Reading: “Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler.”—Isaiah 16:4
“When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Moab was the sworn foe of Israel, but yet Moab shall be overruled to shelter and feed Israel. The world, like Moab, dislikes God’s people: but as God’s people must sojourn in the world, until the time comes for God to take them home, they shall be taken care of.
“Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab;” house them as travelers in an inn. See that they have a lodging. Let their bread be given, and their water sure. “They are poor; but they are my poor,” God said. “They are outcasts; but they are mine outcasts.” Oh! see how the Lord still owns His people. And why is it, Lord? Not for their worth, not because they deserve it, not because of their obedience to the Lord; but simply because He loves them, because the Father has given them to Him, and He has purchased them, redeemed them, and washed them, and made them His own. Grant, dearest Lord, that though we are constrained to dwell with Mesech (Psalm 120:5), and to have our habitation among the tents of Kedar; though we “are made as the filth of the earth, and the off scouring of all things,” yet never, never may we forget our relationship to the our Saviour and Lord. Though outcasts, yet we are Jesus’ outcasts. He is our biding-place, our covert, in the midst of Moab; and so shall we be free from every spoiler. He will be to us all we need—“rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”
Taken from The Poor Man’s Evening and Morning Portions by Rev. Robert Hawker, Works, Vol. 8; 1830. Edited by Aaron Dunlop for thinkgospel.com ©2013.
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