Jesus Christ, Our City of Refuge

1Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying, 2“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses, 3that 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. 4He 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. 5If 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. 6He 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.’”

When we meet frightening circumstances in life, it is a great blessing to have a place of refuge, and to have someone at our side to comfort us when life is hard. When the world is frightening and too heavy to bear, it would be a blessing indeed to have parents or a loved one nearby whom we could go to at any time for consolation. At one time or another, when the weight of life presses down, everyone needs a place to lay down every burden and rest, because those who cannot bear the weight of life end up making that final choice.

The people of the world today are like fallen leaves blown along the ground, never finding a place to rest and always anxious. People become a fence for one another out of mutual need, but the moment the need is gone they tear the fence down, so the world is no place of rest. That is why God’s people must depend on God, their everlasting shelter, the God who takes into his arms all who simply confess their love for him.

Numbers 35:11-12

11then you shall appoint for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the man slayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. 12The cities shall be to you for refuge from the avenger, that the man slayer not die, until he stands before the congregation for judgment.

Jewish society had the institution of the goel. Under it, a relative of someone who had been killed could lawfully take vengeance on behalf of the dead. A person who had killed someone by accident therefore needed a place to stay in safety until judgment was given. For those who killed unknowingly — as when an axe head flies off its handle and strikes someone dead — God set apart six cities as cities of refuge, so that their lives might be protected.

God commanded that signposts be set up here and there and that the roads be made wide, so that a person could easily flee to a city of refuge from anywhere. Whoever killed someone with an iron tool or a stone could not be pardoned, but one who killed without intent was to be kept safe. The man slayer had to remain in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest there. If the slayer broke the law and left the city before the high priest died, the avenger of blood who found and killed the slayer was not held guilty. This passage tells us that Satan is waiting outside the fence, and so those of us who have come inside the refuge of Jesus Christ must never step outside it. Anyone who goes out and is robbed of eternal life by Satan will have only themselves to answer for it.

Joshua 20:4

4He 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.

The passage explains with care how a person could enter a city of refuge. Whoever fled there had to stand outside the city and tell the elders and the high priest inside the whole story of how they had come to kill someone. The elders and the high priest within would then judge whether the deed was deliberate or a mistake, and if there had been no intent, they took the person into the city. If an axe head flew off its handle and killed a passerby, or if someone pushed a friend in play and the friend died, the one responsible would, if anything, be tormented all the more.

God provided the cities of refuge for this reason: so that one who had killed unintentionally would not be put to death. In this world there is not one place where we can escape Satan. Satan follows God’s people everywhere to do them harm, and the only place to escape him is in the arms of Jesus Christ. To leave Jesus Christ, then, is death itself.

Romans 3:30

30since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.

Since for the circumcised and the uncircumcised alike the condition of salvation is faith in Christ, God sets his seal on those who confess their faith, declares them righteous, and gives them new life. When we confess our sins to Jesus Christ, the Lord will not hold our sins against us but will throw the door of salvation wide open. Because Jesus has atoned for sin, he saves everyone who comes before Christ, the light, without asking how heavy or light their sins may be.

In the world, however, even someone who had sinned by mistake had to persuade the elders and the high priest in the city of refuge in order to live, and could enter only if they opened the gate. The refuge of salvation that Christ has made stands wide open, so that anyone who confesses faith may come in at any time. It is a refuge of peace, where no one need fear being turned away.

John 17:21

21that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.

What effort did you make to enter the city of refuge Christ has made? And what effort are you making now for your salvation? However long you think about it, you would find that you have done nothing at all for your salvation. You are inside Christ’s refuge freely, because God accomplished the whole work of salvation and called you by name. All we have to do, then, is give thanks for Jesus’ sacrifice and keep God’s law so that we never go outside the refuge.

