Sermon Transcript — February 28, 2004
Last Sabbath I discussed a tale of six cities, as you may recall, the six cities of refuge, and their significance to ancient Israel and the administration of death that God gave to the people, the population of the earth immediately after the flood.
Like so many of the rituals and infrastructures of ancient Israel, the cities of refuge were symbols of God and His character. They symbolically and literally exemplified God's nature, His character and His love. And so much can be gained by looking at these examples in the Old Testament, and seeing how they are amplified for our benefit in the New Testament.
The names of each of these cities commissioned by God from the beginning of Israel's settlement of the promised land tells us of God's many benefits. Kedesh, just by way of review, meant literally - our sanctuary. It was one of those six cities of refuge. Shechem was the second, meaning - our strength. Hebron, the third, meant - friend of God. Bezer meant - our fortress. Ramoth meant - our home, and Golan meant - enclosed or embraced or hugged.
I discussed how these characteristics being a sanctuary, providing strength for us, being our friend, being our fortress, our home, being embraced exemplified characteristics of God, who is called Our Refuge in the scriptures. Last week I told you I would discuss the seventh city of refuge. And during the coffee clutch last week, several of you cornered me in the corner and discussed with me some of your ideas, and many of you are way ahead of me.
Let's turn to Psalms 46 as we discuss the seventh city of refuge. Psalms 46. What I would like to do is collect a little evidence that will lead us to a logical conclusion of what this seventh city is, and then we will discuss its significance particularly in light of our role today as a congregation. Psalms 46:1-3.
Psalms 46: 1 ". . .God is our refuge and strength," Now these cities exemplified, as I mentioned last week, a number of His characteristics toward us. "a very present help in trouble.
Verse 2 - "Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth (be) is removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Verse 3 - "Though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.
Verse 4 - "There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High." We discussed how that God has become our refuge since these cities of refuge have been destroyed, but then we get into Verses 4 through Verse 7 which describe where God dwells, and frankly, describes this seventh city of refuge. "There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High." Where did David move the tabernacle of the Most High? Well he moved it to the city that he had conquered, the city of the Jebusites, Jebusi, the capital of the Jebusites when he conquered them. He moved the tabernacle there, and shortly thereafter, he began plans to build a temple there. And his son, Solomon, after David's death, did build the temple there. We know that city as Jerusalem, the city of peace.
Verse 5 - "God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved." And because God's presence was recognized as being there, it became the seventh city of refuge. It was recognized as a city of refuge along with the other six that God had designated simply because God was there. God was present in the tabernacle, and He was assumed to be present in the temple. I think this is very interesting because it has a lot to do with the Jews today, very interesting indeed. "God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.
Verse 6 - "The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted.
Verse 7 - "The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge." It's kind of interesting to me. I visited Jerusalem on a couple of occasions, and I was amazed when I visited there that the Jews were confined to a fairly small portion of the temple mount because today, of course, the temple mount is marked by the dome of the rock and by the Al Aqsa Mosque and the large platform that exists around both of those structures. Jews do not go in those areas. They're primarily inhabited by Palestinians, by Muslims. The Jews are confined to the bottom, the lower section of the western wall in the city of Jerusalem, and that area is divided by a fence. And on one side of the western wall, the women pray, and on the other side of that fence facing the western wall, the men pray. Maybe you've seen pictures of it.
It's interesting to go there because when you first look at the wall, you think that the wall must be smoking because people write prayers on little pieces of paper and roll them up like cigarettes and stick them in the wall. So you look at the wall and you see thousands of little pieces of paper rolled up sticking out of the wall because Jews write their prayers on this paper, and they stick them in the wall. And of course you see orthodox Jews praying in the typical Jewish fashion against the western wall.
Their belief is that God inhabited the temple in Jerusalem, and when the temple was destroyed, where did God go? If His dwelling place was the Holy of Holies, where did God go when the temple was destroyed? The Jews believe that God went into the foundation of the original wall not built by Herod, and the only foundation that's still standing from the time of the temple of Solomon is the western wall. So they believe that God literally went into the western wall, and that's why they pray before the western wall today because they believe that's where God lives now. And in essence, they still recognize in many ways Jerusalem as a holy city because God dwells there, and even in some ways, a city of refuge today.
