If we were bidden to hide ourselves in a pit or a dungeon, niethinks, any place should be a welcome hiding-jjlace from the wrath of God. But it is to our own " chamber," where every thing is provided for our rest and comfort ; yea, it is a pavilion^, surrounded by guards, and furnished with royal dainties ; it is even to the tabernacle ^ wherein God himself dwells, and where we shall have most intimate communion with him, that we are told to flee. Shall we need any inducement to yield to such advice ?
If we cannot endure confinement (though surely we can have no reason to complain of that in such a retreat) we are told it is to be only for " a moment," yea, lest that should appear too long, it is said to be only for " a little moment." Did the Israelites think a single night too long, when they were to be screened from the destroying angel? and shall we think a mo- ment, a little moment (for such in truth is the present life), too long to abide in Christ, that we may escape the wrath of an incensed God?
The certainty of success is another argument which may well induce us to follow this advice. Were there only a distant pro- bability of obtaining deliverance from such unspeakable miseries, it were a very sufficient reason for our trying the experiment : but when success, as the text intimates, is certain to attend our efforts, shall we need any persuasion to exert ourselves ?
On the other hand, the certainty that God's indignation must fall upon us, if we be not found in Christ, ought to operate powerfully on our hearts : for " who can stand before liis in- dignation ? who can abide the fierceness of his anger^?" The fate of those who despised the warnings of Moses, and sought not shelter from the storms of hail, shews us what we must expect, if we seek not refuge in Christ Jesus*'.
Above all, the earnestness of the exhortation should over- come the reluctance of our hearts. To enter fully into its spirit, we should conceive a parent, seeing a savage beast run- ning towards his heedless and unprotected child in order to destroy him. The affrighted father calls to him in the agony of his mind; " Come, my son, run into the house, shut the door, hide yourself till the danger be overpast." Thus, precisely thus, does God himself cry to each of us. He knows our dan- ger; he sees our inadvertence; and, with all the anxiety of a parent, he calls to us. Must we not be more deaf than adders, more obdurate than rocks, if we will not obey his voice ?
But there is one thing yet, which must on no account be overlooked. The language is intentionally changed from the plural to the singular ; " Come, my people, enter thou,'' &c.
2 Ps. xxvii. 5. ^ Ps. xxvii. 5.
b Nalmm i. (3. "= Exod. ix. 19, 25.