REFUGE

Today’s Reading: Numbers 35-36

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion on the right-hand side).

The Convent of Pater Noster is on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. It is located at the site of the ruins of the “Eleona” Basilica, built in the 4th century by Constantine over a cave where, according to tradition, Jesus met with His disciples and taught the “Our Father” (“Pater Noster” in Latin). The walls of this convent are decorated with 140 large ceramic tiles, each one inscribed with the Lord’s Prayer in a different language.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

Key Verses Numbers 35:11 & 35:34

…then you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there…Therefore do not defile the land which you inhabit, in which I dwell; for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel.

Moses provided for a fair trial for the crime of manslaughter, or accidentally killing a person. Capital punishment by execution for murder was within the powers assigned to the state. All of us need a place of refuge. Jesus and His disciples are thought to have used the cave under the convent pictured above as their place of refuge from the misguided religious authorities. We also have a place of refuge! (Hebrews 6:17-20) Thank you, Reynold, for great photos!

After we complete the Book of Acts, we will read in the next Hebrew books that the people again and again defiled the land. Before we judge them too harshly, we need to look at our own lives. Are we defiling the place where God lives? We should live in a state of repentance, a godly sorrow for sin, so that we are constantly cleansed from sin. First John 1:7b tells us, “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.”

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, I run daily into You for refuge. Keep me dwelling in You constantly, because in You is protection and Salvation. Dear Jesus, You promised that, as I have invited You into my heart, that You would live in me. I need constant cleaning so that Your dwelling place will not be defiled. Today I’m praying Paul’s prayer for the believers in Ephesus (click Ephesians 3:14-21). Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

Yad Vashem, is a memorial to the most tragic betrayal of humanity in human history, the Holocaust, where at least 6,000,000 of God’s ancient people, the Jews, were murdered. As is my custom, I’ve often stopped to meditate at the tree planted in honour of the heroine of the Netherlands, Corrie Ten Boom, who provided jews with a place of refuge during WWII. Rev. Jason Patterson, my grandson-in-law, took the pictures below. Corrie’s original tree died the year she died, and they planted a new tree as you can see. The book and movie “The Hiding Place” is her story. Norma-Jean and I, on a visit to Holland, crept into that hiding place and sat there for a time. We imagined what it would be like for Corrie to hurry Jews into that place to hide them from the Nazis. Corrie, along with her father and sister, were arrested and taken to a death camp. She managed to survive but not her family members. It was a great honour to introduce Corrie to our Canadian television viewers several times in the sixties and seventies. She had never been on TV before, and her childlike approach to explaining the Gospel amazed me. I learned great lessons from her. One time she put on a clear plastic glove and said, “Jesus is like my hand, and the glove is all I want to be seen of me.” I wept openly.

Yours with the prayer to be more like Jesus and Corrie,

David

P.S. Think about it as you meditate on the pictures below and listen to a short message from Corrie about forgiveness (click here).