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Numbers Chapter 35: Cities for the Levites and Cities of Refuge

Intro to Numbers 35:1-34

Day 94 for our social distancing – although it’s Day 101 officially since this all started – the day that W.H.O. declared a pandemic was here. We were fortunate enough to be away for that first week. All the stats globally are continuing to go in the right direction with the number of deaths versus all known cases being at 5.28%. However, some local areas, especially in the U.S. are still experiencing concern with a high number of cases being discovered. This weekend we get to see our youngest grandchildren – the first time in 13.5 weeks and we can attend church as well for the first time in the same period. We were informed today that the on-line registration for the 30% capacity attendance at our church that opened on a Tuesday closed three days later and names could only be put on a waiting list. This will repeat itself each week going forward in accordance with whatever wisdom our Premier decides to apply to churches. Yes, the world has changed.

We personally are excited that we are coming to the conclusion of our study in the Old Testament Book of Numbers. Today we look at the cities that the Levites would have reserved for them to live in since being the tribe responsible for the priestly duties of the Israelites, they weren’t entitled to any land inheritance. And the chapter also talks about the cities of Refuge that would be available for people to go to under certain circumstances which the text describes. Again, we keep in mind God’s Providence for all.  Let’s read on. There’s a lot to try and unravel here. So, let’s first get familiar with the passage. You can read it here or in your preferred version of the text.

The Passage

35 Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho, saying, ² “Command the sons of Israel that they give to the Levites from the inheritance of their possession cities to live in; and you shall give to the Levites pasture lands around the cities. ³ The cities shall be theirs to live in; and their pasture lands shall be for their cattle and for their herds and for all their beasts.

⁴ “The pasture lands of the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall extend from the wall of the city ^[a]outward a thousand cubits around. ⁵ You shall also measure outside the city on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits, with the city in the center. This shall become theirs as pasture lands for the cities.
⁶ The cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to; and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities. ⁷ All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities, ^[b]together with their pasture lands. ⁸ As for the cities which you shall give from the possession of the sons of Israel, you shall take more from the larger and you shall take less from the smaller; each shall give some of his cities to the Levites in proportion to his possession which he inherits.”
⁹ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ then you shall select for yourselves cities to be your cities of refuge, that the manslayer who has ^[c]killed any person unintentionally may flee there. ¹² The cities shall be to you as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands before the congregation for ^[d]trial. ¹³ The cities which you are to give shall be your six cities of refuge. ¹⁴ You shall give three cities across the Jordan and three cities ^[e]in the land of Canaan; they are to be cities of refuge. ¹⁵ These six cities shall be for refuge for the sons of Israel, and for the alien and for the sojourner among them; that anyone who ^[f]kills a person unintentionally may flee there.
¹⁶ ‘But if he struck him down with an iron object, so that he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁷ If he struck him down with a stone in the hand, by which he will die, and as a result he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if he struck him with a wooden object in the hand, by which he might die, and as a result he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁹ The blood avenger himself shall put the murderer to death; he shall put him to death when he meets him. ²⁰ If he pushed him of hatred, or threw something at him lying in wait and as a result he died, ²¹ or if he struck him down with his hand in enmity, and as a result he died, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death, he is a murderer; the blood avenger shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.
²² ‘But if he pushed him suddenly without enmity, or threw something at him without lying in wait, ²³ or with any ^[g]deadly object of stone, and without seeing it dropped on him so that he died, while he was not his enemy nor seeking his injury, ²⁴ then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the blood avenger according to these ordinances. ²⁵ The congregation shall deliver the manslayer from the hand of the blood avenger, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge to which he fled; and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.²⁶ But if the manslayer at any time goes beyond the border of his city of refuge to which he may flee, ²⁷ and the blood avenger finds him outside the border of his city of refuge, and the blood avenger kills the manslayer, he will not be guilty of blood ²⁸ because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the manslayer shall return to the land of his possession.
²⁹ ‘These things shall be for a statutory ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
³⁰ ‘If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the ^[h]evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.³¹ Moreover, you shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. ³² You shall not take ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to live in the land ^[i]before the death of the priest.³³ So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. ³⁴ You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the Lord am dwelling in the midst of the sons of Israel.’”

