According to the official definition provided in the Book of Numbers and Joshua, a person who killed another human being is only allowed to flee to a sanctuary city if…
…it was done accidentally without malice or any pre-planning.
…it was done in self-defense because the person’s life was in danger.
Or it was…
…caused by a very low degree of carelessness.
If the death of another person was due to a high degree of carelessness, that was considered to be a full-fledged premeditated murder.
Now keep in mind, as we’ve been discussing, it was the duty and obligation of a family member (called a “kinsmen”) to seek out and avenge the death of the relative at hand even if it was accidental.
Make sure you catch this point.
The Scriptures do NOT outlaw blood revenge.
It was legal and if it occurred, the perpetrator was NOT punished.
I gather this is one of those things that gets Westerners all uptight, probably just as much as the fact that the Torah does NOT outlaw a married man from sleeping with another woman besides his wife as long as she’s unattached (single and not living under her father’s roof).
I know a lot of folks are gonna lose their freakin’ minds at that last paragraph, so let me just share a quote straight from the heart of Judaism to nip any protests in the bud before things get out of hand.
“The writtenTorah never forbids sex outside the context of marriage, with the exception of adultery and incest. According to Exodus 22:15–16, the man who entices a single woman to have sex must offer to marry her afterwards or the equivalent in compensation, unless her father refuses to allow him.” -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism_and_sexuality
Alright, let’s get back to the topic at hand.
Onward.
So, the Torah does not outlaw blood revenge killings, but it does put a limitation on them and that limitation was the 6 Cities of Refuge.
If the killer was NOT guilty of deliberate murder, he had a sanctuary city he could escape to where he would be safe from the GO’EL.
But again, the condition was that he had to be able to successfully escape to the sanctuary city and…
…once he was safely inside, he had to stay put there for pretty much forever…
…until the current High Priest passed away.
You’re probably thinking…
…why would the Lord allow such a system to exist?
It almost seems like we’re gambling with human life here.
If the person who killed someone by accident was lucky enough to be able to escape to a city of refuge, fine.
But what if he lived a far distance away from a sanctuary city and didn’t have enough time to get away from the Blood Avenger?
Then, he was dead meat.
In addition, this whole idea that the accidental killer was only safe inside the city but once he stepped foot outside, the Blood Avenger could exterminate him at any time is something I think makes a lot of us uncomfortable.
What to make of all this?
Well, again, as I’ve said about 20 billion freakin’ times already, you’re not gonna get the answer from your Christian pastor.
Instead you’ve got to go to the patterns established in the Torah.
We’ve already looked at one pattern for the Sanctuary cities which is Abraham’s bosom.
But there’s actually another fascinating pattern revealed.
What exactly am I referring to?
I’m talking about the pattern that…
…the unjust spilling of human blood renders the Promised Land Unclean.
And that the only way such uncleanness can be properly dwelt with from God’s perspective is for atonement to be made.
And how is atonement made?
The only way for atonement to be made is to kill the murderer.
That’s right man.
Per the Torah, that’s the only acceptable way atonement can be accomplished.
The blood of the one who accidentally killed another person atones for the person he killed.
But, and this is something that practically no Christian pastor, preacher or Bible teacher anywhere in the world understands, the killer’s blood does NOT atone for himself.
Did you catch that point?
Let me say that again.
The blood of the murderer does NOT atone for himself.
The killer’s blood is an atonement for the land because the blood illegally shed on the land defiles it.
And because the land has become defiled, it defiles the people living in the land.
But it gets worse.
If the land becomes too defiled, God will withdraw His Holy Presence from the Tabernacle or the Temple and once that happens, God will longer dwell with His People and that’s something the Lord cannot allow to happen because of His Covenant with Israel.
I gather the biggest revelation for a lot of folks reading this (especially the gentile believers) is that the killer’s blood does NOT atone for himself.
Well, the same thing goes for Yom Kippur as well.
It’s called the Day of Atonement but it has nothing to do with people receiving an atonement for themselves.
It’s an atonement for the temple and its tools, artifacts and utensils because the accumulated sins of the people have caused the Tabernacle or the Temple to become defiled.
As we’ve studied before, defilement is contagious and the Lord cannot allow anything unclean to come into His presence.
Can you see how big the gap is between a defiled or fallen mankind and a HOLY God?
The whole purpose of atonement is cleanse us from the defilement caused by our sins so that God can dwell with us.
This kind of gives you a whole new way to view and understand what Yeshua accomplished on the cross, doesn’t it?
His sacrifice wasn’t an atonement for you so to speak.
Just as the death of the High Priest atoned for the defilement of the land and allowed the accidental killer to leave the sanctuary city, so was Yeshua, our High Priest’s death an atonement for our sins because of all the uncleanness and defilement our sins brought into the world.
I know we usually say “Yeshua died for our sins” but a more technically accurate way to phrase it would be to say…
…”Yeshua died for the defilement all our sins brought into the world allowing us to enter into the presence of a Holy God who is utterly incapable of tolerating anything unclean or unholy”.
It is in this sense that your sins are separating you from a HOLY God.
{QUOTE}I gather this is one of those things that gets Westerners all uptight, probably just as much as the fact that the Torah does NOT outlaw a married man from sleeping with another woman besides his wife as long as she’s unattached (single and not living under her father’s roof).
I know a lot of folks are gonna lose their freakin’ minds at that last paragraph, so let me just share a quote straight from the heart of Judaism to nip any protests in the bud before things get out of hand.
“The writtenTorah never forbids sex outside the context of marriage, with the exception of adultery and incest. According to Exodus 22:15–16, the man who entices a single woman to have sex must offer to marry her afterwards or the equivalent in compensation, unless her father refuses to allow him.” -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism_and_sexuality
Jesus stated that to look at a woman with the hope of having sex with the woman was adultery.
Mat 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Again, he stated–Mat 19:4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’
Mat 19:5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?
The teaching of Yeshua was and is in line with the Torah.
From the Torah we see that a woman who cannot prove her state as a virgin must be stoned,
Deut 22:20 If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found,
Deut 22:21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.
Do you see that sex outside of covenantal marriage is adultery.
So you see a woman who has had sex and is not the wife of man must be dealt with.
What about John 8?
John 8:3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group
John 8:4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
John 8:5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
So you are saying that a man married man can go and have sex with any woman who is not married!!!
Don’t want to get into a debate about this. May I suggest you read some of my other articles on this topic.
Here are some suggested links:
https://messianic-revolution.com/30-2-how-does-god-really-feel-about-polygamy/
https://messianic-revolution.com/d5-9-per-torah-adultery-based-marital-status-woman/
https://messianic-revolution.com/n5-15-adultery-meaning-husband-remains-faithful-wife/
Thanks for reading. Be blessed and Shalom.