Let's go to I Kings 1:48. I want to show you a couple of examples of why Jerusalem would be considered a city of refuge. This is the story of Adonijah, one of the sons of David, who presumptuously made himself king while David is in the process of dying. He's on his death bed; it's fairly obvious that he's not going to live much longer, and I'd like to pick up the story in I Kings 1:48.
I Kings 1:48 - "Also the king said thus, 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne this day, while my eyes see it!' " He was talking about Solomon. He says. . .David had made Solomon king.
Verse 49 - "So all the guests who were with Adonijah were afraid, and arose, and each one went his way." Because Adonijah had declared himself king. It often happens during a transfer of power.
Verse 50 - "Now Adonijah was afraid of Solomon; so he arose, and he went and took hold of the horns of the altar." So he went into the tabernacle and took hold of the horns of the altar, which of course, the altar was in the outer court. Now, why would he do this? Why would Adonijah grab the horns of the altar if he felt his life was in danger? Well, it's very simple. The horns of the altar symbolized the mercy of God, and it was viewed as a place of refuge.
Verse 51 - "And it was told Solomon, saying, 'Indeed Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon; for look, he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, 'Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to death with the sword.' " He was there to save his life so he grabbed on to the horns of the altar, and he said, "I'm not going to let go until I get assurance that you're going to let me live. He was taking advantage of the mercy of God; he was trying to take advantage of the mercy of Solomon, so he grabbed the horns of the altar.
Verse 52 - "Then Solomon said, 'If he proves himself a worthy man, not one hair of him shall fall to the earth; but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die.'
Verse 53 - "So King Solomon sent them to bring him down from the altar. And he came and fell before King Solomon; and Solomon said to him, 'Go to your house.' " He gave him, if you will, refuge. He said, "I will extend mercy; go to your house."
Now as it happens, and I don't have time to read the whole story, Adonijah tried another scheme through marriage to take the throne, and Solomon found out about it, and Solomon had Adonijah killed. In other words, once he stepped outside those bounds, he was subject to death.
We see the wisdom of Solomon being played out here just as though we had read last week about these cities of refuge, as long as the man slayer went into the city of refuge, he had refuge, if he was innocent; his hearing came out positive. But the minute he left that city; the minute he left those boundaries and came outside the wall, he was subject to the avenger. Remember that?
And so Solomon, he drew some lines here, he said, "Adonijah, if you step outside the lines, you're a dead man." And that's what happened to him.
There's another example close by, let's go over to I Kings 2:8. I find this very interesting. There was a man by the name of Shimei who happened to be on the cabinet of David. Shimei is an interesting fellow; he's a Benjaminite. He was a good friend of Saul's because Saul was a Benjaminite, and Saul actually used Shimei as one of his consultants, so by the time David inherited the throne, he took Shimei onto his cabinet as a consultant. And Shimei stayed with David the forty years he was in power. It was interesting to me; I think it was a political move on David's part, frankly, to appease the people of Benjamin who had felt as though they in reality had lost their king. And so David kept Shimei on the cabinet. Like I said, I think it was more political.
But David never trusted Shimei because he was a strong supporter of Saul. Notice what David says. This is David is on his death bed. These are some of the last words of David, and they're about Shimei. It's really interesting.
I Kings 2:8 - He's talking to Solomon, and he says, "And see, you have with you Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a malicious curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at (the) Jordan, and I swore to him by God (the Lord,) saying, 'I will not put you to death with the sword.' "
Verse 9 - So he put up with him these forty years in his cabinet. "Now therefore, do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man and know what you ought to do to him; but bring his gray hair down to the grave with blood." Again, it's interesting to me; we don't know all the political ins and outs of the forty years that David was in power, but apparently Shimei was, even though he was on the cabinet, he was a critic of David's. Not all went well. And he at one point, cursed David. David never forgot.
