Deuteronomy 19:1-10 -- The Original Purpose of Cities of Refuge
In America today, Sanctuary Cities are those jurisdictions that have agreed to limit their cooperation with the federal government's efforts to enforce immigration law. In the majority, if not all cases, these cities are governed by more progressive, liberal governments which in the U.S. translates to those with Democratic leadership. As a result illegal immigrants and those that even commit some crimes become very difficult to apprehend in order to be tried.
But thousands of years ago, God actually told the people of Israel who were setting up how they would live in their new Promised Land, to establish Cities of Refuge. Let's pick up the story in Deuteronomy chapter 14 and see how God intended these Cities of Refuge to be used.
In verse 2, we read that the Israelites were to initially establish three of these cities. And these were to be in the middle of their land. Verse 3 tells us that they were to build roads to these cities. And the purpose was, now wait for it -- so that "any man-slayer may flee there". Wow.
This was a special kind of man-slayer and God wanted him to 'live'. In verse 4, God gives an example of a man who kills his friend unintentionally, not hating him previously. In other words, we are not talking about pre-mediated murder here.
In verse 5, God elaborates further on His example. He gives the example of two men going into the forest to cut wood, and one swings his axe, and the iron head of the axe slips off the handle and kills his companion. That man-slayer should be able to flee to these Cities of Refuge and live, God says.
In those days, when someone was killed, there usually was a kinsman who was the "avenger of blood" and his job was to trace down the killer and give him his just deserts. Wikipedia tells us the custom of blood vengeance still exists today in Middle Eastern Bedouin society. Also, blood feuds are still practised in some parts of the world, including Kurdish regions of Turkey and in Papua New Guinea. Finally, in Japan honoring one's family, clan, or lord through the practice of revenge killings is called "katakiuchi". Wikipedia says these killings could also involve the relatives of an offender. Today, katakiuchi is most often pursued by peaceful means, but revenge remains an important part of Japanese culture.
In verse 6, the idea was that for the Israelites, the avenger would not pursue the man-slayer because the way to these cities was long. But in this verse, God also says, this kind of man-slayer was not deserving of death, "since he had not hated him (the one he killed) previously". We can see that the idea of the role pre-meditation plays in a murder actually has their origin right here.
In Canada, for example, there are only two types of murder -- first-degree (pre-mediated) and second-degree (all murders that are not first-degree).
In the U.S., however, there are at least four levels of murder: first-degree (wilful and pre-medidated with malice aforethought); second-degree (intentional murder with malice aforethought, but not pre-medidated or planned in advance); voluntary manslaughter (a crime of passion in circumstances where must normal people would become emotionally or mentally disturbed); and involuntary manslaughter (a killing that stems from a lack of intention to cause death but involving an intentional or negligent act leading to death, such as a drunk driving-related death).
We could argue at length whether God intended to protect all second-degree murderers in Canada, and all second-degree, voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter murderers in the U.S. I am sure we would not all agree on a correct answer for all these man-made definitions. Man has a way of complicating matters. I think we can all agree, however, that God did want those who accidentally, and I mean truly accidentally, killed someone, should not be avenged or murdered in exchange.
And it is for these folks that He reiterates His command in verse 7 to the Israelites to build these three Cities. In fact, in verses 8 and 9, He tells them when He blesses them with more land, they are to build three more such cities.
The section ends in verse 10 with God once again stating His reasoning for all this. He says these are necessary so that there is no killing or shedding of blood of someone who did not intend to kill someone else. He wanted none of that in the land that He had given them. Finally, the last part of the verse indicates that this wasn't just about Him, it was more because He did not want His people be "guilty of such blood being shed". That's the God we worship. That's the God that loves us so much that He tells us how to keep from being guilty.
Let me end this short study by making some observations: First, as mentioned earlier, today's so-called Sanctuary Cities are intended to protect people who wilfully, not unintentionally, break the laws of the land. Second, they are set up to fight the ability of a country's national government to carry out the laws it has in place. No where in Scripture does God have us ignore or worse still, defy the laws of the land -- unless they are indeed contrary to what God has already decreed for His people. Third, we can see what a mess we have made of things -- taking two degrees of murder and turning them into four, and actually if you read up on these, you can see that there are many other considerations, shades of grey we can call them, which we use to determine the degree of punishment for any one of these.
This leads me to say that man has thought himself much wiser than God. So our jails are so full and our courts are so backed up, there is no relief in sight. Justice can not be carried out expeditiously -- for the victims or their families, we take way too long for cases to be heard. And as a result, when time limits for doing so elapse, judges let criminals go free. Or worse still, when we are fighting things like Covid-19 as we are these days, hundreds of thousands of criminals are released so they don't get Covid. Wow.
Our lesson here from God's Word is simply this: Keep it simple. Was the death of another person by someone fully accidental or intentional? If accidental, let the murderer live in a City of Refuge. If intentional -- well, hold on. We study that next.
It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.
