Sometimes in life, one will person will kill another. Sometimes, this is deliberate-- it's murder. Other times, it's an accident. Two people are out cutting down trees, and one person accidentally drops a tree onto the other. You kill him. You're out driving, and someone steps out into the road while you're distracted. You're out hunting, and accidentally shoot your hunting partner. Life is fragile. Bad things can happen very quickly. And suddenly, someone is dead.
Accidents like these happen every day. They aren't really very hypothetical. What happens next? In the U.S., the matter gets turned over to the police, and the legal system. Investigators look at what happened, they interrogate you, and they look at any video footage available. Then, they make a decision about whether to press charges against you-- is it murder? Is it manslaughter?
In ancient Israel, situations like this weren't handled at the state level, with very rare exceptions. They were handled by the elders of the local community. Imagine a town made up, mostly, of a handful of large extended families. There might be a clan of Carlsons, a clan of Martinsons, and a clan of Smiths. Each of these clans had elders who were responsible for exercising local authority in the case of disputes.
So if you have a dispute with someone else in your town, you'd go with the other party to the town gate where the elders would assemble. You'd both present your case to the elders, and they would make a binding decision. It was only when a case was difficult that it would be brought to a higher court (Deuteronomy 17:8-13).
So let's say you accidentally killed someone. You didn't mean to. It was legitimately an accident. What happens next?
Well, the next thing you're going to want to do, is very quickly pack a suitcase, and you're going to want to run.
Fast. You're not fleeing to become a fugitive from the law. You're not going to hide, exactly. What you're going to do is run to a place called a city of refuge. That's your goal.
There are four main passages that talk about these cities of refuge: Exodus 21:12-13, Numbers 35, Deuteronomy 21, and Joshua 20. This whole concept of cities of refuge is probably as new to you, as it is to me. I can't possibly get explain all of this in one week, especially if I'm going to talk about why these cities of refuge matter to us. So I think what I'm going to do is focus mostly on Numbers 35 this week, and use it as kind of a warm-up for Joshua 20. This will also let me kind of spread out the applications, and spend more time on each one.
So. Numbers 35:
(1) And Yahweh spoke to Moses in the desert plain of Moab at the Jordan, [across from] Jericho, saying,
(2) "Command the sons of Israel, so that they will give to the Levites from the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell,
while pasture land for the cities all around them you shall give to the Levites,
(3) and the cities shall be for them to dwell,
while their pasture land shall be for their domesticated animals and for their possessions and for all their beasts,
(4) while the pasture lands of the cities that you are giving to the Levites [shall be] from the wall of the city and outward 1,000 cubits all around,
(5) and you shall measure them from outside of the city on the side to the east a 2,000 by cubits, and on the south side a 2,000 by cubit, and the west side 2,000 by cubit, and the north side a 2,000 by cubit,
while the city is in the midst.
This shall be for them as the pasture land for the cities,
(6) while with the cities that you shall give to the Levites [are] six cities of refuge that you shall give to flee away to there [for] the manslayer,
while to them you shall give 42 cities.
Joshua 21 talks about the Levites, so I want to try to save something to talk about there. Here, I just want to say, it's not an accident that the cities of refuge are Levitical cities. These are the cities, if nowhere else in Israel, where the elders should understand what God wants from his people. These are cities, if no where else, where people are committing to serving God. These cities represent people's best shot at a fair trial, so God makes sure to use Levitical cities as the cities of refuge. Not only this, but no clan would dare attack a Levitical city to take vengeance on someone who killed one of their members, if they disagreed with the Levites' decision. The rest of the nation would wipe them off the map.
Continuing in verse 7:
(7) All the cities that you are giving to the Levites [shall be] 48-- they and their pasturelands,
(8) while the cities that you are giving from the possession of the sons of Israel, from the larger, you shall make larger,
while from the smaller you shall take less.
Each in proportion to his inheritance that they shall inherit, he shall give from his cities to the Levites.
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The giving Yahweh plans here is proportionate.
