Joshua - Just one thing: Chapter 20

I happen to know a lot of people in prison. We have a councilman in Philadelphia who will do about 55 months for decades of siphoning millions of taxpayer dollars into his pocket---less time if he gets into a drug program in the joint. And I know an inmate who is doing 12 to 22 years for taking a handful of drugs from a drugstore with an unloaded gun, in a state that happens to have a "truth in sentencing" law, which means no time off for good behavior.

And then there's God. Perfect justice:

"The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed" (Psalm 103:6).

In Genesis, Abraham knew God's character and was not afraid to make an appeal in the matter of Sodom's destruction on the basis of His justice:

"Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?" (Genesis 18:25).

Sometimes even God's best people don't understand his justice:

"Righteous are you, O Lord, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?" (Jeremiah 12:1).

But for myself, I trust in the Lord in spite of the things I don't understand about Him---because of the things I do understand about Him. And one of those things is that He looks at the heart of a matter and not just external appearances. Every one of us knows what it's like to be in a situation that looks really, really bad, but onlookers are unaware of a few facts that would unfurl their eyebrows if they knew. What about the poor guy who walks into church on Sunday morning filthy because he stopped to help someone on the way who had a flat tire? I have been so sleep-deprived that I have nodded visibly through very good sermons.

God knows all that stuff. But mortals jump to conclusions. And mortals generally don't distinguish between evil intent and innocence if their new Ferrari gets hit from the rear.

Therefore, as we learn in today's chapter, God invented the cities of refuge, because there are extenuating circumstances in life. There were six cities of refuge scattered throughout Israel (for your convenience), and each was a place you could run to if you had killed a person accidentally, without malice aforethought. You didn't get off scot-free because you still were forced to leave everyone and everything you knew and to go to a strange city and hang around there until the high priest died. But it was better than vigilante justice on the streets of Debir or Medeba. God once gave King David a choice of punishments: famine, fleeing from his foes, or pestilence. David didn't miss a beat:

"Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man" (2 Samuel 24:14).

Today, of course, the cities of refuge are all done away with, superseded by the refuge that is in Christ:

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe" (Proverbs 18:10).

The better thing about this new place of refuge is that He even takes people who killed someone on purpose.

And unlike the prison system my correspondents are in, the chastisement is never a day too long or too short.

Read the next part in this series.

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