October 4, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
A CITY OF REFUGE TO FLEE TO FOR COMPLETE SAFETY IN THESE PERILOUS TIMES
The inheritance of the tribe of Levi in Caanan were forty-eight cities and its suburbs. Six of these cities were divinely set apart as ‘Cities of Refuge.’
If you believe you are part of the people described in the last days as “a chosen generation, a royal PRIESTHOOD, an holy nation, a peculiar people”(1 Pet. 2:9), then you must know why these 6 cities were so dedicated, their purpose, and most specially, what they signified and its fullest application for these last days.
See Numbers 35: 1-39. “Then shall ye appoint six cities of refuge, both for the children of Israel, and for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them.” (Verses 11-13).
“The cities of refuge appointed for God’s ancient people were a SYMBOL of the refuge found in Christ. The same merciful Savior [and now High Priest] who appointed those TEMPORAL cities of refuge, has by the shedding of His own blood has provided for the transgressors of God’s law a SURE RETREAT, into which they may flee for safety FROM THE ‘SECOND DEATH’ [see Rev. 20: 5, 6, 13-15].
“No power can take out of His hands that go to Him for pardon. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are IN Christ Jesus.’ ‘Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us,’ that ‘we might have a strong consolation who HAVE FLED FOR REFUGE to lay hold upon the hope set before us.’ Rom. 8: 1, 34; Heb. 6:18.
“He who fled to the city of refuge could make NO DELAY. Family and employment were left behind. There was NO TIME to say farewell to loved ones. His LIFE was at stake, and every other interest must be sacrificed to the ONE PURPOSE—TO REACH THE PLACE OF SAFETY. Weariness was forgotten, difficulties were unheeded. The fugitive dared not for one moment slacken his pace UNTIL he was within the walls of the city.
“The sinner is exposed to eternal death [the ‘second death’], UNTIL he finds a hiding-place in Christ. And as LOITERING and CARELESSNESS might rob the fugitive of his ONLY CHANCE for life, so delays and indifference may prove the RUIN of the soul. Satan, the great adversary, is on the track of EVERY TRANSGRESSOR of God’s holy law, and he who is not SENSIBLE of his danger, and does not EARNESTLY seek shelter in the ETERNAL REFUGE, will fall a prey to the destroyer.” (E. G. White, Patriarchs & Prophets, pp. 516, 517).
Know your priorities, know your real enemies, know how to fight the battles of the Lord, and know who and where to run to for shelter, refuge and only safe hiding-place in these closing hours of probation. It is never found in any political party, any of man’s institutions or the wisdom, power and might of all “the kings of the earth.” It is only found in Christ, the God-man, the “mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh!” Bless all, NMF