“Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death, ... for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell, for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel.”―Numbers 35:3131Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death. (Numbers 35:31).
“If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him, then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain and it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city, shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not dan in the yoke: and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley. And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the Lord thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the Lord.; and by their word every controversy and every stroke be tried. And all the elders of that city, next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley: and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful, O Lord, unto thy people Israel, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven there. So shalt thou put away the innocent blood from among you.” Deuteronomy 21:99So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 21:9).
SOLEMN was the scene, the pale corpse of the slain man, ghastly in its blood. Beside him lies the yet warm, quivering body of a heifer, from which oil the red life-blood had streamed in unchecked outpour. On one side stood the priests the sons of Levi, appointed of God to judge and try every dispute and stroke; on the other, the elders of the city next unto the slain man.
“If he that showed mercy unto him” was neighbor to him that fell among thieves, who, think you, was neighbor to Him who died upon the cross? Were not they who showed no mercy on Him? He that was left half dead found a deliverer. But this poor man cried, and there was none to hear. He looked for some to pity, but there was none—for comforters, but found none—there was not a helper. Yea, instead, His own familiar friend, in whom He trusted, lifted up his heel against Him, and trod down His life upon the earth.
But no deed done in darkness this! This thing was not done in a corner! Boldly, flauntingly before the eyes of God and man. “The heathen tumultuously assembled―the people imagined vain things―the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ: for Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together to do”.... What?...
His eyes were open toward that place night and day, even toward that place of which He had said, “My name is there,” and now in His name was done.... What?...
The innocent blood had been betrayed! not in a moment of hot wrath, but by the sly, slow, scheme of malice. Nay, more! the Holy One upon whom He looked with daily delight and cries of love―His righteous servant―His well-beloved―had been taken, and with lawless hands both crucified and slain in the broad light of day, with cruel mocking, scourging, spitting, before His eyes and in His name.
Earth shudders at the crime! All nature stands aghast! The heavens drop a veil of darkness o’er the deed! But naught can hide from Him, to whom both day and night are alike, and before whom all things are plain and open.
What have they done?... What will He do?.... He will destroy those murderers. Nay, nay! He is God, who from, bitter can bring forth sweet, and out of the eater meat.
Can the puny hand of man or devil turn Him from His will?
To faith how great a change. That pale and murdered man, by God’s hand, and according to His counsel before determined, becomes a sacrifice, an offering without spot or blemish. The life of such an One poured out under wrath and judgment, in the stead of the guilty, is a propitiation for the whole crowd, by which the guilt of all may be covered up, hidden forever from the eyes of God. A substitute for sinners is found, a Just One’s death for the unjust. The judgment of their guilt, and God’s wrath are borne in the person of another—that other, the victim of their malice, but God’s Lamb, manifested to take away the sin of the world, the Son of Man, the Son of God.
One died for all. He gave His life a ransom for many. He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the Tree. He is the propitiation for our sins. He died for our sins.
But if the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth from all sin; and there is one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, and He died for all: if He is the propitiation for the whole world, and God hath set Him forth a propitiation through faith in His blood, how is it souls are lost? Because grace is slighted, and Christ refused.
Have you faith in His blood? Then are you justified? Have you come to God by Him, because you have confidence in the cleansing power of His blood? If so, the just God has justified you, constituting you righteous forever, since the blood of His Son covers up, blots out, cleanses away all the sins it has had to do with. You are righteous as Christ is righteous; your sins have been atoned for, your guilt blotted out, your nature judged by God, who does His works forever, and knows them from the beginning.
Do you not see God’s gracious way to save? He charges the extreme of guilt on each and all, providing at the same time a way of escape righteous, perfect, unimpeachable.
But, dear unconverted reader, though this dreadful deed lies at your door charged against you by the Father―God into whose ear that innocent blood cries yet aloud for vengeance) who has singled you out and brought it borne to you, since every mouth is stopped and all the world stands guilty before Him,―though this righteous God thus judges that you are worthy of death, declaring that the sin lies at your door, and in the same breath saying nay, it may be even in the same word ―that the sin offering lies there too―a refuge and a test―a refuge for the sinner from the stroke of judgment, a test to prove the guilty willful murderer; yet you are deaf alike to the demand of justice and the word of grace. You eat, and drink, and sleep, and work, and play, and build, and plant, and buy, and sell; you educate, improve, develop; but withal you have an ear deaf to the cry of blood, deaf to the demand of God, deaf to the beseeching’s of Christ, and are yourself totally regardless of His claims.
You prefer to answer for that blood, rather than have that blood to answer for you... You prefer that sins and pleasures should cover that blood from your eyes, rather than that it should cover your sins from God’s eyes. In your carelessness you prefer to be gathered with the men of blood rather than to wash your hands in innocence.... You decide to be a betrayer of innocent blood rather than have the innocent One delivered up for you. You will not wash your hands of the deed and say, “My hands have not shed this blood, neither have my eyes seen it;” but you through unbelief will be a partaker of their evil counsel and deed who did it.
Beware! beware! Yet there is time. Fast is the separation taking place. Multitudes have decided to have their part with Christ. Yet there is time! Now is the day of grace. Now is the day of salvation. God hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
“Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him, all that believe are justified from alt things.”
While yet the day lasts, wash you, make you clean in the blood of Christ! Arise and wash away your sins, calling on the Name of the Lord.
Save! save yourself from death, judgment, and the lake of fire.
T. W.
EVERY man must either be born twice or die twice. He who is born once only, dies twice, most surely; but he who is born twice can only die once, and, should the Lord come, not that.
Reader, which of these alternatives is yours?