We are in the midst of discussing the six sanctuary cities the Lord ordered be established.
Connected to this topic, we are also in the midst of dealing with the concept of “asylum“.
Yesterday I explained how the Altar of Burnt Offering was at times unlawfully used as a place of sanctuary before the six cities of refuge were established.
What would happen is that a person on the run from some avenging authority would rush to the Altar of Burnt offering, grab a hold of its horns and through this act communicate to everybody he was seeking asylum.
This practice wasn’t just restricted to Israel.
It was a pretty common custom among the non-Hebrew nations in the Middle East as well.
Now what was it about the Altar that caused folks to use it as a sanctuary in those days?
Well, this is where all the hours we spent studying the Book of Leviticus comes in handy.
Do you remember the principle that WHATEVER COMES INTO CONTACT WITH A HOLY OBJECT BECOMES HOLY ITSELF.
Well, this is the non-negotiable and fundamental Biblical principle we’re seeing at work here.
Recall the rebellion of Korah and the 250 men who sided with him.
After the Lord killed them, do you remember He ordered their fire pans to also be destroyed?
Do you know why?
The reason the fire pans also had to be destroyed was because they had been made HOLY by coming into too close proximity to the Lord.
Or to be more specific, the fire pans had to be destroyed because they had UNLAWFULLY contracted God’s Holiness.
In other words, a person or object needs to be authorized by God (given permission so to speak) before it is okay to approach His Holiness.
That is why such special care must be taken to guard God’s Holiness.
We learned in the Book of Leviticus that Holiness (and its opposite impurity) is contagious!
It can be transmitted from object-to-object, person-to-person, person-to-object and vice versa.
That is why the HOLY-FIED fire pans were afterwards crafted into a lid for the Altar…
…and why all of the coals and incense ashes had to be taken outside the camp and destroyed.
Recall also the incident when God ordered Moses to remove his sandals at the Burning Bush because the ground he was standing on was HOLY.
Again, we see the same principle at work.
The TORAH forbids normal human hands to touch the Altar or any other sacred implement used at the Tabernacle with the exception of the priests …and even then only under certain well-defined situations (such as touching the poles used to transport the Ark of Covenant).
What’s fascinating is that even in the case of a priest touching a sacred instrument, a degree of defilement was still passed on to it.
Such is the tremendous gap that divides God from man.
In fact, one of the purposes of Yom Kippur (or the Day of Atonement) was to cleanse and purify all of the ritual instruments that had become defiled through human use over the year by sprinkling them with blood.
That’s right.
Even under God-permitted circumstances, defilement still accumulated and had to undergo a thorough cleansing lest the sanctuary and its ritual objects became so impure that HASHEM would not be able to dwell there anymore.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: HASHEM must protect His Holiness at any cost.
Now that I’ve hammered this point home, I want you to understand that even though we see the common Israelites apparently being permitted to grab the horns of the Altar for sanctuary in Scripture, understand that such an action goes against Torah.
And like so many of the other Torah commands given at Sinai, the instructions concerning the six cities of refuge were NOT implemented fully as God directed.
God’s ordinances concerning this matter were changed to and fro over the centuries.
The takeaway for today’s lesson is clear.
Just because we see something occur in the Bible does NOT make it right.
Yesterday, I shared some verses from the First Book of Kings showing how Adoniyah grabbed a hold of the horns of the Altar in order to seek asylum from the newly crowned King Solomon.
Again, just because the priests apparently allowed him to rush into the Tabernacle compound and grab the horns of the Altar does not make it right (per the Torah commands).
Or how about Jephthah who made a rash vow to the Lord and ended up sacrificing his own daughter as a burnt offering on an Altar?
This was a totally misplaced sense of fidelity to the Lord and the Torah commands, not to mention a total disregard for the the fact that God despises human sacrifice.
Jephthah should have valued the life of his dear daughter over the command to keep a vow made to God no matter what.
Again, the lesson here is clear.
When studying Scripture, it is of utmost importance that we distinguish between the pure perfection of God’s divine commands, laws and principles and…
…HOW THEY ARE ACTUALLY CARRIED OUT BY FALLIBLE HUMAN BEINGS.
Are we clear on this?
Too many of us automatically assume that just because we read of some person doing something in Scripture, it’s okay for us to do it too.
Umm, no.
It is our duty as believers in HASHEM to so thoroughly study and meditate on His Word and understand His character and His principles so thoroughly that…
…we can easily tell when even those regarded as righteous in Scripture (such as Abraham, David and Solomon) are not in accord with God’s divine Torah commands.
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