SS06-24-07
RENEW OUR DEVOTION TODAY. DEUT. 29:10-15; 30: 1-3, 6, 11-14, 19-20.
DEUTERONOMY 29: 10-15; 30:1-3, 6, 11-14, 19-20.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO DEUTERONOMY 29.
The Life Impact in today’s lesson is designed to help us develop a passionate devotion to God by understanding that God wants us to choose to love Him and then committing to love God with all our heart.
Relationships and commitments call for renewal. This applies to biblical religion. The Bible uses the word covenant to express our relationship with God and our commitment to Him. Many people who made some kind of beginning in religion seem to have no up-to-date commitment or relationship with God.
We use words such as revival, rededication, reawakening, and renewal to state what is needed. Whenever true believers come to worship God, they need to renew their commitment and relationship with Him.
The Bible uses the word covenant to describe our commitment to and relationship with God. There are several covenants in the Bible, but the Book of Deuteronomy focuses on the covenant with Israel. Specifically, it is about renewing the covenant Israel entered into at Mount Sinai, as described in Exodus 19-20.
The Lord promised to make Israel His special people, and they were to commit to make Him their only God. They also promised to obey His commandments. God made this covenant with the generation of Israelites that God delivered from Egyptian bondage. That generation refused to enter the Promised Land and wandered in the wilderness until most of the adults were dead.
Deuteronomy tells of the renewing of the covenant with the next generation, just before they entered the Promised Land.
In chapters 27-28, God called for them to have a covenant renewal ceremony at Shechem after entering Canaan. Deuteronomy 29-30 contains God’s call for the people preparing to enter Canaan to renew the covenant.
These points are made: (1) Entering a covenant involves commitment of total love and obedience to God. (2) The nature of the relationship calls for renewing the covenant from time to time. (3) Human sins make this necessary. (4) Each new generation needs to renew for themselves the covenant.
Dr. Fred Wood, the author of our lessons in June, said one Sunday morning following the benediction, a prominent doctor of the town approached this pastor privately. “This past week I finalized a decision I’ve grappling with for a number of months.
The service this morning made me realize I need to implement it now. Hopefully, we can get together privately and talk more this week. In the meantime, my family and I will be at the service tonight. It will probably surprise my children---they don’t know anything about coming to church on Sunday nights. I may come later with my family to make a public decision after I’ve discussed it with them privately. You’ll see a difference in my faithfulness at church. By the way, that means my financial participation, too.
The pastor told me about the results of that man’s decision and action. I’ll share more with you later in this study. It’s a thrilling story.
PLEASE READ DEUTERONOMY 29: 10-15.
Moses described the people as “standing today before the LORD your God.” They were a large group standing as they listened to God’s Word being delivered by Moses. This would be like a large group worship service in our setting.
Vs. 10-11 lists the groups that were there. The main groups you would expect to be there were the leaders and the men. More surprising was the presence of the children and wives. This and some other passages show that God intends women and children to be participants in public worship.
Even more surprising was the presence of the stranger or resident aliens who lived among the Hebrews: however, the Israelites were reminded that they had been strangers in Egypt. Many of these---but not all---were servants. Cutting wood and drawing water were considered the work of servants. Exodus 20:10 lists servants and strangers as separate groups among the Israelites.
This kind of inclusiveness in worship foreshadowed the day when all people would be invited to come to God in Christ. Much of the Old Testament has an exclusive emphasis to protect the Israelites from the influences of pagan people. But there are clues along the way that God’s ultimate purpose is inclusive. Clearly in Christianity the invitation is to all people to come and enter into covenant relation with God.
The material in 27:1-34:12 consists of what is often called “The Larger Lesson.” In order to feel the complete thrust of Moses’ words, one needs to get the complete picture. If you will take time to read the entire section of Deut. 27:1-34:12 in one setting, you will then be in a position to feel the passion in all the exhortations of Moses.
Chapters 12-28 of Deuteronomy contain exhortations and applications of God’s law for when the Israelites would be settled in the new land. A proclamation of these commands was probably a part of the covenant renewal service described in chapters 29-30.
