Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Feb 28th, 2011 Christ – Our City of Refuge

Today’s Passage – Numbers 34 – 36; Proverbs 28

(Second Milers also read – Romans 9 – 12; Revelation 22:17)

“Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares.” – (Numbers 35:11)

I must confess, I was not sure if I was going to post anything this week on this website. Our church started a week long “media fast” this week. We have been fasting for the past several weeks: each week the type of fast was different. However, this week, many of us at Jersey Shore Baptist Church are giving up some of our media entertainments for the week. Included are “Facebook”, television, videos and DVD’s, video games, unimportant phone calls and texting, and unnecessary internet usage. I wasn’t sure if this blog qualified as “unnecessary” or not. After some prayer, I have decided that because this is spiritual activity on my part, as well as yours, God would not be displeased with my writing it, and your reading it. You have to decide whether or not it is right for you. By the way, the reason for the fast is that we are praying for God to do a great work in our church in a new series we are starting this Sunday. We are sending out 2500 invitations, and we are expecting God to something big. We have already seen Him work. This past Sunday, we saw 18 first-time visitors come to the church. Praise the Lord. You pray with us that God will continue bless, and if you want to, you can join us as we fast this week.

In our passage this morning in Numbers 35, we read about the Cities of Refuge. These were six cities of the 48 Levitical cities that were strategically placed throughout the land of Israel. I believe there were three on one side of the Jordan River, and three on the other. Anyway, these cities were places that a person could flee to if he were “on the run”. Let’s say that a two men got into a fight, and one of the men unintentionally kills the other man. Even though in this case, this was not considered to be murder, the family of the man killed could legally exact vengeance upon the “slayer”, unless the slayer escaped into one of the six cities of refuge. Inside the city, the man could not be touched.

There is a great example of this in 2 Samuel 3. It is a long story, but in it a man named Joab kills a man named Abner because Abner had killed Joab’s brother in a battle. But in order to to kill him, Joab has to lure him out of the city, because they were in Hebron, which was one of the six cities of refuge. It really is a fascinating story and a great example of how this system worked.

We have a city of refuge today in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, we also have an avenger and an accuser coming after us. The devil is seeking our souls, and if he can’t get that he wants to sift our lives like wheat. But Christ offers us refuge. As far as our eternal destiny is concerned, Christ is our city of refuge, and even as far as our earthly lives are concerned, the will of Christ is our place of protection. We are all guilty. We could all be destroyed by the avenger of blood, but praise God, we have a Place to run to, a Person to run to, who not only wants to save us, but also wants to protect and provide for us, and give us a purpose in this life.