Footnotes

1. Numbers 35:4 Lit and outward
2. Numbers 35:7 Lit them
3. Numbers 35:11 Lit smote
4. Numbers 35:12 Lit judgment
5. Numbers 35:14 Lit you shall give in
6. Numbers 35:15 Lit smites
7. Numbers 35:23 Lit by which he may die
8. Numbers 35:30 Lit mouth
9. Numbers 35:32 Or until

Thoughts on the Passage

These instructions were given to Moses when Israel was still in the plains of Moab, on the east side of the Jordan.

The cities that the Levites were to get was to come from the inherited land that all the tribes were to get (including the ones that were to stay east of Jordan and not reside in the Promised Land). The Levite cities were to be surrounded by land for the Levite livestock. Such pastureland was to extend outward from the cities the Levites were given, and the pastures were to be of a specific size. And the exact size of those parcels of land was given by God. Our God is a God of details. Matthew Henry points out that these lands were not to be ‘farmed’ or ‘tilled’ – as Levites had to devote themselves to the things of the priesthood rather than the work involved in actual farming.

If I read verse 6 correctly, there were to be 42 cities for the Levites, plus six cities of refuge, also to be under the care of the Levites. These cities and lands came from each of the tribes’ inheritance and that has two benefits: The tribes’ personal contribution to the priesthood via their own inheritance, as well as the benefit of having the Levites and their work near them.

Larger tribes would give more land than smaller tribes, proportionally. In verse 9 we learn that the cities of refuge were to be chosen by the tribes (not the Levites).

The purpose of these cities was made clear in verses 11-15. They were for those who had killed someone unintentionally. They were to protect them from avengers until they could stand trial. Also, these cities were for the aliens and the sojourners among the Israelites. Revenge killing was a tradition of the culture from which the Israelites had come. Some argue that it was not God’s preference, as He says elsewhere in Scripture “Revenge is Mine”, but for some reason He did allow it here, as something the Israelites could hold on to from their past. That puts us in a dilemma as to what should our posture on capital punishment and other forms of penalty should be for the crime of taking a life. It is not an easy matter to resolve, especially today.

What we can point out is how fair God wanted to be even in this practice, by establishing these refuge cities. He wanted to give the charged person every chance possible to be proven innocent if he was innocent. As Chuck Smith says, God created limitations and loopholes for the innocent parties. Smith’s words describe God’s approach here at this point in His People’s history:

“So, here God deals with a cultural practice, modifying it, bringing it within borders, within limitations, providing for the innocent. And yet the murderer was in no way to be set free. They were not to actually put to death a man with one witness. There had to be at least two witnesses.”

But God had no hesitation in actually having the guilty party put to death. Let us not forget that. But today our penal system seems to think God’s way was not the right one and many want to do away with capital punishment. So, our “polluted” land remains so, as we’ll see later.

Interestingly, out of the six refuge cities, 3 were on the east side of the Jordan and three in Canaan.”

Now the rest of the chapter seems to swing back to describe what happens to real murderers. Murderers, regardless of what means they used to kill someone, were to be put to death. And it was the blood avenger of the murdered person that would do the killing of the murderer.

From verse 22 on, we have instructions as to what is to happen in some other specific cases. Accidental deaths caused by others, would subject the murderer to the congregation who would decide between the murderer and the avenger.

Verse 25 goes straight into saying that the congregation will save the murderer from the avenger (I assume in the case where the congregation decides in his favor) but cause him to live in a refuge city until the death of the existing high priest. Unless of course, he tries to escape from his city of refuge, the blood avenger is free to find him and kill him without being guilty.  Once the high priest dies, the murderer could return to his inherited land and live freely.

All these ordinances are to be kept throughout all generations.

