Sermon Transcript — February 21, 2004
A violent crime in our country is up fourteen percent over last year. There is now a violent crime committed every three and a half minutes in our country. Here in Los Angeles forty-four police officers were either shot, or shot at, last year and that was up from thirty the previous year.
So far this year in the month of January and half of the month of February, seven police officers have been shot or shot at, and as many of you probably have heard in the news, one was fatally shot yesterday in south Los Angeles. Literally thousands of major crimes go unsolved, and known criminals go unconvicted and unpunished in our society.
I am constantly amazed at the crimes which are reported daily here in southern California, suddenly missing children, men and women, bodies discovered in shallow graves, lakes, rivers, the ocean, dismembered parts found in storage garages, freezers, concrete, children killing children. We live in a violent society, don't we?
Then we have long, drawn out trials which too often end in the guilty being released because of a technicality. Oftentimes botched legal prosecutions or buying experienced well-known defense lawyers who are political insiders and plea bargains which often release the guilty back onto our streets to commit more crimes.
The worse serial killer in history was convicted this past year. He's known as "The Green River Serial Killer," Gary Ridgeway. He was convicted of killing forty-eight women over a twenty-five year period. He claims it was more than seventy, but he couldn't remember the faces or the graves.
When convictions actually do happen, sentences are often light. Gary Ridgeway got a life sentence without chance of parole. Convicted criminals are frequently released early and become repeat offenders. In fact almost eighty percent of all crime is committed by these repeat offenders. The average death row convict sits in our prison system for an average of thirteen years while his case goes through the appeals process. Something is terribly wrong with our criminal justice system.
For a moment I would like to take us back to the beginning. Let's go back to the book of Genesis. Genesis 9:5, we read a couple of very interesting scriptures. God had preserved Noah and his sons and their wives through a deluge that destroyed the world's population, a violent world. And immediately after the flood and the appearance of dry land, and the exodus from the ark of the animals, Noah and his sons and their wives, God instituted what is commonly called the administration of death, capital punishment for capital crimes.
It began very early on even before the establishment of the Old Covenant. It was a principle that existed for many hundreds and in fact, thousands of years, even today our judicial system is based, at least in most states, upon the concept of capital punishment. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. Let me just read Genesis 9: 5 and 6 with you.
Genesis 9:5 - "Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of every man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man.
Verse 6 - "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man." Like I said, this is commonly called the administration of death, capital punishment for capital crimes. If an animal took a man's life, the animal's life would be taken. If a man's life was taken, a life would be required. What we see here is something more important. It's called the avenger of death. That is there was a specific responsibility given to the nearest of kin. In this case, it's called a man's brother. God says toward the end of Verse 5, "From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man."
So the avenger of death, the one who was to carry out the administration of death was the closest of kin. The closest of kin became the avenger of death. He was responsible for taking the life of someone who took another's life.
Now, why would God institute a law like this? Very clearly, the words of God say because man's life should be kept at a high value. We want to value the life of man because man was created in the image of God, so the value of this life needs to remain high, and someone who takes another life needs to know that their life will be required. So the value of life was kept very high, secondarily it stabilized society. It was supposed to be a stabilization for society, a deterrent for capital crimes which I think we all know is unfortunate in our society today. It seems to have lost its sense of the original purpose of the administration of death and capital punishment for capital crimes.
Now let's go to Exodus 21. I would like to introduce the thought here. I am heading somewhere today. Exodus 21:12, we find a thought introduced as God is beginning to give to ancient Israel the statutes based upon the laws to help stabilize their society and their culture. At this time we are aware that everyone was knowledgeable of the administration of death; everyone was sensitive to it. In Exodus 21:12 there's an interesting wrinkle that we've put into this whole formula.
Exodus 21:12 - "He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death." A repeat, if you will, of the administration of death.
Verse 13 - "However, if he did not lie in wait, but God delivered him into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.
Verse 14 - "But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor, to kill him by treachery, you shall take him from My altar; that he may die." He says even if he pleads for mercy, if he took another man's life in premeditated murder, his life should be taken.