Whoever entered a city of refuge had to stay there and not go out until the high priest died, but once the high priest died, they could leave. That they could leave only at the high priest’s death means that God counted the high priest’s death as atonement for the slayer’s sin and set the slayer free. It is the same principle as the sin offering, in which a person’s sin was laid on an animal, and when that animal died, the sin was forgiven. In this way the city of refuge is a shadow of Christ. Those who had entered could gain their freedom only through the death of a high priest whose span of life was fixed, which meant that the slayer’s fate hung on the high priest.

1 Peter 3:18

18Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

The man slayer had to wait for the high priest to die before enjoying freedom, but Christ atoned for the sins of sinners once for all. Unlike the high priests, whose lives ended in death, he rose again after his death and lives at the right hand of God as high priest, as king, as Christ, and as judge. Because of that, those who have confessed their sins can enjoy freedom forever.

Hebrews 7:27

27who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.

So precious is the grace by which Christ atoned for our sins. Human high priests always had to offer sacrifices for their own sins and for the sins of the people, but Jesus, who is God and without sin, has no further need to offer sacrifice. Those who call on the name of Jesus will now live forever in the light. Until then we had no way to escape Satan, who wields the power of darkness, so we were forced to live under its rule. Now that Jesus has given us eternal rest, we can live in the bright light, unless we choose to dwell in darkness ourselves.

Those who do not come into this safe refuge have no shelter in a world where death reigns, and they can only live as servants of Satan. This is what the apostle Paul meant when he said that whoever is called by the Lord is, even while living in this world, the Lord’s free person and a child of God. In Christ, the lowly and the high alike are free.

I hope you will not lightly throw away the freedom Christ has given you, because in all this world there is not one righteous person who could atone for your sins and set you free. Those who have admitted they are sinners and entered Christ’s refuge should give themselves, until the last day when the refuge is shut, so that other souls may find peace in Christ.

Joshua 20:7-8

7They 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. 8Beyond 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.

In the Bible, names of people and places carry meaning, just as Gilgal means that the reproach of Egypt has been rolled away from you. So we sometimes come to understand God’s will by unfolding those names. Look at the meanings of the places where the cities of refuge stood — Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron, Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan in Bashan — and every one of them turns out to be “a shadow of Christ.” Kedesh means sanctuary, a holy place, and we can connect it with Christ the Holy One and with Christ who is himself the temple. Shechem means shoulder, and the prophet Isaiah, introducing Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace, prophesied: “For to us a child is born. To us a son is given; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor.”

Hebron, in turn, means fellowship. In 2 Corinthians 13:14 we read this blessing: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” When Christ had fulfilled all the righteousness of God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, came to this earth and dwelt in the saints. For the sake of their faith, the Spirit teaches them about sin, judgment, righteousness, and the world, and fills them through the fellowship of the Spirit. The Spirit also helps us to have communion and peace with God, and makes his will known to us so that we can fulfill our calling.

Read through the place names, then, and this is what we find: like Kedesh, Christ is holy; like Shechem, he bears the government on his shoulders; like Hebron, he works so that God and his people may have fellowship in peace; and like Bezer, he has become a fortress to keep his people safe.

Bezer means fortress. The world is like a swamp, with no safe ground anywhere, but almighty God is like a fortress that cannot fall, as unshaken as a mighty rock. Satan attacks the souls of God’s people without ceasing, to drag them down to hell, but because Christ’s refuge is a fortress, it will never fall.

Ramoth means a high place, that is, the heights. Those who believe in Christ and have become temples, as Jesus was, live in step with Christ’s will, and this brings them into fellowship with God. Because they rest in Christ their fortress, they will be lifted high. Those who have become children of God by faith in this way will reign with Christ for a thousand years. However hard the people of this world strive, they cannot see that high place. But the saints who set their hope on it will live with the Lord on the last day. Christ, the Judge, will seat those whose names are written in the book of life in the high place of God’s children and give them everlasting blessing.

Golan means joy, or rejoicing. When Jesus was born, the heavenly host praised God, giving glory to God in the highest and proclaiming peace on earth among those in whom he is well pleased. That Jesus came to this earth to atone for human sin is cause for great thanksgiving to sinners who had nothing before them but death. The joy and rejoicing we feel when we are saved and become children of God would be beyond words.

