Isaiah 32:2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place… In this country we can hardly hope to feel all the three and beauty of this illustration. To do that we must have visited tropical regions. There, with the rays of the sun shining directly down, the heat becomes so intense and intolerable that it cannot be endured, and often "the shadow of a great rock" means, not merely refreshment, but salvation. And as with the heat, so with the storm - the whirlwind, the tempest, the simoom: what desolations do not these produce? what terrors do they not excite? How precious in such lands, on such occasions, the hiding-place from the wind, the covert from the storm! But lifting our thoughts from the illustration to the thing itself which is pictured here, to that human heart and life of which all visible nature only supplies the types and hints, we make no abatement for change of scene; for the scorching rays of temptation fall as fiercely and the winds of passion blow as furiously in England as in Judaea, or in Babylon, or in India. Indeed, such are the confusions and complications of our time, so subtle and so seductive are the temptations to err from the straight line of rectitude, that more rather than less is there need for a hiding-place for the heart, a covert from the storm of sorrow and of sin. A man shall be for a hiding-place! One man in particular? or any man at any time in any land? In both senses the words may be taken. We may consider - I. CHRIST THE REFUGE OF THE HUMAN SOUL. 1. Such he was in the days of his flesh, For his disciples had to share something of the enmity and opposition he encountered, and they always found an effectual shield in his protection. As evangelists they brought their success and their disappointment to him, that the one might be sanctified and the other be relieved (Luke 10:17-20). When worsted by the enemy, they felt back on his power and found defeat swallowed up in victory (Matthew 17:14-20). When imminent danger threatened their lives, they made their appeal to his all-con-trolling voice (Matthew 8:23-27). 2. Such he became, in a deeper sense, after his ascension. It was expedient that he should go away. "Before his departure he was with them, afterwards he was in them." The death and the resurrection of the Lord enlightened their minds and changed their spirits. Then they went to him as they never could have done during his presence; they trusted in him, gave themselves to him, leaned on him, were lost in him, as they would not have been: he became, in a deeper and fuller sense, the Hiding-place of their hearts. 3. Such is he now to all believing hearts. (1) As sinners, burdened with a sense of guilt and craving mercy and reconciliation, we want some other refuge than we can find in the best and wisest of mankind; and with what glad eagerness, with what profound thankfulness, with what inexpressible relief, do we resort to him, and cry- "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee!" (2) As the children of sorrow, we have need of more than human help! There are depths of disappointment, extremities of loss, intensities of pain and suffering, wastes of loneliness, gulfs of darkness and woe, for which human sympathy is entirely inadequate, in which the only thing we can do is to hasten to that Son of man who is touched most keenly with the feeling of our trials, and say - "Jesus, Lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly!" II. THE REFUGE WE MAY BE TO ONE ANOTHER. Any man may be, and every man should seek to be, a hiding-place, a covert. Oar domestic life shows us how this may be, and provides the first instance and best picture of human shelter. Our social life should provide us with many opportunities of succoring the needy and the tried. Our Church life should do the same; every Christian Church should be an asylum for the poor, the weak, the sad, the anxious-minded, the troubled of heart. Who would not like so to live, with such quick and ready sympathy of spirit, with such kindliness and hopefulness of word, with such friendliness of uplifting hand and sustaining arm, that his life should be suggestive of the words, "A man shall be a hiding-place?" - C. Parallel Verses KJV: And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. |
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