Truths From Israel's History, Part 4 - Defeat and Victory at Ai — Ed Miller

The Lamb Who Shepherds His People

Good morning, brothers. As we were worshiping the Lord in song, a verse came to my heart. Several of the verses mentioned or had to do with the Lamb upon the throne. And some time ago, the Lord touched my heart with a tremendous mixing of metaphors in the Bible.

Every now and then, Paul is great at that. He loves to mix metaphors. In Galatians, I think he had himself in labor pains and the people bearing the baby and all this kind of thing. And there's these wonderful metaphors in the Scripture.

And there's a beautiful one in Revelation chapter 7 about the Lamb on the throne. Talks about when we'll be in heaven and then some of the questions, what will happen when we get there and what will God do and what will we do?

Listen to this mixing of metaphors. Revelation 7, 17, For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. Isn't that a wonderful picture? With the Lamb will be their shepherd. If you want to really get that into your heart, take it to Psalm 23 and just put Lamb in all the way through.

The Lamb is my shepherd. I shall not want. The Lamb makes me lie down in green pastures and so on. Here's the rest of the verse. The Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs of the waters of life.

God will wipe every tear from their eye. That's a future truth we can look forward to. That's a present reality right now. This morning the Lamb wants to be our shepherd and feed us and guide us to rivers of living water.

I remind you again of the indispensable principle. Whether we come corporately or whether you come by yourself to this precious book, the bottom line is it's God's book and God is the author and the subject and He's the one that must take the veil away.

He has got to show us the Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from God dawning on us, we will only become proud in our study of the Bible. Knowledge puffs up. And the more you know, the prouder you'll get unless you're seeing Him, unless you're seeing the Lord and are being part of God.

So once again, I ask you to come with me before the Lord and express that hunger and that desire that He has invited us to and challenged us to. If you come as dry ground, He'll rain upon it. If you come as little children, He'll open these things to you.

He's hidden them in Christ and reveals them to babes. If you open your mouth wide, He'll fill it. Our Father, we thank You so much for the privilege we've had this morning to worship You, to acknowledge You in song and music and to shout our faith and our heart and our victory in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer for Revelation in Joshua 7–8

Now we come again to this precious book and we know that we have a resonant Bible teacher in our heart. The precious life of God, the Holy Spirit Himself to lead us to rivers of living water, to wipe all the tears from our eyes.

Lamb of God, shepherd us this morning, we pray. We thank You so much that You have already met with us and we just pray that by Your grace You would meet us again and tie these things together and clinch these truths in our heart.

We pray that we might see Your heart. We might know You. We thank You for every passage in the Bible and we know the Bible would not be complete without Joshua 7 and 8. We know our lives will not be complete without the revelation of Christ in these chapters.

So we ask You to dawn on us, we pray, in a transforming way. We wait upon You now and we thank You. In Jesus' matchless name, Amen. How swift this weekend has come and gone for me and it's been such a delight and I do praise the Lord for the privilege that I have.

Every time I have a chance to proclaim Him, my heart is very moved. I was so thankful to see so many young people here this weekend and what a joy that is to see these young men and God laying foundations at a young age.

It's just so awesome for me to see God save not only a soul, but a life. I just rejoice. Psalm 72, verse 6, May He come down like rain upon the mown grass, like the showers that water the earth, may He rule from sea to sea.

Well, that's our prayer and I pray He'll reign upon us again. We come to our final look at Joshua chapter 3 -8. I'll ask you to open please to Joshua chapter 7 if you would. Joshua chapter 7. We focused on those four events.

How to help others by God's grace cross the Jordan. How to help others by God's grace to Gilgal. How to help others by God's grace to Jericho. And that brings us this morning to these two rather long chapters.

The defeat at Ai and the subsequent victory at Ai. Chapters 7 and 8 cover the material that I'd like to meditate upon this morning. Now because they're such large chapters, we've got to leave a lot out.

I know I've studied with some of you brothers that are in this room in preparation for this week. We got so much. We went down so long and stayed down there and saw so much. It's not possible to give all of the things that the Lord has given.

So let me make a couple of observations about the chapter as a whole. And we'll sort of focus in and as my wife prayed for me and I told you at the beginning that I wouldn't just give everything and send a flood and destroy the crops.

