If I’ve ever read these passages before, then I must have blocked them from my memory because I cannot remember reading about safe havens for people who accidentally kill others.
They’re not jails, they are cities for people to find refuge. Here’s the part that really jumped out to me. The safe havens were for the following people:
“for the People of Israel, for the foreigner, and for any occasional visitors or guests-six asylum-cities to run to for anyone who accidentally kills another.”
These havens were not just for the children of Israel, but were for anyone who needed them. God was blessing all nations with salvation through the Israelites. Does that sound familiar to anyone else? God was providing a way for people to be safe from harm through the children of Israel.
This safe haven is just one example of what is to come when Jesus enters. Just like Noah’s ark brought salvation, just like Moses came to deliver them, Jesus came so that all men would be saved.
Next week is Thanksgiving, but I thank God every day for that gift! 🙂
Numbers 35:33-34
“So you shall not pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood shed in it, but by the blood of him who shed it. And you shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I, the Lord, dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.”
Years ago, I read these verses and the atrocity of abortion came to mind. I have written in my Bible, “Abortion pollutes our land with the blood of innocents.”
Yet, even the abortionist can flee to Jesus as Refuge and be saved. The woman coerced into submitting herself to this heinous procedure has Refuge in Jesus and can be washed whiter than snow. The blood of Jesus can purify our land from the pollution of violence.
Pingback: Joshua 19-21: Logistics « The Exhorter Reads