The Family: God's Gospel Weapon

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

Psalm 127 and the Christian Family as a Gospel Weapon

Well, we're going to look at Psalm chapter 127. If you turn there, you can keep a finger there, and I'm going to direct us to another place. And as I do, I'll just repeat what I said at the onset. Today I want to speak to all of you, brothers and sisters in Christ, about the role of the Christian family in fulfilling the mission of God in the world.

As I was speaking with the brethren there on the west side of the city, we were talking about some of the needs that have arisen in their church, and certainly one of the needs that is arising in our church is the blessing of growing families, of men and women who are joining together in marriage, of moms who are expecting, of various stages.

And so it seems fitting that as I come to all of you today, that we speak on the blessings and the joys of the Christian family, while at the same time recognizing the role that the whole church plays in that Christian family.

Ahab, the Arrow, and God's Sovereign Providence

And as I introduce this theme to you, I want to transport you, as I've done a few times, I know, in the last number of weeks, to a completely different time and place. For a few minutes, allow me to take you to a broad plain in the middle of the Middle East, some 60 kilometers beyond the Jordan River, to a scene that we find in our Bibles in 1 Kings 22.

To frame this for you, it is the year 853 BC, and we find ourselves in Ramoth Gilead, where the ancient army of Israel is coming face to face with the mighty Syrian army. And if you can picture this with me, in the middle of this dry, arid landscape, surrounded by jagged limestone rocks, the wicked king Ahab, accompanied by Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, is leading his men into an ill-devised battle to reclaim lost territory.

And unsurprisingly, if you know anything about King Ahab, there's cunning here in the scene. Unlike Jehoshaphat, who is decked out in his royal garb, head to toe, King Ahab has disguised himself to look like one of his soldiers.

And as the battle begins, things go exactly the way that we expect that they might. The Syrian army, having been given the orders to go not for the soldiers, but directly for the king of Israel, pursues naive King Jehoshaphat.

And as King Jehoshaphat is being pursued, and the chariots get nearer and nearer to him, with the archers drawing and at the ready, they realize that they have the wrong man. That this is not Ahab, the king of Israel, but Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah.

And so when the chase is finally called off, in the ensuing chaos, one of the archers, seemingly at random, we are told, drew back his bow. He fired into the air, maybe over the crowd or into the crowd, we don't know.

But what happened next can only be ascribed to, attributed to, the sovereign, exacting, perfect providence of God. Because not only did that arrow find its way into the ranks of the Israelites, but it found its way directly to King Ahab.

And not just to King Ahab, but to the narrow seam between his steel chestplate and his scale armor. And if you're familiar with the story, you know what happened next, that that arrow pierced into his flesh, wounding him mortally.

And as he fell back in his chariot, and the chariot retreated back, King Ahab perished in that chariot. And perishing in that chariot, as the blood streamed out, the dogs lapped up the blood in fulfillment of prophecy, and God demonstrated his ability to exact judgment on the wicked with perfect precision.

Now why am I sharing this story? And what does it have to do with the Christian family? This account reveals an interesting truth that we would do well to take note of. That at various times, and at various places, our all-wise and all-powerful God has been pleased to use things as primitive, and as seemingly insignificant, as a single arrow to change the entire course of human history, and of redemptive history.

Think about it for a moment. It was a single arrow that ended the brutal reign of King Ahab. And if we were to turn in our pages, through our pages in the Bible, we would see this, that it was a strategically placed arrow, that Jonathan, the son of Saul, shot in the direction of David, to communicate that he was in danger, to save the life of David, and to preserve the lineage of the Messiah.

It was a single arrow that took out Saul, opening the way for David to assume the throne. It was one arrow among many that took the life of Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, who would later join the genealogy of Jesus the Christ, to magnify his own omnipotence, and to demonstrate his perfect control over the world.

The Lord our God has often seen fit to use things seemingly insignificant as arrows, to accomplish some of his most important purposes. And today I want to show you another of God's arrows. Or if I can put it this way, a whole host of quivers of arrows, that he has designed to alter the entire course of human history.

