十二月九日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/12/1209.mp3″]
经文: 我的百姓必住在……平静的安歇所。（以赛亚书三十二：18）
未蒙拯救的人缺乏平安与安息。这些是属上帝的人所共同拥有的。平安之上帝教那些与祂亲近的人有完全的平安。人犯罪以前，上帝赐祂伊甸的花丛作他平静的安歇所。罪却在顷刻间将这无罪的美好居所摧毁了。在上帝愤怒的日子中，洪水冲走了罪恶的人类，挪亚一家却在方舟里得着安歇。方舟载着他们飘离这个被定罪的世界，进入虹和立约的新天地，这立约的虹预表耶稣，也就是我们的主。当天使击杀埃及人的长子时，以色列人安全地安歇在以血作记号的居所内。在旷野中，云柱的影子和磐石流出的水教疲惫的流浪者得到甜美的安息。此刻，我们安歇在信实之上帝的应许中，知道祂的话充满真理和能力。我们安歇在祂话语的道理中，而祂的话就是安慰。我们安歇在祂恩典之约里，那是喜乐的港湾。我们比在亚杜兰的大卫或在菎麻下的约拿更蒙宠爱，因为没有人能侵入或破坏我们的荫庇所，耶稣是祂百姓平静的安歇所。当我们在擘饼、在聆听祂的话、在查考圣经、在祷告或赞美中亲近祂时，会发现平安回到了我们的心灵。
Evening, December 9
Scripture: “My people shall dwell in quiet resting places.”(Isaiah 32:18)
Peace and rest belong not to the unregenerate, they are the peculiar possession of the Lord’s people, and of them only. The God of Peace gives perfect peace to those whose hearts are stayed upon him. When man was unfallen, his God gave him the flowery bowers of Eden as his quiet resting places; alas! how soon sin blighted the fair abode of innocence. In the day of universal wrath when the flood swept away a guilty race, the chosen family were quietly secured in the resting-place of the ark, which floated them from the old condemned world into the new earth of the rainbow and the covenant, herein typifying Jesus, the ark of our salvation. Israel rested safely beneath the blood-besprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying angel smote the first-born; and in the wilderness the shadow of the pillar of cloud, and the flowing rock, gave the weary pilgrims sweet repose. At this hour we rest in the promises of our faithful God, knowing that his words are full of truth and power; we rest in the doctrines of his word, which are consolation itself; we rest in the covenant of his grace, which is a haven of delight. More highly favoured are we than David in Adullam, or Jonah beneath his gourd, for none can invade or destroy our shelter. The person of Jesus is the quiet resting-place of his people, and when we draw near to him in the breaking of the bread, in the hearing of the word, the searching of the Scriptures, prayer, or praise, we find any form of approach to him to be the return of peace to our spirits.
“I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood,
I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God.
’Tis everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah’s name,
’Tis stable as his steadfast throne, for evermore the same:
The clouds may go and come, and storms may sweep my sky,
This blood-sealed friendship changes not, the cross is ever nigh.”