The Cities of Refuge: or, The Name of Jesus by John R. Macduff (brene brown rising strong txt) 📖

it great town at the time when the old warrior Barak, who was born within its walls, marched from its gates to meet Sisera in the plain below with his nine hundred chariots of iron.

What does its name tell of Christ?

The Hebrew word KEDESH signifies " Holy ." Jesus was " The Holy One ." Not one stain of sin polluted His holy human nature. Angels in heaven, as they cast their crowns at His feet, cry, " Holy! holy! holy !"[12] Devils on earth were compelled to exclaim, " We know thee who thou art, the HOLY ONE of God ."[13] Jewish priests, as they spake of Him of old by types, took " a lamb without blemish ."[14] Jewish prophets, as they spake of Him in their predictions, called Him " The Righteous ( or HOLY) Branch ."[15] Apostles, as they wrote about Him, said " He was HOLY, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners ."[16] When He was Himself on earth, He could challenge His bitterest foes, " Which of you convinceth me of sin? "[17] And when He came down, soon after His ascension, from His throne in the skies, we find Him proclaiming as His name, " He that is HOLY, He that is True !"[18]

Reader, remember this. Jesus never could have saved you unless He had been "glorious in holiness." If He had had one sin in Him, you and I must have been lost for ever. Just as one leak in Noah's ark of old would have sunk it, so one leak of sin in Jesus, the true Ark, would have plunged us all in the depths of eternal despair. Let us, then, love often to walk round the walls of KEDESH, and think of our "City of Refuge" as " The HOLY Child Jesus ."[19]

And when you ponder His holiness, seek to be holy, as He was. How He hated sin! How He loved to do His heavenly Father's will! How gentle, and good, and kind He was to all! He never was angry, or passionate, or revengeful. When a youth, at His early home in Nazareth, "He increased in favour with God and man."[20] Be like Jesus in His holiness ! Let
KEDESH be a word written on your young hearts! Whenever you are in trouble or difficulty, or temptation, always ask, "How would the HOLY JESUS have acted here?" Turn the words of your well-known hymn into a prayer. While you say-

"I love the NAME of Jesus,
Immanuel, Christ the Lord;
Like fragrance on the breezes,
His name abroad is pour'd;"-

seek also to add-

"I long to be like Jesus,
Meek, lowly, loving, mild;
I long to be like Jesus,
The Father's HOLY Child!"


[Illustration: Shechem]


Second City-Shechem.

Shechem was situated at the extremity of a valley among the hills of Ephraim. The famous mountains of Ebal and Gerizim rose on either side, from the slopes of which the blessings and the curses of the law were proclaimed in the ears of assembled Israel. If Jerusalem was the greatest and the grandest of the cities of Palestine, Shechem was perhaps the most beautiful. It is still spoken of by travellers as one of the loveliest spots in the Holy Land, with its orchards of olive, fig, and pomegranate, and its flocks of singing-birds, which have made the inhabitants give to the graceful slope on which it looks down, the name of the "Musical Valley." I don't know if the streets in the olden time resembled what they are now. The following is the recent description of a traveller familiar with them:-"The streets are narrow and vaulted over, and in the winter time it is difficult to pass along many of them on account of brooks, which rush over the pavement with deafening roar.... It has mulberry, orange, pomegranate, and other trees mingled in with the houses, whose odoriferous flowers load the air with delicious perfume during the months of April and May."[21] You do not require to be told that Shechem is a very ancient city, and that many interesting events in sacred story took place in connexion with it. The earliest mention made of it is when the patriarch Abraham slept under its oaks, (the Terebinths of Moreh,) when he came to Canaan from distant Chaldea, and erected his first altar under their shade;[22] and one of the last Bible notices regarding it, is in connexion with the woman of Samaria, when Jesus sat with her at "the well of Sychar," and spoke to her of the better fountain, "springing up to everlasting life."[23]

What does the name SHECHEM tell of Christ?

It is a word which means "SHOULDER."

Jesus, our Refuge, bore a guilty world upon His shoulder. The ancients had a fabled Atlas, who was supposed to carry the earth on his shoulders. Jesus Christ is the true ATLAS. " Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows! "[24] All the sins of all His people Jesus bore for ever away. Think of that heavy load which bowed Him down to the ground in the garden of Gethsemane, and caused drops of blood to fall from His brow! No other one but Jesus could have carried such an awful load and burden as this. No angel or archangel could have done so. Jesus, being God, was alone "able to save unto the uttermost."[25] He is the only "sure foundation" that could sustain all the building.[26] With any other, it would have fallen into a mass of ruins.

