DISCOVER BIBLE | CITIES OF REFUGE

1. Introduction

a) The Bible is full of wonderful stories and special truth. What we want to do is to discover the Bible.  

b) Psalm 119:11 says, "Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You." 

c) Nurture and grow your understanding of the Bible as you read and discover the Bible.  

2. Cities of Refuge

a) Deuteronomy 19:1-14 New International Version (NIV)

19 When the Lord your God has destroyed the nations whose land he is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their towns and houses, ² then set aside for yourselves three cities in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess. ³ Determine the distances involved and divide into three parts the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that a person who kills someone may flee for refuge to one of these cities.

⁴ This is the rule concerning anyone who kills a person and flees there for safety—anyone who kills a neighbor unintentionally, without malice aforethought. ⁵ For instance, a man may go into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, the head may fly off and hit his neighbor and kill him. That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life. ⁶ Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue him in a rage, overtake him if the distance is too great, and kill him even though he is not deserving of death, since he did it to his neighbor without malice aforethought. ⁷ This is why I command you to set aside for yourselves three cities.

⁸ If the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he promised on oath to your ancestors, and gives you the whole land he promised them, ⁹ because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to walk always in obedience to him—then you are to set aside three more cities. ¹⁰ Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.

¹¹ But if out of hate someone lies in wait, assaults and kills a neighbor, and then flees to one of these cities, ¹² the killer shall be sent for by the town elders, be brought back from the city, and be handed over to the avenger of blood to die. ¹³ Show no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.

¹⁴ Do not move your neighbor’s boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

b) A beautiful picture of our safety in Christ, where we are free from the retaliation of our sins. Later, we will see Abner die "as a fool" because he did not stay in the city of refuge. What about you?

c) Have you taken your refuge in Jesus Christ? There are so many folks in our age who take their refuge in church membership. Joining a church no more makes you a Christian than entering a garage makes you an automobile!

John 1:12-13 New King James Version (NKJV)

¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: ¹³ who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

d) We did not make ourselves the children of our parents by what we accomplished. We are the product of their activity. So it is with becoming a child of God. We are not the product of our own deeds (even joining a church!), but rather the product of the  activity of God. He so loved us that He sent His Son to the cross. The "birthing" of our spiritual son-ship comes not from the blood and water of physical birth, but from Christ's death on the cross (See John 19:34) 

John 19:34 New King James Version (NKJV)

³⁴ But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.