Flee for Refuge | Sunday, August 23, 2020

Then Moses set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan toward the rising of the sun, that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in the past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites. (Deuteronomy 4:41-43)

Why would God spend so much on cities for the guilty that Scripture never records being used? Because they point to the only refuge that matters.

Approaching the Old Testament With Expectation

This morning we are continuing our study in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Bible, in which we are considering the statutes and judgments of God. These stipulations were the basis for God's relationship with the nation of Israel 3,400 years ago. The book of Exodus describes how God redeemed and rescued the people of Israel from 400 years of bondage in Egypt.

The story of Exodus is familiar in Western culture—through films like Charlton Heston's The Ten Commandments, The Prince of Egypt, or Christian Bale's Exodus: Gods and Kings—because we still live in a Judeo-Christian culture. But most conceptions of the stories of the Pentateuch have been largely mythologized in our day. Most people you interact with have a limited knowledge of these things, and what they do know they regard as archaic myths.

For the Christian, these are histories recorded for a purpose. We believe they are given by inspiration of God and are intended to teach us about Him—how and what He does, why He does it, and how we ought to interact with Him.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

This is a passage I reference often. It helps us understand why Christians for the last 20 centuries have maintained such a high regard for the Bible. We believe the Bible is inspired, infallible, and inerrant in the original autographs. This is an audacious claim, but it has been the orthodox view since the very beginning of the church—these words from the apostle Paul were penned within four decades of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Coming to the Text Expecting Relevance

I bring this up because it can be challenging to find relevance to our time in a passage like the one before us. But because of the teaching of 2 Timothy 3, I come to a passage like this presupposing its relevance and application. I come with the anticipation that God has something here for me to learn about Him, how He works, and what He expects.

I hope you will do the same when you open the Bible. At the very least, pray that God would open your eyes to behold wonderful things from His law. I'm convinced that Deuteronomy 4 holds some wonderful things from the statutes and judgments of God—and all of that is a preface to just 71 words.

Statutes Interrupted by Mercy

We began several weeks ago talking about the law of God in Deuteronomy. As the people of Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land 3,400 years ago, Moses the great lawgiver stood before the people to remind them of the stipulations of their covenant relationship, so it would be fresh in their minds how they were to live before God in His land.

This is the same thing my wife and I do with our kids virtually every time we visit someone's home. Right before we arrive, we get their attention in the car and say, "Remember our expectations," and go through four or five things we expect of them.

Here is one of the things I appreciate about God in reading His statutes. He says, "Here are my expectations; you're my people; this is how my people are to behave." But in the midst of rehearsing His expectations, He pauses to remind them of His mercy. We saw this in verse 31:

For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

The ultimate purpose of God's law is not our moral perfection; its ultimate purpose is to show us God's perfection and our inadequacy. God's law is a reflection of His nature—it reveals His purity and highlights our imperfection. So in the midst of revealing His perfection, He reminds us of His mercy.

God Goes to Great Lengths to Provide Mercy to the Guilty

I believe this passage teaches us that God goes to great lengths to provide mercy to the guilty. Why? Because it is His very nature. It is what He leads with when He introduces Himself in Exodus 34:6:

The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

He does not overlook sin or acquit the guilty, but He is by default merciful. Deuteronomy 4:41-43 is a manifestation of His mercy in the midst of His statutes and judgments.

When we get into chapter 5 we'll consider the Ten Commandments. This will be the second time Moses rehearsed these commandments—that's why the book is called Deuteronomy, which literally means "second law." The first time was 40 years prior, in Exodus 20.

The Sixth Commandment and Its Provision

One of the Ten Commandments, the sixth, is "You shall not murder," recorded in Exodus 20:13 and again in Deuteronomy 5:17. I don't think any rightly minded individual would disagree that murder is wrong. Its wrongness is evidenced by the strict sentence given to murderers in Exodus 21:12: "He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death." Whatever your personal opinions about capital punishment, the Old Testament sentence for murder was death.

But that's not the whole story. Moses had more to say:

However, if he did not lie in wait, but God delivered him into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee. But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor, to kill him by treachery, you shall take him from My altar, that he may die.

God goes to great lengths to provide mercy to the guilty, so He gives this interesting provision. Moses clarifies it further in Numbers 35:

When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there... You shall appoint three cities on this side of the Jordan, and three cities you shall appoint in the land of Canaan, which will be cities of refuge.

The Avenger of Blood and the Cities of Refuge

Essentially, God provides mercy for the one guilty of unintended killing—what we would call manslaughter. In ancient times, if you killed someone you could expect to be killed for your crime. It was the custom in the ancient Near East that the one guilty of killing another would be killed by a near-of-kin family member of the deceased. This person was referred to in Numbers 35 as the avenger of blood. It sounds like a comic book character, but God, because He is merciful, made provision for the one who killed another unintentionally.

