Numbers 35

v1-8: Towns were allotted to the Levities from each of the tribes. They were not to have any land to cultivate because “they did not need to sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, for their heavenly Father fed with them with the tithes of the products of other people’s labours.” This freed the Levites up to “study the Law more closely” and gave them “more opportunities to teach the people.” With the Levites living among all the tribes, the light of God’s Word would shine “throughout the whole country, and no one was left to sit in darkness.” It is “a great blessing to a country if it is filled throughout with” those who will faithfully study and teach God’s Word. Pray that this may be so in our nation.

9-34: When someone is killed “accidentally, unintentionally, or without hostility, not seeing the person or not seeking their harm,” the offender may flee to safety in one of the cities of refuge that were appointed, until there was a trial, and afterwards if it “was found to be unintentional or accidental.” As offenders were kind of prisoners in the cities of refuge, these cities taught the people “to have a dread and horror of the guilt of bloodshed, and to take great care of the sanctity of life and to make sure that we do not cause the death of anyone by our oversight or negligence.” Christ is the true city of refuge for believers, as those “who flee to him and rest in him are protected from the wrath of God and the curse of the Law.”