‘Refuge’ is a significant Bible word, echoing the cities of refuge set up by Moses for people fleeing from ‘mob’ justice. But these cities also illustrate how we must all take refuge in Christ’s salvation to escape our deserved justice for rebellion against God. Help for seeking souls.

‘That we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.’

Extraordinary words, speaking of those who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. This is about spiritual emergency, friends, spiritual emergencies. The text speaks of fleeing, running for refuge, for a place of safety, to lay hold upon something, in this case the hope of life and heaven and that is our thinking for this evening. Spiritual emergency. You cannot find God without being in a state of spiritual emergency. You cannot find God casually. You cannot find God in a relaxed way. You cannot find God in a spirit of ‘I’ll try this out.’ ‘I will experiment.’ ‘I’ll just give it some sort of a trial.’

You cannot find God on any other basis but a basis of emergency and urgency and these words call us to think about this. Salvation is a matter of running, fleeing in the King James word to a place of safety, to lay hold upon a provision that God has made for us, to clutch onto something and in this case of course it is the work of Jesus Christ. His incarnation is coming in to a human body so that he could be our representative and suffer and die on will trust in him securing forgiveness for them so it’s a matter of seeing such urgency and running to him and feeling such a need of him a desperate need if you like.

And that is captured by these words ‘that we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge.’ Refuge is a significant Bible word. ‘The eternal God is thy refuge’ says Moses in his blessing to the families of Israel right at the end of Deuteronomy.

You May Be Also Interested in…

Sermons: Christ Defines Spiritual Life
Book: The Personal Spiritual Life