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… (with ver. 3): — I. Who THE TRAVELLERS are, on their homeward march, and the dangers and difficulties which beset their path. The way to heaven is often spoken of in Scripture as a journey, and this by no flowery meadow or purling brook, through no over-arching bowers or verdant shade, but through a wilderness. 1. The first peril mentioned is the wind. By "the wind" here, I understand the pestilential wind, sometimes called the simmom, or samiel, which at certain seasons passes over the desert, blasting and withering all it touches, and carrying death in its train. But what is there in the spiritual desert corresponding to this pestilential wind? Sin. 2. The second peril in the wilderness is "the tempest." This we may characterise as the thunderstorm, which differs from the pestilential wind in being from above, not from beneath; violent, not subtle; destroying by lightning, not by poison. And what so aptly corresponds to this as the manifested anger of God against sin? 3. But there is a third peril in the wilderness — one in a measure peculiar to it, and rarely absent from it, "the want of water," for the wondrous man here spoken of is promised to be "as rivers of water in a dry place." The wilderness is especially dry. What an expressive emblem, then, is thirst of the desire of the soul after Christ! 4. The last peril of the wilderness here mentioned is the wearisomeness of the way. What poetry and beauty there are in the expression, "a weary land"! As if the land itself were weary, weary of its own wearisomeness, weary of being such an uncultivated waste, and of wearing out the lives of so many travellers. One main, perhaps the chief, element of the weariness of the desert is the unclouded sun, ever darting his beams down upon it. What does the sun here, then, represent? Temptation. II. THE HIDING-PLACE AND COVERT — the refreshment and shade which the Lord has provided for these travellers in the Son of His love. 1. "A hiding-place from the wind." This wind we have explained as the pestilential breath of sin. A hiding-place is wanted, lest it should destroy body and soul in hell. Where shall we find it? In the Law? That is going out of the wind into the storm. In self? That is the very thing we most want shelter from. Jesus is the hiding-place, the only hiding-place from sin and self. But three things we must know and experionce before we can enter into the beauty and blessedness of Jesus as a hiding. place from the wind. (1) We must feel our need of such a shelter. (2) We must be brought to see the hiding-place which God has provided in the Son of His love. (3) Then follows the third step — the entering into the hiding-place. 2. But the same wondrous man is also "a covert from the storm." This we explained as referring to the law. How a shelter is needed from its condemnation and curse! Where is this refuge to be found? In Jesus. He has redeemed us from its curse. 3. From this springs the third character which Jesus sustains to the pilgrim in the wilderness. "As rivers of water in a dry place." How graciously does the blessed Spirit, by this figure, set forth the suitability of the Lord Jesus Christ to travellers in the wilderness. The Lord Jesus is spoken of as "rivers of water." The very thing in the desert which we need. In the wilder. ness we do not want strong drink; that would only inflame the thirst, make the blood boil in the veins, and smite the frame with fever. As it toils through the desolate wastes of sand it is water that the fainting spirit wants. It is water — the well of water springing up into everlasting life — that is provided. The fulness of the Lord Jesus is not a rill, but a river; not only a river, but "rivers." 4. But the Lord Jesus is spoken of also as "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." He has been tempted in all points like as we are; but as the rock bears uninjured the beams of the hottest sun, and yet, by bearing them, shields in its recesses the wayworn pilgrim, so did Jesus, as man, bear the whole fury of Satanic temptations, and yet was as uninjured by them as the rock in the desert. And having borne them, He shields from their destructive power the tempted child of God who lies at His feet under the shadow of His embrace. III. THE OPENING OF THE EYES TO SEE AND THE UNSTOPPING OF THE EARS TO HEARKEN to the blessings thus promised. 1. "The eyes of them that see shall not be dim." Our text speaks rather of dimness than blindness. There is a difference between the two. The dead in sin are blind; the newly-quickened into life are dim. How true is this of the wilderness pilgrim! The breath of the pestilential wind, the thick clouds of the tempest, the hot and burning sand, and the glare of the mid-day sun, all blear and dim the eye. But the hidingplace from the wind, the covert from the tempest, the rivers of water, and the shady rock heal the dimness. 2. "And the ears of them that hear shall hearken." The persons spoken of in the text are not totally deaf, for they "hear." Yet there is a difference between hearing and hearkening — a difference almost analogous to that between the eyes being dim and seeing. To hearken implies faith and obedience. When the pilgrim in the wilderness reaches the hiding-place from the wind, and the covert from the tempest; when he drinks of the rivers of water, and lies under the shadow of the great rock, he not only hears but hearkens — believes, loves, and obeys. (J. C. Philpot.) 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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