The Gospel of Refuge: Justice Tempered with Mercy Text: Numbers 35:9-15
Introduction: Justice is Not an Abstraction
We live in an age that speaks a great deal about justice, but it does so in the most abstract and sentimental of ways. For our secularists, justice is a vague feeling of egalitarian outrage, a hashtag, a protest sign. It is a concept completely detached from the character of a holy God, and consequently, it has become a weapon for every kind of mischief. When you detach justice from God's revealed law, it does not become more compassionate. It becomes a ravenous idol, demanding endless sacrifices and offering no real solutions.
The modern world wants mercy without a standard of justice, and it wants justice without any room for mercy. The result is a society that oscillates wildly between license and tyranny. On the one hand, we are told that every sin is a sickness and no one is truly responsible for their actions. On the other hand, a single misspoken word from decades ago can result in a digital mob demanding a man's complete ruin. This is what happens when a society abandons God's dictionary. It loses its mind.
Into this confusion, the law of God speaks with startling clarity and practicality. God's law is not a set of ethereal principles for us to meditate on. It is case law, designed for real people in a real, fallen world. It anticipates messy situations, human error, and the need for careful distinctions. Here in Numbers 35, as Israel stands on the verge of entering the Promised Land, God provides for them a system of justice that is both rigorously righteous and profoundly merciful. He commands the establishment of cities of refuge.
This is not some dusty, irrelevant detail of ancient Israelite civics. This is a revelation of the very heart of God. It is a demonstration that true justice must distinguish between a wicked heart and a tragic accident. It establishes the principle of due process, a concept that Western civilization inherited directly from Scripture, and which it is now in the process of enthusiastically discarding. And most importantly, this provision is a glorious, flashing neon sign pointing forward to the ultimate refuge that God would provide for all sinners, both intentional and unintentional, in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Text
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall select for yourselves cities to be your cities of refuge, that the manslayer who has struck down any person unintentionally may flee there. And the cities shall be for you as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment. And the cities which you are to give shall be your six cities of refuge. You shall give three cities across the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan; they are to be cities of refuge. These six cities shall be for refuge for the sons of Israel and for the sojourner and for the foreign resident among them; that anyone who strikes a person down unintentionally may flee there.'"
(Numbers 35:9-15 LSB)
God's Provision for a Just Society (vv. 9-11)
We begin with the command itself, delivered as Israel prepares for nationhood.
"Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall select for yourselves cities to be your cities of refuge, that the manslayer who has struck down any person unintentionally may flee there.'" (Numbers 35:9-11)
Notice first that this is a command from Yahweh. Civil justice is not a human invention. It is a divine institution. The state is God's deacon, established to punish evil and praise good (Romans 13:4). Therefore, its laws must be grounded in God's law. Any attempt to establish a just society on the shifting sands of human opinion is doomed to fail. We are not setting up a system based on what seems fair to us; we are commanded to implement what God declares to be just.
The central purpose of these cities is stated plainly: they are for the "manslayer who has struck down any person unintentionally." The law of God makes a crucial distinction that our modern, sentimental age often wants to blur. It is the distinction between murder and manslaughter. Murder is premeditated, malicious, and born of hatred (what the law calls killing with "enmity"). Manslaughter, as defined here, is unintentional. It is an accident, a tragedy. The classic example given elsewhere in the law is of a man chopping wood, and the axe head flies off the handle and kills his neighbor (Deut. 19:5). The man is responsible for the death, but he is not guilty of murder. His heart was not filled with malice.
This distinction is the foundation of true justice. To treat a tragic accident with the same penalty as a malicious murder is a profound injustice. And to treat a malicious murder as though it were just a tragic accident is an equal and opposite injustice. God's law requires that we examine not only the action but also the intent of the heart. This requires investigation, evidence, and judgment, which is precisely what the cities of refuge are designed to facilitate.
A Refuge from Vengeance, A Path to Judgment (v. 12)
Verse 12 clarifies the immediate function of these cities.
"And the cities shall be for you as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment." (Numbers 35:12)
The city of refuge serves as a sanctuary from the "avenger of blood." The avenger of blood was typically the nearest male relative of the deceased, and he had a legal, God-given duty to execute justice upon the murderer. This was not vigilante justice; it was a recognized role within Israel's legal system. The principle is that the shedding of innocent blood pollutes the land, and that pollution can only be cleansed by the blood of the one who shed it (Numbers 35:33). This is a stark reminder that sin has real, tangible consequences in the world.
However, the passion for justice, even righteous passion, can be blind. In the heat of grief and anger, a grieving relative might not be in the best position to calmly distinguish between a deliberate murder and a terrible accident. The avenger might pursue the manslayer and kill him before all the facts are known. The city of refuge, therefore, acts as a divinely appointed "cooling off" mechanism. It halts the cycle of vengeance and replaces it with a process of justice.
