Seize the Moment – Day 615
God Provides for Justice!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, November 22.
Before they entered the Promised Land, the Israelite leaders were required to make provision for justice; in fact, that is what Numbers 35 is all about!
First, in verses 1-8, God commanded each tribe to give the Levites some of their cities and pasture lands around those cities to live. This was a necessary provision because the Levites had no right of land ownership because their inheritance was the Lord and service in the tabernacle (Numbers 18:23).
Second, in verses 6-34, God commanded the Israelites to give up six more cities –the “cities of refuge” to ensure effective justice in the land. Verses 10-15 explain God’s provision for justice:
When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall select for yourselves cities to be your cities of refuge, that the manslayer who has killed any person unintentionally may flee there. … You shall give three cities across the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan; they are to be cities of refuge. These six cities shall be for refuge for the sons of Israel, and for the alien and for the sojourner among them; that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.
God provides for justice! God anticipated the Levites’ practical needs so that they would not have to live at the mercy of the other tribes of Israel. God planned cities of refuge to protect justice and ensure legal due process.
Seize the moment and do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8)!