thee that Thou hast so glorious a purpose. Make us ever strong in faith that we may be a part of Thy purpose, Thy future, that we may be holy, dedicated, set apart in all our life, and to Thy purpose and Thy victory. Grant us this, we beseech Thee, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Are there any questions, first of all on our lesson? Yes?

[Audience member] {?} I felt that {?} with the premise that there are people that did believe, that the prescription to believe {?}. But where did she have faith? {?} works, I see the works not the faith. {?} faith from God. {?}

[Rushdoony] Well, she is held up as an example of faith and works, of faith with works. So it’s not works alone, and moreover it’s clearly faith in the power of God, faith in what these people who were coming from Egypt meant, faith in what God intended to do concerning the world. So while we’re not given specifics about her faith, that she believed this and that particular doctrine, she is very definitely listed in Hebrews 11 as one of those who believed in the entire plan and purpose of God. So if you read Hebrews 11 and see what faith means, and what it was that these examples of faith believed, and then you see Rahab’s in this list, then you know that Rahab believed all this and acted on them. Now the people who sometimes do good works, and Calvin devoted a very famous passage to them, are doing them in terms of self-preservation, they feel that this is the way the world should be, that it’s a good plan and program whereby man can avoid problems, that there is no principle in it you see, no obedience to God, no faith that this is necessarily true. Let us act as if this were true.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] No, she emphatically

[Audience member] {?} that’s what I though she did, when I read it I felt for sure she {?} and God wanted her to a certain degree {?}. But I couldn’t see her faith, I saw her works but I did not see her faith.

[Rushdoony] Yes, well of course we cannot see it from the actions, but God, who is omnipotent and omniscient, saw it in her heart, had put it in her heart, and He is the one who tells us that she acted in faith, you see. So when He says she acted in faith at that point, we know that she did. Yes?

[Audience member] {?} Canaanites being afraid of the Israelites, I was wondering {?}.

[Rushdoony] Exactly.

[Audience member] Yet we don’t {?} when faith and {?} the Canaanites amongst us fear the name of the Lord whom they serve.

[Rushdoony] Right, very good point. You remember when we were concluding our series on the doctrine of redemption, I pointed out that the studies of the Puritans indicate what a small minority they were when they ruled England. They were just a handful, perhaps 5 or 6%, I’ve forgotten the exact proportion, it wasn’t much more than that. And yet they ruled England. As long as they had that strong faith and confidence that God is Lord, and if God be for us, who can be against us, no one dared stand up to them, no one had the confidence that enabled them to say anything to them, so that all England fell before them. But when they lost that confidence, they crumbled, even though there’s some evidence that at that point they were numerically greater. In other words, in 1659, numerically the Puritans were stronger than they were approximately in 1640-50. But the difference was their eschatology had begun to change, and their confidence was gone. So they no longer believed in the God of victory. Well today we have far more people who believe the Bible from cover to cover in this country then was ever the case in colonial America or in Puritan England, because the people who profess to be evangelical Bible-believing Christians are assumed to number at least 40 million, close to one-fourth of the population, but they’re the most impotent. But you see, if they were to move forward in terms of a faith that God requires them to act, then things would be different. Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] One of the concluding statements in Hal Linsey’s The Late, Great, Planet Earth is that, well he says first of all, don’t sell your business or your house, he feels the rapture is coming any moment, in fact there’s a bumper sticker now that they have out, “You’re in the rapture generation”. So he says, don’t sell your house, because you can’t time things and it may come any time, but live in this world with the knowledge it isn’t going to be around long and you’re not going to be around long. In other words, total irrelevance. And I’ve been getting, I don’t know who put my name on the mailing list, ever since I started speaking on Biblical Law and well no really it started with Thy Kingdom Come series on Revelation, and it’s grown to a crescendo, people send me things anonymously, trying to save me from sure perdition. And one of things I’ve been getting lately is by some evangelist who apparently is a big name now, I forget his name, but he’s having big campaigns everywhere, and his motto is “It’s fun to be saved”. He’s the chaplain of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and is having a big campaign in Washington DC, and is going to come to Los Angeles too apparently. It’s fun to be saved, it’s a fun thing. Can you imagine more total irrelevance than such a standard for salvation? So, naturally, the world isn’t going to fear us if that’s what the cause of Christ ostensibly is. Yes?

[Audience member] When these people that you think about, who believe about {?} would be saved people, but their {?}

[Rushdoony] Well, I think many of them are unsaved. We are told the devils in hell believe and tremble, but there are no works that follow. Now the Bible means by their fruit shall ye know them, that’s the test, it’s a very practical test that our Lord requires, we’re going to have to say that very large numbers are not. Well, our time is just about up, and I just wanted to share one little thing that’s totally irrelevant, but too good to pass up because sometimes we are so awed by the tremendous power of the enemy and the statist forces around us, we forget that the emperor has no clothes, and that’s what we should remember. One of the most powerful agencies in the country today is the Environmental Protection Agency, one of the ecological agencies which is busy trying to govern everything you do in the name of ecology. Well, it so happens that a scientist recently, as a joke, issued a kind of Rue Goldberg scientific paper. He gave a rough estimate of how much methane is released by one well-fed cow whenever she burped. So he sat down and computed the number of burps a cow might emit in a day, and the number of cows in the country, and he wrote an ostensibly serious paper on this as a joke, and he figured that everyone would understand it as a joke. The scientist, by the way, was a California man in Northern California. Well, the Environmental Protection Agency picked it up, and so the official publication now lists, and I am quoting, “Burping cows must rank as the number one source of air pollution in the United States. The article claimed that the American cows burped 50 tons of hydrocarbons into the atmosphere annually.” And so on and so on. So, the author here in the California Farmer says “So maybe the eco-maniacs will now switch their attention to us to the head end of our cows. However, the result will probably be the same as before the switch, namely, still less food at even higher prices.” So let’s laugh at the emperor, he has no clothes. We are the power in the world when we stand with the Lord. Yes?

[Audience member] I think I heard somewhere that {?} burping {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, well you see this is all, these statements all come out of this Rue Goldberg paper that this scientist wrote. And now it’s passed into the realm of science, the government has said the cow is the number one polluter. Well let us bow our heads for the benediction.

And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.

[End of tape]