Joel M Bradshaw

1“When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, 2you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. 3You 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.

4“This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past— 5as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live, 6lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. 7Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities. 8And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers—9provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the LORD your God and by walking ever in his ways—then you shall add three other cities to these three, 10lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

11“But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, 12then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. 13Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may be well with you.–Deuteronomy 19

Longer text today, so I added emphasis to key parts. What’s the difference between murder and manslaughter? Intent. The man has hated the victim in the past so that everyone knows about it. Remember, this same chapter requires two or three witnesses against someone in a criminal case. Intent was everything. The manslayer had an option since he was not a murderer. He would have to live with what he had done for the rest of his life, but he would get to live, provided he stayed within the sanctuary city. The murderer had no escape and the crime would eventually be found out.

A court of law can establish intent. But we also serve a God who knows our hearts. Check out a couple of David’s best verses. Psalm 139…

23Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Wow. Imagine asking God to search your heart. To search, to test, to know, to see, and finally to lead. For the hider, that sounds terrifying. For the one not hiding, not so much. God knows our hearts and perceives every single one of our intents. There is no hiding from God. God provided for the unintentional or the accidental, but sinning with intent resulted in death. It was established long ago. Sin leads to death. Sin requires intent. We appreciate the Gospel, mercy and grace all the more. God gives the repentant sinner what he doesn’t deserve and doesn’t give the sinner what he does deserve.–JMB