The Avenger of Blood

Good evening. Please open your bibles to Joshua chapter 20. Joshua chapter 20.

By way of reminder, when we finished chapter 19 a few weeks ago we closed out a major section in this book. The people of God made their way into the land early in this book, just as God had promised.

God gave them military victory and prominence in the land, just like he had promised.

And beginning in chapter 13 he starts to divide up the land among the different tribes, just like he had promised. Each tribe is allotted a certain portion of the land as their inheritance. The description of everybody’s allotment of land continues all the way through chapter 19, which concludes with Joshua getting his inheritance.

So that long, and sometimes tedious-sounding description of the tribal allotment, or tedious sounding to us I might say, is over. Everybody has their land, and has their place of inheritance within Canaan.

Now it is time to make the final arrangements to set up Israel as a proper nation in the land.

And, as we will see, God doesn’t do what you would expect him to do, which is often the case.

If you were setting up a nation from scratch, what would be your priorities? What are the things that you’d take care of first, right out the gate?

Maybe a nationwide defense network. Maybe setting up a standing army.

Maybe infrastructure, like water distribution canals and wells, or maybe roads for safe travel and to improve commerce.

That’s not what God does first, as we will see. He is concerned with mercy. He is concerned with justice and mercy.

In our text tonight he lays out the final stages of a plan that was set in place earlier through Moses, and that is a plan to have certain cities that were designated as cities of refuge.

These refuge cities were designed to ensure justice and provide a safe haven for someone who unintentionally killed someone. That might seem like a very strange text to preach a sermon on, but I hope that as we make our way through the text, I’ll be able to show you several principles to guide our minds and hearts, as we reflect upon who God is, who we are, and perhaps more importantly, what this has to do with Jesus Christ.

Let’s begin by reading the chapter. Joshua chapter 20:

 

Then the Lord said to Joshua, ² “Say to the people of Israel, ‘Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, ³ that the manslayer who strikes any person without intent or unknowingly may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood. ⁴ He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and explain his case to the elders of that city. Then they shall take him into the city and give him a place, and he shall remain with them.

⁵ And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not give up the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor unknowingly, and did not hate him in the past. ⁶ And he shall remain in that city until he has stood before the congregation for judgment, until the death of him who is high priest at the time. Then the manslayer may return to his own town and his own home, to the town from which he fled.’”

⁷ 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.

⁸ And beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they appointed Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland, from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh.

 ⁹ These were the cities designated for all the people of Israel and for the stranger sojourning among them, that anyone who killed a person without intent could flee there, so that he might not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, till he stood before the congregation.

Let me begin by giving us some backstory, and then I will make some observations and applications. So first the backstory.

In Exodus 21, long before the people of God were in the land, back right after the giving of the law at Mount Sinai in chapter 20, God says very simply that he will provide a place for someone to flee to if you are guilty of accidental homicide.

Exodus 21, starting in verse 12: “Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee.”

So that means, that if you’re guilty of murder, intentional and premeditated taking of life, then you deserve death. But if you “did not lie in wait for him,” meaning it was not premeditated, you didn’t plan to do it out of hatred, what we could call manslaughter today, instead of murder, then God will provide a place for you to flee.

That’s all he says there. Nothing about where this place would be, or how many of these places there might. Just that God would make a place to which a manslayer might flee.

Later, in Numbers 35, God picks up this theme again, and expands upon it. If you want to follow me there, it might prove helpful to you. Numbers 35.

God is here in Numbers 35 giving fuller instructions about the refuge cities and how to handle murder and manslaughter. Understanding these earlier texts, will help us understand Joshua 20, so I hope you’ll stick with me.

In verses 6 and 7 God tells them specifically that 6 of the 48 cities given to the Levites shall serve as cities of refuge. 6 Cities, belonging to the Levites. We’ll come back to that point later.

Now go down to verse 9:

⁹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there. ¹² The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.

¹³ And the cities that you give shall be your six cities of refuge. ¹⁴ You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan, to be cities of refuge. ¹⁵ These six cities shall be for refuge for the people of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills any person without intent may flee there.

6 Cities of refuge, 3 on the eastern side of the Jordan, and 3 within Canaan.

Then God tells them how to deal with cases of murder:

¹⁶ “But if he struck him down with an iron object, so that he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall be put to death. ¹⁷ And if he struck him down with a stone tool that could cause death, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if he struck him down with a wooden tool that could cause death, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall be put to death. ¹⁹ The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death. ²⁰ And if he pushed him out of hatred or hurled something at him, lying in wait, so that he died, ²¹ or in enmity struck him down with his hand, so that he died, then he who struck the blow shall be put to death. He is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.

