As a young child I remember playing the outdoor game tag with other neighborhood children. Perhaps you do, too. One child was “it” and had to run and tag the other children before they made it to the “safe place”, which might be underneath a large tree or the bottom step of a neighborhood house. Everyone kept their eye on the safe place, and would run like a flash to it as soon as they could. It was a place of refuge.
Someplace that we can look at as a place of refuge is something that is often necessary in life. In numerous places throughout the Bible we read of the Lord God being a place of refuge for His people, and we see that in our Scripture today.
When have you needed a place of refuge? One time that we like to have a safe place to run to for shelter is in a storm. When the rain starts pouring down, we will run indoors, whether it’s our own house, a store, a vehicle, or even just a canopy. Tornados are a frequent thing around where I live, and we all know where the safest shelter is when the warning sirens go off. When a child senses that there is danger, either real or imagined, they quickly will run to the safety and refuge of their parents. Storms and danger don’t disappear as we get older, and we still frequently need to find a safe place of refuge to run to. Where or to whom do we run to? Our parents may be long gone, and they might not have been of much help anyway. Not everyone has a helpful or supportive spouse, either. Self-help books are generally scams. Drugs or alcohol? Where is our refuge? Isaiah reminds us that our true source of refuge can be found only in the Lord God.
When the enemies of God’s people come against them, the Lord promises to be their strength. He will bring down the cities and palaces of those who come against them (vs. 2-3). They will see that the Lord God is the one to be feared and glorified. He will provide for the needs of the poor (vs. 4). When they need someone to turn to and lean on, the Lord is strong to their aid.
We can face literal storms from the weather, which can often bring devastating effects, or any number of other types of storms, but the Lord is our refuge in all of them. We also deal with all types of heat, again from weather, or when we are “in hot water” from troubles we are in and fainting under. The Lord can be our shade and refuge (vs. 4-5).
When we turn to God, and make the Lord Jesus our Refuge, He will prepare a feast for us (vs. 6). We may have faced a terrible storm that destroyed all we had, may have financially been wiped out, may have gone through a war or terrorist attack, but with God as our Refuge, we are promised a feast with the choicest of food.
He will also destroy whatever veil of trouble that has been cast over us, including the literal shroud of death (vs. 7). There is a shroud of ignorance and evil that covers the world, blinding us to God’s love, obscuring our vision, making us unable to see God clearly. Left to ourselves, we experience only darkness, confusion, and despair. God will destroy that shroud for those who come to Jesus.
We face literal enemies of those who want to harm us. We face other types of “enemies” from the trials and troubles we go through, and from each of these we seek a refuge. The final enemy we all face is that of death. Is there any refuge from facing our own death or that of loved ones? Jesus won the victory over death when He died on the cross and rose again on the third day (I Corinthians 15:54). Isaiah promises us here in verse 8 that death, the ultimate enemy, will be defeated. We read that elsewhere in Scripture, too, such as in Hosea 13:14. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have the hope of eternal life and one day seeing God face to face. On that day He will wipe every tear from our face (Revelation 21:4).
Our trials and burdens may have brought buckets of tears from us, but no matter how difficult our circumstance, or how hopeless our situation may seem, we can find refuge in the Lord Jesus. We have the promise that God will wipe those tears from our eyes. We can know and trust that Jesus is our refuge, our safe place!
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