The Bible tells us in Proverbs 18:10 "The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." We read in Hebrews 6:18 "That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:" The author is writing to those who knew about the ancient cities of refuge set up by the children of Israel so that any person who might accidently kill another person by negligence or involuntary manslaughter could flee to and be safe from the avenger of blood. These ancient cities were a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "Just as those cities were a place of refuge so Jesus is indeed our city of refuge."
Because we are sinners by nature and practice there is an avenger of blood on our trail and it is the holy law of God. But God has set up His Son who died for our sins and rose again to be our city of refuge. And so Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and those who come to him find that the name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous runneth into it and they are safe.
This past Sunday I shared a story that a preacher told. He said that when they were raised on an east Texas ranch they had on their ranch a greyhound dog. Normally you would not have a greyhound on a ranch but they had gotten a greyhound dog and they had a number of jackrabbits on that ranch and this greyhound would run those jackrabbits down. Now the jackrabbits had been used to out running all of the rest of the dogs and so forth because jackrabbits can pick them up and put them down. This greyhound would get behind that jackrabbit and stay with him and eventually run him down. And they really enjoyed watching this greyhound run those jackrabbits down.
He said on one occasion this greyhound started after a cottontail rabbit, what we would call the little bunny rabbit, and they thought well this will be no contest at all. If he can run down a jackrabbit he will have no difficulty catching and breaking the neck of this little bunny rabbit. But the bunny rabbit saw the greyhound coming and he went this way and that way for just a moment and then ran right up under a rock ledge and just stayed there. The greyhound could not get him and he pawed, whined, cried, but he could not get at the rabbit. And the preacher went on to say afterward, "How much like that old proud jackrabbit we are trying to out run the hounds of hell when what we really need is a refuge, what we really need is a strong place to get into. Now, sooner or later dear friend, if you're a proud rabbit, I'm going to tell you, you're going down but there is a refuge, there is a place, there is a place that the sinner can come into and be safe. His name is Jesus. Thank God for our refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves you and so does First Baptist Church.