Refuge

“God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear,” Psalm 46:1

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until calamites have passed by.” Psalm 57:1

“In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God.” Psalm 62:7

“Be my strong refuge, To which I may resort continually; You have given the commandment to save me, For You are my rock and my fortress.” Psalm 71:3

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” Psalm 91:1

“Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” Hebrews 6:18

In the book of Numbers, God speaks to Moses and gives him a picture, a glimpse of His plan for our future salvation in Jesus Christ. “When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there.” Numbers 35:10

God instructed the Levitical priesthood to set up and maintain six cities of refuge. These cities were to be used by anyone who accidentally killed another person. The law at the time was set up so that the closest male relative to the deceased could avenge the death of his relative. It was permissible to demand blood (the life is in the blood) from the person responsible for the death even if it was accidental.

If someone committed manslaughter they would flee to the nearest city of Refuge where the avenger of blood would be restrained until they held a hearing to look at the circumstances. The Levites were to  maintain the roads leading to these six cities. In addition, they had to make sure that the correct signage directed the person to the most direct route of refuge before the avenger of blood could kill him.

If the person was caught outside the city limits then all bets were off and the relative could take revenge. The guilty person had to remain within the city limits or face the possibility of death. It’s interesting to me that God was setting up this system to model for us His mercy and that as long as someone looked to Him for refuge then and only then were they completely safe.

In the book of Romans we find in 3:10 a declaration that “There is none righteous, no not one” which is a reference to Psalm 14. Paul goes on to make it even clearer for us “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. The word picture here is of an archer aiming at the bull’s-eye of a target, pulling back  the bow string and letting the arrow fly only to have it miss the target entirely.

What God is telling us is that we have all gone astray, sinned in one way or another and are running around in the world lost with no hope of salvation. However, God has also provided us with a city of refuge that we can run to. By faith we can choose to enter this city of refuge safely through its gate leaving behind all possibilities that the avenger of blood can lay hands on us!

Paul wrote in the book of Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Jesus told us He was the only way to God, our city of refuge, our rock and our salvation. There is no other road on which we must run, no other gate in which to enter as the Son of God became sin for us, paid for our redemption and gave us life through His resurrection. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

So now you have a choice to make, will you turn and run to Jesus Christ? May we all set our eyes upon God’s only provision for life and run not looking back to our old life where we were already condemned to death.