Chapters 29-30 point to the actual ceremony of renewing the covenant. The contents follow the outline generally used for such covenants. It is as follows: (1) Pre-history: 29:2-9. ((2) Recording the agreement made; 29:10-15. (3) A sermon warning against disobedience 29:16-21. (4) A closing statement of curse in case the covenant is broken: 29:22-29. (5) A statement of blessing in an exilic form: 30:1-10. (6) A sermon commending keeping the covenant: 30:11-14. (7) Blessing and curse, witnesses as conclusion: 30:15-20.
Vs. 10 begins the words Moses actually spoke. Notice he specified the various groups present. All sections of the community were present, down to the non--Israelites who did the menial work. This can be understood as symbolic of the fact that God’s interest in people extends to the least segment of society, even the non-Israelites. What a glorious pre-figuring of Christ’s command to carry the gospel to the “unclean Gentiles.”
Moses explained to the people that the coming together gave them an opportunity to renew their dedication for the covenant their fathers had made. During the 40 years in the wilderness, the enthusiasm for God’s purpose and promises had dwindled. Perhaps their striving for existence and subsistence consumed their time so completely they allotted none of it to spiritual matters.
Most modern living today adopts the same attitude and follows the same pattern. Often a pastor hears a church member say, ‘I’m sorry I haven’t been to church lately. I’ve been working so hard lately that I sleep in on Sunday.” Sometime the excuse is framed another way: “Life is so complex and energy-consuming that my wife and I slip away on Sundays to the lake for some rest and relaxation.”
Have these people never realized time spent in meaningful corporate worship with fellow believers has a distinctive value? It can relax the body and feed the spirit better than anything the secular world has to offer.
“What about a refreshing 18 holes of golf on Sunday morning instead of a stuffy old building crowded with noisy people? I can worship out in the beauty of nature.” A prominent pastor gives a classic reply to that claim. “I don’t say a man cannot have high and noble thoughts about his Heavenly Father coming out of a sand trap or lining up for a birdie putt at l0:45 on Sunday morning. Let’s be honest, however, the odds of that happening are remote. How about ten million to one?” The truth is we need corporate worship.”
In emphasizing public, corporate worship as a setting conducive to the making of decisions for God, we don’t wish to minimize the value of private decisions and commitments. Renewing our devotion doesn’t mean, “walking the aisle” at each service.
I remember from childhood days a man who did this regularly. On the other hand, I once knew a preacher who counted any service a failure if no body responded publicly in some way.
Recall the story of the medical doctor mentioned earlier. He made a private decision first, but followed it later with a public one. This man followed through on his commitment. He became one of the leaders in his church.
Following his pastor’s leadership and recommendation he was elected to serve on the board of trustees of a large regional hospital. Years later, when I was at his church for a speaking assignment, my wife and I visited him in his home. We saw a happy family and a successful professional man, still dedicated to God’s work.
I learned from another source he had developed into a valuable board member for the hospital, helping the institution in solving a critical administrative problem. Corporate worship settings are opportunities for spiritual renewal. At the same time, renewal can come in private worship.
In the ministry of Jesus, the woman at the well in Sychar, in John 4, made a meaningful decision in private. She followed through with a public testimony to God’s glory and the conversion of many friends.
Vs. 12 says that they were there to enter into covenant with the Lord. The word enter sounds as if this was the beginning of their experience with the covenant. “It is important to remember that this was not so much a ceremony of covenant making as it was one of covenant affirmation or renewal.”
The original covenant had been made at Horeb, so what was in view here was the Lord’s offer of the same covenant (albeit, with necessary amendments) to the next generation of Israelites.
Arrangements agreed to by their parents were not sufficient for them. They also had to go on record as committing themselves to the Lord and His theocratic program.”
Thus for some this was their official entry into the covenant: for others it was a renewal of their covenant relationship. Later, this same group had a covenant renewal experience at Shechem. Thus two kinds of renewal are presented.
One is the renewal when the next generation commits themselves to the covenant of their fathers. The other is the kind of renewal that occurs many times within the life of a single believer or a church. Because the covenant is a commitment and a relationship, both of these call for renewal. That is, commitments need to be reaffirmed and relationships need to be kept fresh and up-to-date.