So on his deathbed, he asked Solomon to please take care of Shimei. Of course Shimei heard about it, and it's interesting that he immediately appealed to Solomon, and once again, he went before the horns of the altar, the place of refuge, and he said, "Don't kill me."
What is really interesting, I'm going to paraphrase the story for us. Solomon said, "I'm not going to kill you, Shimei, but you have to stay in your house, or in the environs of Jerusalem. And if you go outside of the city of Jerusalem, I will kill you."
I think it was three or four years that Shimei stayed in the city. He apparently grew comfortable, and after about three or four years, he decided he would go down to Benjamin, his home country. And as soon as he did, guess what happened? Solomon did away with him as the avenger of death. David had given him the responsibility as the avenger of death, but Solomon very wisely said, "These are the parameters." He knew this man's nature enough that he would eventually leave the city of refuge. And what happened to the manslayer when he left the city of refuge? We know the answer to that, don't we? He was then subject to the avenger of death, and this happened in the case of Shimei.
It makes two very clear points that Jerusalem was considered this seventh city of refuge. The Israelites knew God dwelt there, and it was considered the seventh city of refuge, and as I mentioned, today even today, the Jews consider this a city of refuge in a sort, or in form, because they believe God still dwells there, as I mentioned, in the western wall.
Let's turn back to the Psalms, this time Psalms 36:7. There's something valuable that we can take away from this study of Jerusalem being considered the seventh city of refuge, and that is, where God is, is considered a place of refuge. Where God dwells should be considered a place of refuge.
Notice this psalm, again, psalms are words that had been put at one time to music.
Psalms 36:7 "How precious is Your lovingkindness, O (God) Lord! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings." Now that's very close to the definition of one of the cities of Golan, which means - embraced, or protected, and when you read a more descriptive definition of the word, it's like a mother hen or an eagle who guards her eaglets, her children. ". . .their trust under the shadow of Your wings.
Verse 8 - "They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house," Again, that's where God's house was, was in Jerusalem. ". . . and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures." This is twice now in the Psalms we have read in connection to Jerusalem, or the dwelling place of God, about water. I find that's very interesting. Take note of that. We're going to come back to it. Continuing on:
Verse 9 - "For with You is the fountain of life, in Your light we see light." Jerusalem is also known as the city of lights, and there is a very good explanation for that because when you are coming up, it always talks about "coming up," or "going up" to Jerusalem, often times in reference to the feast days. Jerusalem is on a plateau. It's about thirty-two hundred feet in elevation. And when you come up from the plains where many of the people of Israel lived or from the mountain ridges, you gradually went up, and from most vantage points in Jerusalem, or around Jerusalem, or in Israel, you can look up and you can see the lights of Jerusalem. In fact, it is oftentimes called - the city of lights because it can be seen because of its elevation in relationship to the rest of the territory. It's called a city of light, and these constant references to water I think are very interesting.
There's a couple of symbols that David uses here in the Psalms, water and light, and these symbols will help us identify our place of refuge. Because I want to make a transition now, which we touched on last time, from the physical cities of refuge, because the temple in Jerusalem is no longer there; Christ indicated that Christ doesn't dwell in Jerusalem, as the Jews believe, any longer. Where is our city of refuge today?
Once again, let's go the New Testament, John 3. And let's read the words of Christ beginning in John 3:18.
John 3:18 - "He who believes in Him is not condemned;" And we heard a little bit about that in the sermonette that there's no condemnation in Christ who forgives us if we repent, as we all know, and embrace Him. "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." And again we talked about Christ being described as our refuge in the last sermon that I gave on this subject, and if we come under the wings, or the embrace of Christ, then there's no condemnation. We are protected from the avenger of death, if you will, in a state of refuge.