But Verse 13 outlines accidental death. If someone dies accidentally, God said He would provide a place where this person could flee. We have the first hint of what is commonly called - refuge city, a city of refuge. That is, if someone accidentally took another man's life, another woman's life, he had the opportunity to flee from the avenger of death. And if he could beat the avenger to the city of refuge and get inside the walls of the city of refuge, he would be safe from the avenger of death.
Now this created a little bit of a dilemma because the avenger of death may not have understood that it was an accidental death, and he parked himself outside the gates because remember, it's his responsibility to take the life of the murderer; he parked himself outside the gates of that city and waited. And if the guilty party came out, it was open season. The avenger had the responsibility from the administration of death to take his life.
Well let's pursue this concept just a little bit further and go to Numbers 35. I'd like to read a rather lengthy section of scripture here from Numbers 35:10 through Numbers 35:28. We find that God sets up cities of refuge, and it's rather interesting to me as I have made a couple of trips to Hawaii in the course of serving as regional pastor over there that there were some of the islands that were established as cities of refuge. So this concept has been known for a long, long time, and up until very recently they had cities of refuge in Hawaii where criminals, if you will, someone who killed somebody by accident could actually flee to the city of refuge on one of the Hawaiian islands, and he would be protected from the avenger of death, the one who was responsible for carrying out this capital punishment. Let's notice here, beginning in:
Numbers 35:10 - "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, 'When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
Verse 11 - " 'then you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there.' " So these cities of refuge were intentionally for people who kill someone accidentally.
Verse 12 - "'They shall be cities of refuge for you from the avenger,' " Again, the avenger of death was the next of kin, the brother, we talked about in Genesis 9, who was responsible now for carrying out the capital punishment for a capital crime. ". . . that the manslayer (may) who did not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment." Now it's interesting these cities that were established in ancient Israel, there were first three, then there were six, and eventually there were to be forty-eight cities. They were established as primary cities for the sons of Levi. And the Levites were to dwell there. So the Levites, then, when someone killed another person accidentally, and he fled to one of these cities of refuge, the Levites then would hear his case. If you will, there was a court appointed, and they would listen to the arguments; they would listen to his case, and then they would make a judgment.
They would say, "Well, it sounds to us like an accidental death. So we judge that you shall live. You shall be protected within the walls of this city for the rest of your life, or up until the death of the high priest. And as long as you stay in the city, your life will be preserved. If you go outside the city, and the avenger is still waiting for you, he can kill you." Which is kind of an interesting concept, wasn't it?
Verse 13 - " 'And of the cities which you give, you shall have six cities of refuge.
Verse 14 - " 'You shall appoint three cities on this side of the Jordan, and three cities you shall appoint in the land of Canaan, which will be cities of refuge.' " So there were going to be three on one side of the river of Jordon, and three on the other side of the river Jordon.
Verse 15 - " 'These six cities shall be for refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, (and) for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills a person accidentally may flee there.' " So it was to apply to anyone in the land, a visitor, a stranger, a slave, and of course, an Israelite.
Verse 16 - " 'But if he strikes him with an iron implement, so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.' "
He said, "Now this is not for murderers. This is not for capital crimes. This is for people who accidentally may take the life of another person."
Verse 17 - " '(And) if he strikes him with a stone in the hand, by which one could die, and he (does) die(s), he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.
Verse 18 - " 'Of if he strikes him with a wooden hand weapon, by which one could die, and he does die, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.
Verse 19 - " 'The avenger of blood himself shall put the murderer to death;' " And this of course was the responsibility, as we said earlier, of the next of kin. " '. . .when he meets him, he shall put him to death.
Verse 20 - " 'If he pushes him out of hatred or, while lying in wait, hurls something at him so that he dies,
Verse 21 - " 'or in enmity he strikes him with his hand so that he dies, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death. He is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.
Verse 22 - " 'However, if he pushes him suddenly without enmity, or throws anything at him without lying in wait,
Verse 23 - " 'or uses a stone, by which a man could die, throwing it at him without seeing him, so that he dies, while he was not his enemy or seeking (his) any harm,
Verse 24 - " 'then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood according to these judgments.' " Like I said, then it was put before the Levites who were to inhabit these cities of refuge, and they would make a judgment based on the evidence.