Both kinds of renewal are important to the life of faith. Passing on the faith to the next generation is essential for the ongoing of God’s people. Renewing of your own faith is also necessary. This is because without coming before God in worship our relation with Him becomes stale and our commitment grows lax.
The purpose of the covenant was that God might establish them for a people unto Himself, and that He may be unto them a God. This same covenant was sworn by God, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. The scope of the covenant included not only all who were standing there that day but also those not there with them on that day.
The reference in the last part of vs. 15 was “not to those who could not be present for some reason such as ill health. Rather, the words indicate that the generations to be born in the future. The reference to future generations impressed even more firmly the responsibility incumbent on those who were present on the plains of Moab, for not only their own future, but also the future of their posterity would be contingent upon their obedience to the law of the covenant.
If the growth toward spiritual maturity were put on a graph it would not be a line sloping smoothly upward. Instead, it would look more like an upward line with plateaus.
Growth toward moral and spiritual maturity is not the result of the mere passage of time or inevitable progress but of responses to redemptive moments in life. These are the times of opportunity, challenge, or difficulty. For example, I had such a redemptive moment the summer before I left home to go to college. I knew that how I lived would be up to me. Our family went to church every Sunday.
As I was growing up, I learned this early in life. But I knew that at college my dad would not be there to call up to my room when it was time to get up on Sunday to get ready for Sunday School and church. It would be up to me. We were having our annual August revival meeting at our church as I had these thoughts. I don’t recall going down front to make a public decision, but I made an inward promise to God. I experienced renewal. This proved to be a significant step in my relationship with God. PLEASE TURN TO DEUTERONOMY 30.
PLEASE READ DEUTERONOMY 30: 1-3.
Deuteronomy 30: 1 speaks of a time “when all these things happen to you.” What things? We find the answer in 29: 16-29, especially vss.24-29. Moses acted with prophetic vision in these verses. Deut. 34:10 says of him, “NO PROPHET HAS RISEN AGAIN IN ISRAEL LIKE MOSES, WHOM THE LORD KNEW FACE TO FACE.”
Moses looked into what the future held for Israel. He foretold a continual history of sin and idolatry, which would bring on Israel one of the curses resulting from sin: Deut. 29:28, “AND THE LORD ROOTED THEM OUT OF THEIR LAND IN ANGER, AND IN WRATH, AND IN GREAT INDIGNATION, AND CAST THEM INTO ANOTHER LAND.
Years before the exile Moses predicted the exile and called it an example of the blessing and the curse of chapters 27-28. The specific curse was this warning of how God would judge continual evil. In Deut. 28: 63-65 Moses said, “You will be deported from the land you are entering to possess. Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. You will find no peace among those nations, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot.”
The first of Israel’s two exiles was in Assyria in 722 B.C. The second came in three stages. In 605 B.C. Babylon, fresh from its victory over Assyria, invade the Southern Kingdom and took a number of captives, including a young man named Daniel. He later became an outstanding prophet. In 597 B.C., Babylon returned and took more captives, including a young priest named Ezekiel. He, too, became a prophet.
In 586 B.C., the final blow fell. The temple built by Solomon was destroyed and the remaining people were taken to Babylon. This brief summary forms the background of Deut. 30: 1-6.
What can we learn from these events? Two important things. First, sin will bring tragedy to people though they have made vows to be obedient and never to forsake the Lord. Second, God will be faithful to His promises if people sincerely have entered into covenant with Him.
This, in some ways, prefigures the eternal security of the believer. God will chastise a born-again person, but He will never cast him off. Why? God’s seed remains in the believer and he cannot continue to remain in sin because God’s seed is in him. (See 1 John 3:9)
Such prophets as Jeremiah and Ezekiel kept alive hope for the nation during their darkest hour. What was the promise? The nation would seek the Lord and find Him when they would seek with their whole heart. This is equally true of individuals. In speaking about the canonical prophets in the eighth and seventh centuries, we should remember God called Moses a prophet long before Hosea, Amos, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel lived.
The person who, under the inspiration of God, recorded the death of Moses paid a glowing tribute to this man of God. He wrote in Deut 34: 10; “No prophet has arisen again in Israel like Moses, who the Lord knew face to face.”
