The Chase of Love...

In the Bible times, God instructed Joshua to build cities of refuge. These cities of refuge were for those people who accidentally murdered someone; sometimes those who did not do it on purpose would flee to these cities as well.

If you were to accidentally kill someone, you could flee to these cities of refuge, then the elders in the city would have a trial to determine if you were guilty or not. Then if you were not guilty and had accidentally did it you were to stay in the city until the high priest died.

The reason the person had to flee to the city was because the avenger of blood was upon their heels, back in those days if someone killed a relative of yours you had the right to go after that person and kill them! So if you were the one who accidentally killed someone, then you would run and flee to that city so that you would be safe until the trial.

One of the commands was to keep the highways clean and straight and up to date and to put signs on the way. That way the person who is fleeing does not have to fall on the way and they know for certain they were on the right path. They could just run and not have to worry about anything in their way.

So, how does this apply to us today?

Well...you see we are murderers, we have killed God's Son by our sins. That is why we must flee to the city of refuge God has prepared for us. To flee to Calvary for forgiveness of our sins.

But there is the avenger of blood that is after us, the nearest relation to Jesus the Man that we killed with our sins! The person that is the closest relative to Jesus is God Himself! God loves us so much, that He has prepared for us a city of refuge, which we can flee to! And to make sure that we get there He Himself is chasing us to the city so that we can be safe inside!

There is still yet something else, in Revelation the apostle John talks about the city of God coming down to earth. And all who are found without this city are consumed by fire. And it says also in another place in the Bible that God is a consuming fire.

So if God is the revenger of blood, and He is the one chasing us to the city so that we may be safe, then those who are without the city will be those who have refused to flee to the city. So those people who are found outside of the city of refuge must be consumed by God, who is the revenger of blood...

Remember how, back in the Bible days that the people who accidentally killed someone had to stay in the city until the high priest died, right? Well our city is no different, we too have a High Priest, one who has already died for our sins, so that means, once we are in that city of refuge, we are never or should never leave it, because our High Priest will never die.

The city of refuge that John talked about is our city of refuge which we must flee to. That we may not be found outside of the city and consumed. We must flee to Jesus and He will forgive our sins and take us in to the city of refuge. God would have everyone one there, but the choice is for each person to make, and He won't force anyone, but He will try and get us into that city where it is safe.

So my question is to you, will you join me in the city of refuge?