Verse 25 - " 'So the congregation shall deliver the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall return him to the city of refuge where he had fled, and he shall remain there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.' " So again, his life could be spared if it was considered an accidental death, but he had to remain in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest.
Verse 26 - " '(But) So if the manslayer at any time goes outside the limits of the city of refuge where he fled,
Verse 27 - " 'and the avenger of blood finds him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood.' " In other words, if the guy went outside of the city, he was fair game for the avenger of death doing his duty to stabilize society.
Verse 28 - " 'because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.' " He could go back to his family; he could go back to his possessions; he could go back to his inheritance without fear of the avenger of blood taking his life. It was an interesting system; it was a very interesting setup.
I do have a handout for you to locate these cities. Steve, if you and the other ushers could distribute those to everybody. I'd like to point those out to you. While they're distributing those, let's turn to Deuteronomy 19 and read a little bit more about these cities of refuge because believe it or not, these cities of refuge have a great deal to do with us. Oh, I'm not promulgating cities of refuge in our communities. I'm not about to suggest that we should go back to the law of the administration of death or the avenger of death in our culture. I think that would be an incredibly impossible task in this world in which we live.
Deuteronomy 19:2 - We read further, and more specifically about these cities. " 'you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess.' " And we read earlier that was going to be expanded to six, and eventually it would be expanded to forty-eight as the population grew in each of the tribes.
Verse 3 - " 'You shall prepare roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory (of) in your land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, that any manslayer may flee there.' " It's interesting the purpose of developing the major highways that still exist to this day in Israel was to make sure there was a way for the man who had killed someone accidentally to get to a city of refuge. If you establish a city of refuge, and it was surrounded by a jungle and nobody could get there, it wouldn't be of much use, would it?
I have had the great blessing of hiking down what is called - the west coast trail, which is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It's a rain forest on the west coast of Vancouver Island; they get about three hundred and fifty inches a year of rain. They have ferns there that about twelve to fifteen feet in diameter. It's literally a north forest jungle.
What is really interesting about that coastline, it's very cliffy, and craggy, very dangerous, and of course, many ships used to wreck there, and because there are reefs a number of people survived the shipwrecks and made it to shore, and if it was low tide, there was actually beach showing and they could find their way up the cliffs to the top of the cliffs, and there were many hundreds of survivors who did this over a period of time of about thirty, or forty, or fifty years, and they all perished because they couldn't get through the jungle; they couldn't get through that rain forest down to the city of Port Renfrew, or even across the island to the other side where the major population lives.
And so the Canadian government in the early nineteenth century, the mid-nineteenth century actually commissioned the west coast trail. They carved a trail out of the jungle, which they maintain to this day. It's sixty miles long, and it was originally carved out of the jungle so that when ships wrecked there, and the survivors who made it to shore could actually climb the cliffs, get onto the trail, and they could walk south to Port Renfrew, and you know, get food and clothing and whatever they needed. And it's an incredible trail; it needs constant maintenance; it is so heavily traveled today by hikers, it has kind of outlived its purpose for survivors of shipwrecks, but today, you have to get a reservation, and it's about two and a half years before you can get a reservation on this west coast trail. It's a beautiful hiking trail, one of the prettiest hiking trails in the world, but it'll take you a couple of years to get on the wait list to hike down this sixty mile trail.
The point I'm trying to make is if you had a city of refuge on something like North Vancouver Island in the middle of a rain forest, nobody could get to it unless there was a highway, unless there was road, so what God is saying here, He says, "I want you to prepare roads, and I want these roads to go from city of refuge to city of refuge." So that wherever the tribe that settled, and you'll see in the map that I have given you the settlement of the twelve tribes of Israel in the land, and you will see also that I have circled on the map the three cities of refuge on one side of the river Jordon, and the three that are on the other side of the river Jordon. We're going to get into, as you will see on the backside, a little bit of a word study of these cities that God had commissioned.
