Message Information
- Key Scriptures: Joshua 20:1-9, NASB
- Series: Jesus in the Old Testament (2024), no. 7
- Date: Sunday, November 24, 2024 (Morning)
- Venue: Central Baptist Church — Lawton, Oklahoma
- Speaker: Jared Byrns
- Audio File: Open/Download
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Looking for a Place to Hide
As of yesterday morning, it is deer rifle season in the state of Oklahoma. It is an important holiday. However, it is another year of me not having time to go out. That is not a good thing. I would like to be out there, maybe not right this second, but after church I would like to be out there.
But after Abigail came, our house became a little more hectic, and it was a lot harder to get out into the blind. It is not a major loss, though, because as much as I love deer hunting, I am not great at deer catching. Some of you in this room are better than I am, but those deer are smarter than I am.
As I have watched them, I think they watch us and learn from our patterns of behavior. Some of this has to do with their life cycle, but about the time every year that deer rifle season starts, I begin to see them hanging out in places where they cannot be hunted. That includes my neighborhood.
Friday, or maybe yesterday for all I know, the older kids and I were headed somewhere, and I almost ran into a deer crossing the road around the corner from my house. It was a neighborhood street, and they were just hanging out there. I think the reason they do that is that they have probably learned over generations that there are certain places where, if you go, you may not come back from.
When it gets cold, and they are in this part of their range, some of their friends do not come back. But over here, they have never lost anybody. So they go hang out at the neighbor’s house. I cannot legally hunt them at the neighbor’s house.
At one point, I thought about standing out on my balcony and hunting down into my pasture. But we live close enough to our neighbors that I thought the deer would run and jump away, and I really did not want to have to trail a deer through the neighborhood. That would be a great way to meet the neighbors. So I held off on that.
I really believe they look for places to hide, because they will be all over in the woods. You go to the public hunting areas, and they will be all over in the woods until it is actually time when you can hunt them. Then they have gone someplace else. Animals are really good at finding hiding places because they know they need to get someplace safe.
We do the same thing. When we need a place, we look for a hiding place. Yesterday, it was a little chaotic in my house, and I told Charla, “If we had better Wi-Fi in the storm shelter, I would go down there and try to work.” I needed a place to hide, but it did not work.
Sometimes we need a place to hide, a place to protect ourselves, a place to get away. The animals know that. We know that. In Old Testament times, they knew that too. They needed a place they could escape to in certain circumstances.
Cities of Refuge in Israel
This morning, we are looking at Joshua chapter 20 and one of the descriptions of these hiding places. This is not my favorite way to preach, to pull a little bit from this passage and a little bit from that passage over there. I think there are some dangers involved in that. I would rather camp out in one passage. At the same time, with the kind of study we are doing, it is important to bring in different passages.
We are going to start from Joshua chapter 20, one of several places in the Old Testament where it describes these hiding places. Joshua 20 is only nine verses, and here is what it says:
Then the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘Designate the cities of refuge of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the manslayer who kills any person unintentionally, without premeditation, may flee there, and they shall become your refuge from the avenger of blood. He shall flee to one of these cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and shall state his case in the hearing of the elders of that city; and they shall take him into the city to them and give him a place, so that he may dwell among them. Now if the avenger of blood pursues him, then they shall not deliver the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor without premeditation and did not hate him beforehand. He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the one who is the high priest in those days. Then the manslayer shall return to his own city and to his own house, to the city from which he fled.'”
So 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. Beyond the Jordan, east of Jericho, they designated Bezer in the wilderness, on the plain from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh. These were the appointed cities for all the sons of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally may flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the congregation.
There are a few passages in the Old Testament that talk about the cities of refuge. In addition to Joshua 20, we find them mentioned in Deuteronomy 4, Deuteronomy 19, and Numbers 35. The purpose of these cities was to provide a place of refuge to the accused.
What these cities of refuge did was balance justice and mercy in the Old Testament. According to God’s law, if someone intentionally committed murder, if somebody deliberately killed his friend, or if he said it was an accident but was known to have hated the person beforehand, he was held guilty of murder. He could be tried by the authorities, and he could also be tracked down by a member of the victim’s family and killed.
