Refugees

 

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word:

 

Isa 16:3 "Take counsel, execute judgment; Make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day; Hide the outcasts, Do not betray him who escapes. 4 Let My outcasts dwell with you, O Moab; Be a shelter to them from the face of the spoiler. For the extortioner is at an end, Devastation ceases, The oppressors are consumed out of the land.

 

Isaiah continues his burden against Moab. I think we need to remember that this whole area at the time was “war-torn.” And with this being the case we can get some ideas how to deal with our own world when war breaks out. Jesus told us that there will always be wars and rumors of wars until He returns, (Mt 24:6) and the admonition given to the Moabites is timeless for us in the world today.

 

Wars create refugees, and refugees need a safe place to escape to. I can’t help but think of the ten Boons here. The ten Booms were a Dutch family who hid Jews from the Nazi’s in WW II. I wonder of this was a verse that impelled them to action.

 

They took counsel ( there was a crisis) they executed judgment, (They decided on a course of action) They took extraordinary precautions to keep their safeguarding actions secret. (a shadow like the night at noon)

 

There was even  a warning to those who might betray the refugee (Do not betray him who escapes)  Too bad the man who betrayed the ten Booms (Jan Vogels) wasn’t aware of this passage! By the way Corrie ten boom’s forgiveness of this man is a powerful story of the power of the Gospel. (If you ever get the chance read the ten Boom story as written in “The Hiding Place.”)

 

We are facing conflicts today in the Ukraine and other places. Refugees are being made every single day as the wars rage on. Let us, take counsel. Come up with a plan, and then be ready to act by opening up our homes to those who are displaced.

 

If you struggle with that idea, put yourself in the refugee’s shoes, and remember this passage from Isaiah. And this one from De 10:18 He (God) executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

Let us do lilkewise!

 

If for no other reason, we are reminded at the end of verse 4, in this portion of Isaiah, that the oppressor’s days are numbered. Don’t side with him, side with compassion for their victims. In so doing, you side with God.

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word.