Verse 4 - " 'And this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, not having hated him in time past -
Verse 5 - " 'as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head of the ax slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies - he shall flee to one of these cities and live;' " So he gives a specific example of someone who's chopping down a tree with an ax, and the head of the ax slips off and strikes his neighbor and accidentally kills him.
Remember the price of life is high. A life has been taken. A man dies. It is the duty of the avenger of death, the next of kin once he realizes that his next of kin has been killed, it's his duty to provide capital punishment for a capital crime, but this city of refuge now allows this manslayer to run there that he may live.
Verse 6 - " 'lest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursues the manslayer (and) overtakes him, because the way is long, and kills him, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in times past.
Verse 7 - " 'Therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall separate three cities for yourself.
Verse 8 - " 'Now if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers,
Verse 9 - " 'and if you keep all these commandments
and do them, which I command you this
day (today), to love the Lord your God and to walk (always) in the ways
that He has given
Verse 10 - " 'lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed shall be upon you.
Verse 11 - " 'But if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him. . .' " What we would call today premeditated murder. " '. . .strikes him mortally , so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,
Verse 12 - " 'then the elders of this city shall send and bring him out from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.' " Again, to keep the value of life high and to stabilize the culture.
Verse 13 - " 'Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.' " So we have described here a whole infrastructure around which the tribes were settled, around which society was to be stabilized for capital crimes, an inoculation, if you will, for society getting out of control and growing into anarchy. And what it did, it put the responsibility on the entire congregation, is what it did, because if you had a relative who was killed, it became your responsibility as the next of kin to carry out the death penalty.
Okay, let's look at the handout you have and the names of the cities that are described as the cities of refuge. Let's begin with Kedesh. Kedesh means literally - our sanctuary. This is a place that is set apart. It also means - fresh, pure bought, holy, to be set apart for holy use. So God considered these cities very special.
Shechem - literally means, our strength. Strong defended city, burden bearer literally, to incline oneself to bear a burden. And again, it was carrying the burden of this responsibility of this administration of death.
Hebron, known as friend, sometimes called the city of Abraham who was the friend of God, reflects the spirit of association or relationship or friend.
Bezer, our fortress, literally, is the translation for Bezer. It means foundation or built up. It was on the foundation of the culture that this law was applied, the law of the administration of death.
Ramoth literally means our home, a place of exaltation, a dwelling place.
And Golan, after which today we named the Golan Heights, meant enclosed or embraced. It meant like a big hug.
I think you can begin to understand if you had accidentally killed someone, and you, of course, wanted to preserve your life, and you headed for one of these cities, you would appreciate these names, wouldn't you? Embraced, a home, like a home away from home, a friend, a place of strength to protect you from the avenger of death, our sanctuary, to be set apart, to be made fresh, given a new lease on life, if you will. Now your probably wondering, "Okay, what does all this have to do with us here today?" As I said, I am not promulgating a new sub-culture to be developed within our own runaway culture of crime.
These cities, the law of the avenger of death and the infrastructure of ancient Israel can teach us much about our personal place of refuge. Let me explain. The avenger of death actually had two roles.
Number one: He was the justifier, in other words he justified the taking of one life for another. So he was the justifier. He was the one who redeemed the life.
Secondarily: He was the avenger; he was the enforcer for the culture. Let me ask you, who is the justifier of us now? Let's go to Romans 3. I told you I was going to personalize these cities of refuge to us today. Like so much of the Old Testament, whether we're talking about the sacrificial system, or whether we're talking about the infrastructure of these six cities divided equally among the population established with roadways that had to be kept clear and straight, we can learn principles for us today because these things that became part of the ancient civilization, the ancient culture of Israel, these elements all pointed to Jesus Christ. And there is much to be learned from these cities of refuge.
Notice here in Romans 3:23, and I particularly want us to notice the language that's used.
Romans 3:23 - Paul writes: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Who deserves the death penalty? Who needs the city of refuge? Just the man or the woman who committed a capital crime? No, according to the New Testament definition, each and every one of us have committed the capital crime because our sins killed Jesus Christ. We need to be justified; we need to be avenged.
