Evening, December 9
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Isaiah 32:18
"My people shall dwell in quiet resting places."
Isaiah 32:18
Peace and rest belong not to the unregenerate; they are the peculiar
possession of the Lord's people, and of them only. The God of Peace
gives perfect peace to those whose hearts are stayed upon him. When man
was unfallen, his God gave him the flowery bowers of Eden as his quiet
resting places; alas! how soon sin blighted the fair abode of
innocence. In the day of universal wrath when the flood swept away a
guilty race, the chosen family were quietly secured in the
resting-place of the ark, which floated them from the old condemned
world into the new earth of the rainbow and the covenant, herein
typifying Jesus, the ark of our salvation. Israel rested safely beneath
the blood-besprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying angel
smote the first-born; and in the wilderness the shadow of the pillar of
cloud, and the flowing rock, gave the weary pilgrims sweet repose. At
this hour we rest in the promises of our faithful God, knowing that his
words are full of truth and power; we rest in the doctrines of his
word, which are consolation itself; we rest in the covenant of his
grace, which is a haven of delight. More highly favoured are we than
David in Adullam, or Jonah beneath his gourd, for none can invade or
destroy our shelter. The person of Jesus is the quiet resting-place of
his people, and when we draw near to him in the breaking of the bread,
in the hearing of the word, the searching of the Scriptures, prayer, or
praise, we find any form of approach to him to be the return of peace
to our spirits.
"I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood,
I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God.
'Tis everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah's name,
'Tis stable as his steadfast throne, for evermore the same:
The clouds may go and come, and storms may sweep my sky,
This blood-sealed friendship changes not, the cross is ever nigh."