As we finish our journey through the Desert Wanderings, Fr. Mike zeroes in on the purpose of cities of refuge for the Israelites and the strong bond of community that they shared and maintained as the tribes grew. Today's readings are Numbers 35-36, Deuteronomy 34, and Psalm 121. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Chapter 1: What is the purpose of the Cities of Refuge?
And in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities. All the cities which you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight with their pasture lands.
And as for the cities which you shall give from the possession of the sons of Israel, from the larger tribes you shall take many, and from the smaller tribes you shall take few, each in proportion to the inheritance which it inherits, shall give of its cities to the Levites.
And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there. The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.
Chapter 2: How many Cities of Refuge were designated and why?
And the cities which you give shall be your six cities of refuge. You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan to be cities of refuge. These six cities shall be for refuge for the sons of Israel and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them that anyone who kills any person without intent may flee there.
concerning murder and revenge but if he struck him down with an instrument of iron so that he died he is a murderer the murderer shall be put to death and if he struck him down with a stone in the hand by which a man may die and he died he is a murderer the murderer shall be put to death or if he struck him down with a weapon of wood in the hand by which a man may die and he died
He is a murderer. The murderer shall be put to death. The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death. And if he stabbed him from hatred or hurled at him, lying in wait so that he died, or in enmity struck him down with his hand so that he died, then he who struck the blow shall be put to death. He is a murderer.
The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him."
But if he stabbed him suddenly without enmity, or hurled anything on him without lying in wait, or used a stone by which a man may die, and without seeing him cast it upon him so that he died, though he was not his enemy, and did not seek his harm, then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood in accordance with these ordinances.
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Chapter 3: What are the rules for the manslayer and avenger of blood in the Cities of Refuge?
And the congregation shall rescue the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, to which he fled." and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.
But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the bounds of his city of refuge to which he fled, and the avenger of blood finds him outside the bounds of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood slays the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood. For the man must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest.
But after the death of the high priest, the manslayer may return to the land of his possession. And these things shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.
Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death. And you shall accept no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest. You shall not thus pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land.
And no expiation can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it. You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell. For I, the Lord, dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel. Chapter 36, concerning married women's inheritance.
The heads of the father's houses of the families of the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the father's houses of the sons of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the heads of the father's houses of the sons of Israel. They said, the Lord commanded my Lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the sons of Israel.
And my Lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of the Lophahad, our brother, to his daughters. But if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the sons of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong. So it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.
And when the Jubilee of the sons of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers. And Moses commanded the sons of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph is right.
This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad. Let them marry whom they think best. Only they shall marry within the family of the tribe of their father. The inheritance of the sons of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for every one of the sons of Israel shall cling to the inheritance of the tribe of his father's.
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Chapter 4: How does inheritance work for the daughters of Zelophehad?
I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor. But no man knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
And the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him. So the sons of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord commanded Moses.
And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land. and for all the mighty power and all the great and terrible deeds which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel.
Psalm 121, assurance of God's protection, a song of ascents.
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory.
We thank you this day and every day for being with us on this journey. We thank you for guiding us on this journey through these desert wanderings. We thank you for your faithfulness because Lord, you meet us in our weakness and you meet us in our unfaithfulness, even in the small call to be faithful to hearing your word every single day. Lord God, when we fail in that, today is our day 80.
Even if we've failed a bunch of times, this is day 80 of this journey through the Bible. And I'm so grateful, Lord, we are all so grateful that you continue to guide us on this journey and you continue to lead us, you continue to speak to us, and you continue to shape our hearts to be more and more like yours, to shape our vision of you and of the world to be more and more like yours.
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Chapter 5: What happened at the death of Moses?
In Numbers chapter 35 and then in Numbers chapter 36, we have those cities for the Levites. Remember that the Levites don't get any land. And this is, it might be anticlimactic way to conclude on the book of Numbers is looking at land, looking at boundaries, looking at cities for the Levites, looking at murder and revenge and inheritance laws.
But if we look back to the beginning of Numbers, it was just Numbers. So maybe it's very fitting that we conclude the book of Numbers with just some kind of instructions. If you remember, the tribes of Israel were all given an inheritance, right? Land. Yet the Levites don't get land. And yet they had to live somewhere. And so they're given 48 cities.
Six of those cities were what they call cities of refuge. And we talked about these in the past, but just a reminder, those cities of refuge were put there because the consequence, essentially, the penalty for murder was the death penalty. Those cities of refuge were there because they were often a case if someone had accidentally killed another person, like manslaughter.
That's why they call them the manslayer, manslaughter. resulted in the accidental death of another person that someone could seek out vengeance. And yet here's God who says, no, no, no, not vengeance, but justice. And so these six cities of refuge, three across the Jordan River in the area of Moab and three in the land of Canaan. Why?
Because so they'd be close enough basically for anyone to be able to flee to one of these cities of refuge so that they could be tried justly instead of having mob justice or family justice or basically vengeance. And then you also have those laws concerning murder and revenge. And it's so practical. It's so practical that it's actually, it's pretty edifying for me to look at this.
How is it practical? Well, it says, how do you prove if someone's murdered with intent or not? If someone's killed someone with intent or not?
And here at the book of Numbers says, well, if you struck them down with iron or a rock or wood, like if one person hits another person with something made of iron or something made of wood or something made of rock, they might've been intending a little bit more than just punching them out. They probably were intending to kill the person.
And there's something, again, really practical about that. Is it 100% foolproof? Absolutely not. But is it a beginning? Is it a beginning of being able to learn how to discern between, okay, this was an accident, this was intentional, this was manslaughter, and this was murder? And that's an attempt to do that. Not only that, but we also have the law of justice. For example,
If this was a crime of passion versus this was we're lying in wait in order to kill the person, there's a difference there as well. Not only that, but you also have the reality of having one or more witnesses. If there's only one witness, the person shall not be found guilty on the testimony of one witness because
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