The word “refuge” is a very interesting word.  It is basically a hiding place. Most people have their own informal refuge or secret place they go to when they are super stressed or need to think through a problem.  For a teenager, it might be their room or a friend’s house where they can just chill. To others, a favorite place that serves comfort food.  Some adults might go to a vista where they feel a communion with nature.  Others a movie. Still others might seek out a church in which to pray or meditate.  A newly-wed might return home to seek the support or guidance of a parent if something goes awry.  For her, the home she grew up in may be nurturing and accepting. A refuge is a place where you can hide when things get out of control, or when someone or something threatens you. Even today as events in the country and the world seem like they are spiraling out of control, it feels good to have a refuge in which you may escape the madness. Why not let God be your refuge?

There is a general but not universally agreed distinction between refuges and sanctuaries.  Most understand a refuge to be a temporary shelter.  For example, a home for pregnant teenage mothers or a storm shelter serves an important–but temporary–function.  People don’t spend their lives living in a panic room (not yet, anyhow.)  Once the threat is over, they move back into their apartment.  As an extreme example, you can think of Noah’s Ark as a refuge. The Ark protected Noah, his family and the creatures from the flood waters. But when the waters subsided, they left the Ark as the danger was past.

God provided refuge or sanctuary to people who could reach His temple, locate the altar and grab hold of one of the four horns of the altar.  If you could do that, the civil authorities could not molest or arrest you as long as you held on.  What sorts of people did this?  Law-abiding, overachievers who were particularly good-looking? Certainly not.  Good citizenship was not a crime in ancient Israel.  These were murderers, thieves, maybe prostitutes, deadbeat dads and so on.  God provided safety to them if they came to him.  He likewise took care of Cain after Cain killed his brother. He does this because He is fundamentally merciful and favorably disposed towards people who come to him as they are, warts and all.

In the Middle Ages, someone hunted by the authorities could claim refuge, even sanctuary, in a cathedral if they could get there without being arrested. True criminals would eventually tire or the surroundings and try to slip back out on the streets where the authorities were often lying in wait to arrest him.  But some people converted to the faith and stayed, like Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame in Hugo’s novel.

Sometimes, however, the secular authorities paid no mind to ecclesiastical law, like when Thomas Becket was slain by followers of Henry II at the high altar of Canterbury. Formerly, Henry and Thomas were caught up in a bromance, fueled by alcohol and youthful indiscretions. Now, they had parted ways.

During World War II in Europe, gentiles occasionally provided “hiding places” or refuge in their homes to save Jews from arrest by the Gestapo, often risking their own lives in the process.  A perfect example would be the case of the young girl Anne Frank who lived in a secret attic compartment of an abandoned building in Amsterdam with others in her family–plus several who were not relatives—for twenty-five months.  During those two years, they could not leave, open a window to breathe fresh air, even talk above a whisper lest they attract unwanted attention. Note the swinging bookcase in the photo below that hid the passage way to the attic upstairs where Anne lived. With the bookcase flush against the wall, there was no indication of a hidden passageway. Someone, however, tipped off the police that people were secretly hiding in the abandoned building and she was subsequently arrested with her company. Anne Frank died in Auschwitz from typhoid only weeks before the camp was liberated.

---

There are other sorts of refuges as well. We have shelters for battered women, plus “safe spaces” on university campuses for gay and trans people, perhaps Muslims and other minorities that promote acceptance. In “Tornado Alley” in the midwestern U.S., many people have storm cellars or tornado shelters.

SANCTUARIES

Society has created sanctuaries for the protection of animals (sometimes called game preserves) or other national treasures, such as the Sequoias and Redwood forests. Indigenous Americans have tribal reservations where they can maintain their heritage, customs and occasionally laws without intrusion from outsiders. These are more or less permanent places.

ETYMOLOGY

The etymology of the English word “refuge” is as follows:

’Shelter or protection from danger, assistance in distress,’ late 14c., from Old French refuge ‘hiding place’ (12c.), from Latin refugium ‘a taking refuge; a place of refuge, place to flee back to,’ from re-‘back’ (see re-) + fugere ‘to flee’ (see fugitive (adj.) + -ium neuter suffix in a sense of ‘place for.’

By late 19c. especially ‘temporary shelter for the destitute or homeless.’ To take refuge ‘seek safety or shelter (in),’ literally or figuratively, is by 1690s.”