So in Deuteronomy 4:41-43, Moses makes good on this provision by establishing three of the six cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan. The six cities—three east, three west—were spaced so that they were effectively a day's journey from anywhere in the land, so one who killed unintentionally could flee there.

Deuteronomy 19 even gives an example: imagine you're cutting down a tree with an axe, and the axe head slips off the handle and hits your neighbor so that he dies. It wasn't intentional, but he's dead, and under the law you're dead too—unless you flee to the city of refuge. Once there, a trial would be held before the elders. If it was determined to be manslaughter, the manslayer would remain alive in the city.

But there was refuge only inside the city. If he left, he could be killed. He had to remain there as long as the high priest of Israel was alive. When the high priest died, those living in the cities of refuge were free to return home in peace.

When he flees to one of those cities and stands at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declares his case in the hearing of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city... and he shall dwell in the city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the one who is high priest in those days. Then the slayer may return... to the city from which he fled. (Joshua 20)

Great Expense for a Provision Never Recorded as Used

Each of these six cities was established and maintained by the priestly tribe, the Levites, who were provided for by the tithes—really the taxes—in Israel. So these cities were provided for from the national treasury. The roads and signs leading to them were to be well kept. God expected great care and expense to provide refuge and mercy, because He goes to great lengths to provide mercy to the guilty.

Here's what I find fascinating. In all my study of Scripture, I can find no record of a city of refuge actually being used in the biblical record. I'm not saying they were never used—I'm sure they were. The law required two or more witnesses for capital punishment, so a person involved in a death with only one witness would have been safe only in the city of refuge. But it was rare enough that it is never recorded in the Bible.

If you lived in ancient Israel, you probably never thought about the cities of refuge—and when you did, you might have thought, "That's a lot of energy, money, time, and prime real estate wasted for a bunch of criminals." Whether you lived three thousand years ago or live today, you might be forgiven for thinking, "Irrelevant. This doesn't apply to me."

And you would almost be right—until the day you stand gazing into the open eyes of a lifeless body at your feet, your racing heart telling you something awful has happened and that somehow you are to blame. Suddenly you remember the words of Moses, "Appoint for yourselves cities of refuge," and one little word begins to repeat in your head: Run.

We Are the Manslayers, and Christ Is Our Refuge

So what a waste—or not. Two thousand years ago, an innocent man was brutally beaten and killed on a hilltop outside Jerusalem, a hill called Calvary, and He died because of your sin and mine. We are to blame. We all want to be the superhero avenger of blood, but the reality is we're all the manslayers. We have His blood on our hands. Unintentional though it may have been, we are guilty—and the One who died because of our sin has a near-of-kin avenger of blood, a Father who has every right to avenge the blood of His Son.

So what can we do? There is only one answer, found in the only place the word "refuge" is used in the New Testament:

We... might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:18-20)

Our only hope and only refuge as guilty sinners is to flee to Christ for shelter from the avenger of blood, for "there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." The Father demands justice for the death of His Son, but gives mercy to all who are in Him. Don't wait another moment. In Christ alone is refuge and mercy. He is our High Priest forever.

These Things Were Written for Our Learning

When we come to a passage like this, we need to understand Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 10—that all these things that happened to Israel happened as examples for us, written for our instruction who are living in these last days. Even if we can't find anywhere these cities were used, they point to the refuge available to us in Jesus Christ.

So as we close, I encourage you that these passages we can read in seconds—only 71 words here—deserve that we pause and pray and ask God what He wants to teach us about Himself. For one, God goes to great lengths to provide mercy to the guilty, and you and I are guilty. We are guilty of the death of Jesus Christ by our sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive His righteousness. Apart from the refuge we find by putting our trust in Him, we are open season for the avenger of blood—the Father in heaven who will one day execute just punishment upon those not in Christ. So put your faith and trust in Jesus. Flee to Him for refuge today.

Closing Prayer

Father, I pray that You would take these words from this passage of Scripture and cause them to go deep into our hearts. I'm sure there are some watching this morning who don't attend church, who would never go into a church building, but who have no problem clicking on a link a friend texted them. God, I pray that You would speak by Your Spirit and soften a heart, that the one who has been running away from You would turn and flee to find refuge in You.

Lord, we thank You that You have gone to great lengths to provide mercy for the guilty—not just in what You commanded Moses, Joshua, and the nation of Israel to do in constructing the cities of refuge 3,400 years ago, but You went to even far greater lengths in sending Your Son so that we could find refuge in Him. So God, I pray that You draw people to Yourself, to trust in You and find refuge in You. Even though You demand justice for the death of Your Son, You give mercy to those who put their trust and faith in Him. We thank You for that today. In Jesus' name, amen.