We go on living in this world because we are still in the flesh, but saints whose hope is in heaven will see with their own eyes, on the day they put off the flesh, the heaven they have longed for. It is said that the terror of death, when a person puts off the body, is beyond imagining. The fear that body and spirit alike will be extinguished on leaving this world, the dread of those with no assurance that there is any life after death — these could not be put into words.

The one who has freed us from that terror of death is Jesus Christ himself. Just as he came to this earth to bear the cross, he promised that he would surely come again. It was Jesus, too, who taught us that death is not the end but the beginning of life with God forever. Saints who know how the world will end and where they will go after death begin preparing in this world for the life of heaven, which is why death holds no fear for them. The joy of living on this earth as though in heaven is a marvelous blessing that only God’s people can taste. When God told Moses to set up six cities of refuge, it was the love and grace of a God who loves life to the very end.

Joshua 21:41

41All the cities of the Levites among the possessions of the children of Israel were forty-eight cities with their suburbs.

The other tribes were allotted land, but the tribe of Levi received forty-eight cities from among the inheritance of the children of Israel to live in. Because Levi had joined Simeon in killing the men of Shechem, his father Jacob prophesied that they would be divided and scattered in Israel. As foretold, the tribe of Simeon was later absorbed into Judah and the tribe of Levi came to live scattered among forty-eight cities. Yet Levi worked in the tabernacle and took up the priestly charge for the sins of Israel. Both tribes had fallen under the same curse, but while Simeon was swallowed up by Judah, Levi became the priests who serve in God’s work — a remarkable thing.

Even though the tribe of Levi had been cursed, there was an event that turned that curse into a blessing. While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the law from God, the Israelites at the foot of the mountain grew corrupt. They made a golden calf, declared it the god who had brought them out of Egypt, and sang, ate, drank, and played before it. When God in his great anger said he would destroy them all, Moses fell down and pleaded with him to forgive their sin. Then he came down the mountain and saw the people dancing before the golden calf.

He threw down the two stone tablets that God himself had written and broke them at the foot of the mountain, burned the golden calf, ground it to powder, and made the Israelites drink it. In his fury Moses commanded the people that whoever was on Yahweh’s side should come to him, and the sons of Levi came. That all the sons of Levi came forward tells us that they had taken no part in the sin of worshiping the golden calf.

Because God’s own people had made an Egyptian god and worshiped it, Moses gave the order to put them to death. Obeying that order, the sons of Levi killed about three thousand of their own people. To kill one’s own kin for making a golden calf may seem cruel, but unless evil is cut off at the start, Israel, who had risked their lives to come out of Egypt, would be unable to enter Canaan because of their sin.

To the sons of Levi, who had judged the idol worshipers, Moses promised that because they had consecrated themselves to Yahweh that day, a blessing would come upon them. Their faithfulness, which held even at the risk of death, was why Moses covered Jacob’s curse with God’s blessing. Through that day’s faithfulness the tribe of Levi did not vanish as Simeon did but was given the special charge of serving in God’s sanctuary. One small act of devotion offered to God turned Jacob’s curse into an everlasting blessing.

What we offer in faith is a small devotion, but God does not forget even so small an offering, and he gives the blessing of heaven. To be sure, sin always receives its due. Yet the love of a merciful God means that we live enjoying the joy of being forgiven and the grace of being saved.

If you serve the Kingdom of God and the church faithfully and with all your heart, like the seven deacons of the early church, you will receive overflowing blessings. You who believe in Jesus Christ, our city of refuge, need not fear the world, nor worry that you will be put to shame. The Holy Spirit is with you, bearing every anxiety and care for you. So if you lay all your burdens down at the foot of the cross and are faithful as the tribe of Levi was, God will be at work.

May you always live with joy in Christ, our city of refuge, with a faith full of assurance. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.