GOD THE PROTECTOR OF HIS PEOrLE.
Isai. xxxi. 4, 5. Thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, ivhen a mul- titude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them : so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion, and for the hill thereof. As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.
THE first of the commandments is, " Thou shalt have no other gods before me." And that is directly violated, when we alienate from God the confidence that is due to him alone, and place it on any creature in preference to him. This was the sin which the prophet reproved, both in this and the whole fore- going chapter. Sennacherib, King of Assyria, had come against Jerusalem with a powerful, and, humanly speaking, irresistible army. Many of the Jews, instead of looking to Jehovah for his gracious and merciful protection, applied to Egypt for help, and carried
their wealth to Egypt, in order to obtain it. God, offended with this want of confidence in him, sent them word, that the Egyptians should help in vain, and to no purpose ; and that their real strength was,
to sit still, and to rely on God alone a If they
would with real penitence and faith rely on him, He would afford them speedy and effectual deliverance. This assurance God delivered to them under the dif- ferent images which are contained in my text; which shew, not only what God would be to them, but what he will be to his Church and people in all ages of the world.
Let me, with a special view to these images, point out to you,
I. The protection which God will afford to his people — We are told, that, " as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever: and that they who trust in him shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for everV But, as the emer- gency that existed at the time the prophet uttered my text was extremely urgent, so the images by which he was directed to encourage their affiance in him were precisely such as were suited to the occasion. God promised to protect them — 1. With the firmness of a lion —
[A lion, growling over his prey, regards not the shouts of a multitude of shepherds : unmoved himself, he infuses terror into them ; and would soon make them repent of their temerity, if they dared to approach him. And who shall prevail on Je- hovah to relinquish his defence of Jerusalem ? In reference to the Assyrian army, which God was determined to destroy, the prophet says, " The Lord of Hosts hath purposed ; and who shall disannul it ? and his hand is stretched out; and who shall turn it backc?" The same also we may say in reference to the weakest of all his saints : " If God be for you, who can be against youd?" "Who is he that shall harm you, if ye be fol- lowers of that which is goode?" God is not only a tower of defence to his people to preserve them, but " a wall of fire
a Cite Isai. xxx. 1 — 7 ; and compare it with ver. 1 — 3. b Ps. cxxv. 1,2. = Isai. xiv. 21 — 27.
d Rom. viii. 31. e 1 Pet. iii. 13.