November 28, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Numbers and 1 Corinthians? Here’s today’s reading:
Numbers 35 (NIV)
Towns for the Levites
1 On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, the Lord said to Moses, 2“Command the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites will possess. And give them pasturelands around the towns. 3 Then they will have towns to live in and pasturelands for the cattle they own and all their other animals.……Continue Reading
First let me pause to say I appreciate that we still use an idea of intentional and unintentional murder even today to protect people from the extreme punishments that can come when their intent was never to actually take a life. But let me also say our “unintentional” murder scenarios look very different from this list given here. “if someone suddenly pushes another or throws something at them unintentionally or, without seeing them, drops on them a stone heavy enough to kill them,” (please tell me I wasn’t the only one that read this list and pictured a bit of an Acme cartoon scenario lol)
In all seriousness, it is cool to see God laying down ground work for justice and ideas that we still use today! Ways to keep people safe and ensure proper chanels of justice in all the many different situations that can occur when man interacts with one another.
What a day to be thankful for all our blessings in Christ. Happy Thanksgiving! This was an interesting chapter. With further research I found a diagram depicting exactly where the Levites had their 1000 cubits of pastureland on each side of the city. The diagram shows the land north, south, east & west of the tabernacle (closest to tabernacle). The 12 tribes were outside the Levites. Puts the camp of Israel into some perspective.
Murder with multiple witnesses deserves capital punishment. God made that clear demanding no one be freed from that fate thru ransom. However, I found the cities of refuge interesting in the fact that it served as protection for the ‘accidental’ murderer. If the ‘man slayer’ stayed in this refuge he must until the death of the high priest of which he could then return to his own property. However, if found outside that refuge, the avenger could kill the ‘man slayer’ without being found guilty. Hmmmm…..
Not sure I understand the point of the ‘refuge’ cities.
Hey Sue, let me know if my comment helped with your question….
Thank you Pastor Peter….. I too thought the possibility of court determination, tho it wasn’t made clear of any trial or outcome. But what does stands out to me in your comment is your statement, “It is also a good picture of the refuge that we have in God through Christ”. And the repercussions of going outside Gods wisdom. That, I can identify with the cities of refuge.
Happy thanksgiving to all as well…and yes, we have much to thank God for in the many ways He has blessed us physically and spiritually!!
Yet with regard to the passage, murder is a serious crime and needs to be addressed, life for a life, but if someone dies at the hand of someone and it is unintentional, it should be addressed differently. And yet even in those situations, people may not agree about the nature of the intentionality or emotions might run hot as to the blame they would put on someone just because their actions led to someone’s death. SO the cities of refuge were an opportunity for a person to be safe while the courts determined the nature of the situation as well as for emotions to cool. But I think it was also a way for that person who killed someone accidentally to still suffer some loss even though they would stay alive, which would be good for the culprit as well as the one who lost someone. Now it would not be forever, but the time would be based upon an established marker that God made. But if the person defied the provision made and go against the line drawn by God, well then that person could then bear the repercussion of that. They would be going against the wisdom God was expressing in setting up the cities of refuge in the first place. It is also a good picture of the refuge that we have in God through Christ. Are you really going to go outside of that protection? Well if you do, then you are on your own and subject to whatever might befall you.