Luke #20: The Storms of Life (8:22-39)
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: Luke 8:22-39
N:
Welcome
Welcome
Good morning! Again, I’m Bill Connors, senior pastor here with Eastern Hills, and I’m blessed to be here this morning as the church gathers together to worship the Lord and to reflect on His Word. I pray that this time is a blessing to you as well, but more than anything, I pray that our joining together today brings honor and glory to God, and points us to Him. I wanted to take a moment this morning and say thanks to our Family Services Ministry, led by Deanna Chadwick. What they do, and they could always use more hands, especially hands that can do a little bit of heavier lifting.
If you’re visiting with us for the first time today, I hope that you’ve already discovered that Eastern Hills is loving, friendly, supportive, and encouraging church body. We invite you, if you are a guest with us today, to fill out a communication card, which you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you. Then you can drop that in the offering boxes by the doors on your way out after service, or you can bring them down to me at the front following our benediction at the end, as I would love to meet you and give you a small gift to thank you for your visit with us today. If you’re online, and visiting with us today, feel free to head over to our website ehbc.org, and fill out the communication card on the “I’m New” page. Whether you’re here in the room or online, we just want to be able to send you a note thanking you for your visit today, and to see if we can pray for you or minister to you in some way.
Opening
Opening
Last week was a great blessing for the church family as we recognized and celebrated our high school graduates (and our doctoral graduates as well), and Trevor shared a special challenge to the grads and the church family, calling us each to wear a heart monitor, take the next step, and trust in Jesus. We also had a wonderful time of fellowship afterwards in the Family Life Center as we had a reception in honor of the graduates as well.
This morning, we step back into our verse-by-verse study of the Gospel of Luke, which we’ve been in since the first of the year. This morning is our 20th message in this series, which will take us through the rest of the year. We’re in Luke 8 this morning, and two weeks ago we considered the first part of this chapter with parable of the sower, the light under a basket, and who Jesus declared are His mother and brothers: those who hear and do the Word of God.
This morning, we switch from looking at the teaching of Jesus to what will be several miraculous works of Jesus in a row in Luke’s Gospel, as he continues to provide his investigative report about Jesus to Theophilus.
Our focal passage today comprises the middle of this chapter, verses 22-39. Let’s stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word as we are able to do so, and let’s turn in our Bibles or our Bible apps to chapter 8 in Luke’s Gospel.
22 One day he and his disciples got into a boat, and he told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they were sailing he fell asleep. Then a fierce windstorm came down on the lake; they were being swamped and were in danger. 24 They came and woke him up, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to die!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves. So they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were fearful and amazed, asking one another, “Who then is this? He commands even the winds and the waves, and they obey him!” 26 Then they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 When he got out on land, a demon-possessed man from the town met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes and did not stay in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him, and said in a loud voice, “What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torment me!” 29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was guarded, bound by chains and shackles, he would snap the restraints and be driven by the demon into deserted places. 30 “What is your name?” Jesus asked him. “Legion,” he said, because many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to banish them to the abyss. 32 A large herd of pigs was there, feeding on the hillside. The demons begged him to permit them to enter the pigs, and he gave them permission. 33 The demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. 34 When the men who tended them saw what had happened, they ran off and reported it in the town and in the countryside. 35 Then people went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man the demons had departed from, sitting at Jesus’s feet, dressed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 Meanwhile, the eyewitnesses reported to them how the demon-possessed man was delivered. 37 Then all the people of the Gerasene region asked him to leave them, because they were gripped by great fear. So getting into the boat, he returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had departed begged him earnestly to be with him. But he sent him away and said, 39 “Go back to your home, and tell all that God has done for you.” And off he went, proclaiming throughout the town how much Jesus had done for him.
PRAYER
I’m not a big fan of driving in major rainstorms. Anyone else not a fan of that? There have been a few times in my life when I’ve been caught in a really serious storm while on the road, and I have to admit that they can be really terrifying. The last scary one that I drove through was on our way back from North Dakota a couple of years ago.
We had taken this trip to Mount Rushmore with the Tedfords, and so we were in two cars, but staying together, driving south through I think Wyoming when we caught up to a pounding rainstorm. It was one of those moments where your wipers are on full tilt, and for moments at a time, you can see the tail lights of the vehicle in front of you. At the same time, you know that the vehicle behind you can only see your tail lights for momentary snippets, so you don’t want to hit your brakes and cause them to panic… so you just kind of keep going. I’m not sure if that was wise or not in this particular instance, but it’s what I did. We made it through the storm without incident after not too long, and were able to continue heading for home without stopping. But it was dicey for a couple of minutes there.