That’s how they are to deal with murder. If you intentionally kill someone, your life is to be taken. That’s an important principle.

But what is this language of avenger. Verse 19 says the avenger of blood will put the murderer to death. Who is that?

Well, the avenger, or the avenger of blood, is a member of the murder victim’s family who was traditionally designated as the one to avenge the victim’s death. This was an important custom. It seems that the whole nation had an understanding of the sacredness of human life and the demand of justice to have satisfaction in cases of murder, and the avenger was the one who would ensure satisfaction and justice in the event of a murder case.

Big themes in there, to which we will return. I want to keep going to describe what they were to do with manslaughter. Verse 22:

²² “But if he pushed him suddenly without enmity, or hurled anything on him without lying in wait ²³ or used a stone that could cause death, and without seeing him dropped it on him, so that he died, though he was not his enemy and did not seek his harm, ²⁴ then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood, in accordance with these rules. ²⁵ And the congregation shall rescue the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge to which he had fled, and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.

So, if the killing was accidental, meaning it was manslaughter not murder in our legal vocabulary, then the people were called to protect the manslayer from the avenger and keep him in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest.

The death of the current high priest brought about a change in the legal status of the manslayer, such that he was no longer liable for his manslaughter. It doesn’t say explicitly why.

Presumably because it pictured the need for satisfaction and justice. Someone had to die in exchange for the one slain, and that high priest functioned as the representative in death, in place of the manslayer.

But, just because you were a manslayer and protected within the city of refuge, doesn’t mean you can just do whatever you please.

Let’s keep going into verse 26:

 ²⁶ But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the boundaries of his city of refuge to which he fled, ²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside the boundaries of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood.²⁸ For he must remain 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. ²⁹ And these things shall be for a statute and rule for you throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

Your guilt meant that you must remain in the city of refuge, and if you left before the death of the current high priest, then the avenger could kill you with impunity. If you disobeyed and ignored the consequences of your manslaughter, then you take your own life in your hands, and ignore the protection of the Lord.

Now a few final principles. Verse 30:

³⁰ “If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses. But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.

So the principle there is that Justice requires the verification of an accusation. You must have witnesses to put someone to death. Life is so precious, that it cannot be taken flippantly or rashly, or without verification by multiple sets of eyes.

Verse 31:

³¹ Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death. ³² And you shall accept no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest.

You can’t buy your way to innocence. Guilt is not something that can be removed by money, or land, or cattle, or any other form of wealth. Nor is financial status a valid determiner of guilt or innocence.

The rich and the poor are the same in the eyes of true justice. That’s part of the reason why lady justice is often depicted with a blindfold on in classical artwork. It doesn’t matter who you are: if you are guilty, you’re guilty in a just system.

Let’s keep going: Verse 33:

³³ You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. ³⁴ You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the Lord dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.”

Here we have a final principle. If Israel was unfaithful in all of this, unfaithful to God’s instruction to dealing properly with cases of murder and manslaughter, then the whole land will be defiled. The land itself becomes tainted and unholy because of tolerated injustice.

Nations that refuse to ensure justice, become corrupted and defiled. Injustice perverts order, and tends toward chaos and oppression, which is part of the reason why the book of Judges follows this book.

So those are the instructions about cities of refuge in Numbers.

Those same cities are mentioned twice more before our text in Joshua. In Deuteronomy 4, we see that Moses selects the first 3 of the 6 refuge cities on the eastern side of the Jordan.

In this land on the eastern side of the Jordan, which was given to Ruben, Gad, and the eastern half of Manasseh, Moses selects Bezer, Ramoth, and Bashan as the first 3 cities of refuge.

Then later in Deuteronomy 19, as they are on the verge of crossing the Jordan and entering into the Land, God through Moses reminds them that when they get into the land they need to set up three more cities of refuge.

They are to divide up the land evenly and select the cities. And he even mentions that there should be roads to the cities, a point that I’ll come back to.

And God also makes a final provision. He says in Deuteronomy 19:8 that if they are obedient and take FULL possession of the Land, and God enlarges the land that was promised to them, then they are to add 3 additional cities of refuge, giving them a total of 9.