That is the avenger of blood that Joshua is talking about. In the heat of the moment, it could be difficult for someone to tell whether something was intentional or unintentional. Our emotions often lead us to think everything is intentional.
Look at small children. Anytime one of my kids does something to another one of my kids, especially the younger three, it is always on purpose, whether it was on purpose or not. “He fell on me. He did it on purpose.” No, I think he tripped over that rock and fell on you. I do not think it was any more fun for him than it was for you.
Not everything is on purpose, but we tend to think that way. If your loved one was killed in an accident, in that moment of loss, hurt, and despair, you might think it was on purpose. You might set out to take revenge, which under that legal structure you were entitled to do, on somebody who did not mean to injure or kill your loved one.
As much as God’s law holds up the death penalty for certain crimes as a way of affirming the sanctity of life, God’s law also balances justice with mercy. I know that is very confusing to the world, but God takes the taking of innocent life so seriously that He put this ultimate penalty there as a deterrent. At the same time, His law says there must be provision to protect those who really did not mean to do what they did.
Justice, Mercy, and Refuge
We are in a series on pictures of Jesus in the Old Testament. That is why we are looking at these cities of refuge. We are looking at things in the Old Testament that not only fulfilled a historical function at that moment, but were also intended to point Israel to Jesus and what He came to accomplish when He came.
The cities of refuge were six cities God set apart as a carve-out of grace in His law. When God gave Israel a land of their own, He divided it among the tribes. The only tribe not to receive a tribal land allotment was the Levites, the priests. Instead, they were given cities interspersed throughout the other tribes’ lands.
They were given forty-eight cities. God said to take six of those cities and set them apart so that those who were accused of a crime they did not mean to commit could flee there and have a chance to live. We see that in verse 3: “The manslayer who kills any person unintentionally, without premeditation, may flee there, and they shall become your refuge from the avenger of blood.”
When someone got to the city, he could not just say, “I’m here,” and automatically be safe forever. He would stand at the gate and argue his case. If the elders believed that he did it on purpose, that he hated this person and wanted him to die, they would hold on to him. When the avenger came, they would hand him over.
But if they were convinced from the evidence that he had no intention to kill, that he did not mean to do it and did not know it would happen, then he could stay in the city of refuge. Maybe, for example, an axe head flew off and killed someone while he was working. That is the kind of thing the Old Testament uses as an example.
If the elders in the city were convinced that this was unintentional, then it became their duty as Levites to bring him into the city and protect him there. If the avenger came into the city and tried to take him, the accused was safe. If he had this terrible accident and did something he regretted, he could flee to that city of refuge and be safe.
Outside the city, he was still in danger. Numbers 35 describes how he would go into the city and be safe from the avenger. But if at any time he left the city or the small area around it, if he wandered back home just because he had been found innocent at the city of refuge, that did not mean he was safe everywhere. The avenger could still get him.
He was safe because he was in the city of refuge. All of that changed with the death of the high priest. Verse 6 says, “He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the one who is the high priest in those days. Then the manslayer shall return to his own city and to his own house, to the city from which he fled.”
Once the high priest died, he could go home, and nobody could touch him. That was treated as the statute of limitations. Once the high priest had died, he was free to go. He could not be touched. He was free forever.
A Refuge Near Enough for All
The cities of refuge were spread evenly throughout the country. God told them to designate these cities, but He said to spread them throughout the country. They were not supposed to bunch them all up in one place.
God wanted three on the east side of the Jordan and three on the west side. He spread them north, central, and south so that there was a city of refuge relatively nearby for anybody who needed it. He mentions in verse 9 that these appointed cities were “for all the sons of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them.” It did not matter whether a person was an Israelite or a sojourner. If he met the criteria, he was welcomed in.
These cities of refuge were hugely important to somebody in ancient Israel. Hopefully, you would go through your whole life never needing a city of refuge. But things happen every day. Circumstances we do not anticipate can find us, and this was one of those things you were glad to have and hoped never to need.
This was something people from a Jewish background in that day would have been familiar with. By the time we get to the New Testament, it was still something people from a Jewish background would have been familiar with. The book of Hebrews talks about us taking refuge in Jesus, and it is clear to me that Hebrews is referring to the cities of refuge as a picture of Jesus. That picture would help the reader understand what Jesus came to do for us.
