Week 56, Day 5: Cities of Refuge
Today’s Reading: Numbers 35:1-34
Some thoughts from today’s reading…
In this chapter Moses is told to command Israel to give a portion of their inheritance to the Levites. They are to give 42 cities and their surrounding fields to live in. Each tribe was to give cities for them to live in, each giving based on the size of their inheritance. In addition to these cities they were to give them 6 cities to be cities of refuge. These cities were to be places of refuge for the manslayer. The Lord then gives details of who is to be regarded as a manslayer. This is a very interesting section to me since we see a practice in our justice system of trying to sympathize with criminals or killers. A wife can kill her husband by shooting him 15 times and the courts want to characterize her actions as excusable because she was abused. This portion of scripture indicate that God views such actions as murder, not manslaughter. Man slaughter is clearly defined as accidental death caused to another. If the act was done suddenly, without enmity or without lying in wait (planning it) or with any deadly weapon (an object of stone, wood, iron, etc), then it could be classified as manslaughter (22-23).
God also emphasizes the importance of punishing those guilty of murder. They were not to allow a ransom to be paid for sparing the guilty (30). The spilling of blood pollutes the land. God said they were not to allow the land to be defiled since He dwelt in the midst of Israel. The only way to make atonement for blood being shed was that the blood of those guilty of murder to be shed (33).
Even the one guilty of manslaughter could not escape punishment (living in the city of refuge for the rest of the days the high priest lived) (32). Also justice needed to be established on the basis of at least two witnesses (30).
Question: What do you think happens when a country begins to make excuses for murderers? What is wrong with a different standard of punishment for those who are rich or famous?
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