“They will be places of refuge from the avenger, so that a person accused of murder may not die before he stands trial before the assembly.”
~ Numbers 35:12
Hi James and Ellen,
Is your house a place of refuge? Is your house a place where you feel secure? Is your house a place where you go into to escape life tensions? Is your house a place where you sense the presence of God – as God the Spirit. God had His specially chosen guys select six cities of refuge from the land that He was giving them – which was land on the Transjordan side of the Jordan River – which some of His specially chosen guys and gals would settle and the land of Canaan. The six cities – three cities on the Transjordan side of the Jordan River and three cities on Canaan’s side of the Jordan River, that God told His specially chosen guys to select were to be designated cities of refuge for guys who accidentally or deliberately killed another guy – where these guys could escape to and hunker down in until . . . God also told His specially chosen guys that after they eradicated the guys and gals who were living in the land of Canaan – which was the land where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – who were the patriarchs of God’s specially chosen guys and gals, had lived, that they were to give to the Levi tribal clan guys and gals forty-eight of the towns that they captured. When these mandates were ordered by God through Moses – that six cities were to be designated as cities of refuge and that the Levi tribal clan guys and gals were to be given forty-eight of the towns that God’s specially chosen guys would capture, God’s specially chosen guys had already wiped out the guys and gals who were living in the land that was located on the Transjordan side of the Jordan River. God chose the Levi tribal guys to be His designated religious and worship leaders among His specially chosen guys and gals. The Levi tribal clan guys were to settle their family units in towns in the land area where three of the Israelite people group’s tribal clans had claimed on the Transjordan side of the Jordan River and in towns in the land of Canaan that would be allocated by lots to the other Israelite people group’s tribal clans. An area of land 1500 feet to the east, 1500 feet to the south, 1500 feet to the west and 1500 feet to the north and then 3000 feet parallel to the walls on each side of each town would belong to the Levi tribal clan guys and gals to live in and to use to pasture their livestock.
Numbers 35 outlines the guidelines on assigning Levi tribal clan family units to forty-eight different towns that would be scattered throughout the land that God was in the process of giving to His specially chosen guys and gals to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . this chapter also gives the rationale and guidelines for the use of a city of refuge. Verse 12 explains, “They will be places of refuge from the avenger, so that a person accused of murder may not die before he stands trial before the assembly.” A guy who accidentally or deliberately killed another guy could escape to a city of refuge where he could not be killed by the guy – who was called the avenger, who would be chosen by the family to kill the killer of the guy who was killed. A guy who would end up escaping to a city of refuge after he accidentally or deliberately killed another guy would have to be tried before an assembly of guys to determine his real guilt. If the assembly of guys judged that a guy had deliberately murdered another guy, the guy would then be turned over to the avenger and . . . but if the assembly of guys judged that a guy had actually accidentally killed another guy, the guy would be protected by the assembly of guys until after the high priest in that city of refuge died – which at that time the guy who had accidentally killed another guy would be allowed to return to his town and family. If a guy who accidentally or deliberately killed another guy decided to leave a city of refuge before the high priest in that city of refuge died, the guy would be open game to the avenger.
God is Who has given life blood to all guys, gals and kids. For a guy to deliberately stop the flow of the life blood that God has given to another guy, gal or kid is unconscionable – but it is happening everywhere all the time. Your grandpaa does not believe that God is okay with fetuses – who are unborn developing babies, who are being deliberately aborted by their mas after God has blessed a gal with the privilege and honor of becoming a ma. Your grandpaa does not believe that God is okay with guys using inebriation as an excuse to kill another guy. One night in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez, Bolivia – during the time when your grandmaa and grandpaa were the administrators of the Bible education program that was going on in the rural resident training center in Concepción, your grandmaa and grandpaa were awakened by a guy who was in the middle of the street next to the manse that was in the back of the church that is in Concepción where your grandmaa and grandpaa were living yelling over and over again that it was time for him to kill another guy. The guy was drunk. The guy lived in a house right across the street from the property that the church in Concepción is on. The guy had several times been Concepción’s mayor. Rumors had it that the guy had already killed seven guys. One of Concepción’s clinic’s attendants was shot and left permanently scarred by this guy after this guy had gotten drunk and . . . the guy was even yelling the name of the guy who he wanted to kill. The guy who the drunk wanted to kill lived in the house that was kitty-corner from the church in Concepción. This same drunk gave another guy – who was a veterinarian who was living in Concepción, a horse to escape on from being caught after he shot and killed a soccer player who . . . two young guys who lived next to the rural resident Bible training center property one morning lured several guys who were driving vehicles illegally from Brazil into Bolivia to take a shortcut around a checkpoint in order to kill them for the cocaine that they thought that the guys had with them. What do you think should happen to a guy who has killed another guy – or a gal or kid?
Numbers 35 (607)