Scripture Daily

Context No. 1615 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 32:1-20: in context

1Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice. 2A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land. 3The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen. 4The heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly. 5The fool will no longer be called noble, nor the scoundrel be highly respected. 6For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice profanity, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. 7The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked plans to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right. 8But the noble devises noble things, and he will continue in noble things. 9Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice! You careless daughters, give ear to my speech! 10For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women; for the vintage will fail. The harvest won’t come. 11Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist. 12Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. 13Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city. 14For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks, 15until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest. 16Then justice will dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field. 17The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever. 18My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places, 19though hail flattens the forest, and the city is leveled completely. 20Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.

Isaiah foresees a king who will reign in righteousness, and under his rule a transformation. And of that king, or of the righteous man his reign produces, Isaiah says: he will be as a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. The chapter goes on to warn the complacent and to promise that when the Spirit is poured out from on high, the wilderness will become a fruitful field, and the work of righteousness will be peace, quietness, and confidence forever.

The images in the second verse are worth dwelling on, for they describe exactly the kind of refuge the weary need, and they point ultimately to Christ. A hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm: protection when the tempest is beating on us. Streams of water in a dry place: refreshment when we are parched. The shade of a great rock in a weary land: rest and relief when we are exhausted under a burning sun. Each image meets a specific need of the traveler through a hard country, shelter from the storm, water in the drought, shade in the heat. And this is a picture of what God provides, and supremely of what Christ is to those who come to him. When the storms of life beat on us, he is a hiding place; when we are parched and dry, he is streams of water; when we are weary and burned by the heat of our trials, he is the shade of a great rock, cool and sheltering. He is not a distant refuge but exactly the shelter each condition needs, meeting the weary traveler with protection, refreshment, and rest. There is comfort in the precision of the images. Whatever our particular need, the storm we cannot weather, the drought that has left us dry, the weariness that has worn us down, there is in Christ the answer to it: shelter, water, shade. To come to him is to find the hiding place from the wind, the stream in the dry place, the shade of the great rock in the weary land. He is the refuge shaped to exactly what the weary need.

When I am battered by the storm, parched by drought, or worn down by the heat of my trials, do I come to Christ, who is the hiding place from the wind, the stream in the dry place, and the shade of the great rock in a weary land, the refuge shaped to exactly what the weary need?

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