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Verse 9:
(9) And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
(10) "Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them,
(11) "When you are crossing the Jordan into the land of Canaan, you shall select for yourselves cities.
Cities of refuge they shall be for you,
and he shall flee there-- the manslayer, the striker of a life unintentionally,
(12) and they shall be for you cities of refuge from the redeemer/avenger,
and the manslayer shall not die until he has stood before the community for judgment,
Let's pause here. Verse 12 introduces us to two key concepts. If you kill someone accidentally, there is someone who is coming for you. Your English Bibles are going to call this man the "avenger of blood," but this is a little misleading. The word translated "avenger" is actually "redeemer." When Boaz marries Ruth, and provides her (and Naomi) with a son, he does so because he is the kinsman-redeemer. Part of his obligation as a relative is to restore Naomi and Ruth to wholeness. Boaz is the "redeemer." It's the same word.
Now, if you killed someone accidentally, the person hunting you down is called the redeemer of blood. That's a much better translation, and OT scholarship (as far as I've seen) always views it this way. So I hate to tell you that your Bibles didn't really help you here, but calling that person an "avenger" is really unhelpful on multiple levels. I'll talk more about the redeemer of blood later, but know that this person is the reason you are running to a city of refuge.
The second key idea this verse introduces us to, is that if you killed someone accidentally, you cannot be killed until you've stood before the community for judgment.
We maybe think there is a tension here, but if you killed someone, and you aren't fleeing, you're toast. God has set up 6 cities for you to run to, and He expects you to run.
Picking back up in verse 13:
(13) while the cities that you shall give-- six cities of refuge they shall be for you.
(14) Three cities you shall give on the other side of the Jordan,
while three cities you shall give in the land of Canaan.
Cities of refuge they shall be.
(15) For the sons of Israel and for the resident alien and for the one dwelling in your midst they shall be--these six cities as/for a refuge to flee there, everyone who strikes a life unintentionally.
Let's pause again here. One of the distinctive features of Israelite law is the way it treats people equally. It makes no difference to Yahweh whether you are rich or poor, slave or master, Israelite or resident alien. No matter who you are, if you accidentally kill someone in Israel, you can run to the cities of refuge.
Verse 16-18:
(16) And if with an object of iron he struck him so that he died, a murderer is he.
The murderer shall surely be put to death,
(17) And if with a stone in a hand that he could die by it, he struck him so that he died, a murderer is he.
The murderer shall surely be put to death,
(18) or with an object of wood in a hand that he dies by it, he strikes him so that he dies, a murderer is he.
The murderer shall surely be put to death.
In verses 16-18, Yahweh makes it clear that these cities of refuge are for accidental killings. If you have an object of metal, or wood, or stone, that you kill someone with, it's not an accident. It's murder.
The first few times I read this, I thought it meant something like this: if you kill someone with a baseball bat or brass knuckles, you're not allowed to say it's an accident. If you're swinging a metal bar against someone's head, it's not much of a mistake. You're a murderer, and the redeemer of blood is going to kill you.
But I think these verses are teaching more than this. When you are using equipment that's dangerous, you have an obligation to treat that equipment with respect. If you're out hunting with a friend, you know that a loaded gun has to be treated with respect. You keep the safety on, you point the barrel down. You know that it's easy to kill someone with a gun, if you don't handle it with respect. So you're careful. You respect the danger.
Or take driving. You could maybe say, it's easy to kill someone accidentally with a car. You're messing with the radio, or texting, and someone crosses the road in front of you. You back first when you're leaving your house, and a little kid is playing by your back bumper.
You could say, it's easy to kill someone accidentally with a gun or with a car, but Numbers 35 is teaching, it's really hard to do that. If you kill someone accidentally with a gun or car, it's not an accident. It's murder. You were sloppy. You were careless. And if you don't want to take the risk of murdering someone with a gun or car, or object of wood or metal, don't use those things.
Yahweh views human life as incredibly valuable. He is determined, that we value human life as highly as he does. From the perspective of Numbers 35, there are few truly accidental homicides.
