Numb. 35
As Israel lay encamped on the farther side of the Jordan, in the plains of Moab by Jericho, with the land of their inheritance before their eyes, Moses, by the command of God, spoke to them of cities of refuge which should be provided for the manslayer who killed another unawares, and laid down regulations concerning them. This was Jehovah's merciful provision beforehand for all who should be in that land—for the children of Israel who inherited it, for the stranger who might inhabit it, and for the sojourner who might chance to be passing through it (v. 15).
Unlike the generality of human laws which are designed to meet cases similar to some which have arisen, for which no provision had been made, the laws of Jehovah for the guidance of His people were all drawn up and made known before the people had crossed the Jordan and entered on their inheritance. And so in this case; before the circumstances under which this law could take
effect had arisen, Moses promulgated it, that the first manslayer after the tribes received their inheritance should find a city of refuge ready to receive him. And however many centuries might roll by, this law, as long as they dwelt in their land, never grew obsolete. It needed not, like the laws of our land, frequent amendments, for, like that of the Medes and Persians, it admitted of no change. It was as needed and as suitable in the days of David or Solomon as it was in the days of Joshua.
The cities, six in number, were so situated, three on the east and three 'on the west of Jordan, that wherever the accident might happen, a refuge could be found within reasonable distance. Their names. were made known and their locality described, that none should be in uncertainty about them or their position; for uncertainty at such a time might cost a man his life. To one of these cities must the manslayer flee. He could not choose for himself where he would go. They were chosen for him. He had to accept the choice, and make all the haste he could to the nearest at hand, for the avenger of blood might be on his track. If he loitered by the way, or hesitated about his road, the avenger of blood might come up to him. The city was his only sure refuge. The law did not admit of his contending with the avenger for his life. He was not to fight for his life, but to escape for it. Once within the city walls he was safe; a few yards, or even a foot, would make all the difference. He must be inside to be safe. Then, if conscious he had killed his neighbor unawares, or when acquitted of murder by the verdict of the elders of the city, he could meet his pursuer without fear. There the pursuer dare not touch the manslayer, unless the elders of the city allowed it. Outside the city, if he met him, he could kill him and none could interfere to prevent it. Inside the city, if he had attempted to take his life, he would have broken one of God's laws. Outside, if any had attempted to arrest the course of vengeance, they would have acted contrary to the will of Jehovah.
These regulations were for all in the land, whether inhabitants or foreigners. God thought of all. For anyone might kill his neighbor unawares. All, therefore, without distinction of religion or descent, were to share in the benefit of this humane enactment. Life was a sacred thing, not to be taken without due inquisition. An accident by which a man lost his life did not entail death on the one who had killed him. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe -such was the law. Perfect justice was to be administered, but not life for life unless murder had been committed.
But observe three things these cities were not.
Second, they were not a refuge from condemnation. To one guilty of murder, they afforded no hiding place. The murderer might fly to one of them, but the law relating to these cities afforded him no hope that he could live. Two witnesses were needful to establish his guilt; but that once established, the elders of the city could not screen him from his just doom. "Blood it defileth the land," was the word of God. "Guilty of death.... he shall be surely put to death," was the plain announcement of the Lord by the hand of Moses. The man who deserved to die was beyond the reach of human protection.
Third, they were not the manslayer's home, and never could be the place of his inheritance. The manslayer would feel this. His home, his inheritance was elsewhere. All the days of his residence there he was but a sojourner, an exile, and a prisoner; such was his condition. If his heart yearned after the place of his birth, he could not revisit it till the death of the high priest. The elders of the city could give him no safe conduct or pass to visit, even for a limited time, his kindred and his home. Once he overstepped the limits of the city, his life was in danger from the avenger of blood. How sacred was life in God's eyes! If taken unawares, the man who took it must keenly feel what he had done, by perhaps many years of absence from his home. Yet sacred was his life in God's eyes, for He had provided him a shelter till he could return to the land of his possession; a perfect shelter it was, but that was not all. He was there preserved as one who deserved not to die, but as one who had lost for a time the enjoyment, the comfort, the freedom of his home.
For anyone then to find an asylum in these cities he must have a title to life. If his title was forfeited he must die. An indefeasible title to life, and that alone, could give him peace in the prospect of the judicial inquiry to take place. With that he could fearlessly present himself before the tribunal, and look his accuser in the face. Conscious that there was no cause of death in him, he could rest assured of the result. But he must have that title to life before he stood at the bar of judgment, ere he could hope for an acquittal. If he had lost it by the deed of murder, none could restore it to him. The elders of the city, however well disposed toward him, could here afford him no assistance. No intervention of his friends or relatives could provide that which he lacked, and which was needful for his continuance on earth. If his life was forfeited, he must die.
