Josh 20:2+3, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'Designate the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the manslayer who kills any person unintentionally, without premeditation, may flee there, and they shall become your refuge from the avenger of blood. 
	This reading highlights a great reason that the people of God need to continually and continuously offer Him thanksgiving for Who He is and what He has done as an expression of His Nature of being Our Refuge. From the beginning of the nation of Israel entering into the Promised Land, the Lord made His provision for those who would be in such need of sanctuary under the Lord’s arms of safekeeping.
	Without this heart of God being fully evidenced in the manner in which He structured the cities where those who needed a place of safety could go and find security from the threat of the avenger, we would not have the salvation that is ours today. It is only because that is the heart of God put forth and established by the power of His Word and His Omnipotent Mercy and His Grace. 
	Again, read, in Num 35:10-12, the fact that this was not just mentioned in passing in the creation of the cities of refuge where those who were in such need could flee for safety. The Lord repeated this commandment, making it especially part of the governmental and societal structure of the Tribes of Israel as they entered into and inhabited the Promised Land. 
	Num 35:10-12, "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall select for yourselves cities to be your cities of refuge, that the manslayer who has killed any person unintentionally may flee there. 'And the cities shall be to you as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for trial. 
    	God’s heart has ever been toward those in need of help and security and peace and protection from the forces that would otherwise serve to destroy and to annihilate. He has freely opened His arms to those entangled in such peril and strife and hardship. 
	An example of this is illustrated for us in 2 Samuel Chapter 14, where we have the account of the restoration of Absalom into the Household of David. This was after he was banished by his father for the killing of his brother, Amnon, who had foully violated Absalom’s sister, Tamar. Absalom was banished for over three years, and the heart of King David yearned for his son. The following verses show the persuasion that was used to restore Absalom into the family fold. It reflects the heart of God, for all those who are desperately in need of installation into His Own Family.
	2 Sam 14:13+14, And the woman said, "Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring back his banished one. For we shall surely die and are like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one may not be cast out from him. 
     	 But God …plans ways so that the banished one may not be cast out from him. That is the heart for which we need to thank God in His Nature of dealing with such beings as ourselves. We deserve nothing other than death for the vile nature of our sin and trespass against His Holiness and His Sovereignty and His Honor. Yet, God planned a way to bring us into the very presence of His Holiness which would otherwise cause our immediate and eternal suffering and anguish. 
We can not stand in the direct presence of the Lord on our own merit or with any of our plans and our schemes of earning a pardon from the “I Am”, the Lord God, Jehovah. Only He can do that! His plan, from even before time was created, is fulfilled in the giving of His Only Begotten Son, for any who will seek Him and call upon His name and believe that His is the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life. When that prostrate heart of man is met with the saving heart of God in Jesus Christ, there is that immediate restoration of fellowship and complete adoption into the very family of God. Thank You, Lord, for Your plan to establish the only means by which …the banished one may not be cast out from him.
	Listen to the joy that fills the Psalmist’s heart when he considers how the Lord God Almighty cares for and sustains those who seek Him during the most difficult times of strife and anguish and despair and despondency. Open to Psalms 46 so we can rejoice and thank the Lord for Who He is and all that He has done for us in Jesus Christ, His Only Begotten Son. He has made Himself to be our place of refuge and sanctuary and safety in the instilled peaceful and quiet reliance upon His grace and His mercy.
	Ps 46, God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has wrought desolations in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. "Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. 
    	The Psalmist highlights our encouragement in the Lord as our refuge in so many of the passages that are in scripture. We will read only a couple more since we do not have the time to consider each one. We would be here far beyond this day of worship, recounting all that the Lord tells us of Himself in His Word as He proclaims the validity of being our refuge. 
We should find ourselves so immersed in the Lord’s manifestly glorious open-hearted giving of Himself as our sanctuary from all the vile forces of this age which try to distract and to dissuade us. We have the recounting of the fact that God is our shelter from the storms of all the circumstances and perilous tribulations and pandemic and social upheaval that so violently pound away at our hearts and minds. We need to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit reiterating and establishing the full measure of the absolutely and perfectly ordained Nature of God as Jehovah Jirah, the Provider of our every need. He bestows our food, our shelter, and our clothing. He is our peace and comfort and quiet contentedness as we dwell on the miraculous works of His Hands. For all of this, He deserves our expressed gratitude every day of our walk on this earth, and throughout all the eternal ages to come.