The thing about a storm like that is there’s more to it than the fact that it’s raining hard. Sure, that’s a big deal because it makes it so we can’t see very clearly and covers the roadway with water, making it so that it would be harder to stop if we needed to. But that’s just part of it. There’s the stress that assails us from the inside as well: you find yourself white-knuckling the steering wheel, feeling all of your back and arm muscles tense up while your foot is constantly ready to move to the brake, and you barely dare to breathe. The fear is real because the danger is real. And when you finally come out on the other side, you feel your heart rate slow down, take that stress cleansing breath—whew!—and realize that you were sweating.
The difficulties and stresses that we experience in our lives can often feel very similar to that storm. And this morning, we consider these two miraculous events in the ministry of Jesus, and we will see that we can walk through these difficult times with Him because of the power that only He possesses.
1: Jesus can calm the storms around us.
1: Jesus can calm the storms around us.
The Sea of Galilee sits at nearly 700 feet below sea level, and all around it are what some might refer to as “mountains,” but from where we are, we would look down on them from high above. Really, to us it’s a bunch of good sized hills, but there are many valleys and cliffs that lead down to the surface of the Sea. Truly, the Sea of Galilee is really a large lake. Because of the way the warm desert air can descend to the lake from the east, and strong winds from the Mediterranean are funneled by the various cliffs and ravines can combined to produce very sudden, very severe storms, the lake sometimes acts like a sea in its violence. Jesus and His disciples experienced one such storm.
22 One day he and his disciples got into a boat, and he told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they were sailing he fell asleep. Then a fierce windstorm came down on the lake; they were being swamped and were in danger. 24 They came and woke him up, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to die!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves. So they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were fearful and amazed, asking one another, “Who then is this? He commands even the winds and the waves, and they obey him!”
Jesus was still operating from His kind of “home base” of Capernaum, which is just west of the northern “tip” of the Sea of Galilee. On a calm day, you can easily see from Capernaum across the lake to the mountains on its southern end. Here’s a picture of me doing just that on the shore in Capernaum.
Jesus wasn’t meaning to cross to the other side of the lake directly, He meant that they would cross from the Hebrew side to the Gentile side, which would have been the eastern shore about halfway down that side of the lake. The trip was about 6 or 7 miles across the lake if you were to go straight across.
Jesus took the opportunity to grab a little rest, and curled up in the back part of the boat on a cushion, according to Mark’s account. Suddenly, a fierce storm rose up on the lake. Even today, these storms can appear in a matter of minutes. And that’s what happens with this storm. It’s so sudden, and so intense, that the boat that they are in (likely a fishing boat) is tossed about, becoming swamped as the waves crashed over the sides.
But these were veteran fishermen. Surely they could handle this. Don’t forget that we only know for a fact that four them were fishermen: Peter, Andrew, James, and John. It’s entirely likely that none of the other people on that boat that day had a clue about managing a fishing boat in the middle of a storm. The fishermen had their hands full, and it wasn’t working. The danger that they were in would have been very real any other day.
In their panic, they do exactly what they needed to do: They run to Jesus. “Master, Master,” they say, “we’re going to die!” Jesus’s response was decisive: He got up and rebuked both the wind and the waves. Mark records that He said, “Silence! Be still!” And instantly, the storm evaporated, and the sea was once again calm.
The storm the disciples faced that day was very real, very powerful, and very dangerous. They didn’t have the resources to face it, so they turned to Jesus. And with just two words from Him (two in the Greek, that is), the storm was gone. In this, Jesus reflects something that only the Lord God had done in the Old Testament:
9 You rule the raging sea; when its waves surge, you still them.
28 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. 29 He stilled the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
This is the first miracle that we see over nature in Luke that wasn’t a healing. And it’s really impressive. So impressive that His disciples ask “Who then is this?”, showing that they still didn’t completely understand who they were following. Thus, Jesus could ask them, “Where is your faith?” He was completely secure in His God-ness, and so was able to sleep through the tumult around Him. Why had they been so sure they were going to die?