When we look at these cities, we see that Jesus offers a permanent refuge for us. As I have done with the Passover lamb, the manna, the water from the rock, the attempted sacrifice of Isaac, and the story of Joseph, I want to take a few moments through some of the parallels between Jesus and the cities of refuge. Otherwise, this is just a history lesson. I did not come here to give you a history lesson today, and you probably did not come here for one.
As much as some of us may like history, that is not what we are here for. These cities of refuge point us to Jesus. The parallels begin with the fact that God’s justice still reigns supreme.
God gave His people principles of justice to follow. The same thing is true today. God has not changed who He is. God is still just. God still sets the standard of what is right and wrong.
I do not set that standard. You do not set that standard. We do not set that standard by popular vote. God decides what is right and wrong, and it is rooted in who He is.
The moral law is rooted in God’s nature. Because of that, there is an unchanging standard, and you and I will still be called to answer for our wrongs. The consequences of our sin will still find us.
People may think there is no consequence because they did not get caught. Nothing happened this time. But those consequences always catch up with us eventually. One of those consequences is that we stand condemned before a holy God. The reality of that looms over us like the threat of the avenger coming after the manslayer.
Jesus, Our Place of Refuge
God has made a refuge for us. It is not a physical city. It is not a place we run to. It is a person.
Hebrews 6:18 talks about believers who have taken refuge and now have hope set before them. Hebrews can be a challenging book. Every time I read through Hebrews, I think, “I have not seen that before.” Hopefully somebody has seen it before, and I am not just making up new things. But there is always something new to learn from Hebrews.
One thing that will help when you study Hebrews is to understand that the point being made is addressed to people who held the Old Testament near and dear to their hearts. Hebrews says that as important as all those things were, and as important as all those things are, their ultimate purpose was to point to Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of all of them.
We see how the sacrifices are a picture of Jesus Christ. We see how the tabernacle is a picture of Jesus Christ. We see how the high priest is a picture of Jesus Christ. We see how the law was intended to point us to Jesus Christ. He becomes the fulfillment of all these things.
Then there is the mention of running to seek refuge. There are other examples throughout the Old Testament of people running away from something, but the only thing I can think of that is taught as a concept of seeking refuge is these cities. That leads me to believe that the writer of Hebrews is telling us that Jesus is our New Testament city of refuge.
He is the one we run to. He is the one God has made to be a refuge for us. Think about what the gospel tells us to do. When the condemnation of our sin is running us down, it is relentless. We cannot escape from it.
You and I have sinned against a holy God, and we stand condemned before a holy God. That condemnation will chase us to the ends of the earth. It will be with us throughout every day of our lives and into eternity. We have no recourse but to run to Jesus.
He is the only place we can seek refuge from that condemnation and judgment. When the hammer of God’s justice is about to fall on us, Jesus is the only place we can run. So we flee to Him.
Just as those cities of refuge made the accused safe, in Jesus we are safe from condemnation. That does not mean we are safe from every consequence of our sins. Those who had committed manslaughter were not necessarily safe from every consequence. If the axe head flew off and killed your friend, there would still be the consequence that you were devastated over losing your friend. There would probably be a sense of guilt over the accident, the feeling that you wished it had not happened, or that it had been you instead.
There are all sorts of consequences, but the condemnation for that act was something they were safe from when they were in the city. In Jesus Christ, we are safe and secure from the condemnation we deserve for our sins. Outside of Jesus Christ, we have no security. Outside of Jesus Christ, we have no forgiveness. But in Christ, we are safe from the condemnation of our sins.
That is why Romans 8:1 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That is also why Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that the one who does not believe has been judged already. We see that, just like these cities, Jesus is nearby for all of us to call on.
The Refuge Is Near
Those of you who have trusted Jesus as your Savior, did you have to go off somewhere and find Him? Did you have to go to a certain place? Did you have to say, “He can only hear me down at the church”?
Some of you might have trusted Christ as your Savior in a church building during a church service, but that does not mean that is the only place He can be found. I trusted Christ as my Savior at our kitchen table. My son trusted Christ as his Savior while we were hauling a lawn tractor through the little town of St. Louis, Oklahoma. If you did not know there was a St. Louis, Oklahoma, neither do many people who live around it. It is tiny.