Deut. 30: 1-3 tells of Israel’s return from exile. Moses used the word thee in describing something that would take place years after that generation was dead. How could he speak of these future events as if they would happen to the listeners on the plains of Moab just before entering Canaan? There was a strong sense of belonging to God’s people that Bible people of one generation some times spoke of their solidarity with both ancestors and descendants. They took the long look. Moses was never allowed to cross over into the Promised Land, but he felt a part with those who did.
Their return from the exile would be an act of pure grace, but it would be accompanied by certain responses by the Israelites. For one thing they would “come to” their “senses.”
This sounds much like the description of how the prodigal son “came to himself” in Luke 15:17. He was like a person waking up after a self-made nightmare.
Moses predicted that in much the same way the exiled Jews would see reality as it was, and became aware that they were to blame for their plight. In my judgment, Moses was stating a profound truth in this verse.
When the people in captivity realize their sins have brought them to this situation, they will seek the Lord with their whole heart, including a repentant attitude. This will lead to their deliverance or salvation.
The second change in them as a result of deliverance from exile was that they would return unto the Lord. The word return means “to turn,” “return,” or “repent.”
It is often used to describe God’s gracious mercy toward sinners. It was the O.T. term for God’s grace.
Another response to return from the exile was passionate obedience. “Thou…shalt obey His voice according to all that I command thee this day.” This was passionate obedience because it included all the commandments. It also included the whole family-including the children. “Above all, it was passionate because it was done with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.”
We do not generally think of obedience as passionate. Passionate is an interesting word. It is the adjective form of the noun passion. We use this word of the sufferings of Jesus and of something or someone about whom we have strong feelings. People can be passionate about their work, some hobby, or just about anything. Christians should be passionate about their devotion to the Lord.
Often we obey some authority reluctantly and joylessly. For many people this is how they think of obeying God, without passion. The N.T. viewed much of the religion of that day as a heavy burden to be borne. The Pharisees considered themselves passionate toward he law, but Jesus said of them in Matt. 24:4, “They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to life a finger to move them.”
Contrast this with the attitude seen in Psalm 19: 7-14, which begins, “The instruction of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise. The precepts of the Lord are radiant, making the eyes light up.”
PLEASE READ DEUTERONOMY 30:6.
Ezekiel, during the Babylon captivity, in Ezek. 36: 26-27, promised the captives God would restore them and bring spiritual renewal. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you: I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My statues and carefully observe My ordinances.
In Deut. 6:5 and 30:6 the words that show the passionate nature of obedience are “with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.” The key word is all.
People of faith are to give all their love and obedience to God. We are to be passionate about our love for Him and our obedience to Him.
The basis for all of this is the compassion of the Lord. Vs. 6 says that His gracious mercy leads Him to circumcise the heart. Circumcision was the outward sign of belonging to the people of the old covenant. But early in Israel’s history came the call in Deut. 10: 16, “Circumcise your heart, and be no more stiff necked.”
As late as the time of Jeremiah, the same call was sounded in Jeremiah 4: 4. Paul equated circumcision of the heart with spiritual renewal, especially in the Epistle to the Romans in Romans 2: 25-27. He argued that circumcision was of value for the Jew who obeys the law or keeps the covenant, but as a mere outward physical sign it has no value at all to the disobedient.
What is required, he said in Rom. 2:28-29, is inward circumcision, that of the heart and spirit that attests to genuine faith. Deut. 30:6 was God’s promise to do this spiritual renewal for the repentant Israel. The Lord is gracious and merciful with those who repent.
Christians who have backslidden in their spiritual lives should learn a great lesson from the prophets. If you have broken fellowship with the Lord, you need to think carefully about the direction your life is traveling. Nothing good can come from continuing to rebel against God or disregarding His ways.
This truth applies to two groups: First, to non-Christians who have never entered into a saving covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. Second, to born-again Christians who have allowed sin to disrupt their spiritual lives and destroy the joy of salvation.
Dr. Fred Wood said, “Let me share an experience from my pastoral life. The parents of a seventeen-year-old girl, an honor student in her high school senior years, asked me to help them
with a problem.