You know, this was a legit storm, and many of life’s storms can be this way as well—sudden, fierce, dangerous, and uncontrollable. They aren’t really of our doing, and we don’t have any say over their arrival, their intensity, their duration, or their impact. They often cannot be reasoned with or negotiated with. These storms can descend on us without warning, and we’re forced to navigate them. Some examples:
The death of a loved one.
A sudden financial burden that wasn’t planned for.
The loss of a job through layoff or firing.
Natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods.
Maybe a pandemic?
I know that I have faced many of these storms myself.
Some of these “storms” seem to have our lives in the crosshairs. Some of them are just the general storms that living in a broken world brings to bear. Just like the disciples, we often do not possess the resources to face such storms. But like Jesus was, it is possible for us to be completely secure in Him when the storms of life come our way.
Jesus is the only One who can give us lasting peace, permanent peace, eternal peace in the face of life’s storms, because only He has that kind of power.
27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.
How does He bring this peace? Through His Word as applied by the work of the Holy Spirit. Right before this verse, He said:
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
This peace that Jesus offers is only available through faith. If you haven’t believed the Gospel of Jesus, never surrendered your rights to yourself, never trusted in what Jesus has done to save you, this peace that Christ offers isn’t available to you. We all struggle against a problem called sin: it’s what we say, do, and think that go against God’s perfect character, and the things that line up with His character that we refuse to do when He commands us to do them. The Bible tells us that our sin separates us from God, because He is holy and perfect—He can’t have fellowship with sin, and all sin deserves His holy wrath. We cannot deserve His forgiveness. So He sent His Son, Jesus, to live a sinless life as our representative, and then to die as our replacement—the only One who deserved life received death, so that those who only deserve death can receive life. And the Bible tells us that He defeated death by overcoming the grave by rising to life again.
God calls us to turn from our sins, something called “repentance,” and to turn to Jesus, believing that what He has done is the only way for us to be saved, trusting in His death and resurrection for our forgiveness and eternal life, and surrendering to Him as Lord and Master. If we follow Jesus as Savior and Lord, we will be saved.
However, when we are saved that doesn’t mean that the storms end. Jesus calmed the disciples’ storm instantaneously. But He won’t necessarily always do that. Following Jesus doesn’t mean stormless seas. The disciples met this storm precisely because they had done what Jesus asked of them. Following Christ means that we have a hope as an anchor for us in the midst of the storms of life:
19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.
Lisa Harper is wrote, “Sometimes He quiets the storms in our lives, and sometimes He allows them to rage. But regardless of the weather, He always calms and comforts His children.” (Every Woman’s Hope) When we trust Christ, we trust in the only One who can calm the storms that we find ourselves in.
Sometimes the storms around us can become chaos within us as well. This happened to the disciples, and we’ll look look more at that in our third point.
After Jesus and the disciples landed, He faced someone going through a different kind of opposition:
2: Jesus can defeat the foes against us.
2: Jesus can defeat the foes against us.
Sometimes we are set upon by things that aren’t “storms,” so much as “enemies.” These are times when we are specifically attacked—when we don’t face an impersonal, situational problem, but a true assault against us from a malevolent source. As Jesus and His disciples landed on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, they were met by a man possessed by demons:
26 Then they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 When he got out on land, a demon-possessed man from the town met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes and did not stay in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him, and said in a loud voice, “What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torment me!” 29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was guarded, bound by chains and shackles, he would snap the restraints and be driven by the demon into deserted places. 30 “What is your name?” Jesus asked him. “Legion,” he said, because many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to banish them to the abyss.
The region of the Gerasenes would have included most of the area east and southeast of the Sea of Galilee, so the modern Golan, and down into Jordan. It included eight of the ten towns that were referred to as the Decapolis (literally, “ten cities”). It was originally owned by the Jews (East Manasseh, the group that decided to stay on the eastern side of the Jordan, along with the tribes of Gad and Reuben), but at this point it was largely Gentile (we’ll see how we know that in a moment).
The man that came to Jesus didn’t live (at that point) in the cities, but instead was an outcast because of his demon possession. He lived among the tombs, which were often just caves in the cliffsides. The spiritual attack that this man faced had left him without home, without fellowship, and without dignity, as he wore no clothes. His was a lonely and dark existence. We read that the attacks he endured came in waves, and would be accompanied by superhuman strength, but would force the man to stay away from civilization. People had even tried to imprison the man, but he could break the chains and shackles that held him.
