“Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.”
– Isaiah 32:1-2
These verses from Isaiah are a promise of a king who will reign in righteousness.
Isaiah 32:1-2 Reminds Us Of Our Righteous Leader, Jesus
Picture this. When you think about leaders in the world, you can probably think of examples of good leaders, and not good leaders. Evil leaders, even. As you think about that in history, you look around the world today, there is obviously a mixture of that, and at the same time, every leader is sinful and prone to sin, and so what Isaiah 32: 1-2 is promising is that there’s coming a day when the king who rules and reigns over us will be completely righteous. He will reign in righteousness.
Isaiah 32:1-2 Reminds Us That Jesus Will Protect Us
Jesus, our righteous king, provides us with protection and ultimate satisfaction.
I want you to think about, so then verse 2 just flows from that, what that will be like. It will be like a hiding place from the wind, like a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place. This is what a righteous leader is like, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
The reality is, yes, some leaders in this world may be better than others, but none of them are sinless. None of them are totally righteous, and so Isaiah is saying we need a king who reigns in righteousness. The promise is, this is one of many promises in the book of Isaiah, that that king is coming.
Now, if we look back, that king has come. His name is Jesus. He reigns in righteousness, and in Him, we have a leader who is like a hiding place from the wind. He’s like shelter from the storm. He’s like streams of water in a dry place, and the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
This Verse Reminds Us to Look To Jesus
I want to encourage you today to look to Jesus as your leader, as your King, as your Lord, and find streams of water in a dry place, particularly in a world where we are let down by leaders on all kinds of levels, and eventually, every leader in some sense lets us down because every leader is sinful in this world, but look to Jesus, even as we pray now.
This Verse Leads Us to Thank God For His Righteousness
“Oh, God, we look to Jesus as the righteousness King. Jesus, we praise You for Your righteousness. We exalt You for Your perfection, for Your holiness, and Your goodness. Everything You do is good.
“Oh, God, we long for goodness in those who lead us in this world. We praise You when that is a reality. We long for it when it’s not a reality, and yet, our eyes look to You, Lord Jesus, and we see in You perfect goodness, and we rest in You. You are the leader of our lives, the shelter from the storm around us, and the hiding place from the wind. You are, Jesus, You are like a stream of water in a dry place. Our souls are replenished by You. You’re like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
“We rest in You and we find our shelter and strength in You. We find protection from all kinds of temptations around us in You. You protect us from all kinds of attempts of the adversary to pull us away from the peace and joy and life that You’ve designed for us.
This Verse Leads Us to Pray For Leaders On Earth
“Lord Jesus, we look to You as our King, as our leader, and we praise You for Your righteousness. We pray even as You’ve told us to in Your Word. We pray for increasing righteousness in our leaders over us in this world. And we pray for leaders of government, in our own country and other countries. We pray for that in people in positions of authority in all kinds of different ways in our lives and work and for increasing righteousness in them.
“At the same time, we know they all fall short, and we praise You that our hope is not in them, in these leaders, that our hope is in You, the King, who reigns in righteousness. It’s in Jesus, the name of the righteous King, we pray. Amen.”
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
