We are currently in the midst of discussing the assignment of the 48 cities to the Levites and the six cities of refuge.
All of the 48 cities were to be scattered throughout the territorial holdings of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Three of the cities of refuge were to be located OUTSIDE of the Promised Land on the east side of the Jordan River (where Reuben, Gad and 1/2 of Manasseh resided) and the other three inside the land of Canaan.
There is an important concept introduced here that I would like to discuss.
I am talking about the idea of “sanctuary” or “asylum“.
What exactly does “sanctuary” or “asylum” mean?
It basically refers to a special place where one can flee to where the person will be protected from arrest and punishment from the government.
The government in this case could have been a clan or tribal leader, a judge, or even a king.
In more cases than not, the individual seeking asylum was fleeing from the death penalty.
Like many of the other protocols, customs and ideas we encounter in Torah, this idea of “sanctuary” was NOT unique to the Hebrews.
It existed in every Middle Eastern society in some form or another.
Although different societies practiced it in different ways, it commonly involved the asylum seeker either fleeing to the priests or to a Temple dedicated to the god or gods of that particular nation for protection.
You may be surprised to learn that the first time the system of “sanctuary” or “asylum” appears is NOT here in Numbers.
It actually first appears in the Book of Exodus.
Check out these verses.
“Whoever attacks a person and causes his death must be put to death. If it was not premeditated but an act of God, then I will designate for you a place to which he can flee. But if someone willfully kills another after deliberate planning, you are to take him even from my altar and put him to death.”-Exodus 21:12-14
So what do we learn from these verses?
We learn that the original place of sanctuary BEFORE the full Law was given to Moses was the Altar of Burnt Offering.
That’s right.
In ancient Israel, a desperate person who was fleeing the death penalty would rush to the Tabernacle area (or the Temple) and grab a hold of the horns of the altar.
This action signified to everybody that he was seeking asylum.
And it was generally understood that as long as he kept holding on to the horns of the altar, he was not to be touched.
However, the Exodus verses above state that if someone commits murder, even grabbing onto the horns of the Altar is not going to protect him.
So basically what’s happening here in Numbers 35 is that the Lord is establishing a new way the principle of sanctuary is to be implemented from here on out.
One question that comes up is since there weren’t any sanctuary cities until Israel entered the Promised Land, how were things carried out until then?
I shared the above verses from Exodus which tells us that someone who was seeking mercy would run to grab the horns of the Burnt Altar.
But here’s the thing.
It would not have been allowed for a common Israelite to just run inside Tabernacle compound and touch the Brazen Altar.
Hence, even though the Torah isn’t really clear what was used as the “official” place of Sanctuary before the six cities of refuge were established, there had to be something.
Because it’s unimaginable that a society did not have a place of asylum in those days.
Now, even though the Israelites were commanded to create the six cities of refuge, throughout the centuries we find that Israel never really fully established this system as outlined here in Numbers 35.
The implementation of this God-ordained system of asylum was spotty at best.
In some eras we find that there were sanctuary cities but they were never really put into use for that purpose or other means of sanctuary were practiced IN ADDITION to the cities of refuge.
Take a look at this excerpt from the Book of Kings:
“More than that, the king’s servants came and blessed our lord King David with these words: ‘May God make the name of Shlomo better than your name and his throne greater than your throne,’ after which the king bowed down on the bed. Finally, the king said, ‘Blessed be Adonai the God of Isra’el, who has given someone to sit on my throne today, when my own eyes can see it.’”
At this all Adoniyah’s guests grew frightened; they got up, everyone going his own way. Adoniyah too was afraid because of Shlomo; he got up, went and took hold of the horns of the altar. Shlomo was told, “Here, Adoniyah is terrified of King Shlomo; he has grabbed hold of the horns of the altar and is saying, ‘First let King Shlomo swear to me that he will not have his servant executed.’”
What do we learn from these verses?
Well, obviously, the first thing we learn is that the practicing of rushing to the Altar of Burnt Offering for sanctuary and grabbing a hold of its horns still existed in Israel during the reigns of King David and King Solomon.
We also learn that both King David and Solomon were far from perfect in terms of implementing Torah protocol.
Why do I say that?
Because under no circumstances should a priest have allowed a common Israelite (let alone someone who had blood on his hands) to defile the Altar by touching it.
Yet in the Book of Kings as we have just read, we have a record that this was done.
We’ll continue this discussion next time.
Leave a Reply