GLEANINGS — August 4, A.D. 2013                                                                                                               "The Cities of Refuge"

The three cities which Moses set apart as places of escape per Deuteronomy 4:41-49 fulfill in part what God commanded in Numbers 35, "...you shall have six cities of refuge. You shall appoint three cities on this side of the Jordan, and three cities you shall appoint in the land of Canaan...these six cities shall be for refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills a person accidentally may flee there."

Later on in Deuteronomy (ch. 19), we find further instruction on the purpose of these cities: "Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, not having hated him in time past – as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies – he shall flee to one of these cities and live; lest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in time past."

In other words, God's Law makes a righteous distinction between accidental manslaughter and premeditated murder. Recognizing that passion and the lynch mob mentality blind the eyes of sinners, God's Law provides for protection and for the outworking of justice with diligent sobriety. 

Another example of this is seen in connection with the often maligned "eye for an eye" precept. That was not intended to normalize savagery, nor is it an excuse for the spirit of vigilantism. Like the cities of refuge, it was instituted to prevent a miscarriage of justice such as the one that transpired when Hamor son of Shechem abused Jacob's daughter Dinah. 

We read that, taking vengeance into their own hands, Simeon and Levi not only killed Hamor and his father but all the men of their town as well. Then they captured all the women, children, and livestock of the town. Finally, they plundered all the wealth they found there. (Genesis 34)

As Mario Puzo's fictitious character Don Corleone might have said, "This is not justice. Your sister is still alive." 

An historical and saintly reflection on injustice is found on the lips of dying Jacob, blessing his sons yet remembering what two of them had done. The patriarch cries out, "Let not my soul enter their council; let not my honor be united to their assembly; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel!" (from Genesis 49)

The eye for an eye precept, like the cities of refuge, was intended to limit punishment so that it fit the crime. Another example is found in the realm of divorce. Although Scripture is clear that God hates it, His word makes provision for it under certain conditions. We live in a fallen world; God's law takes that into account.

Ultimately, as per the song of the sons of Korah which we know as the 46th Psalm, the one which inspired Luther's hymn, A Mighty Fortress, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." The LORD Jesus Christ, by Whose gracious, loving redemption the Law was fulfilled for His people, is the ultmate place of security and protection. Once again, the Law foreshadows and testifies of Him.