That hadn’t happened yet in our text in Joshua, because the people had not yet been obedient to fully cast out all the Canaanites, as we have discussed. Indeed, they never will fully cast them out, which is part of the reason why this optimistic and hopefully book is followed immediately by the book of judges, a far less pleasant picture of the people of God.

So, with all that set up and backstory about how these cities were to function, let’s go back to Joshua 20 and make some observations and applications.

A first observation: Notice God’s concern. Notice God’s concern.

As I mentioned in our introduction, if we were planning a new nation from scratch, we might have different priorities. We might prioritize commerce, or national security, or diplomatic relations, or education. But not God.

One of God’s first concerns in setting up this new nation was to ensure that there would be mercy for someone who had defiled themselves.

Even if you killed someone on accident, even if it wasn’t premeditated, you still took a life, a life that is sacred. The sacredness of that life means that justice demands repayment, it demands satisfaction. And eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. That’s what justice demands.

And God new that. But God is concerned with more than justice. He’s certainly concerned with justice, which is why he tells the cities of refuge to not protect someone guilty of actual murder. That person is to be put to death.

But God is also concerned with mercy. He is a God of mercy.

Do you Remember when God revealed himself to Moses in Exodus 33 and 34. Moses ask’s the Lord to show him his glory, and God says you can’t see my face and live, but I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand, and I will pass by and proclaim my name to you.

And God protects Moses, allowing Moses to see merely the back of the Lord when he passed by, and he proclaimed his name.

Do you remember how God described himself when he proclaimed his name?

He doesn’t say, “The Lord, the Lord, righteous and Just.” That would have been true, but that’s not what he says.

No, his self-revelation of his name, of his character is this: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Merciful and gracious, that’s how he describes himself. His first adjective to describe himself is merciful.

Sometimes people think that they want a God of pure justice. When they look at the injustice of this world, they think that what we really need is justice.

You’ll even see that impulse depicted in some macho movies, where the main character is more of a vigilante brutally serving up cold justice with no compassion or mercy for the wicked.

That can be appealing when we look at the wickedness found in this world.

But cold justice, white-hot, instantaneous retribution, can also terrifying if we are honest with ourselves. Because we know that we have not been perfect ourselves.

But praise be to God that we serve a lord who is concerned with BOTH justice and mercy. One of his first concerns after divvying up the land was to ensure places of mercy, cities of refuge, which indicates that he knew how quickly the people would get themselves into trouble.

He knew they would need mercy, that they would defile themselves, that they would need protection, and He was sure to provide that for them.

The concern of the Lord to set up these cities of refuge points toward the character of the Lord, points to he himself being a God concerned with mercy, because he is a merciful God. Don’t overlook that fact. Mercy is a blessed virtue of the Lord, flowing from His goodness.

But let’s make a few more observations. First, related to the theme of justice, we see through these cities this principle: that vindictive vengeance is not consistent with justice. Vindictive vengeance is not consistent with justice.

In a fallen world, we all still retain a sense of justice, thankfully. People know when they have been wronged, and they know that it needs to be made right.

However, because each of us is also a sinner, we usually aren’t the best person to make the thing right when we have been deeply sinned against.

I think that’s part of why the cities of refuge were necessary to begin with. The avenger of blood would be strongly tempted to get revenge against the one who killed their family member.

And while the desire for justice is good and right, we are all tempted to go too far. And seeking vigilante justice, vengeance, revenge is a temptation that every person capable of having.

That’s why I think that this theme is so prominent in so many books and movies. Think about Edmund Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo. A man who spends most of the book planning and plotting to get his revenge against the man who took everything from him.

The same idea is in many modern movies. Even comedically. Think about Iningo Montoya in The Princess Bride. He spends his whole adult life studying sword fighting to he can find his father’s killer and put him to death. His thirst for revenge consumes him.

And that danger is present in each of our hearts. Sometimes, because we have an inflated view of ourselves and our importance, we can take the sins against us and use them as fuel in our hearts to stoke up hatred toward those that sinned against us.

We can stew and stew over the offense, and warp our thoughts against the one who sinned against us. A desire for revenge is really a fomenting hatred in our souls, that actually is inconsistent with justice.

So, this passage teaches us that when we are grievously sinned against, we often need an outside party to help mediate, so that justice can be preserved. We need to be skeptical of our own tendency to skew justice and over-inflate the sins against us.