Verse 19:
(19) The redeemer/avenger of blood , he himself shall put to death the murderer when he finds him.
He shall put him to death.
In verse 19, the focus (in Hebrew) is on WHO shall kill the murderer. If someone kills someone you love, regardless of whether or not it's an accident, you are going to want revenge. You will want to kill them. But Yahweh designates the redeemer of blood for this job. It's not just anyone who can put the murderer to death.
Picking back up in verse 20:
(20) And if in hatred he pushes him or he has thrown at him with intention so that he died,
(21) or [if] in enmity he struck him with his hand so that he died, he shall surely die.
A murderer is he.
The redeemer/avenger of blood shall put to death the murderer when he finds him.
Sometimes, you hear a story about someone who died, and you think, "Wow. That's a really fluky way to die. I can't believe that killed him." You're fighting someone, and you shove them, and they fall onto a metal spike, get impaled, and die. In frustration with someone, you throw a cardboard box at their head, and it hits an artery in their neck, and they bleed out.
You think, really? Someone died from that? And so you find yourself thinking, surely this is an accidental death.
Surely this is the kind of thing that the cities of refuge were designed for.
But Yahweh says "no."
What verses 20-21 say, is that if you are angry with someone, and you push them, or throw something at them, and it kills them, it's murder. Your emotion-- your anger, your hatred, your enmity-- makes it murder. It doesn't matter how fluky it is. You don't get the benefit of the doubt.
So if you despise someone, or you're angry with someone, you'd better be careful how you act toward them. In your anger, don't sin. You start fighting your enemy, and something bad happens-- it's murder, and you'll be killed.
In verse 22, we finally are given some examples of what accidental manslaughter looks like:
(22) Or/and if with suddenness, without enmity, he pushes him or he throws at him any object without malicious intent,
(23) or if any stone that he could kill with it, without seeing, and it falls on him and he died,
while [was] not an enmity with him and he wasn't seeking his harm,
(24) the community shall exercise authority (=judge) between the manslayer/murderer and between the redeemer of blood concerning these judgments,
(25) and the community shall rescue the manslayer from the hand of the redeemer of blood,
and the community shall restore him to the city of his place that he had fled to from there,
and he shall dwell in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with oil of dedication,
(26) and if the murderer surely goes out from the border of the city of his refuge that he was fleeing there, (27) and the redeemer finds him outside of the border of the city of his refuge, the redeemer of the blood shall manslaughter the manslaughterer.
There isn't for him blood[guilt].
(28) For in the city of his refuge he shall dwell until the death of the high priest, and after the death of the high priest, the manslayer shall return to the land of his possession,
If you're messing around with a friend, and shove him just to mess with him, and you end up impaling him on something, and he dies-- that's an accidental killing. If you tell a friend, "Think fast," as you throw something at him, and you somehow kill him-- that's accidental.
If the death is truly an accident, the elders of the town (who stand in for the community) will exercise authority on your behalf. They will make the determination that it was an accident, and they will protect you from the redeemer of blood. This doesn't mean you get to go home. The city of refuge, is your new home.
For how long? In verse 25, we read that this is your home until the death of the high priest. Somehow, the death of the high priest compensates for the blood you shed. This is interesting, and makes us wonder about a connection to Hebrews 2:10-18 and Jesus our High Priest. But I'm going to try to save this.
Verse 29-30:
(29) And these [things/words] shall be for you as statute of exercising authority/judgment for your generations in all your dwellings.
(30) Everyone/anyone striking a life before witnesses, he shall manslaughter the manslaughter,
while a single witness he shall not answer with a life to die,
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No one single witness is enough to have someone killed. You need to have at least 2.
Verse 31-32:
(31) and you shall not take/receive a ransom for the life of the manslaughterer, that he, the guilty, for death, because he shall surely be put to death,
(32) and you shall not take/receive a ransom for the one who fled to the city of his refuge to again live in the land until the priest dies,
We are used to thinking that the OT is all about an eye for an eye. But, in reality, when people harm you in the OT, the way it's actually settled is through financial compensation. If I borrow your animal and it dies while I'm borrowing it, you don't get to kill one of my animals. It's not eye for an eye, animal for an animal. I owe you a fair price for the dead animal (Exodus 22:1, 3-6, 14).
