Observations and Interpretations
(1) From the angle of the man-slaughter
The refugee city was under the Levite towns because their judges were also their religious leaders v.6. They fled there to wait for their trials before the community so that the avenger would not kill them v.11-12. I bet everyone would like to flee there after they killed somebody so a clear guideline was given to the community when they judged in v.16-23. Was it a deadly weapon that you used? Did you have any premeditated hatred with the victim? If negative on both questions the man slaughter could stay with the refugee city until the death of the high priest v.25-29.
Application: The intention was important in the judgment. The sin starts when we have hater or hostility in our heart. Pray that we would not have that in our heart and let it grow.
Sins have consequences even in the case that we did not intend to. The man slaughter might feel very bad to kill someone unintentionally, but a person died because of that. Therefore, he needed to stay in the refugee city and could not go out. Thank God we could have forgiveness in God, but we certainly need to bear the bad consequence.
Jesus is not only our refuge city that we could stay in Him to escape our avenger. Jesus is also our high priest. When we died we could be totally set free.
(2) From the angle of the whole community
The real murderers "polluted" their land, the blood "defiled" the land and the land needed to be "cleansed." The land was holy because the LORD lived among them v.33-34. Therefore, murderers must be dealt with and could not be tolerated.
Application: Do we tolerate sin too much in our own lives? The Holy Spirit lives in us and we should not let anything to defile ourselves.
Refuge Cities work somewhere like prison, but not the same. It is not a place to lock people up, but a place for people to escape from avenger. Scriptures did not say anything like the people were provided with food or any resources. They probably needed to work to produce food for themselves.
Audrey
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