Prudence teaches us this: that the closer we are to the situation and the more grievous the sin against us or our loved ones, the harder it will be to retain an objective sense of what is just and right.

But even more than that, we each need to be warned against harboring bitterness and malice against someone else. We need to beware of the temptation to imagine what revenge would be like, to desire someone else to fall into shame or physical harm. That’s not consistent with godliness either.

God is a god of mercy and compassion. And that’s not inconsistent with justice either. And we too should grow to be people who pursue both virtues: justice and mercy.

That’s how Jesus could say really radical things like:

 ³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ That’s pure justice.

 ³⁹ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. ⁴⁰ And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic,^[h] let him have your cloak as well. ⁴¹ And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

That’s deeper than pure justice. That’s the absence of retaliation or retribution. And that’s radical. Every bit of our culture pushes against that.

Whether it is John Wayne in the old westerns bringing cold justice to the bad guy, or it’s the political pundits vowing retribution now that their party is back in power, we need to be far away from seeking vengeance for past wrongs.

That’s why the Lord says multiple times in scripture that Vengeance belongs to him. Romans 12:19:

“¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, [that’s a universal negation] but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.””

NEVER Avenge yourselves, Paul says.

God is the one who will take care of the sin against you. That debt will be paid.

If the sin was committed against you by an unbeliever, that sin will be paid for in full, for all of eternity in hell. Justice will be had, and all the wrongs against you will be repaid.

Vengeance is mine, promises the eternal God. And he doesn’t make mistakes, nor does he not follow through on his promises.

But if that sin against you was done by a believer, that sin has also been paid for. Christ paid the price for that sin. Paid for it fully.

And that same pardon is available for each of us too. Whether we are the one doing the sinning, or we are the one harboring bitterness and a sense of vengeance, Christ died for each of us.

That’s the power of the gospel. Christ, the truly innocent man, was left with no refuge from the avenger of blood. His life was taken from him, as if he were the murderer, so that your life could be given refuge.

In fact, and I’ll start to close with this, the word translated Avenger in our text, the avenger of blood, that same word can be translated as redeemer too. Like Boaz was called a redeemer in Ruth 4. Which is fascinating, that the avenger can also be a redeemer in another context.

It’s like the language connected two competing concepts, leaving us to wonder how they could be reconciled.

And then in Christ, that’s exactly what we have together. The spotless lamb of God was our perfect redeemer, protecting us from slavery and death at the cost of his own life, and he is also the avenger of blood, ensuring justice is paid, down to the very last drop.

But who could have imagined that his satisfaction of justice would be at the cost of his very own life?

What a glorious God, what a glorious redeemer, and what a glorious message of mercy.

And the message for us is even better than was for the Israelites in Canaan. Just like the cities of refuge in Canaan were set up NOT ONLY for the Israelites, but also for the sojourners and strangers in the land, this gospel message of mercy is not merely for one group.

It is a message of mercy and justice for everyone. This gospel of refuge is for anyone who would come to Christ by faith.

So if you are a murderer or a manslayer, or if you have never taken a life, but have murdered someone in our heart through bitterness and vengeful thoughts, this gospel message is for you.

It is simply that a perfect and holy son was slain so that you might be forgiven and treated as a God’s holy son. Trust in this Christ, regardless of what sin you have committed, regardless of what wickedness might be found, regardless of what feelings you have about your sinfulness.

Christ’s atonement is enough. He is the true place of refuge.

And when you struggle with feelings of sinfulness, when you feel vulnerable and exposed, when you feel ashamed or weak, when Satan’s accusations make you fearful, remember that the protection Christ is far better than any city of refuge could provide.

Christ is the all-seeing, all knowing God, so no vulnerability can be found in his protection. The boarders of his protection are impervious.

Christ’s atonement has fully satisfied the demands of justice, which means that none of your sins can come back up and condemn you.

There is therefore now NO CONDEMNTATION for those who are in Christ Jesus. The avenger of blood has been pacified, forever.

But Christ is also the perfect redeemer, who delights in showing mercy to you. You’re not a chore and a burden to him that he HAS to save simply out of duty. He loves you, delights in saving you, indeed, delights in you.

He loves you so much that he laid down his life for you. The Redeemer paid the blood price with his own, so that your life could be spared.

Marvel in that mercy. And grow in gratitude for that grace. Remember Psalm 46: The Lord is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.