“The cities you give to the Levites are to be the six cities of refuge to which you permit the person who kills someone to flee to; plus an additional forty-two cities.”-Leviticus 35:6
In verse 6 of Numbers 35 we are introduced to what are famously known as the “Six Cities of Refuge“.
What’s fascinating is that God commanded that three of these cities of refuge were to be located in the Transjordan for the 2.5 tribes that decided to live in the territory east of the Jordan River and…
…the other three to be located on the west side of the Jordan River (inside the Promised Land) for the remaining 9.5 tribes.
Let’s read verses 4 and 5.
“The open land around the cities you give to the Levites is to commence at a line drawn around the city wall 1,500 feet outside it and is to extend outward from there. Measure 3,000 feet outward from the city wall to the east, south, west and north, with the city in the center. The space between the 1,500-foot line and the 3,000-foot line will be their open land around the cities”
Here are some of the finer points you should know.
The size of a city given to the Levites was based on how big (or small) a tribe was…
…just as the size of the land a tribe was given was based on its size.
A bigger tribe (like Judah) received a larger territory and thus the cities they bequeathed to a group of Levites were also bigger.
And the amount of pastureland given to the Levites was also based on the size of the city they were given.
How it worked is that about 500 yards was given as pastureland IN ADDITION to the length of the city itself.
The bigger the city, the bigger the amount of pastureland given.
It was as simple as that.
Onward.
There is an important theological principle being fleshed out through the six cities of refuge that I don’t want us to overlook.
The principle is this:
HASHEM is so holy that His Divine Presence cannot reside in area that has been defiled by murder.
Remember, blood is a key factor in many of God’s instructions.
We have learned from our studies in Leviticus that blood can serve as BOTH a positive force and a negative force.
When blood is used to atone and to purify, it serves as a positive force.
However, when blood is spilled improperly, it is an abomination to the Lord and it defiles.
A perfect example of this is menstrual blood.
Menstrual blood defiles which is why a woman must undergo certain purification rituals after her period.
On the other hand, we have seen that the blood of an animal properly sacrificed is efficacious to atone for unintentional sins.
But in this case, we’re dealing with the spilled blood of a human being and whether the killing should be considered murder or manslaughter.
Next time we meet we’ll discuss the concept of “asylum” from a Biblical perspective and take a close look at the verses that define murder and manslaughter and how they are connected to the six cities of refuge.
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