He was oppressed by not just one demon, which we’ve seen Jesus deal with a couple of times now in Luke, but by many, which collectively referred to themselves as “Legion,” which was the largest military component of the Roman army, consisting of 5,600 to 6,000 infantrymen plus a few cavalry. This doesn’t mean that this is how many demons there were assaulting this man, just that it was great number. These demons had overpowered and enslaved this man, tormenting and torturing him for some time.
But we see that when Jesus came on the scene, they had no power whatsoever over Him. Seeing Jesus, they caused the man to cry out and fall on his face before Him. The demons who had commanded this man could do nothing to resist the King of kings. The evil who had chosen to torment the man could do nothing but beg the Lord of lords. The beings who had given this man great power knew they were powerless before the Lord, and they knew what their ultimate end was, as recorded by Matthew:
29 Suddenly they shouted, “What do you have to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”
They knew that a time was coming. The clock was ticking for them. They had the abyss to look forward to: a place reserved for the torment of the devil and his angels:
41 “Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!
3a He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed.
The reason that we know that this area was predominantly Gentile by this point is that pigs are considered to be unclean by the Jews. And the people of this area were actually shepherding them. No self-respecting Jews would have been living anywhere nearby. The demon-possessed man looks around, sees a large herd (about 2,000 of them, according to Mark):
32 A large herd of pigs was there, feeding on the hillside. The demons begged him to permit them to enter the pigs, and he gave them permission. 33 The demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
Interestingly, there’s really only one place on the east side of the Galilee where this could have taken place.
Video from Gerasene hillside.
The fact that the unclean demons went into the unclean pigs and they all died would have been very fitting in a Jewish mind. The pigs suddenly rushing down the bank into the lake would have been proof positive of the demon possession.
Now, by way of application, I first want to say that this man faced legitimate demon possession. Some people look at this and say that he had a mental illness that we better understand now. No. Mental illness doesn’t jump from a person to a herd of pigs and cause them to commit suicide by drowning. This was exactly what the Bible says it was: demons. Spiritual warfare is completely real.
However, that doesn’t mean that we have to confine our application of this point to mean that Jesus only can defeat demonic foes that rise up against us. There are other very real, very personal foes that we face: people who want to harm us, disease (including mental illnesses), injury, or disability. And to be honest, sometimes those things actually are of a demonic origin (but not every time).
Jesus has the power to defeat these foes as well. He can bring restoration in the now, as we see in the life of this man, because He can drive out the demons. He can heal our infirmities. He can carry our sicknesses. He can protect us and lift us up.
The most insidious foe that we face is the foe of sin, and Jesus has overcome that one as well:
4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.
If this is the case, how could He NOT be able to defeat any other foe that we face if we will walk with Him in trust and faith? Again, this isn’t to say that He will defeat these foes in the way that WE think He should. Ultimately, we know that all of these enemies, even the enemy known as death, will be defeated in the life of the believer because of the work of Christ.
54 When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory. 55 Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting?
We must take a long-term view of victory. Christ is victorious, and nothing can separate us from Him and from His love if we belong to Him. Therefore, if we are in Christ, whether our victory comes now or comes later, we will be victorious. We are overcomers because of Jesus!
35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But again, this victory is only for those who belong to Christ through faith. John even wrote that our faith is the victory that overcomes the world. (1Jn 5:4). So we need not walk in fear or anxiety if we are in Christ, which brings us to our last point:
3: Jesus can resolve the chaos within us.
3: Jesus can resolve the chaos within us.
Again, both the storms that we face around us and the foes that come against us have further-reaching impact than their mere existence. Like the stress that I mentioned facing when driving through the rainstorm, facing these difficulties can leave us struggling with fear, worry, and anxiety. The disciples in the boat were afraid of the storm around them. And we see in the rest of our focal passage that the people of the Gerasene region were afraid as well:
34 When the men who tended them saw what had happened, they ran off and reported it in the town and in the countryside. 35 Then people went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man the demons had departed from, sitting at Jesus’s feet, dressed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 Meanwhile, the eyewitnesses reported to them how the demon-possessed man was delivered. 37 Then all the people of the Gerasene region asked him to leave them, because they were gripped by great fear. So getting into the boat, he returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had departed begged him earnestly to be with him. But he sent him away and said, 39 “Go back to your home, and tell all that God has done for you.” And off he went, proclaiming throughout the town how much Jesus had done for him.
