IN THE END of the chapter Moses separated three cities on the east side of the Jordan as cities of refuge for the manslayer, “which should kill his neighbor unawares, and hated him not in times past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live.” The Levites lived in those cities and they showed that God took possession of the land he had given to Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh.
These cities of refuge have come before us a number of times in the books of Moses. They speak of the refuge that God has provided in this world for His people, Israel, who have slain their Messiah. In answer to the Lord’s prayer on the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” God has in grace changed the charge of mrduer to manslaughter. But they must wait until Christ as the great High Priest comes back before they can be restored to the land of their possession. God is preserving them until that day.
Those cities of refuge, appointed of God before Israel ever entered Canaan, typically, are like watchtowers in the land round about Zion, now desolate. Though the land may be in ruins and her people scattered, yet those cities of refuge witness to the unchanging grace of God who will yet make Jerusalem a praise in the earth (Isa. 62:77And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. (Isaiah 62:7)). They are His pledge that nothing that has happened in the past nor anything that shall come to pass in the future shall thwart His purposes of love toward His own.
How rich are the Old Testament’s Scriptures with displays of His grace, with visions of coming glory, while bringing home to our hearts what a God and Father is ours!
In chapter 5 Moses tells the people about the covenants of law that God made with them on Mount Sinai, and thus the Ten Commandments are repeated.
Moses told them this covenant was not only made with their fathers who died in the wilderness, but also with themselves who were alive that day. He spoke as if the Ten Commandments and all that we read of in the book of Exodus had been said to them, who were there waiting to enter Canaan. Most of them were but children when Moses went up into the mountain, when there was the terrible thunder and lightning, and God spoke.
But God means every single person to listen to His words, as if they were all said to himself. So Moses repeated to the people all that God had taught their fathers in the wilderness, and told them that if they wanted to be blessed and to live long in the land they must keep all the commandments of the Lord. Oh how He earnestly desired their blessing, for He said: “Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever.” v. 29.
ML-11/24/1974