God's Promise and Our Responsibility

This chapter, before it gets down to the details of what it wants to say, it has kind of an introduction to it. The introduction is a focus on reminding the people of Israel where they stand and what God is like. It's kind of a reoccurring theme all the way through the book, because God keeps constantly before them certain ideas that are critical to accepting what He has to say. So in verse 1, He says, When the Lord your God has destroyed the nations whose land He is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their towns and houses, then set aside for yourselves three cities centrally located. Now, the first part of that is sort of a preface to bring to the minds of people the reality of what this is really about. And the two things that are critical in seeing this, I mean, it sounds like just a throwaway phrase, but it's really a very critical idea. When the Lord your God has destroyed the nations whose land He is giving you, He's telling them that moving into the land of promise is His idea and it's His battle and He is going to destroy the people who are there. Now, we know from other places in the Bible that the reason He's doing this is because these people have polluted the land. They've done things that make the land unacceptable as far as God is concerned. We don't know what He said to them, how He said that to them, but the time of judgment has come. He's said enough that they haven't listened. He's told them what they should do and they haven't done it. And their wickedness continues to grow until He said, the end is here. I'm going to destroy these people. Now, this sounds like something that God does apart from anything else in our lives, but there's always two parts to what the way God talks about this. He talks about it. I will destroy the people in this land. And then He brings in the second side of that. When you have driven them out and settle in their towns and houses, it gives us a picture of the way God works. He promises the victory over everything that comes into our lives. He promises that He will take care of us. He will provide for us. Every need that we have will be met. And then the other side of it is He tells us what we have to do to make that come to pass. And yet when it does come to pass and actually happens, we look back on it and we recognize that it was always all along the work of God so that there's a spirit of gratitude about us. If we use the second side of this and we say we have fought to drive out all the people, we take our credit ourselves for what comes from what comes to what happens. And we get the sense and feeling that we can handle life on its own. And I think many of us fall into that trap. We live and things go well and we think we figured it out. And then something happens and there's a confusion. We don't know what to do. We don't know how to do it. We're at the end of our wits and we think everything now depends on me figuring this out. And that's whenever we collapse. It gets overwhelming to us. If we lived our lives always and everything that we faced, we say God is going to give me the victory over this. And this is the promise to His children. It's not the promise to people who've never committed to follow Christ. It's not the promise to people who've committed but don't do it. But the people who've said to God, you are my Lord and I'm going to try to live my life in obedience to you. He makes this promise. I will provide for you. The way he said it was, seek first the kingdom of God and my righteousness. And everything you need will be provided for you. So that God's provision of guidance, His provision of protection, His provision of providing for us and His long-range goal to make life worthwhile for us. All those are part of the promises. And God says, I will give these to you. But He doesn't mean that He gives them to everybody. But it's a part of this covenant relationship He has with us. So whenever that happens, that these things don't come true in your life. It doesn't mean that God stopped. It just means you keep on doing what you're supposed to do. In this case, you drive out the enemy. And then you trust God that He's going to destroy or change or fix whatever it is in your life. There's two parts to living the life of an obedience to God. One is doing everything that He tells you to do as best you can. And the second side is always believing that whatever happens is not the result of what you've done. Now, that's kind of a difficult parallel to have. But that's how you have to do it. If you think it's the result of what you've done, the next time something comes along you don't know what to do, you're overwhelmed. But if you think all I've done is what God wants me to do, then whatever it is that comes, you believe that God is going to take care of it. He gives you peace in the middle of all this turmoil that might come to you. This little parallel, this little first section was critical to the people of Israel. I will destroy your enemy and you drive them out. That sounds like both of them are doing the same job. But they're just two parts of this. And so God always gave the people of Israel confidence that the enemy would never stand against them because He would destroy them before the fight ever started. It's like God broke their spears in two and then said, go fight them. They died as a result of it. And it was hard for them to do. But He told them they would win and they did. Now He says, I want to remind you before I give you this information, how this all works. I'm going to give you the victory, but you have to do the things I tell you to do. And now He starts with another thing He tells them they should do. When you have driven them out and settled in their towns and houses, set aside for yourself three cities centrally located in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess. Build roads to them and divide into three parts the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance so that anyone who kills a man may flee there. Do you notice how frequently God keeps repeating, Moses keeps repeating the idea that the land that they have is an inheritance? You know what an inheritance is? It's something you get not as a result of what you've done. You're born into a family that you didn't choose. Your family earns money so that when they die, there's something left over for you. There's no work in it unless you kill them. That's work, I guess, but in the natural means of this, it's something that's just given to you. So here He says, this is an inheritance for you. The land is an inheritance for you. It's