The Cities of Refuge

Joshua 20:2-6 (NIV) -

“Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses, so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood. When they flee to one of these cities, they are to stand in the entrance of the city gate and state their case before the elders of that city. Then the elders are to admit the fugitive into their city and provide a place to live among them. If the avenger of blood comes in pursuit, the elders must not surrender the fugitive, because the fugitive killed their neighbour unintentionally and without malice aforethought. They are to stay in that city until they have stood trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest who is serving at that time. Then they may go back to their own home in the town from which they fled.”

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While reading about the cities of refuge last night, God showed me that they are an incredible picture of the freedom we receive by grace through Christ!

We see in this passage that God talks about an, "avenger of blood." Who is this avenger? If someone was killed, the closest living relative of the dead person was responsible for making sure that justice was done. It was their job to hunt down the killer and enforce God's just ruling of, "life for life." (Exodus 21:23)

The killer, however, had the opportunity to run to one of 6 cities evenly spaced around the Promised Land. When they got there, the people of the city had to bring them in and protect them until they could face trial. If, during the trial, it was discovered that they had murdered the person intentionally, they were to be taken outside and given to the avenger of blood so justice could be delivered. But if the killer had done so accidentally (for example, accidentally hitting someone with your car), then they could stay in the city and be kept safe for the rest of their life.

The only condition was that if they left the city, the avenger of blood could come find them again and kill them, meaning they were trapped in that city. They would basically need to start life all over again, and the only way that they could leave the city is if the high priest of that time died. Then, they were released and could go back outside, and the avenger of blood couldn't hunt them anymore.

God, in His justice, is the avenger of blood. If it were not for His grace, we would be relentlessly pursued until we were called to account for our sins against Him and against others. But God, in His mercy, provides a place where we can be set free and made clean. When we slip and fall, "accidentally and unintentionally," sinning, "without malice aforethought," we can flee to His Presence to be protected. We are taken in by God's people, His "elders", and stay until we can stand trial before God. If God sees that we didn't sin on purpose or because we wanted to, then we won't be handed back to the avenger of blood. This is what the law achieves, but it comes with a condition - if we ever leave the law, we will be hunted down and judged again. The only way to be truly free is for the high priest to die.

The good news is, He already has! Jesus Christ, our High Priest (Hebrews 3:1), was killed on a cross. Because the High Priest has died, we are now able to live freely and can step outside of the law without needing to fear the judgement once due us. This is what Paul was talking about in the book of Galatians.

However, I do feel it is important to make the same comment Paul made: just because we are free doesn't mean we should go and make the same mistake that got us trapped in the first place. Our freedom allows us to go home and live our life fully without fear of judgement. But if we then step back into sin, it starts the entire process all over again, and sometimes with even more severe consequences - do it once, it might be an accident; do it twice and it's far more likely to be deliberate, at which point we are given over to receive judgement! Let's use the freedom that God has given us to live our lives freely, not to waste God's gift of grace by deliberately disobeying Him.