The goal is to ensure the manslayer does not die "until he stands before the congregation for judgment." This is the biblical basis for what we call due process. No man is to be summarily executed. He has the right to a trial. He has the right to have his case heard before the elders, the representatives of the congregation. This is a protection against mob rule and hasty, passionate retribution. It establishes that justice must be orderly, public, and based on evidence. This is a grace from God, protecting both the accused from unjust vengeance and the community from the guilt of shedding innocent blood.
Strategic and Accessible Grace (vv. 13-14)
The next verses lay out the practical arrangement of these cities.
"And the cities which you are to give shall be your six cities of refuge. You shall give three cities across the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan; they are to be cities of refuge." (Numbers 35:13-14)
God commands six cities in total. They were to be Levitical cities, which is significant. The Levites, the priestly tribe, were dispersed throughout Israel to teach the law of God. It is fitting that the cities of justice and refuge would be administered by those most responsible for knowing and teaching God's law.
But notice the geography. Three cities are to be east of the Jordan, and three are to be in the land of Canaan proper, west of the Jordan. Later, in Joshua 20, we see these cities named, and they are strategically placed throughout the land, north, central, and south on both sides of the river. The point is accessibility. No matter where you were in Israel, a city of refuge was to be within a half-day's journey. The roads to these cities were to be kept clear and well-marked. The grace of refuge was not to be a theoretical possibility; it was to be a practical, reachable reality. When disaster struck, you knew which way to run, and the path was to be open.
This is a picture of God's mercy. He does not place His offer of refuge at an impossible distance. He makes it near. The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (Romans 10:8). The way to safety is clearly marked and accessible to all who need it.
A Universal Provision (v. 15)
Finally, the scope of this provision is made clear.
"These six cities shall be for refuge for the sons of Israel and for the sojourner and for the foreign resident among them; that anyone who strikes a person down unintentionally may flee there." (Numbers 35:15)
This is a crucial point. The protection of the cities of refuge was not limited to native-born Israelites. It was extended to the "sojourner" and the "foreign resident." God's law was to be one law for all. This demolishes any notion that God's justice is tribal or racist. Justice is based on God's character, not on ethnicity or national origin. An unintentional killing is a tragedy whether it is committed by an Israelite or a Gentile living among them. The need for refuge and a fair trial is universal because the image of God is universal.
This provision for the foreigner was a radical concept in the ancient world, where outsiders often had no legal standing or protection. It demonstrates that from the beginning, God's covenant plan had a place for the nations. It was a witness to the surrounding peoples that the God of Israel was the God of all the earth, and His standards of justice and mercy were for all mankind.
Christ, Our City of Refuge
As with all the Old Testament ceremonial and judicial laws, this points us directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. The entire system of the cities of refuge is a beautiful, intricate type of the salvation we have in Him. We are all manslayers. We are not just unintentional manslayers; we are, by nature, malicious murderers. Our sin nailed Jesus to the cross. We are guilty, and the Avenger of Blood, the holy law of God, is in hot pursuit. The sentence of the law is death, and it is a just sentence. "The soul who sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:20).
The law pursues us, and it is relentless. It is righteous in its pursuit. It demands justice for the offense against the holiness of God. And left to ourselves, we have nowhere to run. The law will catch us, and it will execute its righteous sentence, and we will perish. That is the bad news. That is the terrifying reality for every man, woman, and child outside of Christ.
But God, in His infinite mercy, has provided a City of Refuge. That city is not a place; it is a person. His name is Jesus. The author of Hebrews tells us to "flee for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us" (Hebrews 6:18). Jesus is our refuge. When we, by faith, run into Him, the pursuit of the avenging law must stop at the gates. Why? Because inside that city, justice has already been satisfied.
In Christ, the penalty for our sin has been fully paid. The High Priest of that city, Jesus Himself, offered His own blood to cleanse the land polluted by our sin. The law cannot condemn a man who has fled to Christ, because Christ was condemned in that man's place. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). He is our sanctuary. He is our safe place. He is the one who stands before the congregation of heaven and pleads our case, not on the basis of our innocence, but on the basis of His own substitutionary death.
The accessibility of the cities of refuge points to the free offer of the gospel. The way is open. The road is clear. "Whoever will, may come." The invitation is extended to the Israelite and the sojourner, to the Jew and the Gentile. The refuge is for "anyone." Anyone who recognizes his guilt, sees the avenger coming, and flees to the only place of safety will be received. You do not make yourself worthy of the city of refuge. You simply run to it for dear life. You abandon all hope in your own ability to outrun the law, and you cast yourself entirely upon the mercy of the provision God has made. That is the gospel of refuge.