Skip to main content

Joshua 20:1- 4 Implementation of cities of refuge - Day 195

Good afternoon,

Enjoyed a nice spring day outside.  Have you ever made a promise and then failed to carry it out.  Back in Numbers, God gave the direction for cities of refuge.  Now that the conquest of Promised Land is winding down, Joshua is directed to implement the plan.  God never forgets and does not allow us to forget.

Blessings,

Jeff

Cities of refuge and the sixth commandment. 

You shall not murder. 

râṣaḥ; a primitive root; properly, to dash in pieces, i.e. kill (a human being), especially to murder: — put to death, kill, (man-)slay(-er), murder(-er).

Interesting that the aame Hebrew word that is used in the commandment and translated here as manslayer. 

If no ever killed another person for any reason, the sixth would be completely adequate with no need for defining punishment and types of killing.  ) But then someone is killed and case law is needed. We have seen rules given for various accidental death and what we would call "justifiable homicide".  

Number 35:19ff is where the purpose of cities of refuge are described.  the avenger of blood can execute any killer on sight.  The cities of refuge allowed someone who accidentally killed some one to evade the avenger of blood until the congregation could make a determination about the circumstances.  Intentional killing was capital offense, required multiple witnesses and sentence carried out by avenger. But even someone who was found not guilty of intentional killing had to stay in the city of refuge.  there was some degree of guilt even in the unintentional case.

Accidentally killing someone had significant impact on the killer's life.  

I can understand why Pharisees in Jesus day were focused on the physical act and not the thoughts.  there were many barriers to prevent a false accusation of intentional killing.  How could someone be found guilty for thinking of killing someone?

In any case, the interpretation and understanding of the sixth command continues to re-appear.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Revelation 22:3-5 Final and eternal restoration - Day 365

Dear saints in the Lord, Congratulations!  You made it.  We have been through much turmoil in the last year ('20-'21).  But God is faithful to His promises.  I trust that you have been blessed in your reading and have drawn closer to God.   Since we didn't get the blog up and running at the beginning of the challenge, I am going to go back and post entries to cover that first month or so.   Blessings, Jeff Nothing accursed in the city of God, the new Jerusalem.  The presence of sin will be gone.  I am working on memorizing Westminster Shorter Catechism and currently on question 82.  Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God but does daily break them in thought, word and deed. I think our passage today points to the truth of this question.  Do you notice how this answer is not exactly the same as the question. "Any man" bec...
Post a Comment
Read more

Malachi 2:10-12 Here we go again!! Day 363

Good afternoon friends, As we draw to the end of the Old Testament, we see that Judah has rebuilt the temple and the walls of Jerusalem, but they are following in the footsteps of faithless fathers and not in the footsteps of Abraham and ultimately God.  The exile was a low point, but now a new low is about to happen.  The prophetic voice has once again become warning and not encouraging. Faithful reading and preaching of the word is all that keeps us from losing our way.  May we be faithful in our generation. Blessings, Jeff I am sure I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.  The section summary, chapter and verse are not in the original language.  They are all rather modern inventions to help us.  For example, the section title here is "Judah profaned the Covenant".  That is OK as far as it goes, but which Covenant?  So let's take a look. Observations Starts with 3 questions but who is asking the questions and to whom are they addre...
Post a Comment
Read more

2 Chronicles 33:7-9 Thoughts on Davidic covenant - Day 362

Good morning faithful readers, The finish line is in sight!!!  One of the themes of scripture is that God is a covenant keeping God.  There are many between God and man. Adam, Noah, David are examples.  Covenants are more than promises.  They are made between a superior and inferior with conditions for each side and blessing and penalties based on keeping the conditions.  These are covenants of works which fallen man was unable to keep.  Thanks be to God that the Father made a covenant of grace with Christ, the second Adam, which he fully kept. Blessings, Jeff The promise in v8 was made to David when he had planned to build the temple and God promised to build him a house forever. (2 Sam 7:10).  Seems like there are only two possibilities about Manasseh's disobedience.  Either he knew of this covenant that God had made with his 13th great grandfather and chose to disregard it, or he didn't know of it and was unaware of the penalty.  Let's con...
Post a Comment
Read more