God is our Refuge!



"The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death." -PROVERBS 14:32 [KJV]


We may combine the elements of both parts of this proverb so that it reads: "The wicked has no refuge in his death, and is therefore banished in his wickedness; but the righteous has a refuge in his death, from which he is never banished." In contrast to the "righteous," the "wicked" chooses to continue in his wickedness, refusing to trust in Jesus Christ for the salvation of his soul, and refusing to find refuge in Him. "For the wicked ... renounces the LORD. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts" (Psalm 10:3f). Consequently, at the moment of death:

1. "The wicked is banished in his wickedness" ­ because he has no refuge. He knows that this present world, even with all its trouble, is the best existence he will ever know, and he dreads what awaits him after death. So reluctant is he to leave this present world that he must be "driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world" (Job 18:18). So strongly does he cling to this present world, which he wrongly considers to be a refuge, that he must be forcefully evicted from it to meet his final doom.

2. "The righteous has a refuge in his death" ­ from which he will never be banished. His "refuge" is his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The believer in Jesus Christ is assured that "The eternal God is your refuge" (Deuteronomy 33:27). The believer therefore confesses, "You are my refuge ... in the land of the living" (Psalm 142:5). Christ is also his "refuge in his death", for he will "die in the Lord" (Revelation 14:13) ­ who is his Refuge. Furthermore, and unlike the wicked who dreads death, the believer knows that "to die is gain", for in death he will "depart and be with the Lord, which is far better" (Philippians 1:21, 23).


-Gospel report by preacher Daniel E. Parks

First Sovereign Grace Baptist church of Frederiksted, US Virgin Islands

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