Safe Havens
Isaiah 16:3a-4a
“Shelter the outcasts; do not reveal the fugitive; let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the destroyer.”
Who comes to your mind when you read Isaiah’s commission here to “shelter the outcasts”? I think of heroes like Harriot Tubman, a civil rights activist who aided seventy African-American slaves on their dangerous trek to freedom; and Casper Ten Boom, a Dutch watchmaker who courageously opened his home to Jews during World War II at the cost of his life; and Carol Adams, an elderly missionary still living in Uganda who continues to rescue young girls from child-traffickers that parade as ‘overseas job officers;’ and my former neighbors Julian and Michelle who recently moved to North Raleigh to serve poverty-stricken foreign refugees; and that group of fathers I saw on the news who’ve dedicated hours of their weekdays to volunteer as bodyguards and counselors at a public high-school riddled with crime; but most of all, I think of Jesus. What is Isaiah 16:3-4 but a picture of our Lord’s compassionate heart? He’s the Refuge for outcasts, the Savior for sinners, and the Shelter from the destroyer.
And because He’s been that for us, shouldn’t we be that for others?