Friday, August 14, 2015

Joshua 20: The Beauty Of Refuge

As soon as the land is divided up - and even before the Levites are given their towns - the Lord reminds Joshua of the law concerning cities of refuge.

God is revealed as being very concerned that innocent blood not be spilled in accordance with the laws of vengeance: eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life.  When someone accidentally kills another (what we would term "manslaughter" in the modern era), he may flee to a city of refuge to be saved out of the hand of the avenger.

Designating these cities isn't something that can wait until the Israelites get around to it; God wants them established NOW to protect His people from harm - both the harm of wrongfully being killed and the harm of taking inappropriate vengeance.  And so six cities are named - three to the west of the Jordan (Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron) and three to the east (Bezer, Ramoth, Golan).

The beauty of refuge in our faith is that God is interested in our protection, our security, our safety.  He really does care that justice is done and that the innocent are protected.  The cities of refuge give us a meaningful picture of what sanctuary looks like.  That is why we can joyfully proclaim that God is our refuge and our strength!

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