But it'd be a soft rain that would water the earth. And so though we won't look at everything and though we'll miss a lot, there's so much in there, let's pray that what God has for us we'll see. And I pray also that He'll protect you from what's not from Him.

Ai as Israel’s First Defeat

A couple of observations about the two chapters as a whole. The first observation is this. As the taking of Jericho was strategic in the sense that it presented the first victory in the conquest of the land.

And that becomes an important chapter. Just so, Joshua chapter 7 is strategic in that it presents the first defeat in the land. And therefore it contains some precious keys and principles on how to be safeguarded against defeat in all of its subtle forms.

Notice please chapter 7 verse 5. The men of Ai struck down about 36 of their men and pursued them from the gate as far as Shibarim. Struck them down on the descent so that the hearts of the people melted and became as water.

Thirty-six men died. This is not only the first defeat in the land, but as far as the record goes, it's the only defeat in the seven-year war. We know that the fighting forces were enormous. Hundreds of thousands of men in conflict.

And after seven years of war, there were only 36 casualties on Israel's side. When you think about it, that's an amazing thing. Only 36 people died. In Joshua chapter 12 verses 7 to 24, you have a summary at the end of all of the different conflicts that Joshua and his men engaged in.

And even though there were seven nations that they went against, the Bible tells us in Joshua 12 there were 31 kings and their armies that they went against. You see, every territory had its own king.

And though there were seven nations, there were many territories, and each one had its own king and its own army. Thirty-one kings. Thirty-one armies. Seven years of conflict. And when it was all tallied up at the end, Israel lost 36 men in the second battle.

That's an amazing thing. Chapter 7. You notice that chapter 7 begins with the word but. Let me read the end of chapter 6 and tie it in to chapter 7. Chapter 6 27, And so the Lord was with Joshua and his fame was in all the land but.

That's how the chapter begins. According to chapter 8 and verse 25, counting men, women, and children, Ai had a total population of about 12 ,000 people. That's all. In all the conflicts, in the taking of central Palestine, in the campaign that went to the south, and when they went north up to the waters of Miram, this is probably the smallest conflict that they had.

Only 12 ,000, counting men, women, and children. What happened? What happened? Well, as Jericho was important as the first victory because it contained all the principles of victory for the whole land.

So the study of Ai, I believe, is important because it not only gives us the first defeat but it gives us the only defeat in the whole seven year conflict and therefore everything you need to know about defeat and subsequent victory are contained in this one story in seed form.

So may God begin to give us some light and some insight on this. It's a great warning chapter and it safeguards us against all defeat. As you know, the story revolves around a man named Achan. Look at chapter 7, verse 1.

The sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban.

Therefore the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel. And then if you'll go down to chapter 7, verse 17, where you see again, he's singled out. And he brought the family of Judah near. And he took the family of the Zerahites.

And he brought the family of the Zerahites near, man by man. And Zabdi was taken. And he brought his household near, man by man. And Achan, the son of Zerah from the tribe of Judah was taken. Achan. That man brought a lot of trouble to Israel and to the camp.

In fact, I think you're familiar with the fact that his name means trouble. That's what the word Achan means. And look how it ends if you'll go to chapter 7, verse 25. Joshua said, Why have you troubled us?

The Lord will trouble you this day. And all Israel stoned them with stones. And they burned them with fire after they stoned them with stones. And they raised over Him a great heap of stones that stands till this day.

And the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore, the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day. They named the valley after Him. His name was Achan. Trouble. And they named the valley, the Valley of Achor.

The Valley of Trouble. Chapter 7 begins with the word but. And it ends with the Valley of Trouble. And it sort of summarizes those terminal points. What's in this chapter. The camp. The nation. All the tribes.

All the people were in trouble. There was trouble in the camp. You say the land of Canaan flowed with milk and honey. Yeah, but it also flowed with other things. It flowed with milk and honey, but it flowed with Canaanites as well.

But it wasn't the Canaanites that caused the trouble in this chapter. There are internal enemies as well as external enemies. And here's an amazing thing. In all the battle for Canaan, not one casualty came from a Canaanite.

