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Host (Male): A just society is one that seeks to restrain evil and promote righteousness. And today we live in a country of laws that are meant for the most part to protect us. God's people in Old Testament times had the same. But they also point to something and someone where we can find refuge. Hello and welcome to Study the Word with Thom Keller, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Lebanon. We join Thom with more lessons from the Old Testament book of Joshua. Picking up in chapter 17, beginning with a brief review. Here's Pastor Thom.

Pastor Thom Keller: Joshua 17, a little background. Again, as you know, Moses died at the end of the Exodus. And now Joshua is taking the children of Israel into the land. And in chapter 17, for the most part, they've gone through their major battles and they've conquered the people and they're now in chapter 17, they're doing land assignment. We're not going to read all of this, just highlight some places.

So in 17 verse 1 it says the next allotment of land was given to the half-tribe of Manasseh. But in verse 3 we find out that Zelophehad, son of Hepher, who was a descendant of Manasseh, Machir, and Gilead, had no sons. Instead, he had five daughters. Their names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. And Dan's made this point many times but if you want a name for a girl, there's some in there you can reach for as you're naming your children. I'm not sure about Hoglah. I haven't seen that in a wedding announcement yet. Hoglah and Bill being married.

These women came to Eleazar the priest, Joshua, son of Nun, and the Israelite leaders and said, "The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance along with the men of our tribe." So what they're saying is our father had no sons, only daughters. And should we be discriminated against simply because there were no sons? Can we have land? And this question was asked of Moses and Moses said yes. And now they're actually to the point of getting the land and they go to Joshua and they remind him of this. And it says so Joshua gave them an inheritance along with their uncles as the Lord had commanded.

Verse 14, chapter 17 verse 14, the descendants of Joseph, which were Ephraim and Manasseh, came to Joshua and asked, "Why have you given us only one portion of land when the Lord has given us so many people?" Joshua replied, "If the hill country of Ephraim is not large enough for you, clear out the land for yourselves in the forest where the Perizzites and the Rephaites live." They said, "The hill country is not enough for us and the Canaanites in the lowlands around Beth-shan and the Valley of Jezreel have iron chariots. They are too strong for us."

Then Joshua said to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the descendants of Joseph, "Since you are so large and strong, you will be given more than one portion. The forests of the hill country will be yours as well. Clear as much of the land as you wish and live there, for I am sure you can drive out the Canaanites from the valleys too, even though they are strong and have iron chariots." And here you have a picture that even after these battles, the children of Israel, there's still some level of fear about who are still living in the land.

As we go on into this, it's very interesting. And as we read through this, I'd like you to consider, because they never do wipe out all of the people living in the land. And I'd like you to consider what the possibilities could be for that. Why maybe is that? Our first assumption is that they were that strong. But the more I study this, I don't think that's what it was. And you come to your own conclusions. And we may talk about that later, but I don't think it was their strength. I think they could have done it. It isn't that they didn't believe in themselves enough. I think there was maybe something more insidious than just they couldn't defeat them.

Let's go into chapter 18. Now that the land was under Israelite control, the entire Israelite assembly gathered at Shiloh and set up the Tabernacle. But there remained seven tribes who had not been allotted their inheritance. Now Shiloh comes from the root word "Shalah" which means to be tranquil, secure, happy, to prosper and to live in safety. The word actually in Genesis is used to describe the Messiah's reign. In Genesis 49 where Joseph is passing out the blessings to his sons, remember that? He goes down through and he gives each of the sons a blessing. He says of Judah, and if you remember Judah, Jesus was of the house of Judah, David was of the tribe of Judah. It says the scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come.

And there Shiloh is a reference to the reign of peace and prosperity that Jesus would bring. But in the Promised Land, the Tabernacle was set up in Shiloh. Shechem was probably the center of the trade for the Promised Land, but Shiloh would have been the center of the religious activity. The Tent of the Meeting was set up there. This is where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and where they would have gone to hear God's voice and direction for His people.

And again in verse 7, it says that there were seven tribes who had not yet been allotted land. And then it goes on and in verse 8 Joshua sends out some men to look at the land and come back with a report. Verse 8 says as the men who were mapping out the land started on their way, Joshua commanded them, "Go and survey the land, then return to me with your written report and I will assign the land to the tribes by casting sacred lots in the presence of the Lord here at Shiloh." So there were some means by which they would bring the report back and then Joshua would inquire of the Lord as to who should get what land and the Lord responded.