But I love not only to visit the old city of Shechem , and to think of Jesus bearing the guilt of His people on His shoulders , but I like to think of Him as the true SHECHEM now . He is our Shechem at God's right hand. "The government is upon His SHOULDER."[27] The Church and the world are upheld by Him. Believers-the poorest, the weakest, the humblest-are on the shoulders of Jesus. He is bearing the weight of them all; loving them all, attending to them all, interceding for them all. All that befalls me, Jesus orders. Food and raiment, health and strength, friends and home, are gifts from Him. Every tear I shed, He knows it, He appoints it. If he sends me sorrow and trial, I will go and enter the gates of this city SHECHEM, and remember, " Jesus (Jesus, who died for me) bears me on his shoulder !"

Moses speaks of God conducting the children of Israel through the wilderness of old as a kind father carries on his shoulder his weak and weary child. " Thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son. "[28] And David says in an hour of trouble, " I am poor and needy, yet the Lord (lit) carries me on his heart."[29]

I like to look at that New Testament picture-Jesus, the good Shepherd, carrying a bleating sheep or lamb back on His shoulder to the fold. That poor wanderer had gone astray on the dark mountains; but the great and gracious Shepherd had gone after it "until He found it; and when He
had found it, He laid it on His SHOULDERS, rejoicing ."[30]

Young reader, what perfect security and safety you have in Jesus, and in His Gospel City! Far, far more so than the manslayer had of old in his. I daresay, even although he was delivered from the Avenger, the Hebrew refugee could not help at times dreading lest the other might come upon him secretly. I daresay, at night, on his lonely couch, he would sometimes dream of the Goel stealing beside his pillow, and he would start from his unquiet sleep at the scaring vision. Not so in the case of those who have fled to the "Gospel Refuge." They can say in sweet confidence, "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep; because thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety."[31] He who is their " Keeper " says of them, " They shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. "[32]

[Illustration: Hebron]


Third City-Hebron.

Hebron is the most ancient of all the cities of Canaan. It was as old, if not older, than Damascus, and was built seven years before Zoar in Egypt. After wandering about from place to place in the land of promise, pitching their tents and altars, it was here the patriarchs had, for the first time, a settled home. We need not wonder at their selection of the old Canaanite city, on the peaceful slope of the southern hills, nestling amid olive-groves and terebinths, and looking down on one of the most fertile valleys in Palestine, with its orchards and corn-fields. On its eastern height is the spot which gives it to this day perhaps its most sacred interest-the cave of Machpelah, where the dust of the patriarchs has reposed for four thousand years. It must have been outside its walls that the angels appeared to Abraham, when he was seated at his tent door. The adjoining height is pointed out as the place from which the patriarch saw the smoke of burning Sodom rising from its own deep valley. It was in Hebron David was anointed king over Israel. It was amid its vineyards and mountain-slopes that John the Baptist grew up as a little boy, before he appeared in the wilderness of Judea, to tell of One mightier than he, "whose shoe-latchet" he was "not worthy to unloose."[33]

What does the name HEBRON tell of Christ?

In Hebrew it means " fellowship ," " society ," " friendship ." JESUS has brought guilty man into fellowship with God. On account of sin we had forfeited this fellowship. We had made God not our friend, but our enemy. We were cut off from communion with all that is holy and happy. Angels, in their errands of mercy through the universe, passed by our world; they could hold no intercourse with those who had rebelled against their Creator. Can none bridge this wide gulf which separates between earth and heaven? Can no ladder be let down by which happy angels can descend once more on their visits of love, and fallen man once more be raised up to hold "fellowship" with God and holy creatures?

JESUS is the true HEBRON-the true ladder of Jacob let down from heaven and reaching to earth. Jesus has "reconciled things on earth and things in heaven,"[34] He hath "raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places."[35] We who were once "afar off" have been "brought nigh by the blood of Christ."[36]

I trust many who read this will love often to visit in thought the old city of the patriarchs, and to dwell on its name and meaning, " fellowship ." Think of what you would have been without Jesus, your Hebron-City of Refuge,-a poor outcast in creation, an alien from all that is holy and happy. But by Jesus all is changed. God is your Father-Christ is your elder Brother. In Him, God loves you,-angels visit you,-the Holy Spirit teaches you,-heaven is open for you. You are enrolled as a citizen of