The casualty came from something on the inside. There were other enemies that they had to face. And God right at the beginning lays down the principle of all defeat. It's not the enemy out there that we need to fear.

But there's another enemy. And it's a very, very dangerous thing. It's important to study the valley of trouble as it's important to study the mountain of victory. We need to study the mountain of victory, but you also need to study the valley of trouble.

By the grace of God, the trouble in this chapter contributed toward Israel's ultimate victory. It's amazing how God turned things around. They did lose the battle, but they won the war. And the battle was a mighty instrument for good in the hand of God because of His sovereignty.

And He's able to turn the valley of trouble into something very, very wonderful. Don't despise it, brothers, if God brings you into the valley of Achor. God brings you into the valley of trouble. God uses trouble in our life to crowd us to Christ, to crowd us to the Lord.

The Valley of Achor as a Door of Hope

Two different prophets laid hold of this, that expression valley of Achor to this day. Many years later, Isaiah was preaching and God inspired his mind to go back and he remembered this story. And Isaiah said, let me tell you about the valley of Achor.

And then later, Hosea the prophet was preaching. And he thought of the same thing. And he went back to the story of Achan and his first defeat. Let me just give you those verses because they're tremendous.

Isaiah chapter 65 10. Listen as I quote Isaiah 65 10. Sharon will be a pasture land for flocks and the valley of Achor will be a resting place for herds for My people who seek Me. Isn't that a tremendous verse?

Can you imagine the valley of Achor being a resting place? Oh yes, indeed, for those who seek Me. Listen to Hosea's reference to the valley of Achor. Hosea chapter 2 and verse 14 and 15. Hosea 2, 14 and 15 says, Behold, I will lure her and bring her into the wilderness and there I'll speak comfortably to her and I'll give vineyards from there and the valley of Achor as a door of hope, as a door of hope and she shall sing there as in her youth in the days when she came out of the land of Egypt.

God promises to lure His people sometime into the wilderness. When you have a wilderness in your life, do you think, wow, look where God's lured me? You don't think that. But God can turn the valley of Achor into a resting place for those who seek the Lord.

He can turn it into a door of hope and a place where you sing. I think if we went around row by row and table by table, how many of you have ever experienced where God has used the valley of trouble to take you forward with the Lord?

I think the rest of our time together would be spent in rich testimony on how God has turned the valley of trouble into a resting place. God used that trouble and turned it into a door of hope. And where I once was grieving, there now I'm singing and praising God.

That's what happened in this first story. It was a terrible chapter beginning with butt and ending with a valley of trouble. But God by His grace turned it around and it became a wonderful contribution to their victory.

So that's the first general observation that these chapters contain trouble. The only defeat that they suffered during that whole seven year war. A second observation has to do with focus. At least as we're going to look at when you read chapter 7 and 8 of Joshua, you say well, the whole theme of this is Achan.

The whole story revolves around him. His covetousness. His stealing the spoil. His taking the contraband and trying to hide it. It's about his exposure, his sin, his judgment. That's what it's about. In one sense, that's true.

But for our purposes this weekend, that's not how we're going to look at it. I'm not going to ignore Achan. I can't. He's too much in these chapters. But we're looking at a different area. We're looking at the instruments that God uses so that we can help others appropriate a full Savior.

And so I'd sort of like to look at the leadership again and that Joshua and that the elders and that the people as a whole as they came before the Lord. It's our privilege as priests to help others over the Jordan.

And it's our privilege as elders to carry others to the great truths that they learned at Gilgal. And it's our privilege as Joshua to fall down before the captain of the Lord's host of the armies of heaven and earth barefoot and on our faces before Him to surrender all to Him so that He might lead the way.

And it's our privilege now in the day of trouble. What do we do when God's people are defeated? And what do we do when God's people are demoralized? And what do we do when their hearts begin to melt like water?

And what do we do when someone is harboring secret sin and has hidden something in his tent and has affected the body and has caused a blessing of God to be with hell? That's the focus I want to take.

Christ as the Key to Victory

On the path for fullness in Christ and on the path in assisting others to fullness in Christ, there will be trouble. Don't think for a moment that the enemy of your soul and mine wants you to possess a full Christ.