And of course, what I am speaking about is this, the Christian family. So, I had you in 1 Kings 22, let's turn back to Psalm 127. And today we're going to look at verses 3 -5, and I want to show you how it is that God has designed the Christian family to be one of the most effective weapons in his arsenal.

Yet it is an effective weapon, not for waging physical warfare, but for promoting the advancement of the gospel, and of the kingdom of God in the world. So hopefully I have your attention. Now with that attention, let's direct it here at verses 3 -5.

It says there in verse 3, Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them.

Recognize Your Weapon: Children as Arrows in the Hand of a Warrior

He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Today as we look at this passage, I want to leave you with three imperatives. And the first imperative that we'll look at together is this.

Number one, recognize your weapon. Recognize your weapon. Brothers and sisters in Christ, if the Lord has blessed you with children, or more broadly, if he has blessed this church with children, beyond your own household, as he most certainly has, he has given you one of the most formidable kingdom-advancing armaments on the planet.

There's just one problem, and it is this, that many of you do not yet understand what this armament is. Unless, of course, you've clued in that it is your family. And specifically, it is your children.

Let me show you what I mean from this text of Scripture. As we land here in Psalm 127, we come to a hymn that is attributed to Solomon, the royal son of David. And as we make our way to the second half of the psalm in verses 3 -5, we find a few remarkable truths that we ought to note about our own children.

Firstly, in verse 3, we see that our children are blessings from God. Good gifts that God alone has fashioned, and they are to be received with thanksgiving. When I was at the church this morning, last week they had dealt with the sanctity of life.

And it's worth commenting a little bit on that, though we don't have this context in our mind. That the sanctity of life of our children is something that is tremendously important. Oh, that our children are not an inconvenience, that are to be exterminated on demand, but they are precious gifts from the gracious hand of God.

But secondly, we find that they are gifts given by God to fulfill the purposes of God. And at least some of these purposes can be seen in the expression that we find in verse 4, if we look there together.

The children are like arrows. Now many of us are familiar with this language. We're not surprised by it to read that children are like arrows. But I think very few people have seen the whole expression there.

The children are arrows, yes, but specifically they are arrows in the hand, it says in the ESV, arrows in the hand of a warrior. Now what a picture these words paint. What exactly do they mean? In order for us to understand the full meaning of the psalm, I would suggest that we need to appreciate that there is a twofold meaning that is present here.

A twofold meaning that I want to take us through. In the first place, this text speaks to something that has been altogether lost in our culture. Many of you will appreciate this as I say it. And that is the practice of one's children protecting and caring for their parents in their old age.

And perhaps there is no better place to look at this example than in the historical context in which this psalm was given. You see, in ancient Israel, there were not the kind of social safety nets that we enjoy in the world today.

And for this reason, children played a vital role in ensuring the long-term safety and security of their families. For instance, if a married couple in ancient Israel were to have a large number of children in their youth, a whole, as it says in Psalm 127, a whole quiver full of youth, what that would mean is it would essentially guarantee some measure of financial stability, of some physical protection, even of legal protection.

And all of that help that comes with things that happen when we get old. And this is most certainly, if you're following along with me, a wise design on God's part. Something that is both good and honorable, that fits well within the meaning of this text.

That we should care, men, for our families, ladies, sisters, for our moms and our dads. What this means, young ladies, mothers, soon-to-be mothers, is that when your daughters exceed, excel beyond you in their ability to look after domestic things, when they become better cooks than you, when they become better in a whole host of things, that this is a blessing, and it is to be given or it is received by them, in one measure, for your good, for your blessing, for your benefit, for your heritage.

But also for men. And now I don't know how many here have sons who are taller than them, but you know the situation with my son, that at about age 12, he was instantly taller than me, and he loved that.

But I want you to see this with me. That the Lord did not give my son, or He will not give your son, that height, that stature, that strength, that speed, in order that he would be able to magnify himself.

But as an arrow in the hand of his Father, to look after, to care for him, so I can say to my son, yes, you are bigger, yes, you are stronger, and part of the reason is so that you can take care of me when I'm old.

So the Lord has put you in a position to care for your own parents in their old age. You should eagerly seek, I mean this, this is perhaps one of the best ways that we can extend Christian love to unbelieving family.

