Homilist 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… I. THE SUFFERING WORLD. The world's trials are here represented by the imagery of — 1. A "tempest." Tempests in nature are often most terrible and devastating. Spiritually, the world is in a tempest. It is beaten by the storm of — (1) conflicting thoughts, (2) sinful passions, (3) guilty memories, and (4) terrible foreboding. 2. A drought. "A dry place." The Oriental traveller under a vertical sun, and on scorching sands without water, is the picture here. He has a burning thirst and is in earnest quest for the cooling stream. Is this not a true picture of man spiritually as a traveller to eternity? He thirsts for a good which he fails to get. 3. Exhaustion. "In a weary land." The Oriental traveller has exhausted his strength, and lies down in prostrate hopelessness. Man, spiritually, is "weary and heavy laden," "without strength." Without strength to discharge his moral obligations, to please his Maker, to serve his race, and reach his destiny. II. THE RELIEVING MAN. "A man shall be," &c. Hezekiah did much to relieve Israel in its political troubles, but Christ does infinitely more. He relieves the moral troubles of humanity. 1. He is a shelter from moral storms. What a secure, accessible, capacious refuge is Christ. 2. He is the river in moral droughts. Christ refreshes and satisfies souls by opening rivers of holy thoughts, &c. (Homilist.) 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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