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Refuge

by Jerry Ousley  
1/21/2012 / Christian Living

As children we played a lot of tag. "Tag; you're it!" was the cry whenever the one proclaimed as "it" caught up with another player and touched them. Immediately the plagued title of "it" was transferred to the new person and it was now their time to chase down someone else. When we played we always designated a tree, post or some object as "base." The base was important because it allowed the players to catch their breath and rest a minute. As long as some part of your body was touching the base whoever had the current title of "it" couldn't tag you.

That was one of the very few advantages of being small and skinny. I was pretty fast in those days and could weave and bobble my body to dodge the near touches of "it." When I did get touched and proclaimed as "it" because I was fast I didn't stay "it" for very long usually. If I had to play tag today with a much larger body and the age factor that keeps me from running or even moving for that matter, at those high rates of speed I'd be better off to either just stand there and become "it" and get it over with, or hug "base" as closely and tightly as I could and never let go!

When the nation of Israel was formed they also established "bases." They were called "cities of refuge." Their purpose was so that if someone accidentally killed another person they would have a safe and secure place to go. You can read about it in Joshua 20:1-9. They didn't have police in those days. Of course murder was wrong and was punishable by death. But when God gave the law to Moses He also recognized that sometimes accidents happen. If a friend or neighbor was unintentionally killed in some manner and there was no bad blood between them and their slayer to begin with in other words it was a completely accidental and innocent, although unfortunate mishap, then there had to be a base a place this person could go to avoid the avenger of blood. There's another title for you. The "avenger of blood" was normally a relative or close friend of the one that had been killed who took it upon himself to hunt down the killer and swiftly bring him to justice by taking his life as payment for the one the slayer had taken.

When a tragic but accidental death like this happened the slayer could flee to one of the designated cities of refuge, state his case to the elders and leaders of that city and if the individual was found to be innocent and the killing truly accidental, then the slayer could stay in the city of refuge and be safe and protected from the avenger of blood. It was like a base in tag; the avenger of blood couldn't touch him as long as he stayed in the city of refuge. But the stipulation was that he had to stay there until the death of the current high priest. That could be days or years; who knew? If he stepped out of the city prior to that it was like stepping off of base in tag, only he wasn't touched and proclaimed "it" but if the avenger of blood found him he was completely justified in taking the slayer's life. Those were the rules.

It was in a way representative of what God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, did for us. We are all slayers because of sin in our lives. We might as well fess up because we are all guilty of sin. The avenger of blood is none other than the devil and believe you me he is out to get us. He may entice us and make sin look pretty and appealing, but it is all a trap to destroy us. His primary goal is to have us die in our sin and be eternally lost. Salvation has become our base our city of refuge. We can flee into the arms of God and be taken safely into the place of refuge where the devil can't touch us. Oh, he'll stand outside the city and taunt us, tempting us to step out. He'll remind us of how much we miss our old life and our old habits in effort to get us to leave God's refuge, but we must resist and always remember the rules.

There is a difference in that Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest died prior to our taking shelter in the place of refuge. He died to create the refuge. And here's the other thing; Regardless how our old, past life was, whether good or bad, staying in His refuge is always better. Why would we ever leave?

So when the devil is trying to tag you and make you "it" remember that you can flee to "base" where you'll want to stay and never let go because the life-game of tag is much more serious than the game children play.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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