The men did as they were told and mapped the entire territory into seven sections, listing the towns in each section. Then they returned to Joshua at the camp at Shiloh. There at Shiloh, Joshua cast sacred lots in the presence of the Lord to determine which tribe should have each section. And then it goes on and the land is divided out in chapter 18 verse 11, land is now given to Benjamin. Chapter 19 verse 1, land is given to Simeon. Chapter 10, Zebulun. Verse 17, Issachar. Verse 24, Asher. Chapter 19 verse 32, Naphtali. Verse 40, land is given to Dan. And then land finally is given to Joshua. After all the land is given, Joshua gets his own land.

But now we want to spend most of our time today on chapter 20, the Cities of Refuge. We could have addressed these back earlier, but this is when they're assigned and we want to really look at what happened from history. Let's read this. The Lord said to Joshua, "Now tell the Israelites to designate the Cities of Refuge as I instructed Moses. Anyone who kills another person unintentionally can run into one of these cities and be protected from the relatives of the one who was killed. For the relatives may seek to avenge the killing." And that's what they did. They would avenge killings themselves.

So the closest of kin would go find the person that done the killing and they would kill them. That's how they dealt with murder apart from this law. Upon reaching one of those cities, verse 4, chapter 20 verse 4, upon reaching one of the cities, the one who caused the accidental death will appear before the leaders at the city gate. And that's really where court, where arguments, where disputes were settled, were at the city gate. The wise men of the town would congregate there and they would sit there at the city gate.

So this man killed somebody. He will appear before the leaders at the city gate and explain what happened. They must allow the accused to enter the city and live there among them. If the relatives of the victim come to avenge the killing, the leaders must not release the accused to them, for the death was accidental. But the person who caused the death must stay in that city and be tried by the community and found innocent. Then the one declared innocent because the death was accidental must continue to live in that city until the death of the High Priest who was in office at the time of the accident. After that, the one found innocent is free to return home.

Now let's kind of pull this apart and look at the different pieces of this. These are called the Cities of Refuge and it was under the law of what was called the Law of Asylum. That somebody could go and seek asylum, they could seek protection, refuge, when they had accidentally killed somebody. And in that city, a trial would be held. There were six cities of refuge. There were three on one side of the Jordan and three on the other side of the Jordan. And they were all about a half day's run from one another. And you would run. You would run because if you killed somebody by accident, there was somebody coming after you. And you had to get to that city.

It's kind of like... what's that game where you touch you're safe when you tag? Tag, thanks. It's been a long time. At 53, I haven't played tag and I don't think I could very well anymore. I'd always be it. So it was a half day's run. This is found in Numbers 35 but there's one new piece that we're told about here and it says here, it doesn't say in Numbers, that they must appear at the entrance of the city gate and present his case. So can you picture this on an early morning or whenever the guy getting there, huffing and puffing, and you know there are only six cities and they kind of know that they're set apart and all of these cities were Levite cities, by the way.

They were cities assigned to the priests. So there would have been a disproportionate number of Levites, priests, living in these cities and at the city gate. And the guy comes running, you can almost see it. Everyone walks, right? Except you see a guy once in a while running and they say, "Got another one, Joe. Got another one, here he comes." He comes and he states his case. Typically, if he wanted, there were two sages, two wise men would accompany him from the city of where he committed the murder to the city of refuge. So there would be three of them in tow.

The reason being that if the avenger came along, these two sages would try to talk the avenger out of killing him, saying if he kills them before he's tried, they could be guilty. So that was the purpose of these people accompanying him. But his safety is guaranteed until the trial. His safety was guaranteed by the trial. Now it's interesting, there was a breaking point in why they were even sent to the City of Refuge and one was, was it accidental death or is it questionable? And to determine that they used what was called the Law of Ascent and the Law of Descent. What does ascent mean? Law of ascent is going up. Law of descent is going down.

Let me read this. If he was leveling the roof with a roller, they had flat roofs. You wouldn't want to level a peaked roof with a roller. It would get ugly fast. But a flat roof, you had a roller, they would level it with, right? And they're saying, this is in the law, this is in the Talmud. It says if he was leveling the roof with a roller which fell upon and killed a person, fell down from the roof and killed a person, or if he was letting a box down from a height and it fell upon and killed a person, or if he was descending from a ladder and it fell upon and killed a person, he was banished, he was sent to the City of Refuge.

