June 20, 2019: Day 54 – Joshua 20

This is a very civil chapter.  You wouldn’t think that there would be a deliberate establishment of refugee cities in the Old Testament, but here we find the establishment of them.  These were cities where if you killed someone by mistake you could flee there before the family took out their vengeance on you.  Notice that these cities were established not just in one location which would have made it difficult for all people to go to that spot.  But in this scenario there would always be one that was close enough to flee without any problems.  It seems like there were five cities spread out, even one in the wilderness.

Notice that the cities are not established as permanent bases almost as if the person is playing hide and go seek, that whenever they are in those cities they are forever safe.  No, they have to wait there until basically the trial rolls around.  These cities keep the person safe until the trial happens.  They cannot have the death of someone avenged because they are in those cities.