Cherish Life

hey hey good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions this is where every morning we get together we get into God's word we grow in our love for the Lord together this morning we're at Numbers chapter 33 no no no no no NOP Numbers chapter 35: 9 through 33 that's where the 33 came from Numbers chapter 35 9-33 we're looking at the Cities of Refuge this morning we're going to this year hopefully get through Numbers Deuteronomy and the book of Hebrews when we have some coffee we'll pray don't get into God's word let's pray Lord we thank you so much for this day what a blessing it is to get to follow you to serve you as our God you are our king and you are the wonderful Covenant Lord Lord we pray that you would please help us now as we read your word we pray that it would seep deep into our hearts we pray that you would instruct us and help us in knowing the way we should go in Jesus's name amen all right so Numbers chapter 35 beginning at verse 9 then the Lord said to Mo or spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel and say to them when you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan then you shall appoint cities to be the Cities of Refuge for you that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally May flee there they shall be Cities of Refuge for you from the Avenger that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment and of the Cities which you gave you shall have six Cities of Refuge you shall appoint three cities on this side of the Jordan and three cities you shall appoint the land of Canaan which shall which will be Cities of Refuge 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 but if he strikes a man with an iron Implement so that he dies he is a murderer the murderer shall surely be put to death and if he strikes a man with a stone in The Hand by which one would could die and he does die he is a murderer the murderer shall surely be put to death or if he strikes him with a wooden hand sorry 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 the Avenger of blood himself shall put the murderer murderer to death when he meets him he shall put him to death if he pushes him out of hatred while lying in weit hurl something at him so that he dies or in imity he strikes him with his hand 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 however if he pushes him suddenly without enity or throws anything at him without lying in weight 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 him har his harm then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the Avenger of blood according to these judgments 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 while he had where he had fled and he shall remain there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the Holy oil but if a man of slayer at any time goes outside the limits of the City of Refuge where he fled 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 because he should have remained in his City of Refuge until the day of the high priest but after the death of the high priest the mans Slayer May return to the land of his possession and these things shall be a statute of judgment to you throughout your generations and all your dwellings whoever kills a person the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of a witness of witnesses but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty moreover you shall take no Ransom or the life of a murderer who is guilty of death but he shall surely be put to death and he shall take no ransom for him who has fled to the City of Refuge that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the priest so you shall not pollute the land where you are for the blood defiles the land and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it except by the blood of him who shed it therefore do not defile the land which you inhabit in the midst of which I dwell for I yehovah dwell among the children of Israel wow we need to ask ourselves are three questions a what's this about B what's the best vers of sumar Isis and C what are we called to do so a what is this about this well this first part verses 9 through 15 is talking about these six different Cities of Refuge so 9 through6 is talking about Cities of Refuge but what are these Cities of Refuge well that's where uh the verse 15 comes in uh where it says that anyone who kills a person accidentally May flee there so if you accidentally murder someone you get to go there we would call that manslaughter today so if there if there's manslaughter well how do you determine if somebody commits manslaughter or murder well that's where it goes on in verses 16 through 28 so murder specifically in 16 through 21 so if somebody hits someone with an iron implement or takes a rock and hit some with it or right there's this all kind of a list of different scenarios that okay if if a guy does this or if a woman does this and this is how they they hurt someone it seems to be with malicious intent so they're to be put to death and so that's specifically verse 16 he is a murderer the murderer shall surely be put to death these are so murder in ancient Israel is a capital offense and who's to carry out this this this execution once it's been judged well this is the Avenger of blood the goyel so this is this is the often a nearest of kin type thing this is the somebody in the family who Rises up to to go and and execute Justice and so this person could run to the fleet to the City of Refuge huge but there's going to be a judgment that's going to happen talk about that in a moment but if there's premeditated murder the Avenger himself verse 19 the Avenger of blood himself shall put the murderer to death when he meets him he shall put him to death right so that's what that second paragraph is about so the next section versus 22 through 28 though not everybody who murders or takes somebody life did so on purpose right we live in a sad Fallen World there may be times where somebody throws a rock they're just thrown rocks somebody accidentally walks across the path and they get hit in the temple and boom dead there's no malicious intent there that it's an accident that person doesn't deserve to die dad and they need to flee to the City of Refuge but if it's determined that this was not murder but this was