The following teaching was presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, at the Friday Night Prayer and Praise Service held on October 21, 1983. The title is, Thou Art My Refuge. And the scripture references are Joshua chapter 20, verses 1 through 6, and Psalm 31. I have a very, very brief point with an incredibly long introduction. Eventually I'm going to end up in Joshua. I don't know if this is going to strike you as something trivial or as something terribly profound.

I really think it is profound, but it's hard to capture it briefly. One of the most fascinating things as I've studied is to see the way in which God has dropped hints about himself into cultures all over the world. And if you've ever had a course in anthropology or sociology or comparative religion or anything like that, you've probably been fed a line that says something like this, that religion began as a matter of superstition.

And people looked around at a world that was very frightening to them and they couldn't control it and they didn't understand it. And so they began to postulate that there were spirits out there all over the place. And eventually, over centuries and centuries of time, those spirits evolved in the thinking of men into deities, into many gods.

And then still eons went by and eventually those many gods became one god. And it was sort of an evolution of religion. That's the way it's been taught.

It's been taught that way for about a hundred years. The problem is that the more research we do, the less that theory stands up. for about that same amount of time it was popularized by people like Hegel and before him by Feuerbach and it was very much popularized when Freud came along but since about the time that they began to put forward that theory folks have gone out and done study of so-called primitive cultures and virtually everywhere they've looked they have found way behind the superstition way behind the many gods the many deities that are worshipped the tribal gods there's a kind of a dim distant memory of a high creator god and virtually everywhere we've looked on the face of the earth That's what we've discovered.

It isn't that people are sort of moving through polytheism, through magic and superstition and, you know, all of this, and then someday they're going to maybe arrive at a concept of monotheism. That's not it at all. Folks who are deeply into so-called primitive religion invariably have a memory of the high creator God.

And for the most part, what they'll say about themselves is, our fathers worshipped him, but we don't know him. He's so far away. We don't have any relationship to him.

And that's why we worship the gods that are closer at hand, the ones that we can appease with sacrifice and we can cajole into doing things for us. And as I've studied this subject, It's been absolutely fascinating to me to see the little hints that God has given. As I say, usually it's just a kind of a distant memory.

But do you know that when missionaries have gone in and they have supposed that there was nothing there to build on, nothing there to build on, you have to scrape away everything that a given tribe or people has ever believed, get rid of all that because that's all false, and start over from scratch, the missionary endeavor has been very, very fruitless. And in a few places, key places, and with growing frequency, when folks are going in and they're taking seriously the fact that God spoke in ancient times to folks all over the globe, there is something there to build on. It's not all faults.

There's all kinds of corruption. but that memory of the true God when you take that seriously and build on it you know it's happened the missionary endeavor has just been abundantly successful when Bishop William Rukarandi was here last year he did a major paper for his courses at the seminary he has studied and he's studied other people who have studied the tribal religions of Africa and this is exactly what they've discovered that invariably wherever they've gone there may be the tribal deities and there may be the witchcraft and there may be the superstition and all the rest of it but there's a memory of the true God. A couple of years ago when I was in Tanzania and met Archbishop Musa I asked him how was it that you became a Christian because he's now at the end of his ministry and he became a Christian as a very young boy and he was one of the first ones in that whole area in East Africa but one of the very first ones.

I said, how was it that you became a Christian? And he said, well, long before the missionaries came. My grandmother used to tell us stories about the true God, the creator God, who had made us for himself and who was holy.

And when the missionaries came, we realized they were talking about him. It was very easy to become a Christian. We already knew about the true God.

I just want to share a couple of things that I've picked up in recent study. You know, Paul said in the book of Acts, chapter 14, he said to the Lyconians that nowhere on the face of the earth has God left himself without a witness. Did you hear that?

Nowhere on the face of the earth has God left himself without a witness. Men may spin theories to the contrary, but God's word remains true. One of the places where that has seemed least provable is in New Guinea.

And I've been studying about New Guinea because Marilyn Laszlo has invited me to come down there and meet with all of their missionaries and with some of the people. And I must tell you I have a sort of a horror that maybe I'm going to go. And in New Guinea, there's a tribe called the Sawis, S-A-W-I, the Sawi people.

And they have been traditionally one of the most vicious people on the face of the earth. Folks said that you would never find a tribe that practices both headhunting and cannibalism, one or the other. I mean, either they want to save it as a trophy or they want to have it for dinner.

This tribe practices both. incredibly vicious tribe, the Sawi people. And they are particularly known for the practice of welcoming strangers and treating them for months as friends, fattening them up.

And then they invite them to dinner. And it was thought, it was widely thought, that if ever there was a people on the face of the earth that had absolutely no memory of the true God, had nothing of humanity on which to build, it would certainly be the Sawi people. Until 1962, a couple named Richardsons, Don and Carol Richardson, went into New Guinea, went to the Sawi people.

they were welcomed they got very nervous they thought are we just being readied for the kill but as they began to get to know this people suddenly one day they stopped because they observed a practice they didn't understand what was going on a book has been written about this you can pick it up it's called Peace Child because this tribe for all of its viciousness has a practice that if you want to make peace with somebody the father comes and puts his son into the hands of his enemies and if they'll receive that peace child not only will ancient hostilities be completely forgiven, forgotten but there is a guarantee that we'll never be at war again. And when that was explained to Don Richardson, he said, Do you know that the Creator God who made us has put His child, His peace child, into our hands? Will you receive Him?

In the last 20 years, two-thirds of the Sa'i people have become Christians. Praise God. Another one.

Chinese. Probably you know that the hardest thing that the missionaries encountered in trying to bring the gospel into China was to decipher their alphabet, to be able to put the gospel into their language and to be able to write it. and just by way of contrast to our 26 letters the Chinese use 214 what they call radicals.

