Joshua 20--The Cities of Refuge

Joshua 20
English Standard Version

The Cities of Refuge
20 Then the LORD said to Joshua, 2 “Say to the people of Israel, ‘Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, 3 that the manslayer who strikes any person without intent or unknowingly may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood. 4 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. 5 And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not give up the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor unknowingly, and did not hate him in the past. 6 And he shall remain in that city until he has stood before the congregation for judgment, until the death of him who is high priest at the time. Then the manslayer may return to his own town and his own home, to the town from which he fled.’”

7 So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. 8 And beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they appointed Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland, from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh. 9 These were the cities designated for all the people of Israel and for the stranger sojourning among them, that anyone who killed a person without intent could flee there, so that he might not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, till he stood before the congregation.

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As I mentioned at the end of yesterday's journal article, you might want to read Numbers 35 so that you understand why these six cities of refuge are being chosen from among the allotments that have just been made and why there are an additional 42 cities that will be chosen for the Levites in chapter 21.  This is all to fulfill the command that the LORD gave to the people through Moses so that the Levites had a place for them to live and some ability to raise their own crops to care for their animals.  Though they were entitled to their portion of the tithes and offerings, this would not always be enough to provide for them because the people would not always be faithful in making their required tithes and offerings.  If the people were being faithful, then this grain that the Levites grew could be used to not only to care for themselves, but also for the poor and needy among them.

Today's passage though is specifically about the six cities of refuge that served a special purpose in what we might call the criminal justice system.  Verses 1 through 6 spell their purpose out for us, but it's given in a longer format in the passage that I linked to in Numbers 35 along with the conditions for when the accused should be protected and in which cases the accused should be found guilty of manslaughter or murder and put to death under the Law.  These are not a place for anyone to run to any time that their life was in jeopardy for committing a capital crime (one that was punishable by the death penalty).  It was only in the case of manslaughter where a determination of intent, malice, and/or gross negligence needed to be made to determine whether the accused could be protected by the city of refuge or not.

These cities of refuge do point us to a greater substitutionary atonement that would be made for us through Christ though.  All of us were under the death penalty and and God is the avenger that should be able to require our life from us for breaking His Law--and we've all done so willfully so that we deserve no protection.  However, Jesus interceded as High Priest for us and took the guilt and the punishment upon himself as the high priest does in this case so that when Jesus died, our sin debt and guilt debt was paid in full.  We see that here that the accused only needed to stay in the city of refuge for as long as the life of the high priest who heard his case.  After that, he was free to go.  Jesus provided a better atonement for those who had committed sin volitionally and with malice and intent, and yet we are still allowed to experience the blessings of being at peace with God is we are in Christ--just like the manslayer had to stay within the boundaries of the city of refuge, we are only safe because we stay "in Christ."  Those who choose to try to live their life outside of the protection that only Christ can provide are living in constant fear (a fear that is justified) that they are under the wrath of God and that He might be out for vengeance at any moment.  There is no place where you can hide from Him other than the one place of safety and protection that He has provided for.  Jesus is our City of Refuge, but since He will serve as High Priest forever and ever and will never die again, we continue to dwell in Christ so that "He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of Christ in Him."