But if he was drawing a roller up onto the roof and it fell and killed a person, or if he was pulling a box up onto the roof and it fell, or if he was climbing a ladder and in climbing the ladder he fell, it was not considered murder and he was not banished. It was a Law of Ascent versus Law of Descent. This is the general rule: when death is caused in the process of descent, the penalty of banishment applies. When the death is not caused in the process of descent, the penalty does not apply. They gave the example of someone throwing a rock. If someone pulled a rock back to throw it and in the process they brought it up but then released it and the hand would hit the person, it was not murder. If the rock got loose from the hand and hit the person, it was considered murder and he would be banished. He would be sent to the City of Refuge.

So if he was found guilty in the City of Refuge, he'd go run to the City of Refuge and now they'd have a trial. If they'd find him guilty, the capital punishment for murder was death. And we'll be talking about this. If he was found innocent, he would need to stay living inside that city. Guilty, he was committed to punishment by death. If he was innocent, he had to live in that city for the rest of his life until the High Priest who was in power at the time of the accident died. So now there's a High Priest. He could live five years, ten years, thirty years, fifty years.

This man that committed the murder... well, High Priests were typically older, so it wouldn't have been... but however long that High Priest lived, he had to live in that city. If he leaves the city and the victim's nearest relative finds him outside the city limits and they kill him, it will not be considered murder because the man was supposed to stay in the city. It was his choice to leave the city and the avenger had the right to kill him. Can you imagine... don't you think there would have been people that would have been so bitter, they would have built little huts right outside the city limits and waited?

Can you imagine? Can't you picture there would have been people like that? Maybe I'd be a person like that. Be careful before we speak quickly about others. But after the death of the High Priest, the slayer then may return to his own property. Now again, we've said this before but you figure at this time there were probably about five to six million people. There's six cities. That means that each city roughly would have been responsible for caring for murders that would have occurred in the towns of about a million people. How many murders, how many deaths would there have been? I would imagine a fair amount in that many people.

And if you think about it, if that's the case, there would have been a lot of people in a city waiting for the death of the High Priest to go back home, right? Don't you think that would have kind of put a premium in the head of the High Priest? And again, if some of these guys, they were acquitted of accidental murder but really it wasn't. They've been there, done that. And the High Priest, all he needs to do is be bumped off and they can go now, right? But there's a little provision in the law. God thinks of everything. If the High Priest is ever a victim of homicide, then every person in the city, they may never leave the city.

So he was kind of protected. He had this little aura around him. Do not touch, because you would die. Now remember we said that when we read the Old Testament, a question we ought to ask ourselves at the end of every chapter is what does this tell me about Jesus? How does this point to Jesus? How does this tie in to Jesus? And here's where it ties in. Why could he leave only upon the death of the High Priest? What does that have to do with anything? He's been found innocent but he can't leave the city until the High Priest dies.

It was presumed that the avenger would accept the death of the High Priest as a substitute for the death of the killer. It was assumed that the death of the High Priest would be satisfactory in place of the death of the one that they wanted to avenge. If he was found innocent and compensation had been made by the death of the High Priest, nothing more was required. All was done that needed to be done. And again, here's the parallel. Jesus is known as what? The High Priest, the great and final High Priest.

Hebrews 11:9 says this: "So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come." Jesus' death brings about the removal of your sins. He brings freedom through the removal of your sins. And who is the avenger? Who is it that is the avenger in our lives? It's Satan, right? He has legal right to you until you elect to follow Christ. People say, "I'm not really following the devil because I've never chosen to do that." And "I've never really chosen Jesus." Well, guess what. We live in a world that if you don't elect to follow Jesus, you are under the authority and control of Satan. That's just the reality of it.

But a substitute has died in the place of the guilty. The one who did not commit the crime has died in our place. So we see that Jesus is a City of Refuge for us. A place that we can run to. The only place that we can run to for forgiveness, safety, redemption, and freedom. Psalm 46:1 says, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble." Hebrews 6:18 says, "Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can take courage." We who have fled to him for refuge. He is our refuge.

