Cities of Refuge
This morning I attended the Allies Men’s Breakfast. A great personal testimony and report on Royal Family Kids Camp was featured. I had workout with my fitness trainer and continue to work on my recovery. Last night at a candidate forum in Greeley, it was good to connect with several legislators and other elected officials.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… “…designate cities to serve as cities of refuge for you, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there. You will have the cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the one who kills someone will not die until he stands trial before the assembly. The cities you select will be your six cities of refuge.” Numbers 35:11-13 HCSB
God’s laws not only reflect the holiness of God, but also the justice of God. This is reflected in the case when someone is killed accidentally. While murder was subject to death, we see if someone is killed by accident and a close relative seeks to kill the person who is guilty, that person may run to a “city of refuge.”
These cities of refuge were to be sufficient in number and close enough to afford an opportunity to an offending individual to seek safety before they were found, caught and killed by a close relative of the deceased. The greater the territory the more “cities of refuge.” “If the Lord your God enlarges your territory as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised to give them…you are to add three more cities to these three.” (Deu. 19:8,9 HCSB)
In this provision, we see that mercy was to be an expanding provision among God’s people. Just as God’s mercy is without limit, so is the provision for mercy to be among God’s people. This place of refuge, would be the permanent home of the offending individual. If the person left the city of refuge, he was subject to being killed by the “avenger of blood.” That individual would not be held guilty for that offense.
“If the one who kills someone ever goes outside the border of the city of refuge he fled to, and the avenger of blood finds him outside the border of his city of refuge and kills him, the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed…” (Numbers 35:26-27 HCSB)
The one who seeks protection in a city of refuge is to live there until the death of the anointed High Priest. “Only after the death of the high priest may the one who has killed a person return to the land he possesses.” (Numbers 35:28 HCSB)
This provision has great application to what God has provided for us in Christ. We are not all murders, but our sin places on us a verdict of death. “The wages of sin is death…” (Rom. 6:23) But the Lord has provided mercy for those who are guilty who “run” to Him and find a place of safety. The psalmist declared, “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.“ (Psa. 18:2 NIV)
The provision of freedom upon the death of the High Priest is worthy of special note. We see the Book of Hebrews declares Jesus our “great High Priest.” Through Christ’s death on the cross, we are declared completely free from judgment and condemnation. So, we discover, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.“ (Romans 8:1 ESV)
When we read of the cities of refuge, we are reminded that God is a God of mercy as well as justice. In the provision of a place of safety within the boundaries of the promised land, we find a truth of mercy, refuge and freedom that applies to our life in Christ.