Numbers 35:6-36:13

The last day in Numbers!  I admit, there were a few times I asked myself how many chapters Numbers had, but for the most part it has flown by.  And tomorrow: Deuteronomy.

The cities of refuge has always been a facet of the Law that has intrigued me.  Mostly, this is due to imagination.  I try to put myself in the shoes of someone who has found themselves a manslayer.  Added to the guilt that you have accidentally killed another human being, you must uproot yourself from your land and your family and flee to one of six cities throughout Israel.  After your trial, if you are found innocent according to the laws of an accidental slaying, you must rebuild your life in the city of refuge.  Even if your father or mother back home falls ill, dies if someone is married or born, you cannot leave that city.  If you do, your life is subject to the avenger of the person you killed.  I would think it would be very difficult to wait for the death of the high priest, to not secretly pray for his early dismissal from life so that you might go home again.  What if you went home after decades?  What if you never got to go?

The cities of refuge are not unlike the practice of sanctuary in a medieval church.  During the Middle Ages in Europe, anyone could flee within the walls of a church and escape the repercussions of the law, debt, or similar provocation.  The Church became a place of refuge for those being hounded by the law or by enemies.  They were safe, so long as they remained within the walls of the church.  Like just about any other provision, it was something that could be used, or abused. 

It makes me wonder, though, do you think the psalmists who wrote that the Lord was their refuge might have had the cities of refuge on their minds at all?  A city of refuge was a safe place, but rather than fleeing to one, the psalmist flees to the Lord.  How much more enduring God's refuge is!  It may not be as tangible, some days, as the walls of a city, as a little hut or room within the boundaries of a certain place, but how much more complete in the sovereign Lord.  He is able to protect us, to preserve against our enemies.  We may go through trials and difficulties, persecutions and pain, but as 2 Corinthians 4:8-11 says, "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.  For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh."

Tomorrow's Reading: Deuteronomy 1:1-46