PROVIDE [CITIES OF] REFUGE

“Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, so that anyone who kills a person without intent or by mistake may flee there …” (Joshua 20:2b-3a from Joshua 20:1-9)

[I am glad to be able to address this topic again. The concept of cities of refuge first came up back on February 2^nd, and I was brief in my comments. This time I am reflecting on it in more depth.]

I gather from the fact these cities were needed that Israel was a land of swift and strict justice. The process was that “Upon reaching one of these cities, the one who caused the death will appear before the elders at the city gate and present his case. They must allow him to enter the city and give him a place to live among them. If the relatives of the victim come to avenge the killing, the leaders must not release the slayer to them, for he killed the other person unintentionally and without previous hostility. But the slayer must stay in that city and be tried by the local assembly, which will render a judgment. And he must continue to live in that city until the death of the high priest who was in office at the time of the accident. After that, he is free to return to his own home in the town from which he fled.” (Verses 4 – 6) This passage reminds me of the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” and the degrees of homicide from unintentional manslaughter up to 1^st degree murder.

The provisos of this seem like a good punishment, if indeed the death was accidentally. The alleged perpetrator is given safety and sanctuary until the facts are sorted out. And I presume to prevent the high priest from “losing face” and not being able to atone for the “sin”, the perpetrator is not present in the town where the crime was committed. And the perpetrator is away from family and friends of the victim so that he/she is not reminder of the loss; and he/she him/herself experiences the loss he/she caused by being absent from friends and family. A neat system.

However, in our modern society you often hear stories of family and friends confronting and FORGIVING the people who caused the death of their loved one – remarkable moving stories of forgiveness and mercy being shown where ordinarily you would not expect it. And I have to wonder about the Israelites. Were they moved to such compassion?

Deuteronomy, Numbers, and Joshua are the only books of the bible that I am aware of that talk about these cities, and I am not aware of stories concerning how effective and successful these cities were. It would take a great deal of compassion and many loaves of “bread for the enemy” to process and move on to forgiveness of this magnitude.

I hope and pray, gentle reader, that you never have to experience such loss, nor cause it! But it would behoove us to extend forgiveness and mercy for the small sins that are “trespassed against us.” Shalom for your day!