Now verse 30 talks about putting a murderer to death but only if there is more than one witness. And there is not to be a means by which the murderer’s life can be bought off with a ransom. He has to be put to death. The same is true for anyone who escapes his city of refuge.

Wrap-up

The whole purpose of these laws was given in verse 33: “so that you don’t pollute the land in which you are”.  And I like the next part – “for blood pollutes the land and no expiation (the act of making amends or reparation for guilt or wrongdoing; atonement) can be made for the land . . . except by the blood of him who shed it.”

Is there any land in the world anymore that by this definition has not been polluted? I hardly think so. Is much of our own countries under that same form of pollution? Even the blood of him who polluted the land is not able any longer to atone for the land – only the blood of Christ can do that now if we let it.

The chapter ends with, “Don’t defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the Lord am dwelling in the midst of the sons of Israel.” Wow. We need to recognize that God lives among His people. And regrettably, we live in polluted lands. At the very least, we must make certain that our “hearts” – God’s true residence in lives of man now – are pure and without pollution. May it be so for you and me.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

God Offers the Promised Land, but 2.5 Tribes Say "No Thanks."

Numbers Chapter 32: Division of the Land East of Jordan

Numbers 32:1-42

Day 90. It is wonderful, even in an area of the province where things are still not fully opened up, to watch people ease up a little. Few masks, less worried about crossing the street when you approach them, more cars on the road, and more and more retailers opening. Life will slowly return to some point close to where it was before all this Covid-19 concern started. But it will not likely go all the way back in every respect. The government has managed to move its needle of control in the direction where individual freedom continues to decrease. They accomplished their fine-tuning towards a societal reset, a goal they are getting closer to with each ‘pandemic’ or its equivalent. Christians, however, know that God is fully in control and while the globalists and OWG (one-world-government) pushers think they’re winning, the truth is they’re bringing their treasured possession (world domination) closer to eternal doom. We continue to study our Bible and to keep alert, knowing how this all ends. Thanks for joining us.

The Passage

32 Now the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad had an exceedingly large number of livestock. So when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that ^[a]it was indeed a place suitable for livestock, ² the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben came and spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the congregation, saying,³ “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Beon, ⁴ the land which the Lord ^[b]conquered before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” ⁵ They said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession; do not take us across the Jordan.”

⁶ But Moses said to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to war while you yourselves sit here? ⁷ Now why are you ^[c]discouraging the sons of Israel from crossing over into the land which the Lord has given them? ^8 [d]This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. ⁹ For when they went up to the ^[e]valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they ^[f]discouraged the sons of Israel so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them. ¹⁰ So the Lord’s anger burned in that day, and He swore, saying, ¹¹ ‘None of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob; for they did not follow Me fully, ¹² except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have followed the Lord fully.’ ¹³ So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the Lord was destroyed. ¹⁴ Now behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men, to add still more to the burning anger of the Lord against Israel. ¹⁵ For if you turn away from following Him, He will once more abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.”
¹⁶ Then they came near to him and said, “We will build here sheepfolds for our livestock and cities for our little ones; ¹⁷ but we ourselves will be armed ready to go before the sons of Israel, until we have brought them to their place, while our little ones live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁸ We will not return to our homes until every one of the sons of Israel has possessed his inheritance. ¹⁹ For we will not have an inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has fallen to us on this side of the Jordan toward the east.”
²⁰ So Moses said to them, “If you will do ^[g]this, if you will arm yourselves before the Lord for the war, ²¹ and all of you armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven His enemies out from before Him, ²² and the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you shall return and be free of obligation toward the Lord and toward Israel, and this land shall be yours for a possession before the Lord. ²³ But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. ²⁴ Build yourselves cities for your little ones, and sheepfolds for your sheep, and do ^[h]what you have promised.”
²⁵ The sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, “Your servants will do just as my lord commands. ²⁶ Our little ones, our wives, our livestock and all our cattle shall ^[i]remain there in the cities of Gilead; ²⁷ while your servants, everyone who is armed for war, will cross over in the presence of the Lord to battle, just as my lord says.”
²⁸ So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers’ households of the tribes of the sons of Israel. ²⁹ Moses said to them, “If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, everyone who is armed for battle, will cross with you over the Jordan in the presence of the Lord, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession; ³⁰ but if they will not cross over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.” ³¹ The sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben answered, saying, “As the Lord has said to your servants, so we will do. ³² We ourselves will cross over armed in the presence of the Lord into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us across the Jordan.”
³³ So Moses gave to them, to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Joseph’s son Manasseh, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og, the king of Bashan, the land with its cities with their ^[j]territories, the cities of the surrounding land. ³⁴ The sons of Gad built Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer,³⁵ and Atroth-shophan and Jazer and Jogbehah, ³⁶ and Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran as fortified cities, and sheepfolds for sheep. ³⁷ The sons of Reuben built Heshbon and Elealeh and Kiriathaim, ³⁸ and Nebo and Baal-meon—their names being changed—and Sibmah, and they gave other names to the cities which they built. ³⁹ The sons of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it. ⁴⁰ So Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he lived in it.⁴¹ Jair the son of Manasseh went and took its ^[k]towns, and called them ^[l]Havvoth-jair.⁴² Nobah went and took Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah after his own name.

