AUDIO TEACHING
FULL RECORDED MEETING WITH MIDRASH. The Midrash has a lot of good information contributed by the audience.
NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT EXACTLY LIKE THE RECORDING.
The Cities of Refuge
Jos 20:1 YHVH spoke to Joshua, saying,
Jos 20:2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses,
Jos 20:3 that the man slayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They shall be to you for a refuge from the avenger of blood.
Jos 20:4 He shall flee to one of those cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his case in the ears of the elders of that city. They shall take him into the city with them, and give him a place, that he may live among them.
Jos 20:5 If the avenger of blood pursues him, then they shall not deliver up the man slayer into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him before.
Jos 20:6 He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days. Then the man slayer shall return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city he fled from.’”
Six of the Levitical cities, 3 on the west side of the Jordan river and 3 on the east side (Deu 4:41-43), were to serve as places of refuge for persons who had committed an unintentional murder. Cities of refuge prevented intentional murderers from grasping the horns of the altar to defile it. Such an act happened when Joab, David’s general, ran to the altar to grasp its horns when he was about to be killed for murdering Abner (2 Samuel 3:30). However, he was still slain by Benaiah, the servant of King Solomon (1 Kings 2:29-31). The use of cities of refuge may have been designed to prevent this kind of pollution of the altar. There will be no cities of refuge in the Millennial Kingdom because there will be no murderers.
The use of cities of refuge is one element of the modern doctrine of “innocent until proven guilty”. Both the intentional and unintentional killer must be proven guilty before further action can be taken unless the avenger of blood gets to them first.
The mention of “stands before the congregation” in Joshua 20:6 is a reference to the trial followed by the judgment performed by the congregation of the city of refuge. Accused people stand to receive their verdict.
The above passage is confusing because verse 6 leaves out the word “and” between the phrase “He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment” and the phrase “until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days”. Numbers 35:25 will help clarify this.
Num 35:25 The congregation shall deliver the man slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he had fled. He shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.
It sounds strange that the manslayer is restored to the city of refuge. One who is gone from his own city where the incident happened is, not in our modern sense, being “restored”. He is being taken away. But here, the intent of the word “restored” is that his life is restored to him but in a different city. He now has refuge from the avenger. The innocent man has his life restored to him while the guilty man will go to his death, his life is taken.
The analogy is that sinners can take refuge in Yeshua but must not leave His confines. However, there is a false doctrine in Christianity that, because of the blood of Yeshua, there should be no capital punishment. It is true that intentional murderers can be forgiven, but the false doctrine is that the murderer is to suffer no consequences for the murder. There is to be no capital punishment.
In ancient Israel, all convicted criminals were given a chance to repent before being executed. The forgiveness afforded to an intentional murderer is not because of Yeshua’s blood doing away with his consequences but because we are in exile. We cannot enforce the Law of Moses outside the borders of a Kingdom whose Law is the Law of Moses, and this Kingdom is still scattered all over the earth awaiting the ingathering of its people. We exiles are, until that time, relegated to live under the governments of whatever nation our bodies were born into with their laws governing us. Ancient Israel didn’t want to be governed by the Torah so we were expelled where we could learn to be governed in the nations’ unjust systems. That is one of the purposes of exile.
Numbers 35:25 further says in a separate sentence, “He shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil” while Joshua 20:6 says it differently: “He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, [comma] until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days”.
Joshua 20:6 intends for us to understand there are two parts to the innocent manslayer’s verdict. The first is he must continue to live in the city of refuge, never leaving its walls…
Num 35:27 and the avenger of blood finds him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the man slayer; he shall not be guilty of blood…
…And second, he can only be free from the incarceration until the death of the High Priest of Israel.
Cities of refuge were also Levitical cities where further instruction and, hopefully, a closer walk with YHVH would be achieved because of His mercy given through the Levitical, refuge cities. Through suffering the consequences of our sins, we learn mercy, compassion, to love justice and to walk humbly (obediently) with our God.
Guilty criminals in ancient Israel were not incarcerated for a long time as they are today. The example of Zelophehad shows us that criminals were only held until there was a verdict. Prison was not intended to keep convicted criminals from death by allowing them to continue living within walls.
The Biblical definition of long term incarceration, then, is for the protection of the innocent, backward from our modern experience. This may seem as if the innocent person is being punished by having his mobility curtailed. This is YHVH’s commandment and, while it goes against the grain of our modern society, it was the best way to prevent the unintentional manslayer from being executed by the avenger of blood.
After the death of the Levitical High Priest, the slayer could go back to his home and be protected against the wrath of the avenger of blood after being declared innocent of murder.
