Sanctuary Cities

Joshua 20:1-9
1Then the Lord said to Joshua, 2“Say to the people of Israel, ‘Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, 3that the manslayer who strikes any person without intent or unknowingly may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood. 4He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and explain his case to the elders of that city. Then they shall take him into the city and give him a place, and he shall remain with them. 5And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not give up the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor unknowingly, and did not hate him in the past. 6And he shall remain in that city until he has stood before the congregation for judgment, until the death of him who is high priest at the time. Then the manslayer may return to his own town and his own home, to the town from which he fled.’” 7So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. 8And beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they appointed Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland, from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh. 9These were the cities designated for all the people of Israel and for the stranger sojourning among them, that anyone who killed a person without intent could flee there, so that he might not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, till he stood before the congregation.

The idea of sanctuary cities is not a new one, as we learn from our passage for today. As commanded by God, through Moses and now Joshua, these cities were an important factor in the justice system of Israel. God had established an extensive system of judicial law for His people and dealing with the criminal was very much a part of that system. Those who broke the law were dealt with quickly and fairly. But there are always going to be accidental deaths that happen in everyday life. We hear about such incidents on a regular basis and the legal system must have laws in place that deal with these situations.

Located throughout Israel, God establishes cities of refuge where someone who has accidentally ended the life of someone else can run for refuge until a trial can be held. When a death occurred, the head of each family had the right to pursue the manslayer for revenge. But in the case of an accident, special provisions are made.

The divine provision for the cities of refuge in Joshua 20 is also elucidated by the passages by Moses that describe the opposite scenario (Numbers 35:16–21; Deuteronomy 19:11–13). The opposite of the situation in Josh 20:5 (“without knowledge he struck down his friend and he was not hating toward him previously”; similar is Deuteronomy 19:4) is when a man hates his neighbor and murders him intentionally (Numbers 35:20–21 and Deuteronomy 19:11). If such a deliberate murderer who acted with malice flees to a city of refuge, he cannot escape justice there: “The elders of his city shall send and take him from there and give him into the hand of the kinsman-redeemer of blood so that he dies. Your eye shall not have pity on him, but you shall purge the innocent blood from Israel, so that it shall be good for you” (Deuteronomy 19:12–13). Thus, God stipulated that the cities of refuge must not be abused, and he promised that things would “be good” for His people when they would carry out capital punishment for intentional homicide.
Harstad, A. L. ©2004. Joshua (p. 645). Saint Louis, MO: CPH.

In this provision, we find that God values life – all life. The life of the victim is precious and as such, demands a trial and justice for their killing. But – so too is the life of the person who accidentally killed another. What we cannot dismiss is the fact that when a murder occurred, if there is intent and negligence, vengeance is appropriate. If it was purely an accident, mercy needs to prevail. What we also know, is that God did not withhold His hand of vengeance when it came to the innocent sacrificial death of His own Son. The Lord of the Universe gave up His life. He most certainly did not deserve to die for my sin – but He did it anyway.

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