These are little picture signs and then those are combined and recombined in permutations to something like 50,000 signs. Do you know that one of the missionaries who was first working with the Chinese alphabet trying to figure out all of this. He came to the ideograph for the word righteousness.

It's a combination of radicals. Two radicals. Top half and a bottom half.

The top half is the Chinese picture for a lamb. And the bottom half is the Chinese picture for the personal pronoun I. The Chinese picture word for righteousness is I am under the Lamb. Just a little hint that God left.

Look at Joshua chapter 20. Then the Lord said to Joshua, Say to the people of Israel, appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent or unwittingly may flee there, they shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood. He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and explain his case to the elders of that city, then they shall take him into the city and give him a place, and he shall remain with them.

And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not give up the slayer into his hand, because he killed his neighbor unwittingly, having had no enmity against him in times past. In other words, a distinction is being made here between deliberate murder and inadvertent, a mistake, a horrible mistake. I accidentally took your life.

And you see, it doesn't really matter as far as the family is concerned. They knew very clearly that if I take your life, your family is going to rise up against me. That's the way it is.

That's the way it has always been. They're going to come to avenge your blood. And as a matter of fact, that little phrase that is so familiar about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was an attempt to set limits to how far you could legitimately avenge something.

In other words, if I take your eye, you may not take my life. You may take my eye. It stops there.

If I've knocked out your tooth, you can go as far as knocking out mine. It stops there. If I've taken your life, then your family rises up to avenge you on me.

But the distinction is that if I didn't mean to do it, provision is made. There are six cities set up, three on one side of the Jordan and three on the other side of the Jordan. And if I run fast enough and I get to the city of refuge before your family catches up, I'm safe.

Now mind you, I've got to plead my case to the elders of the city. I've got to say I'm really innocent. I have a right to take refuge in this city.

Protect me. And if I can make the case strongly enough, convincingly enough, I'm safe. And the avenger of blood can come and demand my life, and they say no. Do you know that all over the world, in culture after culture, people after people, tribe after tribe, exactly this sort of thing has been set up?

Exactly this sort of thing. In ancient Hawaii, a king with the wonderful name of Kuawee Kui Kaui set aside 20 places, 20 cities as places of refuge to do exactly this. You say, what does that have to do with God giving a hint of himself?

Turn over to Psalm 31. all over the world God said there will be places of refuge and here's what he inspired David to write in thee oh Lord do I seek refuge let me never be put to shame do you know what it was called in ancient Israel if the avenger of blood came to the door the gate of the city and his case was better than mine he said that guy is a liar and he pleads his case against me if he convinces the high priest or the elders of the city that I'm guilty they turn me over to him and that was called being put to shame David said in thee oh Lord do I seek refuge let me never be put to shame see it's not that I have a right to be there it's not that I'm innocent and deserve a place is that I appeal to a God of mercy and I say my only cause for safety is you I put my trust in you let me never be put to shame in thy righteousness not in mine in thy righteousness deliver me incline thy ear to me rescue me speedily be thou a rock of refuge for me a strong fortress to save me. Yea, thou art my rock and my fortress.

For thy name's sake, lead me and guide me. Take me out of the net which is hidden for me, for thou art my refuge. Words that Jesus quoted from the cross.

Probably he quoted them every night as he lay down to sleep. These were the words of any Jew who trusted in God, who made this prayer his prayer, into thy hands I commit my spirit. Why?

Not because I deserve it, but because you have redeemed me. O Lord, faithful God. You hate those who pay regard to vain idols, but I trust in the Lord.

I will rejoice and be glad for thy steadfast love because thou hast seen my affliction. Thou hast taken heed of my adversaries and hast not delivered me into the hand of the enemy. Thou hast set my feet in a broad place.

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress. My eye is wasted from grief. My soul and my body also.

And so on he goes. Verse 14. But I trust in thee, O Lord.

I say, Thou art my God. My times are in Thy hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.

Long introduction. Very simple point. Let's flee to this God tonight.

We've got absolutely no other place of safety. Let him be your refuge tonight. You do know that you've got adversaries.

You do know that enemies would pursue you. You do know that we've got an enemy of our salvation who would eat us alive. But God would be our refuge and our strength.

Let's bow our heads together. I wonder if there's anyone here who has never never come to the place of giving your life into the hands of this Jesus Christ you've gone through the motions people who know you would say you're a wonderful Christian person. But the truth of the matter is that you've never come to the point of saying, Lord Jesus Christ, be my refuge.

That's what he wants to be. Whatever sins you've committed, things that are so ugly that you'd be ashamed for anybody else to know about them he knows all about them and he still says let me be your refuge if that applies to you I wonder if you'd like to pray this prayer with me just pray it after me just very quietly dear Lord Jesus Christ just speak it to him dear Lord Jesus Christ thank you for loving me just as I am you love me in spite of all the ugly things I've done you love me how incredible that you love me tonight I would run to you for refuge I would put my trust in you in your righteousness rather than my own I would make you my rock my tower my strong defense I would entrust myself to you forgive me my sin and be my Lord thank you Lord thank you Lord it may be that you've known this Lord Jesus for many many years but you and I still need to run to him for refuge pray with me Lord Jesus I get so caught up in everyday things I get so involved with myself and worst of all I start thinking that I'm doing just fine Lord forgive me for pride in my own accomplishments tonight I would flee to you again for refuge against all the enemies of this life and against the enemy of my soul. I would flee to you for refuge.

I put my trust in you. In you only. In your blood shed for me.

In your righteousness. Be my hiding place. Amen. Amen.