Ps 62:5-8, is an excellent passage to recount to ourselves when we need to remember unto Whom we place our faith and our trust. He is our God and He is our eternal refuge! 
Ps 62:5-8, My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah. 
      	Next turn to Ps 91:2-9, where we have the whole plan and purpose of the heart of God set before us. We are so wondrously loved by God and we are rescued by Him from the death that should have been our portion. We are brought into the peace and the quiet rest that can only be found as we learn to trust and to obey and to rely completely upon Him.
	Ps 91:2-9, I will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!" For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper, And from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day; Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not approach you. You will only look on with your eyes, And see the recompense of the wicked. For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place. 
   	The Prophet Zechariah moves forward with this utmost encouragement to find our refuge and our sanctuary in the presence of the Lord Himself. This is declared for us in Zech 9:9-12, wherein the foretelling of Christ is proclaimed. The spilling of His blood established our eternal covenant of relationship as the redeemed family of God in His Son. We are freed from our imprisonment to death and sin by the precious blood of the Only One Who is our liberty and our life!
	Zech 9:9-12, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, And the horse from Jerusalem; And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope; This very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you. 
     	The Apostle Paul carries this awesome theme forward into the New Testament for us in 2 Cor 5:17-21. He details exactly what Christ had to do in order to so establish our placement into the direct presence of God by becoming our sin. He, who knew no sin, became our sin, being nailed to the cross instead of us. He bore our guilt and our shame and our righteous punishment in the agony of what He suffered in our stead. He did this willingly and lovingly for you and for me if we will but call upon Him and seek Him to be our righteous Savior and Lord. How can we not give Him all thanksgiving with humble and earnest gratitude for taking our place on the cross, the place that He did not deserve, but we fully did!
	2 Cor 5:17-21, Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 
     	The Apostle then continues to encourage us, in 1 Thess 1:8-10, with the reality that it is all the work of God, through The Son, Who delivers us from the wrath that is to come. We are safe and we are secure in Christ because of what He did! It has nothing at all to do with anything that we might have tried to do or schemed to do or intended to accomplish. All we deserve, apart from the indwelling person of Jesus Christ in our lives, is everlasting damnation. God is our refuge from the righteous punishment of eternal suffering and misery. Thank You God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
	1 Thess 1:8-10, For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. 
	We will conclude our consideration of the fact that God, Alone, deserves all the expressed thankfulness of our hearts today, tomorrow, and always, with the encouragement of the Writer to the Hebrews! Please turn to Heb 6:11-20, where the Writer makes inference to the fact that God set up those cities of refuge for the Children of Israel as the type of the perfect refuge that you and I have in Jesus Christ forevermore.
	Heb 6:11-20, And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, "I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply you." And thus, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. 
	Our hope is set in Jesus Christ! He is the One Who holds us close and secure and in the refuge and shelter of His Atoning grace and mercy. Apart from Christ, there is really nothing of value to be thankful for! There is no true life! There is no essential hope! There is no complete assurance of rest or peace! There is no sustained satisfaction for that spiritual yearning which can only be quenched by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as He reveals Christ alive in us! 
Our offering of thanks far exceeds any earthly basis of gratitude. We need to thank God for being true to His Nature and His Essence of making the way of redemption and sanctification for those who will run to Him seeking His place of refuge. We need to thank Him that He gave His Only Begotten Son to die and then rise up from that death in His most triumphant resurrection, bringing you and me into the very family of God. That always needs to be the core and essential expression of our Thanksgiving unto God. So be it!
"Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'Designate the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the manslayer who kills any person unintentionally, without premeditation, may flee there, and they shall become your refuge from the avenger of blood. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Luke 2:30-32. For my eyes have seen Thy salvation, Which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, A light of revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Thy people Israel." Amen.