We were just in the truck on the road when he trusted Christ as his Savior. Many people in this room trusted Christ as their Savior outside of a church service and outside of a church building. We do not have to go to a certain place to find Him.
At the moment when the Holy Spirit pricks our hearts and we are ready to call out to Him, He is right there and nearby, just like those cities of refuge were nearby to anyone who needed them. God did that with the cities of refuge to make salvation in that sense available to anybody who needed it. For us, Jesus is close by because God has made salvation available to all who will believe.
Again, the refuge was not just for the citizens. It was not just for certain people. God said it did not matter whether someone was an Israelite or a sojourner. It did not matter what his status, standing, or background was. If he needed refuge, he could run to the city of refuge.
The same thing is true for us with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It does not matter where you have come from. It does not matter who you are. It does not matter what you have done. When you recognize the need, you run to the refuge, and that refuge is Jesus Christ.
That is why Paul says in Romans 1:16 that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. For a lot of people, that was unthinkable. There was this covenant with God that the Jews were part of, and the Gentiles outside were not. So they assumed the Messiah came just for them.
But like those cities of refuge, Jesus is available to people of every nation, tribe, tongue, background, and status. The only prerequisite is that we repent and believe.
Set Free by the Death of the High Priest
There is a bonus parallel that does not fit as neatly into the cities of refuge themselves, but still fits into the story of what happened with the cities of refuge. They were set free by the death of the high priest. Hebrews is clear that we are also set free by the death of the High Priest, because Jesus is our High Priest.
For them, the high priest protected them in life and set them free in death. Jesus is our High Priest. As a matter of fact, Stella accidentally broke a little plastic duck that was in my office and brought it to me. She said, “I need to confess something to the priest.” I said, “You better look up, because He’s up there.”
She brought it to show me. But folks, there is one Priest. It is not me. It is not any human priest. There is one Priest, and it is Jesus Christ. When our High Priest died, He set us free forever.
Even the names of these cities point to Jesus and what He did. I feel like the guy in the commercials: but wait, there is more. The six cities listed in Joshua point to Jesus Christ.
Kedesh means holiness. Jesus Christ not only is holy, but He makes us holy in the sight of God. Shechem means shoulder, the idea of a place where burdens are carried. Jesus Christ bears our burdens. He bore the heaviest burden we had, the burden of sin, when He took that burden to the cross and was nailed to it with our sins.
Hebron means company or fellowship, and He has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us. Bezer is a fortification or a sheepfold, something the sheep would run into for security, just like we are secure in Christ. Ramoth means exalted, and Philippians tells us that God has given Him a name above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Golan means removal, which is exactly what Jesus has done to our sins. The Bible says He has put them as far from us as the east is from the west. All of these parallels are why the writer of Hebrews used the idea of running for refuge as he consistently shows how Jesus is the New Testament fulfillment of these Old Testament things.
Where they took refuge in a physical city, you and I today have the opportunity to take refuge in Jesus Christ. As we close today, that leads us to the same conclusion so many of these pictures of Jesus in the Old Testament have brought us to: for those facing the condemnation of sin, there is no refuge but Jesus Christ.
No Refuge but Christ
You may ask, “Wait, there are not other ways? What about this way? What about that way?” Jesus said it Himself. If you do not want to agree with me, listen to Jesus. He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
As I have said numerous times through this series, so what if God only made one way of escape? It is one way more than what I deserved. God did not owe me salvation. What God owed me was justice. What God owed you was justice.
But God has made a carve-out of grace in the midst of that justice. He has made a place where we can run for refuge. If we go there and acknowledge our need, if we recognize that our sin has brought us to this place of needing refuge, and we run to Jesus, then we will have refuge from condemnation.
Running to Jesus for refuge is very simple. We are not talking about physical running. We are talking about personally acknowledging the fact that we have sinned against God. Each of us must personally acknowledge, “I have sinned against God, and I cannot be right with Him based on anything I have done.”
Jesus came to earth, took responsibility for my sins, and was punished for them in my place when He was nailed to the cross, shed His blood, and died. Then, to prove that He could forgive our sins, to prove that He could overcome death, and to prove that He could do all the things He promised, He rose again three days later from the dead. If we will acknowledge our sins, believe that, and ask for His forgiveness, we will have it.