Numbers 35:1-15

the Cities of Refuge for the Manslayer

Numbers 35:1

This chapter is full of provision for the Levites, the chosen ministers of God's house. They who serve there may be at rest about their maintenance. He is not unrighteous to forget their labor of love.

These forty-eight cities must have been centers of religious influence throughout the land. As cities set on a hill that could not be hid, as salt staying corruption, as lights along a rock-bound coast-so must they have stood in the Holy Land. So should our homes be in our land.

Six of the Levite cities were set apart for those who were guilty of manslaughter- i.e., those who had killed some one unwittingly. They were within easy access from all parts of the land, and offered sanctuary until a judicial inquiry could be held. In Jesus we find refuge, Hebrews 6:18. No avenger following the track of past sin can hurt the soul that shelters in Him. Only we must never venture beyond the precincts of His salvation.