(Wednesday)
Numbers covered 39 years of the Israelites wandering around in the wilderness. There were many lessons to learn from them and I hope we have picked up some helpful advice from the Israelites (mostly of how not to behave). The Apostle Paul tells us that the Israelites were to be examples for us. (1 Corinthians 10:6) I think there was much to learn.
In our reading today, God is giving out a few more instructions for when they come to settle in the Promised Land. Cities of refuge need to be set up. And a little clarification of the inheritance of the female heirs.
It always seems like as soon as you establish one rule or law, that many other contingencies need to be looked at. Look at our own judicial system and the myriad of amendments and add-ons that have been established. I wonder if we could just all work together in Christian love and fellowship how many “laws” would never have been needed or passed.
But God is always trying to help us cope and understand His perfect plan and so He has the Israelites establish the necessary contingency plans for those who have unintentionally killed someone. Even though the family may want to seek vengeance, God is saying they must be left alone in these specific cities of refuge. It is to give time for justice to be decided.
Left to our own devices, without careful thought and proper procedure, many innocent people could die. It’s God’s way of making sure that justice will be carried out, whether the person is guilty or innocent.
I hope that as we deal with situations that may cause us a lot of grief, that we too, would give ourselves time to think things through rather than acting impulsively, saying or doing something we might later regret.
Tomorrow on to Deuteronomy!
Pastor Kathy