Blueprint for the Home - Making the Home a Refuge

Josh 20:1-2, 7-8

The Lord also spoke to Joshua, saying, ² "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'Appoint for yourselves cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses,

³ that the slayer who kills a person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there; and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood'"

⁷ So they appointed Kedesh in Galilee, in the mountains of Naphtali, Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and Kirjath Arba (which is Hebron) in the mountains of Judah.

⁸ And on the other side of the Jordan, by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness on the plain, from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh

6 specific cities designated as Refuge Cities

When a person made a mistake, they could run to a Refuge City

Find protection & recovery from mistakes

Refuge:  secure, safe shelter inside & protection from the outside

A retreat, a haven

These cities & their requirements serve as a Blueprint for building a Home-Refuge

Shechem:  shoulder – government  Is 9:6

Submission to God’s government brings order & safety to the family

• Wives: Invest as much inwardly as you do on your hair & clothes
• Husbands: Give honor & strive to understanding

to respect, hold in high regard, esteem, set a value on, to prize, glory

Using God’s Blueprint will produce God’s Power

Kirjiath-arba or Hebron:  communion, fellowship, alliance – team

Eccl 4:9-12

Two are better than one, because they can help each other succeed. 

¹⁰ If one falls down, the other can help him up.

But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

But how can one keep warm alone?

¹² Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Promise – to Family, too:  Matt 18:20.

Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there

Ps 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is to dwell together in unity!

3 For there the Lord commanded the blessing

Kedesh:  sanctuary: a place set apart, or consecrated for a sacred use

• A Place of Immunity – Grace, not judgement or condemnation – Safe  
• A Place of Recovery: to get life together

Ps 73:17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end.

• Perspective & Balance 

Bezer:  munitions – where you keep the equipment & ammunition

Restore & Reload

     Prepare for battles

Ramoth:  high places

Encouragement & praise

     Gifts we give each other in the home

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.  Prov 16:24

Let no corrupt (rotten) communication proceed out of your mouth,

but that which is good to the use of edifying (building up),

that it may minister grace unto the hearers.  Eph 4:29 KJV

Encourage one another daily.  Heb 3:13

Golan:  rejoicing

The atmosphere of the home

A merry heart does good like medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones.  Prov 17:22

Prov 24:3-4

By wisdom a house is built,

and through understanding it is established;

4 through knowledge its rooms are filled

with rare and beautiful treasures.

Couples Covenant

I covenant to strive to make our home a Refuge & a Shelter

To establish it according to God’s pattern and order

So that we can have God’s power.

I covenant that we will be on the same team, in unity

So that God will be in our midst

I covenant to provide you a place of sanctuary, a safe place of recovery

So that you can be restored, then reload for the next set of challenges

Forgive me for any words that were rotten and did not minister grace

I will try to remember to encourage you every day

I covenant to work to make ours a happy home

So that you can have a happy heart

Please help me to do so, God

Power Struggle for Your Worship

Rom 12:1. I urge you, brothers and sisters, in consideration of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.

• Service:  to serve, or a spiritual act of worship

Worship is not just what we do to the music, but also a spiritual act of Service  

Power Struggle for Your Worship

Isa 14:12-15

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning (Cherub that guarded - Ezek 28:14).   

How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!

¹³ For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;

I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north;

¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'

¹⁵ Yet you shall be brought down to Hell, to the lowest depths of the Pit.

After being kicked out of heaven, works to divert Worship away from God

God is a Jealous God – “His name is Jealous.”  Ex 34:14

He will not tolerate the worship of other gods (Ex 20:5; Deut 5:9).

Struggle for our Worship depicted best between Pharaoh & Moses

Ex 5:1-9

Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.'"

² And Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?

I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go."

³ So they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please,

let us go three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God,

lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword."

Let My people go… to worship me

Israel lived in the land so long, they toke on the worship values of Egypt

Their issue parallels our issue:

The whole purpose of the plagues was to deal with their misdirected worship

When they made the decision to worship, the enemy increased their workload

⁴ Then the king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor." ⁵ And Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!"

⁶ So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, ⁷ "You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸ And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' ⁹ Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words."  

When we do Worship, it is with LIMITS – Pharaoh offered compromises

          Ex 8:25. Sacrifice in the land

          Ex 10:8-11.  Leave the children

          Ex 10:24-26.  Don’t take your offerings

The enemy knows that if I engage in complete worship

•  I will never be the same
•  I cannot be kept in servitude

Worship solidifies my relationship with God

Worship ‘draws’ me & God together – John 4, Ps 19

Worship restores right order – puts God 1^st & above everything else

Luke 4:5-8

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

⁷ Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours."

⁸ And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan!

For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"

•  Worship puts the enemy in his place – “Get behind me!”

Worship changes my view from being linear

Change my perception – magnify the Lord

Worship opens the doors of my future – faith that calls things into being

Isa 54:1-3

Sing, O barren, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child!  For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman," says the Lord. ² "Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. ³ For you shall expand to the right and to the left, And your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited.

Worship is the foundation for my prosperity

Prov 3:9-10

Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase;

¹⁰ So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.