Refuge in Christ and in one another.
In this country we can hardly hope to feel all the three and beauty of this illustration. To do that we must have visited tropical regions. There, with the rays of the sun shining directly down, the heat becomes so intense and intolerable that it cannot be endured, and often "the shadow of a great rock" means, not merely refreshment, but salvation. And as with the heat, so with the storm—the whirlwind, the tempest, the simoom: what desolations do not these produce? what terrors do they not excite? How precious in such lands, on such occasions, the hiding-place from the wind, the covert from the storm! But lifting our thoughts from the illustration to the thing itself which is pictured here, to that human heart and life of which all visible nature only supplies the types and hints, we make no abatement for change of scene; for the scorching rays of temptation fall as fiercely and the winds of passion blow as furiously in England as in Judaea, or in Babylon, or in India. Indeed, such are the confusions and complications of our time, so subtle and so seductive are the temptations to err from the straight line of rectitude, that more rather than less is there need for a hiding-place for the heart, a covert from the storm of sorrow and of sin. A man shall be for a hiding-place! One man in particular? or any man at any time in any land? In both senses the words may be taken. We may consider—
I. CHRIST THE REFUGE OF THE HUMAN SOUL.
1. Such he was in the days of his flesh, For his disciples had to share something of the enmity and opposition he encountered, and they always found an effectual shield in his protection. As evangelists they brought their success and their disappointment to him, that the one might be sanctified and the other be relieved (Luke 10:17-20). When worsted by the enemy, they felt back on his power and found defeat swallowed up in victory (Matthew 17:14-20). When imminent danger threatened their lives, they made their appeal to his all-con-trolling voice (Matthew 8:23-27).
2. Such he became, in a deeper sense, after his ascension. It was expedient that he should go away. "Before his departure he was with them, afterwards he was in them." The death and the resurrection of the Lord enlightened their minds and changed their spirits. Then they went to him as they never could have done during his presence; they trusted in him, gave themselves to him, leaned on him, were lost in him, as they would not have been: he became, in a deeper and fuller sense, the Hiding-place of their hearts.
3. Such is he now to all believing hearts.
"Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee!"
"Jesus, Lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly!"
II. THE REFUGE WE MAY BE TO ONE ANOTHER. Any man may be, and every man should seek to be, a hiding-place, a covert. Oar domestic life shows us how this may be, and provides the first instance and best picture of human shelter. Our social life should provide us with many opportunities of succoring the needy and the tried. Our Church life should do the same; every Christian Church should be an asylum for the poor, the weak, the sad, the anxious-minded, the troubled of heart. Who would not like so to live, with such quick and ready sympathy of spirit, with such kindliness and hopefulness of word, with such friendliness of uplifting hand and sustaining arm, that his life should be suggestive of the words, "A man shall be a hiding-place?"—C.
Disabled and restored.
The words are suggestive of the spiritual incapacity of which Israel was too often guilty (see Ezekiel 12:2), and of the recovery which, in better days, they were to experience.
I. MAN DISABLED BY SIN. There are four directions in which we suffer sad deterioration and incapacity as the consequence of our sin.
1. Spiritual perception. After some transgressions, after continued disobedience and estrangement from God, we fail to "see light in his light;" our vision of his truth is less clear and full; sacred truths lose their true proportions in our view. Then come positive error, actual misconception, moral blindness; and finally comes that terrible mental distortion of which the Master spoke so sorrowfully and the prophet wrote so strongly (Matthew 6:22, Matthew 6:23; Isaiah 5:20).
2. Recognition of the Divine voice. The commission of sin ends in, first, a partial, and ultimately a complete, spiritual deafness. At first the quieter and more habitual tones in which God is speaking to us (daily loving-kindnesses, sabbath privileges, etc.) become inaudible to us, convey no message to us from God; then more distinct and unmistakable voices from heaven are unheeded and unheard; at last, the loudest demands which God ever makes fail to produce any impression on the ear of the soul.
3. The choice of that which is wise. The rash heart (of the text) is the heart which chooses precipitately, and therefore foolishly. Under the dominion of sin we come to choose the visible in preference to the invisible, the material to the spiritual, the transient to the abiding, the human to the Divine.
4. The utterance of Divine truth. The clouded vision naturally leads to the "stammering tongue." As man becomes more affected by the sin which dwells within and works upon him, he utters God's truth less plainly, less faithfully, more partially, with ever-widening divergence from the mind of the Eternal.
II. THE TOUCH OF DIVINE POWER. When man has become disabled there is no hope for him but in God. Human teaching is valuable enough, but it dues not avail. Only the awakening, reviving touch of the Divine power, brought into immediate contact with the soul, can call back these slumbering powers. But it can and does; God's renewing Spirit breaks upon the disabled mind, upon the degenerate nature, and that which was lost is regained; the faculties of the soul revive. Then we have—
III. SPIRITUAL RESTORATION. Revived by the power of God:
1. We see clearly. We apprehend the will of God in Jesus Christ concerning us, the excellency of his service, the beauties of holiness, the luxury of usefulness.
2. We hear distinctly the voice of God as he speaks to us in his Word, in his providence, in the privileges of the Christian Church.
3. We choose wisely. We become thoughtful, reflective, studious of the Divine desire, obedient, and therefore wise; we "understand knowledge."
4. We speak plainly. Discerning that which is acceptable in the sight of the Lord, we speak simply, faithfully, fearlessly, "with all boldness as we ought to speak," "the everlasting gospel"—both the elementary truths which make wise unto salvation, and those "deeper things of God," which enrich the mind and sanctify the spirit.—C.