Where is that by the way?___________________

If you go to Colorado… deep in the Rocky Mountains you would, if you could get past military guards, travel down a long tunnel straight into the mountains… you would be confronted by 25 ton steel blast doors that, if you could figure out how to get them open, lead to a 4.5 acre underground system of chambers and tunnels, under 2000 feet of solid granite… capable of withstanding any chemical, biological, or nuclear weapon. Could that be the safest place on earth??________

After seven weeks of studying the End Times, in January and February, and seeing all the horrific things the Bible says will be unleashed on the earth during the tribulation period… you might ought to be seeing if you could get a key to the front gates at the NORAD Combat Operations Center….. unless, of course you don't believe that is the safest place on earth…..

Truth is , if/when the world does enter a time of End Time chaos:

Matthew 24: 21 For there will be greater anguish than at any time since the world began. And it will never be so great again. 22 In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God’s chosen ones. 29 Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.  30 And then at last….they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.31 And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world…

Since it true that you and me and: (14:01 on 3/17/07)

U.S. 301,397,849
World 6,582,820,838 (It's hard to copy and paste this… it is changing so fast)

….are not going to get past the front gates at Norad…we should all assume fetal positions in the corner of our bedrooms and hum….. right? …. Or is there someplace we all can go that is safer than Norad?_________________

There is the phrase we are looking for… we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.

(I told the Friday 10AM prayer group the I had discovered that the Greek word for hope… is Elpis…we were joking that Elpis is still alive…. You don't need to give up as long as Elpis has not left the building.)

But your "confidence in your future hope" is not the focus here… My focus is the phrase "we, who have fled to Him for refuge"..

The Bible portrays "Jesus as the safest place on the earth"…. Well, Jesus isn't a place.. he is a person…and he's up in heaven and I'm here and sometimes I get real nervous about where this world is heading,

Actually, the Bible goes to great lengths to assure us that Jesus is a person…but it also portrays him as a "safe place" where we can "go" to take refuge from the world around us.

In fact, in the New Testament, the only time the word refuge is used is to describe our relationship with Jesus. That could be a little bit of a problem…because the way we figure out the etymology of a word (what it meant when and where it was used) is by comparing it to other usages of the same word.

There is something here that I didn't know until this last week and I want to show it to you today. When the writer of Hebrews wrote that Jesus was the place we could go for safety in an unsafe world, he wasn't just picking the word out of the air.

When the Old Testament was translated into Greek, 150 years before Jesus was born, this same exact word was used to illustrate an ongoing idea in the Old Testament. When the Hebrews writer uses it he is picking up an illustration from the Old Testament and saying that that illustration from the Old Testament is what Jesus has become to us today.

So if we can find out what "refuge" meant to say, David or Joshua, we will know what it teaches us about our relationship to Jesus. In fact (and I don't want to go overboard on this) often…God instituted Old Testament practices to get people ready and able to understand something in the New Testament. (Like the whole sacrificing animal thing in the Old Testament was leading peoples minds up to Jesus as the final sacrifice, God's Lamb…in the New Testament)

So if "Jesus as our refuge" was borrowed…. or the fulfillment of… some idea in the Old Testament….. what do you think that might have been?

What do the names Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron, Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan mean to you?

Joshua 20:7-9 The following cities were designated as cities of refuge: Kedesh of Galilee, in the hill country of Naphtali; Shechem, in the hill country of Ephraim; and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), in the hill country of Judah. 8 On the east side of the Jordan River, across from Jericho, the following cities were designated: Bezer, in the wilderness plain of the tribe of Reuben; Ramoth in Gilead, in the territory of the tribe of Gad; and Golan in Bashan, in the land of the tribe of Manasseh. 9 These cities were set apart for all the Israelites as well as the foreigners living among them. Anyone who accidentally killed another person could take refuge in one of these cities. In this way, they could escape being killed in revenge prior to standing trial before the local assembly. (NLT)

If you were speeding in your ox-cart and ran head on into somebody else in their ox-cart… you wouldn't call 911 on your cell phone… because the "vics" family would be hunting you down like a rabid raccoon. Your hope of safety was to make it to one of these cities of refuge. Once you passed through one of these cities gates "vigilante justice" was forbidden.