Don't think for a moment that the enemy of your soul and mine wants the body corporate to possess a full Savior. There will be trouble. There will be opposition. I want to make one more observation about the chapters as a whole and then we'll begin to walk into the chapters.

When we studied chapter 5 and 6, I tried to show you what I thought was the key to victory. And of course, the key to victory is the victor. It's the person himself. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, the Captain of the Lord's Host.

Joshua began by seeing the man with the sword drawn. That's the key to victory. The Lord Himself. Joshua 5 .13. Why'd they have victory at Jericho? And the answer is, because the victor gave it to them.

He's the one that did the fighting. Now we come to Joshua chapter 7 and the valley of trouble. The only defeat in the land. As you go through the chapter, you're going to see many occasions of defeat.

And I'll try to mention several. Many occasions of defeat. Though there are many occasions of defeat, there's only one cause of defeat. And there's a difference between the occasion and the cause. What was the cause of victory?

And the answer is, it was Jesus. And His sword was like this. And He was fighting for them. Look if you would at chapter 7, verse 11 and 12. What's the cause of defeat? Israel has sinned. They've transgressed My covenant which I commanded them.

They've taken some of the things under the ban, have stolen and deceived. Moreover, they've put them among their own things. Therefore, the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs on their enemies.

They've become a curse. Why? I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst. In verse 12, those very, very profound words, frightening words, I will not be with you anymore.

How would you like to hear the Lord say that to you? Oh my! How would you like to hear the Lord say that to your fellowship? You're on your own. I will not be with you anymore. That's why they lost. That's the cause of defeat.

That's the only cause of defeat. The only time you have victory is when He's fighting for you. And the only time you have defeat is when He stops fighting for you and you're on your own. Every time you're on your own, you lose.

Every time I'm on my own, I lose. And every time He fights for me, there's victory. I told you that I thought Judges chapter 2 verses 1 and 2, when the angel of the Lord comes from Gilgal and He goes to this place and they name it weeping because the angel that began like this has put His sword in His sheath.

That's what He did at the end of the seven year war and I think that's what He did in chapter 7. Now why God sheathes His sword is the question all its own. But that He sheathes His sword is the cause for defeat when we're left on our own.

In this connection, I think I've quoted this verse already, but I love it. 2 Chronicles 20 and verse 15. The battle is not yours, but God's. But oh, it's dreadful when that's turned around. The battle is not God's.

God puts His sword in His sheath. You're in trouble. The church is in trouble. The flock's in trouble. The tribe's in trouble. The fellowship's in trouble. The family's in trouble. Let me look with you at some of the facts of this chapter in terms of Joshua and the leadership, the elders.

Leadership, Corporate Guilt, and Trouble in the Camp

Now I know it's easy when you come to a chapter like this. Lillian gave me a hard time on this chapter. We studied this together. She said, oh, you're just being too critical. You know, it's easy to be a Monday quarterback and to call all the right plays after the game is done, after it's all finished.

I don't want to be too hard on Joshua here. I don't want to be hard on the leadership here and things that I think they might they should have known or should have done or something like that. Usually when trouble comes in the camp, there's plenty of blame to spread around in a lot of places and to a lot of people.

I know basically you can't read the chapter and not see that Achan is the villain. He wears the black hat in this particular chapter. He gets credit for blowing it. But if you read it carefully, you're going to see that God includes a lot more than Achan here.

Notice chapter 7, verse 1 and chapter 7, verse 11. Verse 1, the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully. Some actually suggest that maybe some of his friends were in collusion with him and knew about this. I don't think there's evidence of that in the text, but some believe that.

Verse 11, Israel has sinned. They've transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Well, was Israel in on it or is this one of those body truths that are sprinkled throughout the whole Scripture? A little leaven leavens the whole lump kind of a thing.

Is what he did affecting the whole body? Many have questioned why Achan's whole family was stoned and burned for Achan's sin. My daughter, she had a hard time with some of the strong passages where God judges.

I remember one time when she was growing up, we were studying Judas. And I was leaning and giving her the idea that son of perdition, you know, he was lost. And she started to cry. And she said, why didn't God just punch him in the face and call him a brat?

