The cities of refuge. This story has always been one of my favorites from the wilderness wanderings. The provision is for instances of what, today, we call “manslaughter.” This is not murder (afterward, the Lord addresses that matter). These are instances in which someone inadvertently, though perhaps with undue care for others, kills another: “This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past--as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies-- he may flee to one of these cities and live, lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him” (19:4-6).
Now, a murderous act is very different, and God does not want the manslayer to be treated like the murderer. He provides cities to which one can flee while his case is being considered, “lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance” (19:10). How good and wise is our God! How gracious is our God! How wonderful are his commandments (many others which he gives in these chapters)!
We trust not in our native strength,
But on his grace rely;
That, with returning wants, the Lord
Will all our need supply.
Lord, guide our doubtful feet aright,
And keep us in thy ways;
And, while we turn our vows to prayers,
Turn thou our prayers to praise. -- Benjamin Beddome (1818)