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In the closing chapters of the book of Numbers, among a discussion of land grants to the tribes of Israel we read of a justice-and-mercy system for murderers that prophetically links ransom of the accidentally guilty to the death of the high priest.
Numbers 34
Numbers 34 is the most fascinating of these chapters. We see the borders of the Promised Land, the land that God commanded the children of Israel to posses. The southern part of Israel was arid dessert with the occasional oasis at this time, just as it is today. Mt. Hor, the mountain where Aaron was buried, was part of the northern border of the Promised Land. The Sea of Kinneret (Galilee) and the Dead Sea were a part of the ancient east border of Israel, just as they are in the modern day.
Since the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half-tribe of Manasseh were on the other side of the Jordan, God did not lay down any commandments through Moses on how they are divided. They decided those borders on their own. God had a direct hand in how the Promised Land was divided and each tribe that had an inheritance in the Promised Land had an elder who was appointed to a committed dedicated to carve up the Promised Land between all the tribes who were entering in.
God gave four cities per tribe to the tribes of Israel, but Levi was given 48 cities and six of them were designated as cities of refuge.
Numbers 35
In Numbers 35, Moses also reiterates the inheritance of the Levites and the purpose of the cities of refuge and how the children of Israel were to conduct judicial hearings of accused murderers.
God also gives Moses detailed rules on how the cities of refuge were to function and how premeditated murders were to be prosecuted vs. people who accidentally killed a person. Once the court made a decision, if the court decided the murderer was to be executed, the nearest male relative or the witnesses would be appointed by the court to carry out the sentence. That makes justice very personal. Even though it must be a difficult thing for a person, who was not a trained soldier or assassin, to have to kill the murderer. If the male relative or the witnesses refused to carry out the execution, God says that the land would be polluted so God takes murder very seriously but he also takes justice for the dead victim very seriously and the squeamishness of the person who has the responsibility to carry out the execution is no excuse not to carry it out.
If a person is found guilty of accidentally killing a person, not premeditated killing, he is sentenced to live in the city of refuge until the high priest dies.
Anyone sentenced for premeditated cannot be pardoned or ransomed. No sacrifice, even the sacrifice of Yom Kippur, can cover the person guilty of this crime. Only his own death can keep the land from being defiled.
For the accidental murderer, he cannot be pardoned or ransomed either, but the death of the high priest could ransom him from effective imprisonment in a city of refuge. God is the one who decides when the high priest dies. All of our days are numbered — not because of science or DNA — but because of God. Yeshua, the High Priest after the Order of Melchizedek, died to free all who repent from their rebellion against God, which would otherwise warrant death.
Numbers 36
Numbers 36 recounts inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad. Their father had no sons so they were in line to inherit his land and home. The other members of the tribe were very worried about what would happen of these women married outside the tribe.
Since the book of Numbers ends just as the children of Israel were preparing to enter the Promised Land, Moses takes this time to remind the people how the they were to conduct their legal affairs in regards to the inheritance of land within the tribes.
This story is not a biblical example of arranged or child marriages. People in the Bible times were allowed to have a choice of whom to marry.
Speaker: Richard Agee. Reader: David De Fever. Summary: Tammy.
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