Friday, January 31, 2025

2025.01.31 Hopewell @Home ▫ Numbers 35

Read Numbers 35

Questions from the Scripture text: Who spoke to whom in Numbers 35:1? Where? Whom is he to command (Numbers 35:2)? To give what to whom? And what else? What are each of these for (Numbers 35:3)? How much common land (Numbers 35:4-5)? What special cities will be found among these cities (Numbers 35:6)? How many of each (Numbers 35:6-7)? How are the cities to be selected (Numbers 35:8)? For whom are the cities of refuge (Numbers 35:9-11)? In order to keep what from happening (Numbers 35:12)? Until when? Where will they be located (Numbers 35:13-14)? What people will be eligible to use these cities (Numbers 35:15)? What are some cases in which the killing is murder (Numbers 35:16-18Numbers 35:20-21a)? And another (Numbers 35:17)? And another (Numbers 35:18)? What penalty is required in each of these cases? Who is to administer it (Numbers 35:19Numbers 35:21b)? When? What are some cases in which the killing is not murder (Numbers 35:22-23)? Who are to make the evaluation according to these standards (Numbers 35:24)? What are they to do if he is innocent of murder (Numbers 35:25)? Until when? And what if he leaves, what can who do (Numbers 35:26-28)? How many witnesses are necessary for determining a case (Numbers 35:29-30)? What can be paid to spare a murderer from death (Numbers 35:31)? Or a manslayer from restriction to a city of refuge (Numbers 35:32)? What is one primary reason that all of this is necessary (Numbers 35:33)? Why—who inhabit it (Numbers 35:34)? And Who dwells in the midst of it? 

Why must murder be dealt with so carefully in Israel? Numbers 35 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty-four verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Israel are a people among whom the Lord dwells, and must guard the holiness of His image in man.

Why this is necessary. As Israel possesses the land of their inheritance (Numbers 35:2), there is a matter of vital importance: that they do not pollute the land by failing to execute murderers (Numbers 35:33, cf. Genesis 9:6). We’ve just read that this is the land that the living God is bequeathing upon His heirs (cf. chapter 34), and when He brings them into it, He Himself will dwell in the midst of it, among the children of Israel (Numbers 35:34). Such a land cannot be permitted to be defiled with unavenged blood.

Whom God appoints as judges for murder cases. Nestled in this passage is the fact that the Levites are to receive forty-eight cities (Numbers 35:7), but this is included primarily for the sake of the six cities of refuge (Numbers 35:6Numbers 35:13). Each of the 48 Levitical cities includes a 2000 cubit by 2000 cubit (or slightly larger, to include the length of the city walls) square of pasture lands, with the city at its center (Numbers 35:4-5). The cities as a whole are spread evenly throughout the population of Israel (Numbers 35:8), but the disproportion in the distribution of the cities of refuge, with fully half of them on the other side of the Jordan with the two-and-half tribes. This implies that there is an emphasis upon geographical access, in the interest of justice. Ultimately, this means that the Lord has appointed the Levites as the administrators of the justice procedure in the case that someone has been killed. Furthermore, in cases of manslaughter, the death of the high priest releases him from the threat of vengeance. 

What happens when a man is killed. When a man is killed, the nearest of kin has the responsibility of redressing the death. The word ‘avenger’ (Numbers 35:12) is the word that readers of Ruth will know as “kinsman redeemer.” Another of his responsibilities is to pursue the manslayer to a city of refuge, so that the congregation (of Levites) may render judgment before there is any execution. 

The main duty of this assembly of Levites is to distinguish between murder and manslaughter. In order for a case to proceed at all, there must be multiple witnesses (Numbers 35:30). In cases where there is an intentional strike with a deadly weapon (Numbers 35:16-18), or if  there was intent or premeditation (Numbers 35:20-21), the killing is a murder, and the murder must be put to death. The execution is to be done by the avenger (Numbers 35:19), but it is the Levitical assembly that hears from the manslayer and avenger of blood (Numbers 35:24) to render a verdict. If they conclude that there was no enmity, premeditation, or hand-to-hand attack (Numbers 35:22-23), it is manslaughter not murder, and the manslayer comes under the protection of that Levitical city (Numbers 35:25). If he leaves the place of protection, he forfeits that protection (Numbers 35:27-28).

Finally, in the case of death, there can be no alternative penalties. Not only is the penalty for murder non-negotiable (Numbers 35:31), so also is the penalty for manslaughter (Numbers 35:32). From this, we understand that man’s blood is sacred. How greatly we ought to regard the image of God upon men! And, how important it is that those who gather to a holy God maintain holy lives—not only individually, but especially as a community. This applies more than just to maintaining church discipline (cf. 1 Corinthians 5). It applies to the civil society in which that church is located; it must have regard for the holiness of the people who live there, and the LORD Who dwells among them. How much more this is the case, when the people themselves are adopted by the Father, united to the Son, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit!

In what ways might you need to be having more regard for the image of God in others? In what areas of your life do you need to be giving more consideration to the fact that you are consecrated to God?

Sample prayer:  Lord, You are the infinitely glorious, only true God, and You have honored us above all other creatures by making us in Your own image. Forgive us for how we have disregarded that image in others, cleanse our conscience, and reform our character. And grant that our church and society would deal with murder in such a way that we would not be defiled before You or provoke You to wrath. By Your redemption, You have given us the even greater honor of being adopted by the Father, united to the Son, and indwelt by the Spirit. Grant that we would conduct ourselves in such holiness as befits a people whom You have thus consecrated. For, we ask it all through, and in, Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP8 “LORD, Our Lord” or TPH174 “The Ten Commandments”

No comments:

Post a Comment