Footnotes

1. Numbers 32:1 Lit behold, the place, a place for
2. Numbers 32:4 Lit smote
3. Numbers 32:7 Lit restraining the hearts of
4. Numbers 32:8 Lit Thus your fathers
5. Numbers 32:9 Or wadi
6. Numbers 32:9 Lit restrained the hearts of
7. Numbers 32:20 Lit this thing
8. Numbers 32:24 Lit that which has come out of your mouth
9. Numbers 32:26 Lit be
10. Numbers 32:33 Lit borders
11. Numbers 32:41 Lit tent villages
12. Numbers 32:41 I.e. the towns of Jair

Thoughts on the Passage

So, the Israelites are on the east side of the Jordan, down east of the Salt Sea. The Jordan River runs primarily from the Sea of Galilee (in the O.T. a.k.a. Sea of Chinnereth; other names include Lake or Sea of Tiberias; and Luke calls it by its Greek name, and is the only one to use the title of ‘Lake’ Gennesaret in Luke 5; we also note that there is in Hebrew there is one word for lake and sea) down to the Salt Sea, which is quite a distance north of the Red Sea.  Canaan, the Promised Land, is on the west side of the Jordan.

Now the sons of two of the twelve tribes, that is, the tribes of Reuben and Gad, look at this land on the east of Jordan, and given their large flocks, decide this is good enough for us. They decide to approach Moses and Eleazar, plus other leaders of the congregation with their thoughts. They point out that this land had already been captured by the Lord and it was most suitable for livestock. So, they asked permission to given that land as their possession and they would not cross over the Jordan to Canaan.

But Moses wasn’t born yesterday and right away pointed out the injustice of that. The implication was that while all the other tribes were to across the Jordan to take the Promised Land (and risk getting killed), these guys and their people would stay at home sound and safe. And furthermore, these leaders were discouraging their own warriors from crossing over and possessing the land God had given Israel. Sorry, says Moses, “not a good deal and the optics stink.”

Furthermore, Moses reminds them of what their ‘fathers’ had done when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, saw the land before them, and discouraged the Israelites from going into the land God had given them, just as their request now might encourage them again. And that made God angry. That was when God swore none of the men (except Caleb and Joshua) who were 20 years old and up when the Israelites left Egypt would see the Promised Land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They caused God’s anger to force the Israelites to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until all those people 20 and up at the time of the Exodus from Egypt had died.

Moses was really hot now. These guys were adding more fuel to the fire and could easily have gotten God even angrier now that they were so close to the Promised Land. In fact, Moses tells them that the very lives of all the Israelites could be lost. So, basically, it’s a “no deal” situation.