the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess. The Lord is giving this as an inheritance to you. Over and over He reminds them that everything they have is the result of what God has given them. That's a primary story in the Scriptures. Everything begins in the Bible with creation and God's ownership of everything and His gift to Adam and Eve of a place to live and food to eat. And all the way through the Bible, this over and over again, God reminds us as His children that He's provided for us and everything we have is a gift from Him and it's inheritance, not something we worked for. It's His gift. So when you come to times when there's need or there's difficulty or trial, you should always have in the back of your mind, God has already given me. He's provided. When anything comes to you, don't take credit for it, but recognize this is indeed a gift that God gives you. Now, our obligation, since this is what I'm going to do for you, God says your obligation is to make sure that you take care of people. And when you get there, divide the land into three parts and so that any man who kills someone may flee there. He's talking now about a circumstance that would take place if someone accidentally killed another person. The law that they had in the Ten Commandments, they were not to murder anybody. And now He's talking about not murder, but simply someone who kills another person. This is talking about justice. My people, when you settle in the land, one of the things that must be important to you is the justice that represents my nature and character. I do not want anyone who's innocent to be killed just because they can be. So, He establishes as primary importance to Himself protection of innocent people. Now, that's a key ingredient for us to understand. As followers of Christ, He is revealing to us His character. I have a great concern for innocents. People who are innocent falling into difficulty or trial, or being accused or charged, or convicted when they're innocent. So, as God is telling us a part of His own nature and character, when we live our own lives, we should have concern for innocent people. People that have things come to them, and they're not guilty of anything as a result of that. God's desire is to make a way so that innocent people will not be harmed, or in this instance, killed. And they're to build three cities. Now, they'd already been provided on the east side of the Jordan, three refuge cities. Where if someone accidentally killed another person, they could go and be safe. Excuse me. Now, the people who read this, and heard Moses say it, understood something we don't about their culture. And that is that there weren't, and the towns didn't have police forces, like we have. There wasn't a law set up like we have in our country. There weren't courts set up in the same way we have them. So that oftentimes, justice was carried out individually, family by family, clan by clan. The Bible describes the person who was next to someone who had difficulty. Either their land, lost their land because of debt. There was a, the nearest relative had a responsibility to buy that land back. Remember, all the land was given to families. And if somebody lost their land because of debt, the nearest relative could buy that land back. And then on the time of Jubilee would give it back to the relative that lost it. This is the story of Ruth and how her mother's, mother-in-law's land was bought back by, I forgot the guy's name now in the story, but this is what that whole story was about. And here it's called the Avenger of Blood. And we don't know very much about this except the hints that are given in the Bible. But apparently, there was someone in their culture called the Avenger of Blood. I've seen two different speculations about what this person was. First, I think maybe the oldest one I've heard is they say that the member of the family who was responsible for buying back the ground, the nearest relative, was responsible for killing someone who killed that member of their own family or clan. So the Avenger of Blood was someone, if their cousin was killed, it would be that person closest to them in terms of their physical, of their relationship in the family, responsibility to find the person that killed his cousin and kill that person. Some places I've read that there's speculation that this was an office that we had like a prosecuting attorney. So that if someone killed your cousin or whoever it was, you'd go to the Avenger of Blood, which was an office sort of like in the community, and it would be that person's job to go and investigate what was taking place and then pronounce the sentence of innocent or guilt and carry out the execution if they were guilty. So we don't know exactly who the Avenger of Blood was, but we know from this passage that it was someone who had the responsibility to kill a person who killed another person. However, that worked out. Now, here's the rule, verse 4. This is the rule concerning the man who kills another and flees there to save his life. One who kills his neighbor unintentionally without malice or forethought. So now he sets out the process by which you determine the innocence of a person who may have killed another. There's a city where you can run to, and you have an opportunity there to defend yourself, because in that city, no one can do you harm. We were coming back from Minnesota one time, and we took a little different road than we've been taking before, and we went to a place where, I forgot the name of it now, Pipestone, I think's the name of it. It's a national park there, but it's a town of Pipestone, and it's where the Indians would go in and quarry rock and make peace pipes out of them. And Indians from all over the United States would come there. I mean, we're talking about years and years and years ago when there were no white people here. I was fascinated. This has decided anything to do with this, but, you know, oftentimes, I read one time, a guy said, in 1790, there were like five million, the population of the United States was five million. I thought, hmm. So I looked up to see what the population of the Indians were. In that time, it was like five to ten million, you know. There are a lot more Indians here than we thought about. We just don't count them. We count the white people that came, and they're the only ones really counted. But anyway, the Indians had found this place to quarry stone that they could, it was really hard, and they could shape it into peace pipes. And whenever they came to this place to quarry this, there were no weapons allowed in this area where they could quarry the stones. So all tribes, even