God deals with sin, but He does more than punch you in the face and call you a brat. Many have questioned why his sons and daughters. Look at chapter 7, 24. Sons and daughters included in this. Verse 25, they stoned them with stones.

Some think maybe his family knew about it. Helped him hide that thing. Some say if you look at verse 26, they raised stones over him. Singular. And maybe they didn't stone the family. You say, well, what are you going to do with them?

They stoned them. They say, well, that was probably the animals. Because it said that He took all His things and all His animals. I don't know all of those questions. I know that Achan is the villain in this chapter, but I know he's not the only guilty one in this chapter.

God clearly calls the whole body to repentance. And as you'll see, in a special way, the leadership He called to repentance. When there's trouble in the camp, guilt is everywhere. Now, clearly the church, as you know, is one.

It's a body. Every member lives for the pleasure of the head. We have common life. And when one member is sick, sometimes the whole body has to go to bed. And there might have been a lot of that in here.

Should the Leaders Have Discerned the Trouble?

Now, let's move on. Let me make some observations and raise some questions. Some suggestions. If I'm being too picky, as Lillian said, too critical, it's easy. I challenge you to entertain the possibility of some of this.

I'll start off with the easy questions and then I'll move through the chapter. First question. Should Joshua and the elders have discerned beforehand that there was trouble in the camp? You know, we hear so much about all these tragic school shootings and everything.

And you hear in all these news reports, there were signs. There were clues. There were indications. Why didn't somebody have their eyes open? You should have been able to read that. You should have been able to see that.

You should have been able to see that thing coming. Do you have to wait until Israel's beat up and running down the hill and 36 people are dead and everybody's got to prepare funerals and their hearts are melting like water?

And then all of a sudden, the leadership says, we got trouble in the camp. Was there any responsibility beforehand? We know the record. At least one man in the camp, Achan, had a terribly low view of God.

What did holiness mean to him? What did authority mean to him? Look at chapter 6, if you would, and verse 18. You shall surely keep clear of the cursed thing, lest you make yourself cursed when you take the cursed thing and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it.

That was before the fact and Achan heard. He didn't believe that. If you touch it, you'll be cursed. He didn't believe that. If you touch it, you're going to bring a curse on God's people. He didn't believe that.

He had no view of God's holiness whatsoever. And he certainly had no view of God's omniscience. Verse 20 and 21 of chapter 7, he said, I saw, I coveted, I took, I concealed. Didn't that guy know Psalm 139?

Verse 11? No excuse that hadn't been written yet. The truth, the light and the darkness are both a light to thee, and night is as bright as the day. Does he really think that he can take a bar of silver, five pounds in weight, and a bar of gold, a pound and a half in weight, and a mantle, and in the confusion of war, I can just picture this guy scurrying off to his tent with ten pounds of contraband under his shirt.

And he goes in there and he digs up a hole and he buries it and he runs back to the camp just in time to sing the last verse of, To God be the glory, great things He has done. Doesn't he know God's watching that?

He has no view of God's holiness. No view at all of God's omniscience. Certainly no view of His sovereignty, His ownership. Chapter 6, 17, it belongs to the Lord. Don't touch it. It spoils. The spoils go to the victor.

Should Joshua? Should the elders have known? You know, we've got a guy out here and he's got a low view of the Lord and we'd better take special precaution with him and let him know. It's interesting, the very sin that plagued Israel when they were going into the land, the covetousness, that was the sin that plagued the New Testament church at its inception.

And God raised up Peter with some insight and stopped Ananias and Sapphira at the door and was able to check it before the camp was cursed. It's the same sin. I don't know. I only question if they should have had some clue before the thing blew up.

That's all I'm asking. Before there was defeat and before they were demoralized and before their hearts melted like water, maybe there was no advance notice. Let me ask this question. Should Joshua have sent out those spies to Ai?

The Danger of Moving from Faith to Sight

Chapter 7, verse 2, Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-Avin, east of Bethel, and said to him, Go up, spy out the land. And so the men went up and spied out Ai. You say, well, yeah, that wasn't wrong.

That's prudence. That's wisdom. God expects us to use our heads, perhaps, but there's a history of spies in the land of Israel. And you remember, the first set of spies that went up, and it just encouraged the people to live by sight rather than by faith.

