“Divide the territory of your land, which Adonai your God is having you inherit, into three parts; and prepare the roads, so that any killer can flee to these cities. The killer who will live if he flees there is someone who has killed his fellow member of the community by mistake, who did not hate him in the past.”-Deuteronomy 19:3-4
God commands that once His Holy War has been concluded, out of the captured cities, Israel is to set aside three towns that are to be “cities of refuge”.
These cities are also called “Sanctuary Cities” in Scripture.
There’s an all-important God-principle being fleshed out here.
Can you guess what it is?
If you guessed the principle of DIVISION, ELECTION and SEPARATION, you are correct!
Also, do you remember that some time earlier God had instructed Moses to set up three cities of refuge in the Transjordan region.
The Transjordan is that parcel of real estate located on the East side of the Jordan River and would serve as the launching point for Israel’s offensive against the Canaanites.
Well, here in verse 2, the Lord is talking about setting up another three sanctuary cities but this time INSIDE the West Bank of the Jordan River.
These cities are to be carefully and strategically chosen so they will effectively serve approximately one-third of the Holy Land.
The idea is to provide an Israelite who is being chased down by the Blood Avenger somewhat easy access to one of these Cities of Refuge.
Recall a while ago we learned that 48 Levitical cities were to be established throughout the 12 tribal territories that comprise the whole Hebrew confederacy.
Well, the six cities of refuge (3 cities on the west side of the Jordan and 3 cities on the east side of the Jordan) are counted as being a part of those planned 48 Levitical cities.
So what exact unique purpose did these so-called six Sanctuary Cities serve?
They were safe zones where someone who had accidentally killed a person could flee from the dead person’s relatives who would surely seek revenge.
Once the fleeing killer stepped inside the borders of a sanctuary city, the Levites who owned and governed these cities of refuge would assure the fleeing person protection.
However, there was ONE key caveat to this.
The killing of the killer had to have been accidental.
If the killer killed someone with the intention to kill, he would NOT be afforded sanctuary.
In other words, it had to have been an act of “manslaughter” as we categorize it in our judicial system.
Take a look at verse 5.
“An example would be if a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood and takes a stroke with the axe to fell a tree, but the head of the axe flies off the handle, hits his neighbor and kills him. Then he is to flee to one of these cities and live there.”-Deuteronomy 19:5
I like this.
Scripture kindly goes so far as to give us a nice and clear example of exactly the type of situation that would allow a killer to flee the blood avengers to a sanctuary city.
I’m done.
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