Verse 19 - "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light," Why is that? Because under the cloak of darkness, most people feel they could get by with more than they could in the light. And so often times, criminals or crime, or sin, takes place in the dark, at night, because people feel like they can get by with something in the darkness because nobody notices. Of course, that's pretty foolish because they don't understand that God has x-ray vision. He has night vision, you know; He sees in the night; He sees in the dark; He sees behind doors; He sees everywhere, everything. God knows what's going on. You can't hide from God, but ". . .men love darkness." He's speaking literally and symbolically here, ". . .rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Verse 20 - "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
Verse 21 - "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." What's Christ saying here? Christ is saying, of course, that He is the light, very clearly. That was one of the symbols, remember, of Jerusalem, the refuge city that we talked about earlier.
So Christ has become our refuge. Let's read further in John 4:5. Let's actually drop down to John 4:7. This describes this encounter that Christ had with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.
John 4:7 - "A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give Me a drink.'
Verse 8 - "For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Verse 9 - "And (Then) the woman of Samaria said to Him, 'How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?' " This was a double whammy, normally a Jewish rabbi wouldn't ask a woman to fetch water for him, particularly an unmarried rabbi, for a number of reasons in the Jewish faith. And number two, certainly, not a Samaritan woman because Samaritans, as this lady pointed out, don't have dealings, and don't even talk to, or Jews wouldn't, to a Samaritan. "For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."
Verse 10 - "Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.'
Verse 11 - "The woman said to Him, 'Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
Verse 12 - "'Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?'
Verse 13 - "Jesus answered and said to her, 'Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,'" He's talking about the well.
Verse 14 - " 'but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him he will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.'" I think it's fascinating here where Christ compares Himself as our refuge to the city of refuge, the ultimate city of refuge, if you will, that was on the earth, that being Jerusalem, where the temple was. He says, "I'm the source of water, and I'm the source of light." And Jerusalem, as we read in Psalms 36 was known as a city of light.
It's interesting that Jerusalem is also pictured as a city of water, and of flowing waters. Of all the cities of refuge, Jerusalem was the one who had no water. There was no water in the walls of the city of Jerusalem. It was the one advantage; it was high on a hill; it was already walled when David conquered it by the Jebusites, but it had no water. And this proved to be the vulnerable part of Jerusalem. That's why Jerusalem changed hands several times. It had no water, so an army knew that if they surrounded Jerusalem and just waited, eventually the inhabitants would run out of water, and as long as they could avoid the rain, they would eventually have to give up. They'd have to surrender because they'd run out of water.
And during the time of Hezekiah and the siege of the Assyrians, it's kind of interesting because Hezekiah saw the armies coming, and what he decided to do was to build a tunnel. And he tunneled down inside the walls of the city, and he built a tunnel that runs about nearly, I think it's a little over a hundred yards, it runs about sixty-seventy feet under the ground, out to a well. It's called Hezekiah's tunnel, and if you visit Jerusalem today, you could, if you wanted to, walk through Hezekiah's tunnel. In fact, have some of you done that? I see a few hands, so you've been there. It's really kind of interesting; it's a historical functionary, historical place, where you can actually go and experience what it was built for.
When you walk through the tunnel, at least when I walked through, the water was about waist high, and you carry a candle, and you walk through this tunnel, and you can see where the people who were carving from both ends, they started at both ends, and it's miraculous that they met in the middle. You can see where they met. They were off about three inches, and as they were carving this tunnel to bring the water to a level where they could dip into it from inside the city walls and get water and withhold the siege inside the city with Hezekiah's tunnel. So you can walk through this with a candle.
Now occasionally, the spring will bubble up more water than usual, and the volume will increase, and you can actually get a surge inside the tunnel. It sometimes will raise the water level a foot. And the guide that we went with told us about a group of children who were walking through the tunnel, and of course, children are shorter than adults. And the children were walking along, and the water was right up to their chest, and the surge came in, and they almost lost kids because the surge came up and pushed the water level nearly over their heads. So it can be dangerous at times, and the water's very cold, but it is an interesting trip to go through the tunnel, Hezekiah's tunnel, and see actually what was done to bring water into the city.