Is to care for our parents in their old age. To eagerly seek to be a blessing and a reward to them in this way. And then to raise our children to do likewise. But is that all that God means by this vivid picture of children as arrows, and I highlight this word, in the hands of a warrior?

Or to look a bit ahead to verse 5, to have one's quiver full of these arrows. The language of this passage spells out something far more aggressive and something far more combative than simply a child's domestic responsibilities to his or her parents.

The passage could have read, it could have read that children are a help to their parents when they get older. But it doesn't. The passage could, beefing up a little bit of the aggressiveness, say that children are a shield to their parents in the midst of their enemies.

But it doesn't say that either. What does the passage say? That children are an arrow in the hands of their warrior parents. Children are like sharpened instruments of death in the hands of their moms and dads.

And without taking you on a two-hour biblical theology on why this is, and these are things that I don't get to say sometimes when I'm speaking to people that don't really know me. If you know my sermon preparation process, I'd like to think that I'm fairly efficient.

I spent about eight hours yesterday trying to explain this point, and then eventually abandoning it and saying, okay, I'm not going to give you a two-hour lecture on biblical theology. But what I am going to do is show you in a snapshot how it is that these children as arrows are meant for more than just our physical comfort and security.

And I'm going to use, I'm going to start in the nation of Israel. When God established Israel as a people and a nation, he did not merely do this so that they might exist in safety and security as an end in and of itself.

Nor did he put Israel in one of the most strategic places in the whole world for reaching the nations. Now, if you can picture with me the nation of Israel, a map of the Mediterranean, of Eastern Europe here and of Asia there, maybe I should do it the opposite ways for you, and Africa down below.

God put Israel in one of the most strategic land bridges in all of the world at a narrow intersection between Europe and Asia and Africa. And why was it that he did that? Did he do that so that when God gave them children, they might serve and the children's children might serve as border guards to guard that land?

Most certainly not. He has not given us a mandate for military conquest in which we are to spend our children as cannon fodder in the interest of world domination. Nor has he given us, if you think about this, children, and commanded us to diligently teach them the things of the Lord, merely so that this knowledge might die with them.

Why then did God give our boys and girls, our sons and daughters, to be arrows in the hands of a warrior? One of the principal reasons that God blesses his people with children so that we as warriors ourselves might send them out as arrows to do battle with our ancient foe by promoting and propagating the gospel of God, by promoting the knowledge of God, and by seeking above all else the glory of God alone.

And I'm reminded of how this was painted by one man who would be familiar to many of us. You might be reminded of Jim Elliot. Does everyone know who Jim Elliot is? I think most of you will. He was a missionary to the Alca people in Peru, and many of us know his name not because of his missionary exploits as a man alive, but because he died on January 6, 1956, at the end of a spear.

And for this reason, because he was seeking to bring, to share his gospel hope with an unreached Amazon tribe that was bloodthirsty and ready for murder. But before his death, writing about Psalm 127 in one of his letters to his parents, he explained his parents' responsibility to send him out as a gospel arrow.

Oh, that God would give us such an opportunity with some of our children, that they would send letters like this to us. He writes this to his parents. Remember how the psalmist describes the children.

He said that they were arrows. And what are arrows for but to shoot? So with strong arms of prayer, saying this to his parents, draw the bowstring back and let the arrow fly. Let the arrows fly, all of them straight at the enemy's host.

Dear friends, God has given us children. Think about this, parents. Think about this, grandparents. God has given us children. The little people that we tuck into bed at night. The awkward teenagers that we joke about or that we poke fun at at breakfast.

Not merely for our amusement. Not merely for our fulfillment. Though certainly God has given children to us for our joy and for our fulfillment. But he has given them to us as arrows to draw back in prayer and to let fly.

That they might take the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the darkest corners of the earth. Christian parents. I'm going to add this. Christian grandparents. Christian aunts and uncles. Christian aunts and uncles in Christ.

When was the last time you considered that one of your most important contributions to the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the advancement of the Kingdom of God is to raise up or to support your brothers and sisters, your children in raising up children who will be used by God to fly the banner of Christ here in Edmonton.

