Our Ideal Vacation Spot

“And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;” (Isa 32:18 AV)

 

There are three adjectives to describe the dwelling place of God.  Peaceable, sure, and quiet.  What a contrast to the world around us.  If we keep in mind the place to which we are going, it will help us to endure where we are at.  These three adjectives are not all that complicated.  However, looking a bit closer to the definitions will help us appreciate where we are going.  The word peaceable here means safe or safety.  But it also means completeness.  In other words, it is not safe because there is an adequate defense.  It is peaceable because it is perfect.  All threats are eliminated.  A sure dwelling is something in which all confidence is placed.  There is security from enemies that would arise from within.  Doubt, fear, envy, and any other threat to a perfect dwelling are removed.  We know the Old Man will be destroyed.  And with it, all that would bring into question how sure a dwelling we will have.  Faith is the key here.  Faith becomes sight in the presence of God and all doubt flees away.  The word quiet means to be at ease.  There will be singing.  There will be trumpet playing.  There will be choruses of angels and elders in non-stop praise to God.  Where we are going will definitely not be quiet.  A quiet resting place is a place where all battles, both exterior, and interior are settled.  A place where the mind, heart, and soul are at peace with everything.  Tranquility and contentment are promised for all of eternity.

As a youth, I did a lot of camping.  Our time outdoors was split between Scouting camps, state parks or campgrounds, and a 66 acre heavily forested property in the Southern Tier of New York.  We spent a good deal of time at those places.  To say these places could be described as peaceable, sure, and quiet might have applied.  Sitting at the edge of a small lake at sunset is pretty tranquil.  However, there were times these places were not so ideal.  There was the time two rival biker gangs started a fight not too far from our family and we had to hightail it out of there.  There was the time we set up camp in public campgrounds and neighbors close by were having a party.  There there was the time when my son and I were fishing in a secluded area and a party boat with loud music and half-naked women showed up.  But the worst of all was Labor Day weekend of 1971.  We were camping at the family property and word got out of a riot at Attica State Prison the following Wednesday.  On our way from our hometown to the farm, we went through Attica and by the prison.  It was thirty miles from our campgrounds.  Now, we would never have been in any danger, but to a child or teenager, we thought the hills would be full of murderers.  Needless to say, we never strayed from the eyesight of our campsite.  Our peaceable, sure, and quiet place had immediately become quite the opposite.

Our world is upside down.  The closer we get to the second coming, the more turmoil will arrive.  Our world is not going to get any better.  It will only get worse.  If we are not careful, we will get our eyes off what we have in the future out of fear of what we are experiencing in the present.  Our world will never be at peace as long as Christ is rejected.  Our world will never be secure from worry.  COVID proved that.  Our world will never be a place where all anxiety is eliminated.  There are too many problems to worry about.  But there is a country where those things exist.  And in abundance.  I am going to a place where peace, security, a quietness are normal.  I am going to a place where moth and rust cannot corrupt.  I am going to a place created in righteousness and true holiness.  I am going to a place where the sin of mankind does not exist and all that comes with it has no place.  That place is heaven.  And I for one am desperately looking forward to it!