But Jerusalem physically as a city was without water. So it's interesting that Christ continues to use these analogies about a lot of water. But I think what He was leading up to was that these symbols in the Old Testament, that was the point that I was trying to make from last week's sermon, many of these symbols in the Old Testament are valuable for us because they tell us about their fulfillment in the New Testament, or in the future, as the case may be.
And so here we find Christ describing Himself within one chapter of one another as the light of the world, in John 3, and in John 4 as the source of this water that gives everlasting life. So I think very clearly we can see that Christ is our place of refuge. Christ has become our city of refuge. Obviously Christ is laying the groundwork for a deeper understanding of this concept of refuge.
Let's go now to John 14:1.
John 14:1 - Christ said to His disciples just before His crucifixion, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
Verse 2 - "In My Father's house are many positions, or as the New King James says, ". . .mansions or opportunities. ". . .if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Christ is preparing a place, if you will, the ultimate city of refuge for us.
Verse 3 - "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Verse 4 - "And where I go you know, and the way you know."
Verse 5 - And of course, Thomas, always the doubter said, "Lord, we do not know where (You are) you're going, and we don't know (how can we know) the way?"
Verse 6 - And Jesus said to him this very famous statement, in Verse 6, which I think clearly points to Christ as the city of refuge, as our refuge, our spiritual refuge is found in Christ. Christ said to him, "I am the way, the truth, or the justice, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." The way is the path or roadway to refuge.
You may recall that when we were talking about the cities of refuge that one of the first commissions that God had given the ancient Israelites was to build a road to those cities. A clear road, a straight road whereby anyone who needed to take advantage of the city of refuge, who'd killed someone accidentally, could escape to that city. Christ said, "I am the way." I am the path. "I am the truth." Truth is the justifier. I am the justifier, and of course, once you arrived in the city of refuge if you were unfortunate enough to be someone who had killed someone accidentally, you ended up in the city of refuge, and the tribunal, or the council of Levites tried to get to the bottom of the story to justice. And if it came out that they judged that you had killed someone accidentally and not on purpose, you were granted life. But you had to stay in the city of refuge. If you left the city of refuge, you were subject to the avenger of death, who oftentimes would wait outside the city for weeks and years to take vengeance on someone inside waiting for them to come out. You had to stay in there until the high priest died.
So we see very clearly, I think, that Christ is our spiritual place of refuge. In John 14:2 He says, "I go to prepare a place for you." Let's jump forward to Revelation 21. I believe the ultimate city of refuge, of course, is the new Jerusalem, talked about here very briefly, Revelation 21:10.
Revelation 21:10 - John is describing here that he had been ". . .carried (me) away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.
Revelation 22:1 - "(And) He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb." Once again, now, we see the symbolisms of water, which symbolized healing and eternal life.
Verse 2 - "In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, there was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits," etcetera, etcetera,
Verse 3 - "And there shall be no more curse there, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
Verse 4 - "They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.
Verse 5 - "There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever." Once again in the new Jerusalem we see these same two symbols described back in the Psalms of David, water and light mentioned by Christ in the book of John, water and light, symbolizing Him, and now in the new Jerusalem we have water, symbolizing healing and eternal life, and light, symbolizing Christ Himself. It says, "There is. . .no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light." There's no need for that there because God is light.
Let's notice Revelation 22:14 -
Revelation 22:14 - "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
Verse 15 - "But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie." Once again we find this reference to the fact that if you're in the city of refuge, and if you're under the wings of Christ and in His embrace, you are preserved from the avenger of death. If we are outside the city, including the kingdom of God and the new Jerusalem, we are then subject to the avenger of death and the wrath of the gaal, who is called the avenger, or the justifier. It's interesting that Christ will also be that avenger, and He will take the lives of those who are outside the city, outside the spiritual refuge.
We as the dwelling place of God's spirit should exemplify the characteristics of the cities of refuge. I don't know if you've thought about this. Where is Christ now? Is He in heaven preparing a place for us? He said he was, but remember, Christ can be omnipresent. Where His spirit is, there is where He is. Where is Christ now? He's here, among us, the people of God.