Verse 23 - "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Verse 24 - "being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," The symbols of the Passover, my friends, tell us that we can be justified; that we can be drawn into a city of refuge. Let's read on:
Verse 25 - "whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith. . ." It was interesting that these cities of refuge were actually built upon faith and confidence in the system. When a murderer accidentally killed someone and became a murderer, and he fled to one of these cities of refuge he had to trust the Levites who were there that they would make a righteous judgment about his case. He had to trust the walls of the city. He had to trust the citizens of that city to keep him and safe and sound from the avenger. There was actually a great deal of trust and faith established on that system. ". . .through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed," See, we all need a place of refuge to flee to. We need the symbols, if you will, of the blood and the body of Christ broken for us to justify us in our state.
Verse 26 - "to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." You see, Christ becomes our justifier. That was the duty of the avenger of death under that old system of ancient Israel, and we must, we need to be justified, we need the harbor of a city of refuge in which we can be justified.
Let's go to II Corinthians 13:5. We're in that period of time now before the Passover when we are challenged particularly by the apostle Paul, in this and other places, some of which we will read over the next few weeks, to take an introspective look into our own selves and recognize where we are in comparison to God.
II Corinthians 13:5 - "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith." That is the faith to know that we have committed the crime, we need a place of refuge because we need to be justified by the blood of Christ. Therefore we must have faith that His blood and His broken body can and do justify us. That's why one of the opening comments at the Passover service is very clear. We say, those of us elders who lead the Passover, we say, "You should only partake of these symbols tonight if you have faith in the spilled blood and the broken body of Jesus Christ." We have to have faith that we are justified, just as the manslayer had to have faith that he would be justified by the Levites in those cities of refuge in ancient Israel.
He says, "Test yourselves, Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you are disqualified." And there were some people who actually committed premeditated murder, and they fled to those cities of refuge, and they gave a false report of what happened, and those Levites had to ask God to give them the ability to read attitudes and spirits to discover whether or not they were being lied to. And if they were, as we read, then to put the manslayer out so the avenger of death could take his life. That's why faith is required for us to have confidence in the symbols that we partake of on Passover evening. ". . .Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?" And we symbolize that by ingesting those symbols, the wine and the broken bread, symbolizing that Christ does live in us, we are justified. ". . .unless indeed you are disqualified.
Verse 6 - "But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified." Because we have faith in those symbols that we have been justified by Jesus Christ. Let's go to Hebrews 6:17. When I first studied this topic and many other topics concerning the sacrificial system, I am amazed that God has placed in the Old Testament so many of the fundamental issues of that land and of their system of government and worship that points us to Christ. In this system of the cities of refuge is just another one of those parts of that culture that point us to Jesus Christ. And I thought it would be appropriate if we thought about that today as we begin to examine ourselves; we take an introspective look at ourselves, and we recognize that we're guilty, and that we need a justifier.
Hebrews 6:17 - "Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath," You see, God has made us a promise. And not only did He promise, but He swore that He would fulfill His promise to justify us, to keep us from the death penalty, to keep us from the avenging side of Christ because Jesus Christ will return to this earth, and He says, "He will avenge the death of His saints on those who are not protected in a city of refuge, or a place of refuge.
Verse 18 - "that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie," And secondarily, He swore by it. ". . . we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge. . ."< You see, we have fled for refuge because we realize we needed to be justified and saved from the penalty of death. ". . . to lay hold of the hope set before us.
Verse 19 - "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil." It is through this justification that we now have direct access to God, the Father, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, through the fact that He opened up His arms and embraced us. Look at the definition of those six cities again, and you will see that these are attributes of Jesus Christ and what He provides for us when He becomes that refuge for us, He surrounds us; He hugs us; we have a home in Him and His sacrifice. "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,
Verse 20 - "where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." I have told you today about six cities, and how they pointed to Christ. These cities were for the guiltless. We are the guilty no different from those criminals I described to you in my introduction. And that brings the story of the seventh city, in fact, if you would like to entitle these two sermons, the one that I have given you today, and the one I shall give you next week, you might entitle them, "A Tale of Seven Cities." The story of the seventh city is for us, those of us who are guilty, and that includes all of us. But you will have to come back next Sabbath to hear about that very important city of refuge.