It was not the length of time that absolved the man of the unintentional murder. It was the death of the Levitical High Priest who took guilt of the unintentional murder on himself. He is not able to take on the intentional sins of people. Leviticus explains for us that the sin sacrifices are for unintentional sins only. So the High Priest takes the unintentional murder guilt on himself. The completed forgiveness of the unintentional murder only happened upon the death of the High Priest. Only then was the forgiveness complete.
Only Yeshua can take on the intentional sins to forgive them. This is because only God and the King of Israel can decide whether or not to render mercy for intentional sins. Yeshua’s death on the cross covers both intentional and unintentional sins but both still carry consequences for sinners, and intentional sins still requires us to ask for mercy from Him. Grace is what we ask for unintentional sins.
Yeshua took our guilt but, after He died, He resurrected without the sins of Israel still on Him. The Israel He restored by His death resurrected in a pristine state without the sins that had accumulated for 1500 years. He took on Israel’s sins in order to put and leave them in the grave. No Levitical High Priest of Israel ever resurrected. So the blood guilt of the unintentional manslayer taken by the Levitical High Priest went into the grave with the High Priest. It then became a “dead” issue, pun intended, and the man was then free. Only the death of sin can result in eternal life. This is why:
1Pe 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.
The deeds of the congregation which the Levitical High Priest carried to his death became the freedom of the unintentional manslayer.
Jos 20:7 They set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.
Jos 20:8 Beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness in the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.
Jos 20:9 These were the appointed cities for all the children of Israel, and for the alien who lives among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stands trial before the congregation.
Cities and Pasturelands Allotted to Levi
Earlier, I said the 6 cities of refuge were also Levitical cities.
Num 35:6 “The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the man slayer to flee to. Besides them you shall give forty-two cities.
There were a total of 48 Levitical cities distributed to the lines of Kohath, Gershon and Merari.
All of the tribes have received their allotted tribal territories. The Levites did not receive such territories. Rather, they were provided with cities within the tribal territories of the Israelites.
Jos 21:1 Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites came near to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel.
Jos 21:2 They spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, “YHVH commanded through Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with their pasture lands for our livestock.”
Jos 21:3 The children of Israel gave to the Levites out of their inheritance, according to the commandment of YHVH, these cities with their pasture lands.
These Levitical cities were given by lot just as the tribal territories had been received by lot.
Jos 21:4 The lot came out for the families of the Kohathites. The children of Aaron the priest, who were of the Levites, had thirteen cities by lot out of the tribe of Judah, out of the tribe of the Simeonites, and out of the tribe of Benjamin.
These are the cities where the Priests of the line of Aaron resided.
Jos 21:5 The rest of the children of Kohath had ten cities by lot out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim, out of the tribe of Dan, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh.
Jos 21:6 The children of Gershon had thirteen cities by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, out of the tribe of Asher, out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.
Jos 21:7 The children of Merari according to their families had twelve cities out of the tribe of Reuben, out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Zebulun.
Jos 21:8 The children of Israel gave these cities with their pasture lands by lot to the Levites, as YHVH commanded by Moses.
The Levites were not scattered within Israel. They were housed within Israel. This was all done orderly. Each family of Levi were assigned, by lot, to live in specific tribal territories. They did not get to choose their location. Each Levite family received specific tribal locations according to their family. Aaron received cities in specific tribal areas accordingly, as well. The one tribe – Levi – then lived among the Children of Israel where they could minister to the people away from Shiloh.
This arrangement works when the ministers are filled with the Holy Spirit, but in generations to come, they would minister the gods of the nations to the Children of Israel through the idols of those gods. Eventually, the Priests would bring the idolatry of the nations into the Temple.
Jos 21:9 They gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are mentioned by name:
Jos 21:10 and they were for the children of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi; for theirs was the first lot.
Jos 21:11 They gave them Kiriath Arba, named after the father of Anak (also called Hebron), in the hill country of Judah, with its pasture lands around it.
Jos 21:12 But they gave the fields of the city and its villages to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession.
Jos 21:13 To the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the man slayer, Libnah with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:14 Jattir with its pasture lands, Eshtemoa with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:15 Holon with its pasture lands, Debir with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:16 Ain with its pasture lands, Juttah with its pasture lands, and Beth Shemesh with its pasture lands: nine cities out of those two tribes.
Jos 21:17 Out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with its pasture lands, Geba with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:18 Anathoth with its pasture lands, and Almon with its pasture lands: four cities.
Jos 21:19 All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their pasture lands.
Jos 21:20 The families of the children of Kohath, the Levites, even the rest of the children of Kohath, had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim.
