Isaiah 32

Isa. 32:2. "As rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." There is an allusion here to the deserts of Arabia, which was an exceeding hot and dry place, one might travel many days going, and see no sign of a river, brook, or spring, nothing but a dry and parched wilderness, so that travelers there were ready to be consumed with thirst, as the children of Israel were when they were in this wilderness, when they were faint because there was no water. Now when a man finds Jesus Christ, he is like a man that has been traveling in these deserts, until he is ready to perish with thirst, and at last finds a river of cool and clear water, it is exceeding refreshing. Christ was one actually typified by a river of water that was miraculously caused to flow in the dry deserts of Arabia, for the refreshing and satisfying God's people when they were almost consumed with thirst, even by that stream of water out of the rock, for as the apostle says, that rock was Christ. This stream of water issued out of the rock that was in Horeb, which word signifies a dry place. This was a river in a dry place. Psalms 105:41. He opened the rock and the waters gushed out, they ran in the dry places like a river. This is called a land of great drought. Hosea 13:5. See also Deuteronomy 8:15. Christ is as a river of water, because there is such a fullness in him for the satisfaction of the needy, thirsty soul, and enough not only for one, but for all the multitude of God's people, as the stream out of the rock was sufficient for the whole congregation, which was doubtless more than two million souls and their cattle.

And when Christ is said to be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, the allusion is still to the deserts of Arabia. It is not said as the shadow of a tree, because in those vast deserts there are no trees; nothing for shade to protect travelers, but here and there a great rock. Christ is to the weary soul as the cool shadow of a great rock, or a steep rocky mountain, in the scorched deserts of Arabia.

Isaiah 32:2. "And a man shall be an hiding-place," etc. Here Christ is compared to three things that correspond with several things in the congregation in the wilderness, that were typical of Christ.

First. Christ is called "An hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest," which corresponds with the tabernacle. Tabernacles are made to shelter travelers in a strange land, where they have no abiding place from the injuries of the weather; and a tabernacle is also a hiding-place; the secret of God's tabernacle is especially spoken of as such. Psalms 27:5, "In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tabernacle;" and so in other places, there cited in the margin, and in the 4th chap. of Isaiah at the end. Christ is expressly compared to a tabernacle in both these respects, viz. as a shelter, and as a hiding-place, or refuge.

Secondly. Christ is compared to a river of water in a dry place, which answers to those rivers of water out of a rock, in that land of great drought. Vide No. 213. And,

Thirdly. Christ is compared to the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, which answers to the pillar of cloud, which shaded the children of Israel in that parched wilderness, to which Christ is compared, Isaiah 4:5; Psalms 121:5; Isaiah 25:4; Isaiah 25:5. And though it was not the shade of a rock, yet it was a rock that refreshed them otherwise, viz. with its cooling, refreshing waters.

Isa. 33:17