The parallels are these: both are within easy reach. Both are open to all, Jews and Gentiles. Both are the only safe haven. Both provide protection only within the boundaries of the limits of God's law as He made it to be. And with both, full freedom can only be accomplished at the time of and by the death of the High Priest. It's a beautiful picture of Christ. To go on now and to look at the different forms of capital punishment. There were four methods of capital punishment that were prescribed by the Jews. And I'm going to read these in order of severity, from the most severe down to the least severe. There are four. I'll explain them as we go.

The first one is stoning. People were stoned in general for these kinds of things: murder. So if someone committed murder and fled to a City of Refuge, they were found guilty, they would be stoned to death. That's how they would be killed. Stoning was for murder, sexual sins including all homosexuality, fortune telling, and if you were a stubborn and incorrigible son, which means you were not correctable. I talked to a schoolteacher this morning that I think has some students that would fall under this category. And the criteria if you were old enough to be tried... they said that if your son is stubborn and rebellious, you're to bring them to the religious leaders and present your case. Well, the Mishna goes into what age is that? And they said if the child, the boy or the girl, has two pubic hairs, they're old enough to be tried under this law.

So that's stoning. We'll talk about that a little bit more later. The second is burning. And burning is very interesting. It's not what you think. They did not burn the whole body. They said that would be to degrade the person. The Jews were very, very concerned about not degrading a person through a form of execution. So what burning was, they would take them and they would put them in... now this is going to sound degrading, but I have to explain the reasons. They would for burning, they would take a person, they put them in a pit of manure up to their armpits. Anybody not know what manure is? Okay.

They would put them in a pit of manure up to their armpits and then the two witnesses... in every murder, in every case, there were two witnesses were required to be found to testify. A person would not be put to death on the basis of just one witness, no matter how clear-cut it was. Only two witnesses. When somebody was burned to death, they would put them in a pit of manure up to their armpits or their elbows, I think they fell down, and they would tie a rope, two ropes around their neck and in put them out in opposite directions. And the two witnesses would hold the two ropes. Do you see what's going to happen here?

If they lied, they're going to be causing this man's death. They would then pull on the ropes and somebody else would come in with a set of metal tongs and open their mouth and they would pour molten lead down their throat. And they would burn from the inside. And where they got that from was when Nadab and Abihu, who were Aaron's sons. And if you remember when we studied this, they went in and offered unholy fire and God killed them by fire, it says. And when they carried them out, it says that they carried Nadab and Abihu out by in their clothes.

So the Jews determined that because they were killed by fire by the Lord but still had their clothes on, it could not have been an external burning. And so they were not allowed to burn externally either. So they would pour this molten lead down their throat. One of the reasons of why they put them in the manure, there are different reasons given, but one of them was, again, so that they would not be degraded. Because in the course of dying, their body would excrete things and rather than them being degraded by that happening, people wouldn't see it if they were already in a pit of manure. It would help preserve the dignity of the defendant being killed.

That's burning. That's the second most severe. The third is beheading. Beheading was done by a sword. They would behead them. And then the fourth was strangulation, which is just like the burning except no burning. They would pull on the rope until the person died of being strangled. And in the Bible, whenever the Bible calls for the death penalty without specifying the mode of death, strangulation was used. At this point let's remind ourselves that God is not only just, so the penalties fit the crime, but also God is loving and has made a way for us to be forgiven and find refuge in Him. That is, of course, through His Son who paid for our sin on the cross.

Host (Male): This is Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller of Calvary Chapel Lebanon. We're studying the book of Joshua right now. To hear this message again, simply go to ccleb.com and look under resources. We're at ccleb.com. If you'd rather have a CD copy, call 717-507-7862. That's 717-507-7862. For those that give to the ministry this month, we'll say thanks by sending you Pastor Thom's entire study of Daniel. There are 22 messages in this helpful series and we've put them onto a flash drive.

Get the entire study of Daniel for a gift of any amount by calling 717-507-7862 or write Study the Word, 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 17046. And if you live close by or will be visiting the area soon, drop on by. For our service times and more information about Calvary Chapel Lebanon, turn to ccleb.com and download our free Android app. Search Calvary Chapel Lebanon in the Google Play Store. We'll get back into Joshua next time on Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller. And may God richly bless you as you study the Word and apply it to your life.