But of course, the sons of Gad and Reuben would not give up. Clearly Moses’ anger had surprised them, and they had drawn back because verse 16 says they now “came [or drew] near to him”. But they must have correctly surmised that his anger was based on his objecting to the fact that their men not fighting next to their brothers and so they pressed on.

They came up with their next proposal. How about if they were to build cities for their livestock, and their families on the east side of the Jordan, but the men would go over to help the rest of the sons of Israel possess the promised land, fight with them to that end, and not return until all the others got their land, and there would be no inheritance for them (Reuben and Gad’s tribes) on the other side. Clever plan, and fair compromise I would say. Although, it seems strange to me that in verse 16 they seem to place the building of cities for their livestock ahead of the needs of their little ones. But of course, it was very much a pastoral farming culture where livestock determined many things.

So, Moses agrees that if they do as they have sworn, all will be well. If not, they will have sinned against the Lord, and that their sin would find them out. Moses passed that on to Eleazar and to Joshua, and the other heads of the various tribes. And the Reuben and Gad boys verified that in front of all. At least, this way, no one would be encouraged not to fight to take the land since even those of the tribes who would not possess the land would be fighting with them.

Now for some reason, in verse 33, where we are told what cities, etc., Moses gave to Reuben and Gad, we are also introduced to a third party added to those two. This is the half-tribe of Joseph, headed up by his son Manassah. Perhaps, in seeing what a deal Reuben and Gad’s leaders worked out, thought they’d like in on it as well.

Robert Jamieson suggests that it is possible that Moses himself invited them to partake of this deal as he observed that the land on the east of the Jordan would be sufficient to support not only the tribes of Reuben and Gad, but also that of Manassah. And he may have favored them in this way due to the role they had played in fighting the Amorites.

You will remember as we read in study.com:

“When Jacob blessed Joseph's sons, while on his deathbed, he set the two up as the replacement for Joseph's tribe, which then became called the ''House of Joseph.'' Because of the symbolism of the number 12 to Judaism (the 12 tribes of Israel, totality, wholeness), the tribes were not considered whole tribes but were instead called half-tribes. Jacob gave them double the territory the other tribes received so that, even though they were technically half-tribes, they would each have the same amount of land as Jacob's other sons.”

You will remember that Moses carried Joseph’s bones out of Egypt at the time of the Exodus as was Joseph’s desire.

The rest of the verses to the end of the chapter describe the various cities, etc., that each of the three groups represented – Reuben’s, Gad’s, and Manassah’s – built their homes and ranches in. We should note that Moses agreed to give them this land, before they actually went into battle to take Canaan. Those were the days when someone’s word meant something.

Now Chuck Smith suggests that we may see in these three tribes a lot of Christians today. They got out of Egypt which represents the bondage of sin, but they aren’t quite eager to get into the fullness of Christ – the Promised Land. They’re happy somewhere short of there. They have it nice there --- why take a risk to go for the Promised Land?

David Guzik says, based on Wenhan’s comments, that for these tribes to ask for this arrangement is “to show a disturbing indifference to the divine word, the word on which Israel's existence entirely depended."

One lesson for us to learn from this passage is that, as Guzik says, “It is a terrible thing to be used of the devil to discourage other believers to walking deeper and further with the LORD. We should ask God to guard us from ever discouraging the heart of another child of God.”

Once again, we look at our One and Only Hero of the Bible – God – when we consider this chapter. We note that He is silent in it. He is mentioned three times – once when those proposing the deal concede that God had won the land east of the Jordan for them; secondly when Moses reminds them how they had given rise to God’s anger; and finally, when Moses reminds them that if they continued they would make Him so angry, He might wipe all of Israel out. So, we see our God really forging, even when He takes no active part in the negotiations, the outcomes that result.

Here is what I take from all this. God, and God’s values and character, once imbedded in the hearts and minds of men can, without a doubt, impact our dealings and interactions.  And after all, isn’t that what being a Christian is all about.

The gems from the book of Numbers continue to be found.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.