Isai. xxxii. 2. 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 shadoio of a great rock in a weary land.
THERE is no greater blessing to a nation than a well-ordered government. The due administration of justice, together with the protection of our person and property, afford to any people a just ground of joy and thankfulness. Such a government did God promise to the Jews under Hezekiah ; but a greater than Hezekiah
is here. Under the figure of an earthly monarch, Christ is promised ; and the text informs us,
I. What blessings we enjoy in and through Christ —
The metaphors, though four in number, suggest but two ideas :
1. Security —
[We have very little conception of winds and tempests in this climate. But the wind that rent the mountains before Elijah3, and the tempest that desolated the land of Egypt b, may serve to shew us how welcome a secure place must be to one who is exposed to such formidable dangers. Yet no storms on earth can fully paint to us the dangers to which we are ex- posed by reason of sinc. But the Lord Jesus Christ affords us perfect security from them all. In him we have a Goshen where no hail can come, a mountain which the wind can never affect. The billows, which shall overwhelm the whole creation besides, shall not be able to destroy us. In Christ, we have an ark that can never perish.]
2. Comfort —
[We, in this quarter of the globe, know as little of exces- sive drought and heat, as of overwhelming storms and tempests. But the state of the Israelites in the wilderness d, and of Jonah at Nineveh e, may aid our conceptions. How delightful was the gourd to him, and how reviving to them were the streams that gushed from the rock ! And does not a soul oppressed with sin or persecution, or fainting with desire after righteousness, ex- perience as much distress as they ? Behold then the precious- ness of Christ ! He will be not only as a shade or as water to the weary and thirsting soul, but as " rivers of water" that can never be exhausted, and a " shadow of a great rock" through which the beams of the sun can never penetrate. Many can attest his excellency in these respects. Nor shall any who seek refuge in him be ever disappointed of their hope.]
But as these things are spoken of Christ as " a man," it will be proper to shew,
II. How we enjoy them in him as " a man" — Christ is truly and properly God, but he is God
manifest in the flesh ; and it is to him as incarnate that we stand indebted for these blessings.
1. As man, he died for our sins —
a 1 Kings xix. 11. b Exod. ix. 23—25. ° ps. xj. g.
d Exod. xvii. 2, 3. e Jonah iv. 8.