There are contrasts for us to see throughout this entire passage: The fear of the disciples vs. the calm rest of Jesus in the face of the storm. The storm’s violence before Jesus spoke vs. the calm following. The demon-possessed man himself before Jesus drove out the demons vs. the same man afterwards. The fear of the townspeople vs. the peace of the freed demoniac.
The man who had been possessed has been completely restored: He had been chained and alone, now he sits unshackled at Jesus’s feet. He had been without dignity in his nakedness, and now he is fully clothed. He had been homeless, living in the tombs, and now Jesus tells him to return home. The change in him was extraordinary: the chaos that raged inside of him had been resolved.
The people here are afraid of Jesus’s power, and so they sadly ask Him to leave. Their fear prevented them from hearing, from listening, from trusting in the One who had done this miraculous work in the life of this man. The chaos inside of them raged on.
Their fear was its own kind of storm, its own type of foe. In my personal experience, the times that I am set upon by fear, anxiety, and worry are because I feel like I’m not in control. I had a pretty good bout with fear and worry earlier this year after my AFib diagnosis. I found myself constantly going back to the “What if...” questions. I struggled to concentrate, struggled in making decisions, struggled to find any sort of peace. It wasn’t until I meditated on 2 Corinthians 12:9 that I remembered God’s view, and He began to remove the chaos in my mind and heart:
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.
Now, I’m not saying that dealing with fear, worry, and anxiety just come down to a simple “trust Jesus more.” I know it’s not that simple, and that we have experiences and weaknesses that impact the level and type of fears that we face. I understand that the brush I’m painting with this morning is extremely broad. However, I will say this: Where else but Jesus will we find the peace that we long for? What other source is there that is able to offer calm in the storms of life, or victory over the foes we face? Where else can we set our minds and hearts that can truly resolve the chaos within us?
There is no other source for this kind of peace but Jesus. The Bible tells us that it is when we are completely dependent upon the Lord and His control that we can find true peace:
3 You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you.
Worry, fear, and anxiety take our focus off of the Lord. There’s a reason that Jesus asked in the Sermon on the Mount: “Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying?” (Matt 6:27) Paul would give the instruction about facing worry that many of us cling to when we face such stresses when he wrote to the Philippians:
6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things. 9 Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
We often only quote verses 6 and 7, but 8 and 9 are connected. Our hearts and minds will be guarded in Christ by God’s peace, which will come as we set our hearts and minds on those things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, morally excellent, and praiseworthy, and as we do those things that God would have us do in life.
If we are in Christ, we have the Holy Spirit within us: a Spirit not of fear, but of power, love, and sound judgment according to 2 Timothy 1:7; a Spirit not of slavery to fear, but the Spirit of Adoption according to Romans 8:15. Through His work in our lives, we can say like the the author of Hebrews:
6 Therefore, we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
There is no storm, no foe, mightier than the Lord God. We can trust Him as we walk through this life in obedience and faith.
Closing
Closing
Just to close: The demon-possessed man had the right response. He wanted to walk with Jesus, but Jesus had a plan for him: to go and proclaim what God had done for him back home among the Gentiles of the Decapolis, thus, I suppose making him the first missionary to the Gentiles. One thing to notice is that he was instructed to testify about what God had done, and he went and testified to what Jesus had done. To speak of the work of one is to speak of the work of the other, for they are One.
The work of God in our lives should prompt us to testify about it to others. Will we do so?
Christian: Caught in a storm? Facing a foe? Lay your worries at the foot of the cross and focus on Jesus. Listen to Him and follow Him as you face these things.
Unbeliever: Do you want this kind of peace?
Baptism
Church membership
Prayer
Giving
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Mission: Make a couple of blanks.
Bible reading (Matt 16-17, Ps 138)
No Pastor’s Study this week (Memorial Day Weekend)
Prayer Meeting: prayer for the lost this week. Come and lets gather together to pray for those we know who need to hear and believe the message of the Gospel.
Instructions for guests
Benediction
Benediction
10 Though the mountains move and the hills shake, my love will not be removed from you and my covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says your compassionate Lord.
