what they should do with the accused criminal. You and your friends would be your own police department!
Being your own police department could be a dangerous way to live. This was especially true when someone died. Sometimes people died because they were murdered. Other times people died because an animal killed them or they were in a farming accident. If someone in your family was murdered, it would be up to your family to find the murderer. You would again need to get all your friends together and hunt down the person you believed to be the murderer. Then, according to the law, it was okay for you to—now get this; you won’t believe it—it was okay for you to kill the murderer! Wow, when you were your own police, you really had a lot of power! You were like the police, the judge, and the jury all at once!
[Western movies illustrate how the Old Testament system worked. The bank robbers would ride out of town, and the sheriff would get the “posse” together. The posse protecting its town is similar to the O.T. system of the larger family and their friends protecting their own.]
What do you think could go wrong if you were your own police department? If you broke your mother’s favorite lamp by accident, what might happen to you? If you smashed that same lamp on purpose, what might happen to you? Why is there a difference?
One problem with being your own police department is that you can make mistakes! Wouldn’t it be awful if you killed someone for being a murderer and he was the wrong person? Then someone would hunt you down and kill you for killing the wrong person. What a mess!
Another problem was accidental killings. What would happen if someone died in a farming accident, but the family thought you killed the person on purpose? The law said they could hunt you down and kill you, because you killed their family member. It was a farming accident—you didn’t want to kill anybody. But they don’t know that, and now they’re coming for you! It isn’t an easy world without police!
It was because of these possible errors that God had Joshua build cities of refuge. The purpose of the cities was to give you a safe place to run to if a family was chasing you. Let’s pretend you and a friend were putting hay up in a barn. You drop your pitchfork and it hits your friend down below! You feel terrible. You run down the steps and see that your friend has already died. Just then, his brother comes running up and yells, “You killed him; you killed him! I’m going to get my family; we’re going to kill you!” What could you do? You could run to a city of refuge.
Joshua built six of these cities. He built them up high on hills so the people could see them from far away. He put pastors [O.T. Levites who had rotating jobs in the Tabernacle] in charge of them. He had wide roads made to each of the cities of refuge. The Levites made certain the roads were always in the best shape, so people could travel fast on them. They were wide, flat, and smooth, and went straight up the hills to the cities. These were the best, widest, smoothest roads in all Israel. At every turn in the road, there was a sign that said “Refuge” with an arrow pointing the way to run, so the person running would not get lost. Joshua made every attempt to make sure that the person could get to the city in safety.
What do you think it would be like to live in one of the cities of refuge? What do you think it would be like to go to jail?
Once you made it to the city, you could run inside and be safe. Yes! But the danger wasn’t over yet. Guilty murderers would run to the cities of refuge as well. The cities of refuge had judges who would hold a trial. The judge would have to hear what really happened (Num. 35:12, 24).
If it was determined that you were guilty of murder, the judge would kick you out of the city of refuge! There wouldn’t be a safe place for you anywhere in the entire country. The family of the one you murdered would continue to look for you. You would never be safe.
If you had killed someone by accident, then you could stay in the city. You were safe, but you were in a kind of jail. If you left the city, then the family of the one you murdered could kill you. Only in the city of refuge would you be safe. Like in our story of accidentally killing someone on the farm with the pitchfork, you would not be guilty of murder. But you would be guilty of being careless, and you would have to live in the city of refuge to be safe. There was protection inside the city but not outside the city (Num. 35:26–27).
The city of refuge was a little like jail, because you couldn’t leave. However, it was nicer than going to jail. It was a safe place. Pastors [Levites], not prison guards, were in charge, and they ran things well. It wasn’t a place of punishment. You could have your own place to live and raise your own food. Visitors could come to see you and spend time with you. It was a great place to live, safe and secure, until your time in the city was up. But how long would you have to stay?
You would have to stay in the city of refuge until the high priest died. Maybe the high priest was very young and healthy, and you would have to stay there for thirty years or more. Ugh! But it was also possible that the high priest was extremely sick when you entered, and he died soon afterward. In that case, you might only have to stay for a week. It didn’t matter when you came in, everyone in the cities of refuge would leave together when the high priest died. The day after the high priest died, all the cities would be empty, except for the pastors [Levites] who worked and lived there. Wow, it would be a ghost town!
God had Joshua create the cities of refuge to make a safe place for people who did wrong accidentally. If they did wrong on purpose, they wouldn’t be able to stay in the city. If it was an accident, the city was a safe place for them.
Jesus is a safe place for all who have done wrong and are sorry for it. The road to Jesus is always wide, flat, and smooth, and it goes straight up to his home—heaven. Whenever we pray, he hears us. If we know Jesus and have done wrong, we need to run to him. He is our refuge. Jesus paid the price for our sin; he took our punishment so we don’t have to pay it ourselves. Our judge, God the Father, will find us not guilty, because Jesus paid the punishment for our sin. Prayer never breaks down. The Bible has signs that tell us Jesus is our refuge, so we never have to be lost. Follow the signs to Jesus!
Remember: You’ve Got His Word on It
This I declare of the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I am trusting him. Psalm 91:2
But to the poor, O LORD, you are a refuge from the storm. To the needy in distress, you are a shelter from the rain and the heat. Isaiah 25:4
God cannot lie when he takes an oath or makes a promise. These two things can never be changed. Those of us who have taken refuge in him hold on to the confidence we have been given. Hebrews 6:18 GOD’S WORD
A highway will be there, a roadway. It will be called the Holy Road. Sinners won’t travel on it. It will be for those who walk on it. Godless fools won’t wander {onto it}. Isaiah 35:8 GOD’S WORD
Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 GOD’S WORD
