Good day dear friends.
Here is our study guide for today:
Wednesday: Joshua 19, 20, 21What would be our closest legal equivalent to the cities of refuge?
In this version of The Bible (The Message), the "cities of refuge" are known as "asylum-cities." This was a place of safety until trial. In other eras of our heritage as Christians, the church building was known as a place of sanctuary. In fact, many still call the actual worship area, the sanctuary. The understanding was that a person seeking protection from either a false accusation from the law or from someone seeking to harm them, could ask for sanctuary in the church building and the priest or minister could tell the authorities that the church had become a sanctuary and that they could not enter into it to seek this person. In recent months, a church in Chicago hid a woman who was set to be deported for being in this country without permission, and she was going to have to leave her seven-year-old son behind. She sought sanctuary in a UM church and for many months she and her son were safely housed there. While the authorities claimed there is no such thing as sanctuary, they nonetheless respected the church's stance and left the woman alone for some time.
It is interesting to note that God knows there exists injustice in our world and God made sure to provide a place in which those seeking justice could hide. In this biblical case, the person fleeing could present his/her case immediately to the leaders of that city and justice would be deteremined right then and there. In our system it does not happen so quickly.
The Psalmist, as we'll see soon, also knew of a spiritual place of refuge as we see in Psalm 91. We can hide in the Lord when we feel we need a place in which to rest and recover. That place still exists to this day; it is just a matter of us seeking to find it and rest in it.
Have you sought refuge in that place recently? Do you know God provides such a place for you?
PRAYER: Loving God, hide me in You when I face those things I can't face alone. After a day or week or many weeks of being battered and tossed, be Thou my refuge. As the Psalmist found in You refuge, so let me. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
Here is our study guide for today:
Wednesday: Joshua 19, 20, 21What would be our closest legal equivalent to the cities of refuge?
In this version of The Bible (The Message), the "cities of refuge" are known as "asylum-cities." This was a place of safety until trial. In other eras of our heritage as Christians, the church building was known as a place of sanctuary. In fact, many still call the actual worship area, the sanctuary. The understanding was that a person seeking protection from either a false accusation from the law or from someone seeking to harm them, could ask for sanctuary in the church building and the priest or minister could tell the authorities that the church had become a sanctuary and that they could not enter into it to seek this person. In recent months, a church in Chicago hid a woman who was set to be deported for being in this country without permission, and she was going to have to leave her seven-year-old son behind. She sought sanctuary in a UM church and for many months she and her son were safely housed there. While the authorities claimed there is no such thing as sanctuary, they nonetheless respected the church's stance and left the woman alone for some time.
It is interesting to note that God knows there exists injustice in our world and God made sure to provide a place in which those seeking justice could hide. In this biblical case, the person fleeing could present his/her case immediately to the leaders of that city and justice would be deteremined right then and there. In our system it does not happen so quickly.
The Psalmist, as we'll see soon, also knew of a spiritual place of refuge as we see in Psalm 91. We can hide in the Lord when we feel we need a place in which to rest and recover. That place still exists to this day; it is just a matter of us seeking to find it and rest in it.
Have you sought refuge in that place recently? Do you know God provides such a place for you?
PRAYER: Loving God, hide me in You when I face those things I can't face alone. After a day or week or many weeks of being battered and tossed, be Thou my refuge. As the Psalmist found in You refuge, so let me. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