And across Canada. And the western world. And to every place that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ has not yet been heard. As I was going through this yesterday, I was speaking with our brother Harrison and he shared just a gem of a quote from Vodie Bauckham on this passage.

And I think we all appreciate sometimes the way that Vodie Bauckham can phrase things. He said, he brings this metaphor into the 21st century and he says this. As parents, we are in the business of building intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Not to stay in their silos, but to send them out into the world. And brothers and sisters, I ask you, have you recognized that God has put such precious and potent weapons in your very home, in your very church, that they might be raised up for this purpose?

Make Ready Your Arrows Through Instruction, Example, and Family Worship

Or to drill in a bit deeper, have you recognized that God has put these weapons in your very home for this purpose and does your parenting reflect this purpose? But there's a second imperative that I want to bring to you, that must accompany the first.

It's not enough to recognize the gospel weapons that God has given you, but you must remember, number two, to make ready your arrows. Commenting on this passage, Charles Spurgeon writes this. He says, God gives children, not as a penalty, nor as a burden, but as a favor.

They are a token for good. And then he adds this word, if. They are a token for good if, if men know how to receive them, and then how to educate them. Or to rely on another piercing quote from one of the Puritans, Henry Smith, he adds this.

Well does the psalmist call children arrows, for they are brought up well. For if they are brought up well, they will shoot at their parents' enemies. But if they are brought up poorly, they will shoot at their parents.

As we dive a bit deeper into this text, I want to show you another angle of what verse four means when it says that children are arrows in the hands of a warrior. It not only means that God has given our children as weapons, but it speaks to the readiness, the readiness of those weapons.

In the ordinary course of our day, our arrows should not be tucked away in our quivers. In the coming and goings of our day, our arrows should not be set aside, but close at hand, within arm's reach, to grab them if necessary.

No, that is not what the text says. But they are to be in our hands. And what this conveys is that they are to be made ready, available at all times, to send out immediately when called upon. But parents, if our children are going to accomplish the very purpose for which they have been made, many of us, we must admit if we are honest, will have to radically reform the way in which we are preparing our children for the battle that is ahead of them.

Now, how can I make that statement and have some certainty that it is true, that it is the case for some of you, or for you young married couples, as you anticipate children in a year, or two years, or five years, or whatever it is?

How do I know that you will need to make some reforms? I found a research study from the Barna Group, a book that I'm going to commend here in a few minutes, that surveyed the average evangelical Christian on their parenting habits.

And of those surveyed in this large survey, 85 of the parents with children under the age of 13 believed that they had the primary responsibility for teaching their children about, and this is in quotes, religious and spiritual matters.

That's pretty impressive. I think from a family inclusive or a child inclusive type of church, family integrated church, that's what I'm trying to say, that 85 of parents, that means only 15 of parents think that they are not responsible for discipling their kids.

But of the 85 that were surveyed who said that they did believe that they were responsible for teaching their children about God and the things of God, amongst those surveyed, more than 50 of those parents admitted that they did not spend so much as one minute in a typical week discussing God, the gospel, or anything at all that is found in the Bible.

If that is the case for you and your family, the time for repentance is now. But it's more likely that many of you, young men, married men, fathers, that you don't fall in that first category, but that you fall in a second category, and it is this, that you know that you ought to be leading your family in learning about God and about the gospel and treasuring Christ together as a family and you'd lead that, you'd do that from time to time, but it is, if you honestly look at it, if you make a sincere and genuine assessment, you have been weak and inconsistent and lackluster in the preparation of your children.

And if that is the case, too, the time to confess is now and to come to Christ and to confess to Him that you have fallen short. But I am not going to sit here or stand here and browbeat you for the service.

But rather, instead, what I want to do is lay out a practical strategy for how you may make your arrows ready. And I want to encourage you, brothers and sisters, young men who think that you're not going to be a dad for at least two or three years.

If I have sat with you in pre-marriage counseling or various things, I've already told you, start now. Men of teenage children, if you're inconsistent or you haven't started, start now. And I want to encourage you in two specific ways.

