“A Place to Run”
Pastor Jason West
November 10, 2024
I. A Place of
Joshua 20:1-3 “Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Say to the people of Israel, “Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, 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.”
A. The Purpose
Deuteronomy 19:3 “You shall measure the distances and divide into three parts the area of the land that the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.”
Exodus 21:13b “… I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee.”
B. The Plan
(Joshua 20:5; cf. Numbers 35:6-15)
Joshua 20:4 “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.”
C. The Process
Joshua 20:6a “And he shall remain in that city until he has stood before the congregation for judgment …”
Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image”
1.
(Numbers 35:16-21)
2.
(Numbers 35:22-25; cf. Deuteronomy 19:4-6)
3. Can I Get a Witness?
(Numbers 35:30)
4. Bribes Are Not Permitted
(Numbers 35:31-32)
5. Justice Will Prevail
(Numbers 35:33-34)
II. A Place of
(Hebrews 7:24-25)
Joshua 20:6 “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” (cf. Numbers 35:25-29).
III. A Place That is
(Joshua 20:8; Deuteronomy 19:3; Psalm 46:1; Ephesians 2:13; Psalm 145:18; Romans 10:13)
Joshua 20:7 “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.”
IV. A Place For a
(2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8:2)
Joshua 20:9 “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.”
V. A Place of Refuge in
(Romans 6:23a; Matthew 11:28)
Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
John 6:37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
Hebrews 9:27 “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment”
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
• See the Bigger Picture
1. Kedesh = “righteousness”
2. Shechem = “strength/shoulder”
3. Hebron = “fellowship”
4. Bezer = “fortress” or “strong”
5. Ramoth = “heights/heavenly places”
6. Golan = “circled, hedged”**