A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the
tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in
a weary land-Is. 32:2.
"Under his wings shalt thou trust" [Ps. 91:4]. Is not that a vivid, intense,
picturesque, but most illuminative, way of telling us what is the very
essence, and what is the urgency, and what is the worth of what we call
faith? The Old Testament is full of the teaching-which is masked to ordinary
readers; the same teaching as the New Testament is confessedly full of-of
the necessity of faith as the one bond that binds men to God. If only our
translators had wisely determined upon a uniform rendering in Old and New
Testament of words that are synonymous, the reader would have seen what is
often now reserved for the student, that all these sayings in the Old
Testament Book about "trusting in God" run on all fours with "believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" [Acts 16:31]. But just mark, the
faith which unites with God, and brings a man beneath the shadow of His
wings, is nothing more nor less than the flying into the refuge that is
provided for us. Does that not speak to us of the urgency of the case? Does
that not speak to us eloquently of the perils which environ us? Does it not
speak to us of the necessity of flight, swift, with all the powers of our
will? Is the faith which is a flying into a refuge fairly described as an
intellectual act of believing in a testimony? Surely it is something a great
deal more than that! A man out in the plain, with the avenger of blood,
hot-breathed and bloody-minded, at his back, might believe, as much as he
liked, that there would be safety within the walls of the City of Refuge,
but unless he took to his heels without loss of time, the spear would be in
his back before he knew where he was. There are plenty of men that know all
about the security of the Refuge, and believe it utterly, but never run for
it; and so never get into it. Faith is the gathering up of the whole powers
of the nature to fling myself into an Asylum, to cast myself into God's
arms, to take shelter beneath the shadow of His wings. And unless a man does
that, and swiftly, he is exposed to every bird of prey in the sky, and to
every beast of prey lurking in wait for him. A man is not saved because he
believes that he is saved, but because by believing he lays hold of the
salvation. It is not the flight that is impregnable, and makes those behind
its strong bulwarks secure. Not my outstretched hand, but a Hand that my
hand grasps, is what holds me up. The power of faith is but that it brings
me into contact with God, and sets me behind the seven-fold bastions of the
Almighty protection.
In Celebration of Life in Him,
Dr.Jim DeBruhl, gembeaux@bellsouth.net
" Everything is wrong until God makes it right."
