The cities of refuge. The people were about to enter the land, and the Lord said to them, “You shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. . . . This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally . . . he may flee to one of these cities and live, lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past” (19:1-6). I want to say it over and over again: Our God is wise and he is righteous and he is gracious! May I type that, again? Our God is wise and he is righteous and he is gracious! What an amazing provision for Israel were the cities of refuge, places where the accused could go until his case was rightly settled. No quick bursts of anger resulting in wrongful deaths, here; rather, a calm, quiet, and rightly concluded case. Of course, all this foreshadows the manner in which God deals with us except that we are not blameless. We have not sinned unintentionally. And, yet, God has still loved us and granted us pardon: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Charles Wesley’s amazement is our amazement:
And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me! --Charles Wesley (1738)
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