One, prepare your children. One, by instruction. And two, by example. And throughout the course of your life, wed these two things. Instruction and example into something that is inseparably linked. So that you are never with instruction and without example.

Or seeking to be an example without the substance of it in the instruction. What does this look like practically? For many who have been Christians even for a short time, you're familiar probably with at least two verses, I would think, on this theme.

One is Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 4. And there we read these words. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. There's that other passage in Proverbs 22 and verse 6.

This one probably more of you have heard because there are some misconceptions about it. Train up a child in the way that he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Now these are familiar passages.

But in my experience, I have found very few who actually know how to carry out these commands. I ask you, do you know where to start in raising your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord?

To teach them in the way that they should go so that they would not depart from it. And there are many things that I could prescribe. I would prescribe, of course, to lead them in having a private devotional life.

I would, of course, prescribe that they come to the meeting of the church that they might be with God's people and to rub shoulders with other men and women in Christ who would speak to them of Christ, who would love them, and who would encourage them, disciple them if they are believers.

But where I think is the most strategic place to start is to deal with the theme of family worship. Now some of you have heard me speak on family worship. And I went back and looked. I think it's been at least two and a half years.

So I think it's probably safe to speak on it again. But this afternoon I want to give you, very practically, a strategy for developing a consistent and systematic pattern of leading family worship in your home.

Now when people hear that expression, family worship, what they sometimes think is this, are we talking about worshiping the family? What is that about? And what it means is this. The family coming together.

Husband and wife and children, or husband and wife, or soon-to-be husband and soon-to-be wife, or grandma and grandpa, coming together at a specific time of day, according to a consistent pattern, and with the entire family together, coming together to worship God himself with your family.

And I would encourage each family here that really, if you're going to do family worship, I think in a way that is most biblical, and that is going to be most helpful, and that is going to be most constructive in the lives of your children, and in the lives of the adults, that this should include at least three elements in our daily family worship.

Number one, we should read the word of God aloud together. Number two, we should pray to our heavenly Father, coming to the throne of grace as a family. And number three, we should sing God's praises.

Read the Word, Pray, and Sing in Family Worship

Now I want to unpack this a bit further, and I want to start with this. Brothers and sisters, when you come together as a family, read God's word. If we are going to sharpen the heads of our arrows, and make the most effective gospel witnesses that we can, we must begin by instructing our families in the sacred scriptures, the volume of God's wise word.

Husbands and fathers, you may not be called to preach, you may not be gifted orators, but if God has given you a wife, or a soon-to-be wife, and most certainly if He has given you children, He has called you to lead your family in the word of God.

And I will make no apologies about this when I say this, men specifically. It is your God-given duty to establish a pattern of consistently and systematically exposing your family to the whole counsel of God's word.

And wives, because I don't want you to feel left out, but more importantly because you have an important role in this, it is your God-given duty to support and to encourage your husband in this. I want to ask you, I want you to ask yourself right now, just in the quietness of your own heart and mind, am I, am I leading my family, my wife, my children, in the word of God every single day?

Why is it important that we lead our families in this way? It is the word of God that makes our children wise for salvation. That faith does not come merely by seeing your example. Faith does not come merely by rubbing shoulders with brothers and sisters in Christ, though that is a very good thing.

But faith comes by hearing the word of God. And it is through the word of God that we teach our families to know the God of the Bible and not the God of pop culture. That our children, that our families would benefit from this, that they can say, I know God.

And man, I encourage you, lead your families in reading books systematically through the Old Testament. Lead your families in reading books systematically through the New Testament. So that when your children come of age and they're ready to graduate and go to university or leave the house or get married, they can say, not only have I heard or read the Bible on my own, but I have heard the Bible read aloud with some of my favorite people in the world, my family, once and twice and three times so that they leave the home having been built up in the very oracles of God.

This is something that I was thinking about recently with my own children as we were going through an evening of family worship that I had never sat down with my children and shared with them my favorite Bible verses.

Now certainly, if some of you know me, you know my favorite Bible verses. You know that it's somewhere probably in 2 Corinthians 5, 21. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

But I had never sat down with my children and talked about them, talked with them through these things. Oh man, do not let your children leave your home without several times, without any other stated agenda, without several times going into the Bible and looking at some of the most precious words that you find there,.

