The Cities of Refuge

Joshua 20

Man it was so nice to be able to have someone to go to when you are were afraid. I am totally not ashamed of this but if someone was going to pick on me, guess where I would go? To my mom; would run to her for safety from those who wanted to bother me. Sometimes that would be kids in my neighborhood or even my sister. My mom would rescue me until it was time for me to face my fears of those who were picking on me. 

In this chapter we see Joshua releasing the names of six cities which would be the cities of refuge for Israel. The way it would work is if someone killed a fellow person but did not premeditate it they could flee from their pursuers in these cities. (Moses touched upon these in Numbers 35:9-34). Their pursuers would have to let them be as they were in the safety of these cities. The six cities were spread out throughout all of the land of Israel. If they were found guilty of intentionally killing the person they would face the consequences of murdering someone which was death. 

God’s Grace

There were still consequences for the person who killed another, they would have to flee and leave everything behind, they had the fear of being pursued, and they  were in the protection of the city to keep them safe. Here is a great picture that we see of God’s grace. God had grace upon the people of Israel and even those that made mistakes. God’s grace was shown on those that made a mistake and their was a chance for life to be restored. Once the chief priest died the man in the city would be able to return home. We may not have accidently killed someone but we still are wretched sinners who are held in refuge of Jesus Christ. He died so we can have refuge from the wrath of God. God now sees us as righteous and we are his children found clean and righteous and forgiven. How amazing is this to know that God’s grace is overpowering to us.