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Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses, that the man slayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They shall be to you for a refuge from the avenger of blood. He shall flee to one of those cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his case in the ears of the elders of that city. They shall take him into the city with them, and give him a place, that he may live among them. If the avenger of blood pursues him, then they shall not deliver up the man slayer into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him before. He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days. Then the man slayer shall return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city he fled from.’” (Joshua 20:1-6)
Did you know that you are meant to act like one of these cities of refuge to the world around you? You are meant to rise up each morning – a child of God set free forever by His blood – and invite all people to Jesus by the Spirit of Jesus within you. You are meant to so learn His gracious ways and presence that all men, regardless of their background, mistakes and worldliness, are drawn directly to Him by being around you. Just consider how Jesus drew all kinds of people to Himself: “Jesus departed there, and came near to the sea of Galilee; and he went up into the mountain, and sat there. Great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others, and they put them down at his feet. He healed them, so that the multitude wondered when they saw the mute speaking, injured whole, lame walking, and blind seeing — and they glorified the God of Israel.” (Matthew 15) Now, almost identically, look at the attractive, gracious spirit of the Early Church: “More believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. They even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mattresses, so that as Peter came by, at the least his shadow might overshadow some of them. Multitudes also came together from the cities around Jerusalem, bringing sick people, and those who were tormented by unclean spirits: and they were all healed.” (Acts 15) My friend, where you go today, Jesus goes today. How He attracted all people to Himself is how you’re meant to attract people. When the world around you is aflame with hatred, bloodguilt, division, confusion, anger, and wrath, you are meant to be a city of refuge for the hearts of men. Are you prepared, today, to be under His inviting yoke with Him? Are you prepared to give your life to this sort of appraisal – The Father spoke to Jesus, saying, “Speak to the men and women you’ve redeemed, saying, ‘I have assigned you as the places of heavenly refuge, just as I showed you by my Son, that the sinner who sins intentionally or unintentionally may come to you in order to come to Me. You shall be to them a refuge from the grasp of Satan. They may come to you, and shall stand right before you, and declare their sin and brokenness before your non-judging ear. You shall take them into your heart, and show them Jesus, that they may live in Jesus as you live in Jesus. If Satan pursues them, then you shall not deliver the sinner back into his hand; because, before, he sinned unintentionally, and didn’t yet know of Me and My love for him. The sinner shall dwell in your fellowship until he stands before the congregation in repentance, set free by the death of the High Priest who is Jesus Himself. Then the sinner shall return, and come to the heavenly city, and to his own house Jesus has prepared for him, to the home for which he was first made.’” Oh my friend! that you, that I, that our families, our friends, our churches, our fellowships would all exist for the sake of that paradigm of overwhelming, providential grace! That we would attract all men and women to the heart of Jesus today - this week! Let it be so!
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"God, who gave our forefathers many different glimpses of the truth in the words of the prophets, has now, at the end of the present age, given us the truth in the Son. Through the Son God made the whole universe, and to the Son he has ordained that all creation shall ultimately belong. This Son, radiance of the glory of God, flawless expression of the nature of God, himself the upholding principle of all that is, effected in person the reconciliation between God and man and then took his seat at the right hand of the majesty on high..." Hebrews 1:1-3 * * * "The new relationship between God and man which Jesus brought is summed up in the word Father. That is to say, the new relationship is based on love and not on law. In such a relationship God is no longer thought of as the judge who must condemn; he is thought of as the Father who cannot be happy until the family circle of his children is complete. "But the almost necessary reaction to any such message is that it is too good to be true. How can I believe that? What possible guarantee have I that that is true? The guarantor of the new relationship is Jesus. He did not come only to tell in words that this is the case; he came in his own person to demonstrate that this is the case. ‘He who has seen me,’ he said, ‘has seen the Father’ (John 14.9). ‘The word became flesh’ (John 1:14), or, as we might paraphrase it: ‘The mind of God became a person.’ Jesus is the exact demonstration of what God is like, of the mind of God, of the attitude of God to man. In Jesus we see one who fed the hungry, healed the sick, comforted the sorrowing, was the friend of outcasts and sinners. And, because Jesus is one with God, he is the guarantee that God is like that. To put it at its very simplest, Jesus is the guarantor of the love of God. It is through him and him alone that we know what God is like; he lived and he died to show us the heart of God; he is the guarantor of the possibility of the new relationship with God, the relationship in which the old fear has become the new love." William Barclay, Jesus As They Saw Him
I want you to imagine a particular split-second in the course of human history; just a second that went by like every other second for everyone else in all the world - except for one man. In the moments before this second, that man was motioned to by another man - "Come with Me" - and so he followed that man outside of his village. We can imagine them walking along together, winding their way along a trail, until they're now standing on the brow of a clifftop, overlooking the sea. Neither of them is looking at the sea. They're now squared off to each other, and the one is motioning to the other, trying to explain with gestures what He's about to do. The other man stares silently at the Gesturer, just as he always does with everyone, trying to make some sense of it.
You see, the man who's about to experience the split-second of his whole life - the redefining moment - stands on the top of that rise unable to hear. And unable, we're told, to speak intelligibly. His whole life - the every single second that has fleeted before this, the every single day after day after day - has all been a great silence. Every moment has been a vacuum of the senses. Until now. Until the Man standing opposite suddenly plunges His index fingers into his ears, holding them there for one very awkward moment. Then, dabbing the tips of His fingers across His own tongue, the Man opens the other's mouth and gently touches the tip of his tongue. Then He glances up to Heaven. Lets out a deep breath. His lips move. He has whispered the command: "Open!" The split-second is happening now. It is happening before the deaf man even realizes. He suddenly hears the breeze through the seagrass, the distant calls of the seagulls, the whistling of a shepherd nearby. He can hear the sound of the village market, the laughter of the schoolchildren, the jangle of riggings on a boat down below. All at once, he hears it all. We can imagine that the experience nearly staggers him. Until, looking forward again, meeting the eyes of the Healer, he hears the very first question he's ever heard in the course of his life: "How does it all sound to you?" |
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