If I gouge out your eye, accidentally or not, you and I would go to the elders, and they would exercise authority and determine how much compensation you are owed.
But manslaughter is not like these other offenses. There is no dollar amount you use as a ransom for the life of the manslaughterer. And you can't pay a ransom to simply keep living in your home town. You must live in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest.
Verse 33-34:
(33) and you shall not pollute the land that you [are] in because the blood-- it pollutes the land,
while with respect to the land, it cannot be covered/atoned for the blood that is spilled in it, except only by the blood of one spilling it,
(34) and you shall not defile the land that you are dwelling it, that I am dwelling in its midst,
For I, Yahweh, am dwelling in the midst of the sons of Israel.
In these verses, Yahweh gives us the theological basis (at least part of it) for why bloodshed is so terrible. When blood is spilled, it does two things: (1) It "pollutes" the land (Jeremiah 3:2; Daniel 11:32). (2) It "defiles" it. This is unacceptable; the land must remain clean and pure because Yahweh is living in it among them. Yahweh is not an Elohim that can live in a polluted land, and there are few things that pollute a land as much as human death.
There is a lot in here for us to think about, but for application, I want to focus on something that is a bigger deal here than it is in the other passages on cities of refuge. Let's reread verses 16-21:
(16) And if with an object of iron he struck him so that he died, a murderer is he.
The murderer shall surely be put to death,
(17) And if with a stone in a hand that he could die by it, he struck him so that he died, a murderer is he.
The murderer shall surely be put to death,
(18) or with an object of wood in a hand that he dies by it, he strikes him so that he dies, a murderer is he.
The murderer shall surely be put to death.
(19) The redeemer/avenger of blood, he himself shall put to death the murderer when he finds him.
He shall put him to death.
(20) And if in hatred he pushes him or he has thrown at him with intention so that he died,
(21) or [if] in enmity he struck him with his hand so that he died, he shall surely die.
A murderer is he.
The redeemer/avenger of blood shall put to death the murderer when he finds him.
We live in a nation that doesn't place a high value on human life. When we think about the number of abortions women have every year in the U.S., we find ourselves worked up. It's tragic. It's murder. When we think about all of the civilians in other nations we kill every year, either directly through bombs (Afganistan, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, etc.), or indirectly through sanctions that take food out of the mouths of ordinary people (North Korea, Venezuela, Syria), we are supposed to find ourselves worked up. We live among a nation of murderers. We don't value human life as a nation.
But in all of this, we don't usually think about whether our own lives show that we value human life in our daily life.
One of the distinctive features of Numbers 35, is how hard it is to actually gain entrance to a city of refuge if you killed someone. If you kill someone with an object of wood, or metal, or with a stone, it's murder. You didn't use your tool carefully, with an awareness of the danger it represents.
If you're harvesting grain with a scythe, every time you swing, you're supposed to be aware of your surroundings-- of who is around you, and how far away they are. If you're making a plowshare or a sword with a hammer, the same thing is true. Because you know God places a high value on human life. And God will not live among murderers (Revelation 21:8).
So let me ask you some questions to help you think about this:
(1) When you are out hunting, how careful are you? Do you handle your guns with respect, knowing how quickly tragedy can happen? Do you teach your children to do the same?
(2) When you are driving your car, are you texting? Are you following cars too closely? Are you looking for pedestrians?
(3) When you're using power tools, are you aware of your surroundings?
(4) When you're angry with your enemy, are you aware of how quickly that anger can lead you to kill? If you're angry with someone, you can't trust yourself to not lose control. Don't even start a fight. Because you might find it very difficult to stop.
Live carefully. If you unintentionally kill someone, Yahweh isn't very interested in hearing excuses. And Yahweh places a high value on human life.
