Post by lesbrewer on Sept 7, 2022 20:01:58 GMT
Finding Refuge By: Sheridan Voysey
Click here for the Audio Message
You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm.
Isaiah 25:4
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 25:1–9
My wife and I once stayed in a lovely old seaside hotel with large sash windows and thick stone walls. One afternoon, a storm ripped through the region, churning up the sea and pounding our windows like angry fists on a door. Yet we were at peace. Those walls were so strong, and the hotel’s foundations so solid! While storms raged outside, our room was a refuge.
Refuge is an important theme in Scripture, starting with God Himself. “You have been a refuge for the poor,” Isaiah says of God, “a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm” (Isaiah 25:4). In addition, refuge is something God’s people were and are to provide, whether through Israel’s ancient cities of refuge (Numbers 35:6) or by offering hospitality to “foreigners” in need (Deuteronomy 10:19). These same principles can guide us today when humanitarian crises hit our world. In such times, we pray that the God of refuge would use us, His people, to help the vulnerable find safety.
The storm that hit our hotel was gone the following morning, leaving us with a calm sea and a warm sun that made the seagulls glow. It’s an image I hold on to as I think of those facing natural disasters or fleeing “ruthless” regimes (Isaiah 25:4): that the God of refuge would empower us to help them find safety now and a brighter tomorrow.
Reflect & Pray
When have you taken refuge in God or found it through His people? How can you play a part in helping those facing a crisis today?
God of refuge, empower me, Your child, to help the needy find refuge and hope.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The “strong peoples” and “ruthless nations” in Isaiah 25:3 likely refer to the Assyrians led by Sennacherib—the ever-present villain during the time of Isaiah’s ministry (see chs. 36–37). For people of Jerusalem cowering behind the fortifications set up by the mighty King David long ago, Isaiah’s testimony in today’s passage rang with hope. The violence of Assyria might crash against Jerusalem like a “storm driving against a wall” (25:4 ), but God Himself would be their shelter. He would silence their oppressors. And, like their ancestor David in Psalm 23, they’d enjoy a feast in the presence of their enemies.
Learn more about the book of Isaiah at ODBU.org/OT224.
Jed Ostoich
Isaiah 25:1-9
King James Version
25 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
6 And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
Click here for the Audio Message
You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm.
Isaiah 25:4
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 25:1–9
My wife and I once stayed in a lovely old seaside hotel with large sash windows and thick stone walls. One afternoon, a storm ripped through the region, churning up the sea and pounding our windows like angry fists on a door. Yet we were at peace. Those walls were so strong, and the hotel’s foundations so solid! While storms raged outside, our room was a refuge.
Refuge is an important theme in Scripture, starting with God Himself. “You have been a refuge for the poor,” Isaiah says of God, “a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm” (Isaiah 25:4). In addition, refuge is something God’s people were and are to provide, whether through Israel’s ancient cities of refuge (Numbers 35:6) or by offering hospitality to “foreigners” in need (Deuteronomy 10:19). These same principles can guide us today when humanitarian crises hit our world. In such times, we pray that the God of refuge would use us, His people, to help the vulnerable find safety.
The storm that hit our hotel was gone the following morning, leaving us with a calm sea and a warm sun that made the seagulls glow. It’s an image I hold on to as I think of those facing natural disasters or fleeing “ruthless” regimes (Isaiah 25:4): that the God of refuge would empower us to help them find safety now and a brighter tomorrow.
Reflect & Pray
When have you taken refuge in God or found it through His people? How can you play a part in helping those facing a crisis today?
God of refuge, empower me, Your child, to help the needy find refuge and hope.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The “strong peoples” and “ruthless nations” in Isaiah 25:3 likely refer to the Assyrians led by Sennacherib—the ever-present villain during the time of Isaiah’s ministry (see chs. 36–37). For people of Jerusalem cowering behind the fortifications set up by the mighty King David long ago, Isaiah’s testimony in today’s passage rang with hope. The violence of Assyria might crash against Jerusalem like a “storm driving against a wall” (25:4 ), but God Himself would be their shelter. He would silence their oppressors. And, like their ancestor David in Psalm 23, they’d enjoy a feast in the presence of their enemies.
Learn more about the book of Isaiah at ODBU.org/OT224.
Jed Ostoich
Isaiah 25:1-9
King James Version
25 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
6 And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