Their daughter was rebelling against them. She wished to marry an older boy in the army who had come to town while on a two-week furlough. They had whirl-wind courtship and she wanted to marry him. In fact, she had skipped school the day before and they were on their way to get married when the parents intercepted them. She said defiantly, “I’m going to marry him, and you can’t stop me.”
She did agree to come and talk with me. Breaking through her stubbornness and gaining her confidence took some time, but finally she became responsive. She said she was pregnant, but I surmised correctly and said, “You’ve had sex with him and feel guilty.” You think the only way you can get forgiveness is to legalize your sex by getting married. Is that correct. She looked me in the eye and asked, “Isn’t it? I replied, “A thousand times ‘no.’ “What you did was wrong, but it doesn’t take being a Christian away from you. You’ve broken your fellowship with God but not your relationship with Him.”
“You need to ask God to forgive you, not save you again. You’re still a born-again child of God, but you’re a disobedient one. We need to talk to God about this matter. You need to ask for His forgiveness.” After a prayer in which she confessed her sin to God, I said, “How do you feel? She said softly, “Better.’ I said, “Do you still want to marry this young man? She said forcefully, “No. I hate him.” She went back to school, stayed on the honor roll, and graduated in June. She never saw the boy again.
Moses warned Israel of leaving God after they settled in their new land, and he predicted accurately they would do this very thing. He also assured them they could secure forgiveness even when they were carried into captivity. All sins destroy fellowship with God and need to be faced honestly and promptly.
The Lord is patient with His people and full of compassion. We should confess our sins, renew our relationship with the Lord, and return to obeying Him with all our hearts.
PLEASE READ DEUTERONOMY 30: 11-14.
The word commandment is used throughout Deuteronomy to refer to the whole body of commands that Moses was giving them. He denied that it was hidden from them or too difficult, or too far off from them or beyond their reach.
Apparently they had been claiming the commandment was inaccessible and incomprehensible. In other words, God’s commands were too hard to discover and, when known, too hard to obey. Moses used two vivid pictures to illustrate their excuses and the answer to each.
“Who will go up into heaven, get it for us, and proclaim it to us so that we may follow it?” They seemed to assume that God’s will is hidden in heaven. Since none of them could gain access to heaven, they claimed to be unable to get access to God’s commandments and they had no one to explain them.
God’s plan was not to hide from them what He wanted them to do. It is not some mystery made known only to the members of some secret society with access to heaven’s ways.
“Who will cross the sea, get it for us, and proclaim it to us so that we may follow it?”
This assumed that someone somewhere had the answer to the will of God for them, and if they could find that person, he could explain it to them. But the commandments are not in some distant place and known only to select people. God has sent Moses to give them His commandments and to explain them. Thus Moses told them that the commandments were not in heaven or in some distant land but in their mouth and in their heart.
This message given by Moses applied to the law, the only part of the Bible yet available, but it can be applied today to the whole Bible. People have access to the written word of God, but many ignore it and live as though they do no know God’s will for them.
Others profess to find the Bible too hard to understand. We believers have two guide lines, Every person should have a Bible and study it for himself or herself. There are some hard-to-understand things in the Bible, but we can learn from one another as the Spirit illumines it.
In Romans 10: 6-8, Paul used this passage as a background for the emphasis on the accessibility of Christ and the good news of the gospel.
There is no need to send someone to heaven because Jesus came down to us from heaven. There is not need to call someone up from the grave, for Christ has already been raised from the dead. Paul in Rom. 10:8 applied the words of Moses about the law to the gospel of faith. “The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” Faith in the heart is confession with the mouth.” God gives understanding to those who have open hearts.
Have you ever felt that the requirements of God are so complex you can’t understand them? A favorite excuse many people give for not being a follower of Christ today is “So many different opinions exist about religion, how can I know which one is right?
Those in Moses’ audience who had not been present for the covenant’s ratification at Sinai probably had some questions. Some of them might have been: “Were all the various laws still in effect?” “What about when they entered the Promised Land? Would observing some of the old laws still be required?” “What about some personal interpretations of Moses’ during the wilderness wanderings? Would they hold the same authority as those their fathers told them were delivered at Sinai?” Many of these were legitimate questions from sincere people.