You know what that does for us? It gives us a very heavy responsibility. I think it means that we as God's people, and as God's children, and as Christ's brothers and sisters, that we should exemplify the characteristics of the cities of refuge.
Go back to that list that I gave you last week that talked about the characteristics of those cities, the city of Kedesh is our sanctuary. The Seventh Day Adventist Church calls this room - the sanctuary. It's kind of interesting that's passed down from the Catholic Church. But it has great meaning. For many centuries, the church, primarily the Catholic Church, was known as a harbor or a sanctuary. If someone committed a crime, they could run to the church, and if they were in the church, the avenger couldn't go in. Even the police in many countries could not go in the church if the sinner went into the church, and went to the altar and asked for forgiveness.
It's kind of interesting that even some of the principles, the characteristics of these cities of refuge was carried on. Kedesh means - our sanctuary, a place that's set apart, that's fresh, that's pure, that's bought, that's holy to be set apart for holy use.
Shechem - our strength; it's a strong defended city, a burden-bearer, literally to incline oneself to help bear a burden.
Hebron is friend, city of God, one who is called the friend of God, reflects the spirit of association, close friendship. I hope you see my point that as the people of God, and where Christ dwells, we ought to be exemplifying the characteristics that we find in these cities of refuge. Bezer is our fortress, foundation that has been built on the apostles. Ramoth - our home, a place of exaltation, a dwelling place where we can feel safe.
Golan means enclosed or embraced or hugged, protected place of joy. Does this describe our church? Our congregation? Not the building in which we're meeting, but us? I hope so. We have a reputation of being a warm church. I'm happy about that.
We should be bearing the characteristics of these cities of refuge. You see, they're not so detached from us, are they? If they have no significance for us, they should have great meaning for us. Let's end up this afternoon in the book of Hebrews 6:17.
Hebrews 6:17 - "Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise. . ." That's you and me. ". . . the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath." There were certain promises that God made, characteristics that He has, that He will not lie, that He swore an oath to make sure that we are protected in a place of refuge; we are embraced; we are forgiven.
Verse 18 - "that by two immutable things," . . . the fact that He said it, and the fact that He cannot lie and He swore an oath." ". . . in which it is impossible for God to lie, that we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge. . ." Unlike those citizens of Israel in the Old Testament who were innocent who fled to the city of refuge, brethren, you and I are guilty because we've all sinned. And we need a refuge that goes beyond the city of refuge because had we gone to the city of refuge and said, "I'm here because I'm innocent. . ." we would have gotten kicked out, and the avenger would have killed us. But our refuge is in Christ and God, and we look forward to that ultimate city of refuge, the new Jerusalem. ". . . to lay hold of the hope set before us.
Verse 19 - "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. . ." To know and to have faith and confidence in the fact that we are indeed protected in a spiritual state of refuge, and we exemplify those characteristics to others. ". . .and which enters the Presence behind the veil.
Verse 20 - "where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." Let's go back a few pages to Hebrews 12:23.
Hebrews 12:22 - "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
Verse 23 - "to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect." By being justified by the Justifier in this place of spiritual refuge. . .
Verse 24 - "to Christ (Jesus) the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of the sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Verse 25 - "See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven."
Verse 26 - "whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, 'Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.'
Verse 27 - "Now this, 'Yet once more,' indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken. . ." The physical things that are around us, the symbolisms of the Old Testament, those come and go, but those eternal issues, even which those physical things like the city of refuge pointed towards remain forever. ". . .as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain." What remains is the fact that we need the refuge and the forgiveness and the embrace of Jesus Christ. We need God, the Father, to accept us. And Christ said we get that acceptance by going through Him as the way, the truth, and the life.
Verse 28 - "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace," Let us put on the characteristics that we find in those six, if you will, seven cities of refuge. ". . .by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." Because the more we understand God and His mind and His great symbols, the more we respect Him.