March 30, 2021
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? 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
I looked up an avenger and it said that each extended family had a recognized avenger who would ensure that one who murdered a family member would likewise be killed. Like you family “hit man”
God is still protecting people here and be sure there is safe places for people that may be wrongfully accused of murder and killed themselves. He establishes a clear definition between a killing that is accidental verses a murderer. Just reinforces that God requires justice but also is grace and merciful.
Numbers 32-35
I love the conversations they had with God. And he takes their concerns to heart.
Since the Levites did not have an inheritance because they are Israel’s tithe to God, the various tribes are to provide cities and lands for them according to the amount of land a tribe has. It is interesting that six of those cities would be cities of refuge. What a good way this was to deal with issues of justice that happened with accidental death. In many a family they would still want some sort of recompense for the loss of a loved one regardless of how it happened. And these cities provided that. It was also interesting to read the detailed description God gives to differentiate murder and accidentally killing someone..with different punishments for both. It is interesting that similar standards have found their way into Western jurisprudence….
Numbers 35
The Lord loves justice. Life is precious.
Numbers 35: it’s so interesting how God made provisions for intentional versus accidental death. Also the fact that each family had an avenger.
Oops! My last comment should have said Numbers 36, not 35.
John 1:29-34
Numbers 35
God sets aside common land and cities for the Levites and also cities of refuge for those awaiting trial or serving time for unintentional killing.
This chapter raised a few questions for me. Who is the “revenger of blood”? Is this a family member of the murdered, a person with specific rights of vengeance, or a non-specific person who is chosen to seek out and avenge someone’s blood after the perpetrator is found guilty?
I have also noticed that blood defiles the land in other places in scripture. How does blood defile the land? I wonder what God’s thinking is on this? What can that land be used for then, a graveyard? It says that the land must be atoned for by the one who shed it. This was the case in Numbers 25 where Phinehas’ killing of those committing harlotry was an atonement for the children of Israel, I wonder if that covered the defiling of the land there as well.
I think it is interesting to think that when a murder is committed in a home or location, that people feel uneasy living there or being there and often the place ends up deserted or condemned.
1On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, the Lordsaid 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. 3Then they will have towns to live in and pasturelands for the cattle they own and all their other animals.