Back to the questions we ask today. Many come to their pastor or spiritual leader inquiring, “What should my attitude be when my professor declares something to be factual that conflicts with what I’ve been taught? Should I confront him or her openly in class and risk unpleasant relationships and grades?
Some teachers in secular institutions are blatant in their bias against any kind of revealed religion. Having tenure, they abuse their academic privilege and security. On the other hand, some are sincerely attempting to lead the students to a higher realm of inquisitive and objective thinking. This is legitimate. We need to examine all things and hold to that which is good.
Moses had a common sense approach. Revealed religion is not all that complicated. We don’t need to explore distant places for a special word of enlightenment. Actually, we know the basics of right and wrong intuitively. Moral requirements of the universe are written in the constitution of our soul. Some call it conscience. Others call it the “still small voice within.”
I don’t mean to over simplify, but almost everybody today realizes we’ve all sinned and come short of God’s standard.
Moses declared that the law is in the heart of man---that it is within our consciousness. It is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may follow it. What is true of God’s law as proclaimed by Moses is also true of all moral law and is embedded in the teachings of Jesus Christ.
If we are to interpret the words of Moses properly, we must take into account the purpose of his address. He was speaking to the people as a collective body. He was not discussing the requirements of what we call personal salvation.
The Christian faith has a teaching made explicit that was implicit in the Jewish faith. It can be demonstrated in a conversation I heard between a Baptist pastor and a rabbi at a luncheon that followed a lecture at the synagogue. The minister said, “We heard the speaker with his appeal for ethical righteousness. Everything he said was relevant for today’s world. As a Christian, I agree. We Christians realize h0wever, that we cannot measure up to that standard in our own strength. Our faith has a doctrine called regeneration or “new birth.”
We believe in God’s Spirit who transforms the individual and gives him or her strength to accomplish these goals. Do you have anything comparable to this in your faith?”
The rabbi paused a moment. Then he said, “No, our faith says ‘practice morals and ethics,’ that’s it.”
The fact is, enlightened Judaism does have something parallel to our “new birth.” Jeremiah and Ezekiel proclaimed it---a new heart and a new Spirit. It was promised by the prophets, presented to Nicodemus by Jesus, and proclaimed at Pentecost and other places. We need to believe passionately that whatever God commands us to do, we can do. His forgiveness of our sins and His power in us through the indwelling Holy Spirit guarantee that we can obey His will in all circumstances.
PLEASE READ DEUTERONOMY 30: 19-20.
In the covenants of the ancient world, witnesses were appointed to ensure the covenant. Pagan religions used their gods: the Lord called heaven and earth, two of the most enduring parts of divine creation.
In chapters 27-28 the Lord had Moses set before the people two ways---one leading to blessings and life and the other to curses and death. Their destinies were based on the way of life they chose. The way of disobedience leads to death; the way of obedience leads to life. Jesus in Matt. 7: 13-14 contrasted the narrow way to life with the broad way that leads to destruction.
The decision was urgent. Moses urged them to choose life. There was urgency in his invitation. It was an urgent decision because this was his final sermon. Moses knew that his death was near. He also knew that this could be the last chance for the people of an invading army. It was also urgent because the issues were life and death.
The call to a life-or-death decision is similar to other biblical invitations. At the end of his life, Joshua called on the people to choose between the Lord and false gods. He clearly stated in Joshua 24: 14-15 that he and his family would serve the Lord.
Elijah confronted the Israelites in 1 Kings 18: 20-21 to make a clear choice for the Lord rather than Baal.
Making a decision for God meant that the Israelites “love the Lord” their God, obey Him, and remain faithful to Him.” When God created humans in His own image, He gave us the wonderful and terrible gift of freedom to choose whether to serve Him or not. Freedom opened the door for the possibility of rejection. Why then did God make us free? Only if we are free to accept or reject God can we choose to love Him.
NEXT SUNDAY WE BEGIN A 5 LESSON STUDY THEME IN THE BOOK OF ACTS.
JULY 1 WE WILL LOOK AT THE EARLY CHURCH’S UNITY AND THE WAYS THE BELIEVERS SUPPORTED ONE ANOTHER. A.V. DAUGHETY <altav@swbell.net>