Homiletic Magazine Isaiah 16:4 Let my outcasts dwell with you, Moab; be you a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortionist is at an end… An injunction is given to Moab to shelter the Jewish fugitives. I. GOD OWNS HIS PEOPLE WHEN ALL THE WORLD FORSAKES OR OPPOSES THEM. No doubt Sennacherib thought the "outcasts" to be his victims, his prey; but God claims a personal interest in them, watches over them when they wander, supplies them in their need, and protects them by His guardian providence. They are His: His as the subjects of His government; His as the objects of His regard; His as the children of His grace. II. GOD RAISES UP FRIENDS AND COMFORTERS FOR HIS CHURCH IN STRANGE AND UNEXPECTED QUARTERS. Here He provides for them a shelter before the storm comes on, and makes Moab, one of the most powerful of the Church's enemies, a near and a present friend. God proves to Moab that it was their interest to do so, because the Jews would soon be in a condition to requite the favour, when their country should be invaded, and their daughters should wander without a home (ver. 2). The providence of God often makes the hostile feelings of bad men the occasion of good to the righteous. III. GOD CAN OVERRULE CALAMITIES, WHICH THREATEN NOTHING BUT DISASTER TO HIS CHURCH, INTO THE MEANS OF CONFIRMING FAITH AND HOPE. God's outcasts in Moab learned many a useful lesson there, and when they returned it was to uphold the government of Hezekiah, and to promote the welfare of the people with whom they had sojourned. "And the throne shall be established in mercy, and He shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David" (ver. 5). Sennacherib's invasion, which scattered his subjects in exile, threatened the overthrow of Hezekiah, but it really tended to establish him, for never was his kingdom more secure than after the overthrow of the Assyrian army. The same thing obtains in the experience of the Christian. As the birds sing most sweetly after a tempest; as torches shine brighter for shaking; as the flowers shed forth their fragrance at the close of a troubled day, so the graces of a Christian, his faith, his patience, and his hope, are matured by the trials that threatened their utter extinction. In the kingdom of Christ, a kingdom which is established in mercy, you find perpetual progress amidst perpetual storm, and a noontide of brightness often succeeds the darkest night. IV. AMIDST ALL WANDERINGS GOD WOULD HAVE HIS PEOPLE REMEMBER THEIR DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER AND PREPARE FOR RETURN. They were to dwell in Moab, but only for a season, and always to bear the heart of a stranger. It is a great thing in days of worldly compliance and conformity, when everyone seems to live as if he were to live here always, to have in exercise a better hope, and for Christians to preserve the distinctness of their character. The Divine hand that created our frame and put life into it, has provided us with other resources than are found in feeble self, or in creatures feeble as ourselves. Besides this earth and these lower skies, there is an invisible world, and a kingdom of spirits. Let Christians seek to be in the world, but not of it. (Homiletic Magazine.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land. |
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