manslaughter that there's going to be judges and and the City of Refuge he's going to be able to live in the City of Refuge until the death of the high priest now once the high priest dies then he's able to go back home but until that time he's got to stay there right even though it it was even though it was accidental even though it wasn't purposeful right even though the you've just been playing around you know and he pushed the guy and he tripped on on on something and fell and hit his head and he died and oh my goodness what has happened now this guy is dead this is my friend and and here comes his brother and his brother wants to kill him this guy High tells it to the City of Refuge the Judgment right the elders say no he's he's not guilty not guilty of murder this was just an accident there's got to be time for this this goyal this Avenger of blood to calm down for there to be time of grieving and eventually of of healing before he can return home so it's a sad series of incidents but God is saying he's he's got a way to try to preserve this now it's interesting in verses 29 through 34 that it kind of sums these things up and gives us just a few more details right and these statutes verse 29 and all these things shall be a statute of judgment to you throughout your Generations at your dwellings right whoever kills a person the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses right so again murder is a capital offense but you cannot convict someone of murder on the testimony of only one witness why because the person could be lying because they may have how how are they to maybe one person thinks that there's malicious intent maybe they don't like the other person and so they think poorly of them and they think oh they must have wanted to do this right and so God says no no no if it's going to be a capital offense it must be on the testimony of two or three Witnesses right that's what confirms especially in a capital offense right you cannot take the witness of just one so you shall not and the thing it says is would be a miscarriage of Justice if you were to take only one witness the other miscarriage of justice is if somebody could just buy their way out of it somebody could just pay a ransom price right there's the system of justice amongst Israel is is a system of restitution right we we live in a weird system where it's supposed to be uh Rehabilitation right our Justice is largely rehabilitative rehabilitative um but often it's also punitive and people just go to jail for long periods of time and hopefully they learn their lesson but in Israel it was very different right if you stole you had to repay plus some if you uh you committed some harm against your neighbor there was a monetary value that the courts could assign to it we will we see this sometimes in our society with people suing you know people or or Corporation ations or companies right and so that's kind of the idea of what's going on here but if it's a murder case there's no amount of money that can make up for it actually God says that the land has been polluted and the only thing that will atone for that blood in the land it's the blood of the murderer to be shed so this is the way the Lord says it's supposed to operate and so in verse 34 he says therefore do not defile the land which which you inhabit in the midst of which I dwell why why all of these commands why what was the purpose of all this well the very last statement for I the Lord I Jehovah dwell among the children of Israel God himself is in their presence in their midst what is this whole section about this is about the Cities of Refuge yes this is about the difference between murder and and manslaughter yes this is about murder being a capital punishment yes but it's also about God being amongst his own people right when they went into the promised land god wasn't just going to Desert them but God is an omnipresent God he is a covenant King and he dwells amongst his people so they are to be holy as he is Holy what's the best verse to summarize all of this well in my Bible um interestingly I only have verse 19 the Avenger of blood underlined I don't know why I have any don't have anything else underlined but um I might have verse 30 whoever kills a person the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses but on one witness but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty maybe that but but see this maybe it's about Cities of Refuge too right because this is Jess at the Tail land of all these different cities that The Levites are going to to inherit and so maybe I would also underline verse 11 yeah maybe verse 11 and 12 on on these Cities of Refuge this would be a hard one I might have to underline different paragraphs after we get off here I'm actually go and highlight in my Bible well last SE calling what are we called to do I think we are to still keep the sixth commandment we are to not commit murder we're not to kill right we're to preserve our life and the life of our neighbor right we're not to take our life or take the life of our neighbor unjustly or and we're not supposed to do anything else that might tend to taking their life or or ruining their life right we are to be those that know that God still walks amongst us today but the Lord is still the same omnipresent God we don't live in ancient Israel but we can take the general Equity the principles of this law we can say if God was with them is he surely not with us are we not the type of people who love Justice and love the life that he's given us he's made us in His image and so do we preserve life do we promote the preservation of life let's pray father we pray that you would please help us help us to be people who would cherish life help us to be the type of people who would serve you us to be the type of people who would live our lives knowing that you walk amongst us that you are in our midst Lord we know this is true because we know especially that your holy spirit is in our hearts so father we pray that you would conform Our Lives to your ways let us love what you love let us love you above all we pray in Jesus's name amen may God bless you may you walk in the ways of Jesus Christ may you be conformed to him image and may you love with the type of love that he has loved you I'll see you next time bye