those at war with each other, would come and quarry the stone. But no one was allowed to fight within the realm of this place of safety. So if someone went there to quarry and there was chasing you, they weren't allowed to come in there, and there were no warring tribes that would fight each other. These pieces, these towns, were similar to that. There were places where if something happened to you, you would go, and it was just against the law for you to go into that city and carry out justice against another person. A place of refuge. Now, the passage we read in Isaiah says, God is our refuge, and God provided for them the physical refuge that we need, that they need at that time. Now, how does God provide? See, here's the point is, God's saying, here's a guy who accidentally did something that could cause someone to kill him, but I'm going to provide a refuge for him. He's my child, part of the people of Israel. This is a great picture of how God works for us. Once you commit your life to Him, you belong to Him, He's committed to help you. Whatever happens in your life, whatever kind of trials or difficulties come for you, He's committed to provide a place of safety for you, from whatever troubles come to you, because God is guiding you, and if He's guided you down this road, and you've been following Him, and you run into trouble, He is obligated, because of His promise to you, to provide a refuge from the difficulty you're going through. It could be financial, could be emotional, could be family, could be whatever kind of crisis it might be. But God is in the business of making sure that there's a place where you're safe and secure, and where things can be worked out. That's what He's trying to do. The rule concerning them is the one who kills another, now it's innocent, here He's talking about innocent killing, flees there to save his life. And the one who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without malice, here's the rule, he didn't do it on purpose, unintentionally, without malice or forethought, that is, he didn't hate this person, that person may go into the forest with his neighbor, for instance, He gives an example in verse 5, you go into the forest with your neighbor to cut wood, swings his axe to fall a tree, and the head may fly off and hit the neighbor and kill him. Now, could the man have been negligent with the axe? Yes. If you've ever swung an axe, you know that there's a rule you have. You have the axe handle in there, and you drive a wedge in there to make sure that the head is on there tight. If it's not on there tight, it can come off. So he could have been negligent, but still innocent. See, there's no malice of forethought, there's no anger involved in it. So he's not excusing, he's not considering anything with regard to a person's accidental not preparing to fix the axe head. That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life. If he didn't, the cousin or whoever's close by might come and kill him. And this would be acceptable society, but not acceptable to God. He can flee to save his life, otherwise the avenger of blood may pursue him in a rage. See, here's the next problem. The man who comes in a rage is not interested in justice, he's interested in vengeance. There's a difference between justice and vengeance. Vengeance is just getting even. Justice is giving someone their just due. And here God is protecting the innocent again. He's protecting the person who is innocent from someone who also is making a big mistake and will do something that he will be guilty for. Otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue him in a rage, overtake him at a distance, if the distance is too great, and kill him even though he is not deserving of death, since he did it to his neighbor without malice of forethought. This is why I command you to set aside for yourselves three cities. This is God's effort to protect someone who's innocent and provide a refuge for someone who's in desperate circumstances. If the Lord your God enlarges your territory as promised on oath to your forefathers and gives you the whole land, he's talking about that on the west side of the Jordan, he gives you all the boundaries that he promised before, then you are to carefully follow all these laws I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk all ways in his ways. Then you are to set aside three more cities. Notice he ties obedience to a love for God and obedience to him by walking in his ways, living the way he wants you to live. And what is that? It is the emphasis on protecting those who are innocent. Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance, so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed. So he's protecting then the person who's enraged and might kill someone when he shouldn't have. So there's protection both for the person who's done the accidental death and protection from the other person whose emotions are overwhelming to them and they do something for which they will be responsible to God for. Now, in this passage, the book of Romans on Sunday night, we've been talking about this or talking about it last week, where Paul is talking about the creation groaning in travail for redemption and how creation is groaning and straining to be restored or renewed like it was in the days of Adam and Eve. And here he gives us an example about why that's true. Do not do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance, so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed. You see, God sees our sin as a pollution on the earth. In Numbers chapter 35, verse 34, I'm going to start reading verse 33. Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which the blood has been shed except by the blood of the one who sheds it. Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites. God considers the shedding of blood to be a pollution to the land where people live. And because it's the Lord's land and He lives there, it's a pollution to Him. This was why He drove the Canaanites out of the land of Canaan, because they were killing their children, burning them as sacrifices, and God found this reprehensible. The shedding of blood as sacrifice of children was, in God's eyes, an abomination to Him. It had polluted the land. And when He drove the Canaanites out, it cleansed the land of those people. He warned the Israelites, if you do the same things that they do, I will drive you out. Do not pollute my land. There is a sense in which the sin that we commit, living on this earth that God owns and is His, in some way makes it unfit for God to be here too. It's like going into a house where there's nothing but physical filth. When God sees the land that belongs to Him polluted by spiritual filth, He finds it unacceptable for His habitation. And a part of God's great plan for creation is that it will be renewed by the last days whenever God comes again and makes the world again like He wants it to be. The creation is groaning and straining for that day in which God will again cleanse this world and make it fit for us to live in. So, all the way back in this Old Testament passages, God has been concerned to show us that bloodshed, innocent, the killing of people who are innocent of any crime is an offense to God. And He sees it not only as a personal offense from the one who murders, but He sees it as an offense to all of society and to the whole world. So, He is desperately concerned about innocent people being safe and people not becoming guilty. In verse 11 He said, But if a man hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him, and assaults and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities, the elders of the town shall send for him, bring him back from the city, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. Also, God is concerned that guilty people do not escape. God is concerned that people who are guilty don't get away with this. This is one of the things that's really important for us to remember. Sometimes we see injustice is done and we get outraged at it because the system that we have does not necessarily address that. I remember one time this lady in Florida drove a car off in the water or something and killed her kids, and she wasn't convicted, and I mean everybody was outraged by that. The fact is that God knows all these things. And He doesn't sit in heaven and look at our court system and say, Well, I'll wait and see what they decide. It's irrelevant to Him. He's already decided who's guilty and who's innocent. And He never lets the guilty people get away with it. Never. Just because we don't see it, and just because He doesn't come and announce it to us, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. What God is concerned about is that people who do things that pollute His land get paid back for what they do. And He's actively involved in the process of doing that. And if the justice system in the land doesn't do that, God does it Himself. It's not up to us to decide where justice occurs all the time. God's made rules here to be able to say to them, This is what you do. If someone does escape, and you know that they've tried to escape to avoid it, I want you to be on my side. I want you to go get that person and send them back to the place where they did the crime and hand him over to the avenger blood to die. Show him no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood so that it may be well with you. What God is concerned about is justice. Making sure that innocent people are not punished for a crime that they didn't deserve to be punished for. And making sure that people who've done something for which they should receive punishment, that they do. Now, what this lets us understand is how God is at work in the world. When you look around you, and you see with your eyes what's going on, remember that God, with all of His power and wisdom and might, is at work. He's at work bringing to justice people who deserve that. He's at work protecting those who are being persecuted unduly to protect them. He is watching out for those who cannot help themselves that are vulnerable to make sure that He stands between them and the difficulties they face. He is at work helping those who are poor to be able to provide the needs that they have. It doesn't make any difference whether you're rich or poor. In this system, a rich man can't take advantage of his power to kill someone that he doesn't like or that's done something he doesn't want. In this system, he's refrained from using his power and authority to control the circumstances. Even the king of Israel could not do this. This was unheard of in the ancient world where the king had the right and the authority to do anything he wanted. We're used to thinking of rulers as being subject to the laws, but the kings in the ancient world were not subject to the law. They wrote the law, and everyone else was subject to it, but they could operate above and beyond it. In God's structure, there was nothing like that. Even the king had to live in submission and authority to God Himself. What God wanted them to understand is, I rule the world, and you live by my rules. And my rules stand for protection of the innocent, the vulnerable, and the people who cannot help themselves. And my power stands to say no one gets away with anything that's evil and wrong. And whenever we're around people in our world, and we don't have control over what takes place, we shouldn't get overwhelmed by that. For remember, it may be the Chinese nation that's over there, and they may have their political leaders and military leaders, but all the land of China belongs to God. He rules it. And if they pollute that enough, he'll take it away from them. And some of you have lived in a time whenever we have seen that very thing happen in Russia. We saw it happen in East Germany. God has power to do whatever he chooses to do. And if you understand who he is, and you look at the big scene that goes on, you will be able to see his hand at work. Not necessarily in every individual you know, because so much of it's behind what you know, but you can see it in the great movement of this earth. And God lets us know who he is, and what he's like, and how to tell where he is, and all the events that take place in world and national history. The God who demands justice, who protects the innocent, and punishes the guilty. Would you bow please for a moment of prayer? And Lord, it's so easy to get caught up in our national concerns and politics for political parties. We ask that you would help us to be able to see beyond these things to who you are, and what you're at work doing. Help us to be able to understand that the great currents of history are moved by your hand. We see it in the past, when you intervened in slavery, and set those people free. But it's more difficult to see your hand in the world in which we live. And we can only do that if we really know who you are, and are not swayed by the political currents that are around us every day. Help us individually when we come to disastrous times to believe that you're here in this world, and you're a refuge for us, just as you made refuge for your people in the day of Moses. That we might live confident of your care, protection, and guidance. In the name of Christ, we ask this. Amen.