Some of those words.

That you treasure up in your heart more than any others and explain to your children why it is that you not only have a disciplined pattern of reading God's word, but why you love God's word. And how these verses show you the beauty of Christ, the preciousness of your Savior, that he is your Lord and that you love him and that he has revealed himself to you in these verses.

It is through the word of God that we teach our children the way that they should.

Walk in the world.

Wisely and circumspectly.

And brothers,.

I would encourage you to make use, I'm speaking to you brothers, as the leaders of your families, to make use of the myriad of excellent resources that are around. The Family Worship Bible Guide, I believe we have a copy in our library, and I believe we have a copy on our book table, if I'm not mistaken.

If you want to read.

The word of God.

To your children, but you say, I don't know what to add to that, I don't know how to explain it, get a copy of that book and do what our family has been doing most recently. Our children have been very interested in the book of Revelation.

So most recently we were reading Revelation chapter 5. And before that we were reading Revelation chapter 4 and we were seeing all of a sudden all of these images casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.

The kids are looking at this and going, we are singing this stuff. Yes! And it is in God's word. And this is what it means. Use daily devotionals. Soon to be parents, when your children are still not even yet able to sit up, sit them on your laps and open the Bible and read God's word to them even then.

I like what Donald Whitney says, that even though they might be so young, they have no idea what is going on. They will think in their minds, there is something. I'm not sure what it is, but our family sits down and we read.

Everyone closes their eyes and they talk. We sing. I don't know what any of it means, but whatever it means, it must be important because we do it every single day. Get theologies and read systematic theologies with your children.

Catechisms. They are not just Catholic. They are not a Catholic thing. It is just catechesis. It is question and answer. What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

But above all, bless your family with the word of the living and true God. And don't just stop there. We would be tempted to stop there. I read the Bible. Let's carry on with our day. But teach your children to commune with God in prayer.

Reinforce to them that we have something that is almost altogether unexplainable. That we have bold and unhindered access to the very God of gods. The very God of Scripture. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the thrice holy God of Isaiah's vision.

We have bold and unfettered access to that God through Jesus Christ. So that we can come into His presence in the name of His Son. And His ears are open to the cries of His people. And that eternal life consists not only in believing God, which most certainly they will hear repeated again and again and again.

But as our Lord in John 15 says, this is eternal life that they may know God. Communing with Him day by day. And then starting small. And being gentle in this. Coax the prayers out of your children. Inviting them to pray.

Would you pray for mom tonight? Would you pray for grandma and grandpa? Until they can speak freely, clearly, unhinderedly, comfortably with the God of the universe. Whether you are there or not. And having achieved that, pray with a mission.

One of the things that our family does is we keep our church prayer directory. We have, and this has been a great help to our family, a basket next to the couch. It's got Bibles, it's got hymnals, and it's got our prayer directory.

And if you tape a pocket to the front that a pen goes in, we go there, we pray through the prayer directory, we write the date down that we wrote it, and that keeps us accountable because if we go back and my kids have said before, Dad, it's been this long since we've opened that book?

Yes. To my shame. Pray with a mission. Pray for the needs around you. Praise God for the answers to those prayers. Pray together for the lost. Pray for missionaries. Let your children hear you pray for their precious souls.

But don't stop there. Because you'll be tempted to stop at that point. But continuing on, when no one else is listening to you in your home except God alone, raise your voices in loudest songs of praise to Him.

Fill your home not only with sound doctrine, which you ought to fill your home with, but fill it with sound doxology. Teach your children the great hymns of the Christian faith. Learn the stories behind these hymns and explain it to your sons and daughters excitedly so that you can tell the story of Horatio Spafford when he wrote that song It is well with my soul.

As he stood at the edge of the boat looking into the water, likely where his children perished there, he said, oh my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul. And train your kids to sing, not just to mumble the words, but to sing loudly so that you can have teenage boys who are singing clearly and loudly, not realizing that this is not cool in the world, but this is what pleases God.