Why would the writer of Hebrews compare our relationship to Jesus to these cities of refuge? Because of the characteristics of the cities:

1) These cities were all easy to get to…whatever happened you could get to their walls of safety in a short time

Pastor… you're suggesting that Jesus was not just being compared to these cities as a place of refuge…but that these cities were actually established by God to teach the Israelites, and us, about God's abundant mercy and to prepare them, and us, for a personal relationship with him that includes coming in out of a cruel world and, actually, finding our place of safety in the presence of God himself.

Exactly! It wasn't just people who accidentally killed someone who used these cities. It was people who couldn't pay their creditors and people who were in abusive situations and people who, just, could not find safety in the world around them without coming into this, God provided, place of refuge.

It is a perfect snapshot of Jesus himself….

1) Easy to reach

I used to keep as big picture in my office of Jesus with his arms outstretched in my direction…always there…always ready to help, and comfort and protect… that picture was a huge mental help to me for a decade or more.

Jesus is even better then the cities of refuge.

1) He there to protect, not only, the innocent…but also the guilty!

Hebrews 7: 24 But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. 25 Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf…. 27 Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people’s sins. (NLT)

2) Jesus doesn't offer temporary refuge until our guilt or innocence are determined…he offers permanent refuge!

Imagine the chap who runs the stop sign and t-bones the other guy's ox cart. He hoofs it toward the city of refuge only to be tackled by the "vic's" little Olympic brother.

With Jesus the door is right beside us all the time and Jesus is cheering us on from just inside the door. In fact He is constantly tapping on the door trying to get us to take refuge in Him in every aspect of our lives…

Revelation 3:20-21 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. 21 Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. (NLT)

If you understand what the names of the Israelite cities of refuge meant, in English, it makes the connection between them and the ultimate Place of Refuge even more potent:

1) Kedesh means righteousness (refuge for the unclean)

Do you, today, see Jesus as your refuge? Are his arms open to you? Is he easy for you to reach when in trouble? Are his gates never locked to you… Is he your complete and total hope and once you reach him have you found a permanent and absolutely sufficient refuge?

“Come.” The Pharisees all said “Do!” and tried to make the people follow Moses and the traditions. But true salvation is found only in a Person, Jesus Christ. To come to Him means to trust Him. This invitation is open to those who are exhausted and burdened down. That is exactly how the people felt under the yoke of pharisaical legalism (Matt. 23:4; Acts 15:10).

“Take.” This is a deeper experience. When we come to Christ by faith, He gives us rest. When we take His yoke and learn, we find rest, that deeper rest of surrender and obedience. The first is “peace with God” (Rom. 5:1); the second is “the peace of God” (Phil. 4:6–8). To “take a yoke” in that day meant to become a disciple. When we submit to Christ, we are yoked to Him. The word “easy” means “well-fitting”; He has just the yoke that is tailor-made for our lives and needs. The burden of doing His will is not a heavy one (1 John 5:3).

Illustration: Jesus invites us to take his yoke upon our shoulders. The Jews used the phrase the yoke for entering into submission to. They spoke of the yoke of the Law, the yoke of the commandments, the yoke of the Kingdom, the yoke of God. But it may well be that Jesus took the words of his invitation from something much nearer home than that. He says, “My yoke is easy.” The word easy is in Greek chreµstos, which can mean well-fitting. In Palestine ox-yokes were made of wood; the ox was brought, and the measurements were taken. The yoke was then roughed out, and the ox was brought back to have the yoke tried on. The yoke was carefully adjusted so that it would fit well, and not gall the neck of the patient beast. The yoke was tailor-made to fit the ox. There is a legend that Jesus made the best ox-yokes in all Galilee, and that from all over the country men came to him to buy the best yokes that skill could make. In those days, as now, shops had their signs above the door; and it has been suggested that the sign above the door of the carpenter’s shop in Nazareth may well have been: “My yokes fit well.” It may well be that Jesus is here using a picture from the carpenter’s shop in Nazareth where he had worked throughout the silent years. Jesus says, “My yoke fits well.” What he means is: “The life I give you is not a burden to gall you; your task is made to measure to fit you.” Whatever God sends us is made to fit our needs and our abilities exactly. William Barclay 

“Learn.” The first two commands represent a crisis as we come and yield to Christ; but this step is into a process. As we learn more about Him, we find a deeper peace, because we trust Him more. Life is simplified and unified around the person of Christ. This invitation is for “all”(Matt. 10:5–6).