Jos 21:21 They gave them Shechem with its pasture lands in the hill country of Ephraim, the city of refuge for the man slayer, and Gezer with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:22 Kibzaim with its pasture lands, and Beth Horon with its pasture lands: four cities.
Jos 21:23 Out of the tribe of Dan, Elteke with its pasture lands, Gibbethon with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:24 Aijalon with its pasture lands, Gath Rimmon with its pasture lands: four cities.
Jos 21:25 Out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Taanach with its pasture lands, and Gath Rimmon with its pasture lands: two cities.
Jos 21:26 All the cities of the families of the rest of the children of Kohath were ten with their pasture lands.
Jos 21:27 They gave to the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the half-tribe of Manasseh Golan in Bashan with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the man slayer, and Be Eshterah with its pasture lands: two cities.
Jos 21:28 Out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishion with its pasture lands, Daberath with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:29 Jarmuth with its pasture lands, En Gannim with its pasture lands: four cities.
Jos 21:30 Out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with its pasture lands, Abdon with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:31 Helkath with its pasture lands, and Rehob with its pasture lands: four cities.
Jos 21:32 Out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the man slayer, Hammothdor with its pasture lands, and Kartan with its pasture lands: three cities.
Jos 21:33 All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their pasture lands.
Jos 21:34 To the families of the children of Merari, the rest of the Levites, out of the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with its pasture lands, Kartah with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:35 Dimnah with its pasture lands, and Nahalal with its pasture lands: four cities.
Jos 21:36 Out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with its pasture lands, Jahaz with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:37 Kedemoth with its pasture lands, and Mephaath with its pasture lands: four cities.
Jos 21:38 Out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the man slayer, and Mahanaim with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:39 Heshbon with its pasture lands, Jazer with its pasture lands: four cities in all.
Jos 21:40 All these were the cities of the children of Merari according to their families, even the rest of the families of the Levites. Their lot was twelve cities.
Jos 21:41 All the cities of the Levites among the possessions of the children of Israel were forty-eight cities with their pasture lands.
Jos 21:42 Each of these cities included their pasture lands around them. It was this way with all these cities.
Jos 21:43 So YHVH gave to Israel all the land which he swore to give to their fathers. They possessed it, and lived in it.
Jos 21:44 YHVH gave them rest all around, according to all that he swore to their fathers. Not a man of all their enemies stood before them. YHVH delivered all their enemies into their hand.
Jos 21:45 Nothing failed of any good thing which YHVH had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.
The Eastern Tribes Return Home
Jos 22:1 Then Joshua called the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh,
Jos 22:2 and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of YHVH commanded you, and have listened to my voice in all that I commanded you.
What a wonderful testimony to be called a “good and faithful servant”.
Jos 22:3 You have not left your brothers these many days to this day, but have performed the duty of the commandment of YHVH your God.
Instead, the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh embodied the Kingdom creed of putting others first. It appeared Reuben and Gad were self-seeking when they asked Moses for their territories before any of the other tribes had received theirs (Numbers 32). They were but they then fulfilled the promise they made to YHVH through Moses to not settle in their own territories until Israel was no longer at war.
Jos 22:4 Now YHVH your God has given rest to your brothers, as He spoke to them. Therefore now return and go to your tents, to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of YHVH gave you beyond the Jordan.
Jos 22:5 Only take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of YHVH commanded you, to love YHVH your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Jos 22:6 So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away; and they went to their tents.
Jos 22:7 Now to the one half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given inheritance in Bashan; but Joshua gave to the other half among their brothers beyond the Jordan westward. Moreover when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he blessed them,
Jos 22:8 and spoke to them, saying, “Return with much wealth to your tents, with very much livestock, with silver, with gold, with brass, with iron, and with very much clothing. Divide the plunder of your enemies with your brothers.”
Jos 22:9 The children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned, and departed from the children of Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their possession, which they owned, according to the commandment of YHVH by Moses.
Now, all the tribes’ have had the promises of YHVH fulfilled for them. Furthermore, YHVH’s promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have been fulfilled. YHVH has brought the descendants of Abraham out of Egypt as promised and has made them into a nation, and not just any kind of nation, but a great nation.
YHVH to Abraham: Genesis 12:2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.
YHVH to YHVH speaking in front of Abraham: Genesis 18:18 since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?
YHVH to Jacob: Genesis 46:3 He said, “I am God, the God of your father. Don’t be afraid to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation.
YHVH has kept every word He ever uttered, and throughout the rest of history to now, His track record for keeping His promises have never failed! There are thousands of promises which He has kept and, because of these, we know He will further fulfill what is left of them for the end of days. Put your trust in YHVH, O Israel!
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