There is also useful information on the Hebrew origin of the term “refuge” which does not differ substantially from the definition above.¹

From the same source, we can add one more vowel to the end of the word and get the word “refugee”:

1680s, ‘one who flees to a refuge or shelter or place of safety; one who in times of persecution or political disorder flees to a foreign country for safety,’ from French refugié, a noun use of the past participle of refugier ‘to take shelter, protect,’ from Old French refuge ‘hiding place,’ from Latin refugium ‘a taking refuge; place to flee back to,’ from re- ‘back’ (see re-) + fugere ‘to flee’ (see fugitive (adj.)) + -ium , neuter ending in a sense of ‘place for.’

WHY WE NEED SAFE SPACES AND REFUGES

The Oxford Dictionary defines a safe space as:

a place or environment in which a person or category of people can feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment or any other emotional or physical harm.”

Think of your typical high school. Students who are perceived as different (by appearance, behavior, race or religion, etc.) can be harassed in the classroom if the teacher is absent or inattentive. Or as classes are changing, during lunch and so on. They can be molested in the restrooms, physically assaulted in the hallways or locker room, on the athletic field and so on. After all, teachers cannot be everywhere and sometimes teachers avoid getting involved. Where does it end. Let’s look at a refuge in a grander scale. Alexis de Tocqueville might call this the “tyranny of the majority.”

Northern Ireland was created in 1921 by the British as a safe haven for Protestants while the Catholic majority came to power in the country we know as Ireland. During the thirty year period ending in 1998 with the Easter Accords, Northern Island experienced what became known as the “Troubles.” The total dead during this sectarian violence (Catholics and Protestants, paramilitary and civilians as well as British regulars) came to 3,532. During this period, people lived in fear. The murder of a Protestant guaranteed the murder of a Catholic in retaliation. Many Americans, today, live in fear of who the next president of our country will be. We may fear what we perceive as increasing lawlessness in our communities or a rising cost of living that we cannot keep up with. It is unfortunate and completely understandable that many school children fear going to class because of the unprecedented gun violence in our society.

God does not intend for us to live in fear.

IN WHAT WAY IS GOD OUR REFUGE?

Christians do not live charmed lives. They get hit by drunk drivers, wounded or killed in war, they have miscarriages, develop cancer, stroke out or are victims of sexual assault. They lose their businesses, fall prey to scams that drain their life savings and so on. In other words, they face the same challenges in life that anyone else does. They do have certain resources that can mitigate or even deliver them from desperate situations according to God’s will, but it rains on the just and unjust alike (Matthew 5:45.)

Jesus, himself took refuge in the wilderness before he started his ministry. He took refuge in the Garden of Gethsemane as his ministry–and life on earth–was about to end. Sometimes, he needed a break during those three and one half years, and he wandered off. Like many other events in his life this, too, provides us with a valuable lesson. Too often we get overwhelmed, whether caring for someone who needs physical or emotional support, or we work long hours at our job and then one day we wake up and nothing seems to matter anymore. We’ve burned out. I saw this in hospital workers, ministers, and people from all walks of life. Taking time away from caring for others in order to care for yourself is an important point to remember.

Up to this point, I’ve spoken of refuges and sanctuaries as places, because I am a visual sort of person. But author Chris Nye writing in Medium reminds us that we don’t need to make any travel plans to enjoy God’s peace:

The beauty is that we do not need to “go” to him in the geographic sense — no running to a temple needed, no pilgrimage to a holy site or sanctuary. He himself is the sanctuary. He alone is the temple. When Christ died on the cross, the veil of the Jewish temple was ripped apart because, at that point, the dwelling place of God went wild (Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45). Unleashed upon the human race for all those who claim Christ, the presence of God is no longer limited to a physical location (Ezekiel 36:27, 37:14). You want rest? Enter into God’s rest (Hebrews 4:1–13). We join the Psalmist as he says, “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge” (Psalm 16:1).”

Now, more than ever, we need the concern and care of One who is greater than us, Whose wisdom is unmatched, even as we make important decisions in life, as we choose careers, mates and the leadership in our country. In some cases, we have a leisurely amount of time to consider our options. An eight year old girl has many years to plan her wedding. In other cases, a most important choice is only a matter of weeks away. If there is any time we can use a “quick getaway to recharge, it is now.” As Paul writes in II Corinthians 6:2:

In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Don’t put it off!

FOOTNOTE

¹Eluzai (God is my refuge):From (1) the word אל (‘el), God, and (2) the adjective עז (‘az), strong, or the verb עוז (‘uz), to take refuge.”  Also, from Psalm 91: 9 Jehovah-Machsi (the most high—he is my refuge.)

CREDIT

Brown rat photo credit Eric Isselee (Shutterstock.)