Important as the possession of such a title was to the manslayer, is it not equally important to all? What then, we would ask, is the title of life to anyone who reads these lines? If we speak of the manslayer in Israel, we speak of a title to life on earth; if of the readers of these lines, of life forevermore. Have all our readers a title to live forever? Does such a question seem strange to any? It can only be strange to such as know not what God's Word has declared. There is a title to life everlasting; but that title is bestowed, not earned—derived, not inherent. The manslayer's title to life on earth was inherent. He had it as a creature of God, but he had to defend it in God's appointed way, that the avenger of blood should not deprive him of it. Our title to life everlasting is bestowed. We have not to defend it, but to see that we possess it; once possessed, none can take it away; it is everlasting. But there is great need to make sure that we have received it, for "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." This is far more terrible than the wrath of the avenger of blood. He was a man; he might kill the body, and there his power ended. God's wrath can reach the soul. Through inadvertence or disinclination the avenger of blood might relax his pursuit. God's wrath will surely take effect on all who shall not have been sheltered from it. For if it be revealed against all ungodliness of men, another scripture declares all are liable by nature to it, "For all have sinned." "There is none righteous, no, not one." Rom. 3 The sinner then, unless a refuge be provided him from this wrath, must assuredly be overtaken by it, and forever perish. The murderer in the land of Israel. must die. The sinner must suffer death—the second death (Rev. 20:14, 1514And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14‑15)).
A refuge then from God's wrath is needed, but not such a refuge as God provided for the manslayer. A refuge for an innocent man will not suit us, for "there is no man that sinneth not." 1 Kings 8:4646If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near; (1 Kings 8:46). A shelter from vengeance for one who deserves not to die will not meet the case, for "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." An innocent man could meet the judgment, but a guilty one cannot; David, a man after God's own heart, was so convinced of this that he cried out, "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant: for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified." Psalm 143:22And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. (Psalm 143:2). And again, "If Thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" Psalm 130:33If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? (Psalm 130:3). Condemnation must follow judgment where the one to be tried is a sinner. What is needed therefore is a security from condemnation, and a shelter from judgment. This the sinner can find, for God has already provided it. As the manslayer had the city ready to receive him, the sinner has this place of refuge ready to run into. This refuge is in Christ. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." Rom. 8:11There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1).
As the names and localities of the cities of refuge were published that all might know which they were and where they were, so the refuge God has provided for the sinner has been in like manner announced. God's word told of the former; God's Word tells us of the latter. The manslayer could reckon on what that word said, and the description of the cities it contained. Shall the sinner not equally reckon on what that Word says to him now? In Christ Jesus there is now no condemnation. Then the guilty one, the sin-convinced soul, can find safety there. No condemnation! A sweeping -statement which should effectually set the heart at rest, and that forever. Now at this present time, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." Does conscience whisper of past sins? does the enemy recall many an act of disobedience, many a word unadvisedly spoken, many an unholy thought or angry feeling concealed perhaps from outward eyes? To all, the sinner can answer with this word of God. The manslayer had to await the verdict of the elders of the city after he entered it. The sinner can know beforehand, can know now, the full deliverance God will give him when in Christ Jesus.
Here then is the next question: Can the sinner avail himself of this refuge? The Lord Jesus, the Refuge, has Himself given a reply in John 5. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Clear and simple is the testimony conveyed in these words. There is an escape from judgment. "Shall not come into condemnation [or, as in the original, judgment]." Then there can be no condemnation, for condemnation succeeds judgment. It is not the being acquitted after trial, but the being kept from trial for life at all. The manslayer must be tried. The sinner is promised he shall not be tried, if he hears the word of Christ, and believes Him that sent Him; that is, the Father. And the sinner does show he believes the Father when he hears and accepts the Son. For "He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son." 1 John 5:1010He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. (1 John 5:10).
No judgment, no condemnation, to those in Christ Jesus. He shelters the sinner from both, not by the exercise of a power as of a strong man who refuses to let judgment have its course, but by having bent to it, and borne Himself the punishment the sinner deserved. In Him who bore our sins in His own body on the tree" the sinner can hide. In Him risen from the dead is found an everlasting shelter. It is in a risen Christ who has fully glorified God, who lives to die no more, over whom death has no more dominion, that this refuge is found. This is not the result of years of effort. It is not the happy experience which the fathers in Christ may hope some day to enjoy. It is not reached by experience. It is reached by faith, being the present position of all who believe in Him. "We are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ." 1 John 5:2020And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. (1 John 5:20).
And now, what the manslayer never could feel, that the sinner saved by grace in Christ can. The manslayer could never feel at home in the city. He was only a sojourner till the death of the high priest. His inheritance was elsewhere. But in Christ we have obtained an inheritance; in Him we are blessed as we never were or could be before (Eph. 1). Where our refuge is, there is our inheritance—"an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." How welcome to the manslayer must his city of refuge have been! How far more welcome should be the shelter provided for the sinner!