OUR FATHER WHO PROVIDES ASYLUM TO FLEEING REFUGEES

The book of Isaiah chapter 15 16 verses 11 - 14 2 - 5 says this;

Like fluttering birds pushed from the nest, so are the women of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.

“Make up your mind,” Moab says. “Render a decision. Make your shadow like night—at high noon.

Hide the fugitives, do not betray the refugees.

Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you; be their shelter from the destroyer.”

The oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land.

In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it—one from the house of David—one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.

Revisiting this passage where we looked at the Moabite women scrambling to cross the Arnon river and their desperate messages to Israel to grant asylum to the refugees from Moab, we expand the scope to include verse 5 which distinctly prophecies the emergence of the Messianic throne from the house of David and that it would be the throne that seeks justice and fasttracks  righteousness.

This throne would be established in love and faithfulness.

In the atmosphere of catastrophic ruin  and the frantic escape attempts described in the passage, the abrupt mention of the Messianic throne captures the context in which most people encounter the kingdom of God in their lives and formally place themselves under its dominion.

During a time of distress and displacement, we frantically seek salvation and it is in these times that the righteous throne of Christ reaches our attention and we  cry out for mercy to the One who represents life and hope when all seems lost.

Amen.

9