“so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood.”
~ Joshua 20:3
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like to build a fort out of your toys and then pretend to be hiding in the fort? Do you like to put a blanket over chairs and then hide under the blanket? When you have done something that you should not have done that you know that your dad and/or ma will punish you for doing it, do you try to hide from your dad and/or ma? What would you like to have happen if you accidentally or unintentionally did something that you knew would make your dad and/or ma want to punish you? Do you ever wish that there was someplace in your house where you could go to without being punished until your dad and/or ma decides whether or not you should be punished? A dad or ma will be punished if he or she has done something that is against the law of the land. A dad or ma may be put in a jail if he or she does something that is against the law of the land. Laws of the land are determined by dads and mas who have been elected by other dads and mas to make them. Laws of the lands are made to protect dads, mas and their kids. Laws of the land tell dads and mas – and their kids, what they can do and cannot do. A law of the land will not always dissuade a dad or ma – or a kid, from doing something that a law of the land states that a guy or gal will be punished if the law of the land is not obeyed. There is always the hope though that a law of the land will help to deter a guy, gal or kid from doing something that will hurt another guy, gal or kid or himself or herself.
Laws are good. God gave His specially chosen guys and gals laws to live their lives by. God passed these laws on through Moses to His specially chosen guys and gals. God expected His specially chosen guys and gals to obey the laws that He gave to them. Do you know what was to happen 3400 years ago to one of God’s specially chosen guys or gals who disobeyed one of God’s laws? Do you know what was to happen 3400 years ago to one of God’s specially chosen guys who killed another guy who God had specially chosen? If the guy was found by another guy who was called an avenger, the avenger was to kill the guy. An avenger was to be a guy from the family of the guy who had been killed. Do you know what was to happen 3400 years ago if one of God’s specially chosen guys accidentally or unintentionally killed another one of God’s specially chosen guys? God instructed His specially chosen guys to specify six cities as cities of refuge in the land that His specially chosen guys had conquered and in which they were living. Joshua 20 is God telling Joshua which six cities were to be specified as cities of refuge. The six cities that God instructed Joshua to specify as cities of refuge where cities that had been given to the Levi tribal clan guys and gals to live in in the land that God had promised His specially chosen guys and gals that they would always have to live in as their very own land if . . . the six cities were located in different parts of the land that God had returned to His specially chosen guys and gals to . . . Moses explained the reason for the six cities of refuge in verse 3 “so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood.” During the time that your grandmaa and grandpaa were living in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, a kid while he was running across a street was killed when a missionary from another mission agency accidentally hit him with his car. The kid was a helper on a bus. A kid who is a helper on a bus in Bolivia – and in other Latin American countries, collects the bus fare from the bus passengers. Busses are required to clock in at certain places on their routes within a certain time span. Another job for the kids who help on a bus is to run – sometimes like crazy, to a timeclock with a card to have the card punched by the clock. If a card is not punched by the timeclock within the time span that the bus is to arrive at the place, the bus driver will have to pay something for having arrived late. The missionary who hit and accidentally killed with his car in Santa Cruz, Bolivia a helper on a bus was required to sleep in a jail at night until . . . a couple of weeks ago one of the two young guys who sold newspapers every morning in Guatemala City, Guatemala at a spot along the street between where your grandmaa and grandpaa live and where the office is located where your grandmaa and grandpaa work – which is about a block, was accidentally hit and killed by a car. Accidentally being killed by a vehicle or a guy or gal accidentally killing another guy, gal or kid with the vehicle that he or she is driving can happen at any moment no matter how careful a guy, gal or kid is.
If one of God’s specially chosen guys accidentally or unintentionally killed another one of God’s specially chosen guys and then if the guy was able to beat the avenger to Kadesh or Shechem or Hebron or Beser or Ramoth or Golan – which were the specified cities of refuge, the guy who had accidentally or unintentionally killed another one of God’s specially guys would be able to hide out in the city that he had beaten the avenger to without having the avenger kill him. The guy who had accidentally or unintentionally killed another guy still needed to be heard by the city elders to be judged on whether or not he really had accidentally or unintentionally killed the guy who he claimed he accidently or unintentionally killed. If the city elders decided that the guy who said that he accidentally or unintentionally killed another guy and who had made it to their city to escape being killed by the avenger really did accidentally or unintentionally kill the guy, that guy could not be killed by the avenger as long as the guy stayed inside their city. If the guy who accidentally or unintentionally killed another guy left the city of refuge before the city of refuge’s high priest dies, the avenger could kill the guy. Obeying the laws of the land is always the right thing to do. God’s expects His word to be obeyed. If you ever accidentally or unintentionally . . . run to God for His help.
Joshua 20 (267)