It was drawing them away. When Moses' spies came back, they said, we saw the land, we saw the cities, we saw the enemy. They're too big, too big. When Joshua's spies came back, they didn't say too big.

They said, piece of cake. They're little. They're small. We can handle it. We can take it. Sight is sight. Whether it sees it's too big or too little. I'm not sure he should have sent the spy. You say, well, spies are good.

At least in one case, God used it to rescue, to save, to bring salvation to Rahab and her family. Was God turning the curse to a blessing there? I'm just raising the question. I think at least there's danger that they might have been moving from faith to sight.

And I know this from the balance of Scripture. At any time you move from faith to sight, you're looking for trouble in the camp. I know that. Let me ask this third question. Even if I'm wrong about the possibility that they should have known in advance, even if I'm wrong about the possibility that they should not have sent up spies, here's the next question.

Should Joshua have listened to the counsel of the spies when they came back? Three. They returned to Joshua and said to him, do not let all the people go up. Only about 2 ,000 or 3 ,000 need to go to Ai.

Do not make all the people toil up there for their few. So about 3 ,000 men from the people went up there, but they fled from the men of Ai. Didn't that advice reveal the sin of self-confidence? I don't think we can detach the story of Ai from the story of Jericho because they're so closely united.

They're connected. And it appears to me that they were viewing Ai as if they had won at Jericho. That's what it looks like to me. It looks like they went into battle after the shout, singing, Joshua fit the battle of Jericho.

Jericho. But Joshua didn't fit the battle. Right? Who fought that battle? It was the Lord. It wasn't Joshua. When you think about it, what did Israel, what was their part in the battle? They walked, and they shouted.

I've got toddler grandchildren that can do that. They can walk and shout. And that's all they did. God fit the battle of Jericho. I have an idea that angel with the sword drawn in his hand, has he won that first battle?

Seems to me like they were reasoning, well, Jericho that's a big problem. Ai, that's a little problem. Maybe we need God to handle the big problems. But we can handle Ai. How often after a victory does the Bible record defeat?

Right after a victory. After the seven-year war, you've got the book of Judges with its eight spiritual declensions. After the flood, Noah gets drunk. After Mount Carmel, there's Elijah running from Jezebel.

After Peter's great confession, get behind me, Satan. Even our Lord Jesus, after His baptism and the voice from heaven, it was then that He was tempted out in the wilderness. Brothers, may God help us.

Don't think Jericho's big. God will handle that. But I can take Ai. Win at Jericho. God's got to win at Ai. Self-confidence is a terrible thing. We have no more ability to handle Ai than we ever had to handle Jericho.

There's nothing big in the Christian life. And there's nothing small in the Christian life. There's only things impossible. That's all. The whole Christian life is made up of things impossible. And only God can do it.

We need as much grace to lose a dollar as we need to lose a loved one. We can't handle anything. We're helpless. Israel did not lose at Ai because they sent too few troops. They lost at Ai because the angel of the Lord put His sword back in His sheath.

There is nothing, brother, small enough in your life that you can battle and win in your own strength. Nothing. Nothing. The defeat at Ai was a great warning against self-confidence. The advice that the spies gave, I'm not sure you should have listened to that.

I know it created this awful self-confidence, but it also included another thing. It was a wedge into the unity of the body. You say, how so? The spies came back. Don't forget, at Jericho he said, take all the men.

Take all the people. And now at Ai, they came back and sort of said this, we don't need everybody. We don't need the whole body. We can do this with just a handful. We can accomplish this with just a few.

At Jericho, the whole army was to go and all the people were to go. It's a terrible thing if we ever get to the place in any of our fellowships where we think we don't need the whole body. One thing that I appreciate so much, I don't have a lot of contact with many of the groups, but with family ministries, God has given me more contact.

And how I appreciate how God has worked in you brothers, the desire to see everybody involved in the work and the possession of Christ. We all have gifts. We all have something to give. And one of the dangers that they were saying is we don't need everybody.

We can just take a few, just take a handful. We do need everybody. We need all the saints for Jericho, and we need all the saints for Ai, and we need all the saints for possessing a full Christ. Let me ask another question.