JESUS IS OUR CITY OF REFUGE
Deuteronomy 19:4 This is the rule concerning the man who kills another and flees there to save his life - one who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without malice aforethought.
With the creation of a new nation there needed to be rules, regulations and laws. Many of today’s civil rules, regulations and laws come from previous civilizations, and many we see coming from the laws God gave Israel. The law of having a place of refuge was one of not protecting the guilty as much as the . protecting those who accidently killed someone. It was meant to prevent the deceased person’s relatives from taking revenge. The double edged side of this was one of protection, because the accused person had to stay in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest. In the Talmud it argues that the death of the high priest formed an atonement for those in the city of refuge. If a person hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him, assaults and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities, the elders of his town shall send for him, bring him back from the city, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. They were to show him no pity. So the city of refuge was where a person could go for justice, and not to escape justice.
Universal sin is certainly a concept that has been around from the beginning of time, because of the conscience God has put in everyone's heart. It points to not only our guilt for sins in our life, but it also points to the aspect that there has to be a God without sin. If there was no one without sin, it would be unreasonable to feel guilt. Because everyone fears death, it is only logical to believe that the righteous holy God will hold everyone that has sinned accountable and deserving punishment. To try and avoid God’s punishment some people will inflict mental pain of guilt on themselves that leads to depression and sometimes even suicide. Some inflict physical pain on themselves in the hope of finding themselves free of the guilt that sins bring to a person. Whether it is physical or mental punishment, the fact is that our guilty conscious can not be appeased totally by our own effort. Even if we try to reconcile our wrong with the one that we had wronged, we still feel the guilt of being accountable to God. Even turning to a life of trying to be good is not enough to errace our guilt. The reason is that when we do good we are only doing what we should have done from the beginning. The only means of being free of accountability for our sin is by means of atonement. Only by paying the penalty for our sins provides for us freedom from our guilt and hope for mercy and forgiveness with God.
This is why I see II Samuel 14:14 as a key verse to what God was trying to do through Jesus. It says, “But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remained estranged from him.” This comes because one of King David’s sons had killed one of his brothers. His name was Absalom. Absalom had fled to a city of refuge, but David yearned for him to return back to him. To this problem Joab shows David how God sees transgressions or sins.
Jesus spoke about this as well. In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus tells about a rich man and a poor beggar that had both died. They were both sent to the abode of the dead. The rich man that did not love the Lord went to the abode of the unrighteous dead. The poor beggar went to the righteous dead, and because there was a great chasm between them both neither could cross over. They had went to the abode of the dead to wait for the Great White Throne Judgment of God that will come about at the end of times following the destruction of the earth. (Rev 20:11-15)
It was very much like what God had set up on earth for the accused of sin on earth. For those that had intentionally killed someone their fate was immediate punishment, but for those of unintentionally sinning there was a place of refuge.
Jesus tells us that the rich man went to a place of punishment, while the beggar went to a place of no punishment. This is not to say that the beggar, Abraham or any other person in the abode of the righteous dead were without sin. As it tells us in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fallen short the glory of God.” And this is why God in his mercy and grace provided a place in the abode of the righteous dead as a place of refuge until a spiritual atonement could be made that was similar to the physical death of the high priest. Because of Jesus’ death for us on Calvary’s cross, Jesus made an atonement for all who would receive his forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Because God is just and those who had died before his atonement that didn’t have a chance to receive their forgiveness, Jesus went to the abode of the dead (the spiritual city of refuge so to speak) to tell them of his salvation and give them a chance to find forgiveness. We see this in I Peter 4:6. Because of this no one would have an excuse for not going to heaven, or having to go to hell. From that point on when a Christian dies they immediately went to be with Jesus in heaven. As it says in I Cor 5:8, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” (There is much more concerning the death of a Christian in I Cor 15:35-57)
Well where do non-Christians go when they die? I believe they go to the abode of the righteous and unrighteous dead just like the rich man and the poor beggar. There they will wait for the Great White Throne Judgment. I believe that because God is merciful and just not wanting anyone to perish, he will tell them of his salvation if they had never heard or understood it just like he did before when he went to the abode of the dead. Everyone will have a chance for forgiveness through Jesus’ atonement. No one will have an excuse for not being able to be with Jesus for all eternity, and it will be there that we all will experience the true and perfect city of refuge in Jesus Christ the Son of God!
Prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus for providing for us a refuge that we don’t deserve or could achieve on our own! We love you so much!
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