Sermon Transcript Tone Analysis

You take your Bibles and turn with me to Joshua chapter number 20.

Joshua chapter number 20.

as we continue our study throughout this book,

tonight's passage of scripture is going to be a blessing.

I was blessed to studying.

Over this chapter.

Let's open up.

And read and Joshua 20 and starting with verse one.

It says the Lord also spoke to Joshua saying speak to the children of Israel saying, I point for yourselves Cities of Refuge of which I spoke to you through Moses that the Slayer who kills a person accidentally or unintentionally, May flee there.

And they shall be your Refuge from the Avenger of blood.

And when he flees to one of those cities and stands at the entrance of the Gate of the city and declares his case, and the hearing of the Elders of that City, they shall take him into the city as one of them and give him a place that he made the well among them.

Then if the Avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not deliver the Slayer into his hand because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, but did not hate him beforehand.

And he shall dwell in the city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the one who is high priest in those days, then the Slayer May return and come to his own, come to his own City, and his own house to the city, which he fled.

So they appointed Kiddush in Galilee in the mountains of Neftali, she come in the mountains of Ephraim and courage off Arbor, which is Hebron in the mountains of Judah.

And on the other side of the Jordan, by Jericho East for the assigned bees are in the wilderness of the plane and the tribe of Ruben Ramos in Gilead, the tribe of GAD and golden and fashion from the tribe of Manasseh.

There were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel and for the stranger who dwelt among them that whoever killed a person accidentally might flee their and not die.

By the hand of the Avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.

Let's pray, Our Father Lord, we are grateful or for this day that you given us.

This beautiful day Lord that we can just enjoy the warmth and the Sunshine and father, we are just enjoying the fellowship and the singing tonight.

And father, I pray that to those who have made it made an effort to come tonight.

Lord, that you would bless them through your word that you would feed them.

Encouraged them as we'd look at the Cities of Refuge father may we see your son Jesus and salvation that he has provided for us.

So that we can run to him and find Safety and Security.

Father, I pray that you bless the Children and Youth downstairs.

Bless the teachers will give you all the praise and glory.

We ask these things in Christ name, amen.

I will last week left off in chapter 15, looking at Caleb and the blessing of his obedience and then the chapters following that chapter 16 through chapters, 19 are chapters really devoted to the dividing of the land to the 12 tribes of Israel.

And so as we come to chapter 20, we see that the land of Canaan has been possessed and has been subdued.

As I said, the various tribes have now received their inheritance and sayings.

For the most part are starting to slow down, as they as the conquest is concerning all the battles that they have fought and are starting to slow down, as they have pretty much Concord.

The new land.

with that said, there is still some unfinished work that needs to be done by Joshua and the people of Israel In this chapter, we find them.

Audi command.

That was first given to Moses in Numbers chapter 35, they were to a point six cities that were to be known as Cities of Refuge of these cities were to be, made available to someone who has killed another person, not intentionally but by accident, They can flee to one of these City at one of these, six cities and find safety, they can find a refuge of help.

so it is the Cities of Refuge and I want us to consider this evening as we consider these Cities of Refuge it really paints for us, a very clear picture of the Salvation that is only found in Jesus Christ, Our Lord I notice with me, first of all, the purpose, Of The Refuge, the purpose.

Are the Refuge.

Well we've read.

In verses 1 through 6.

How that the Lord knew that occasions?

There will be occasions, that would arise where a person accidentally or unintentionally killed another person.

And we call that today manslaughter.

Were, there was no premeditation at whatsoever.

It was just an accident that did not mean to kill the individual.

There could be many examples of this but let's say and their day a man could be chopping wood and ass he's chopping wood.

The axe flies off the handle and hits another man in the temple and it kills him.

Well, the City of Refuge was to protect this individual of accused of manslaughter, from with the scripture cause the Avenger of blood.

Not to give you some more background on this, in the Middle East, the tribal members have the responsibility to punish any wrong done to their tribe.

Even in the case of an accident, the nearest male relative was duty-bound to avenge the blood or death of a family member.

He was the reclaimer of the blood and he was the one who demanded restitution of blood and by executing a person who killed or shed blood of a person of of their tribe, he would bring back then, at the honor of the family.

And this is why the Avenger hotly and very quickly.

Pursued the manslayer, we have an example of this in 1st Samuel.

In the life of King Saul.

when saw broke his Covenant with the gibeonites and he slaughtered a vast majority of them.

oh, David determined to correct the Injustice, he asked them the price of Retribution or restitution What this point saw was already dead.

So, the gibeonites asked for 7 of Saul's Sons to be delivered to them for execution.

And David fulfilled their request.

And so, the honor of the gibeonites was reclaimed and Justice was served.

And so with this background that are mine,

The mindset of the Avenger and the refugee had to quickly get to one of the six Cities of Refuge for protection before the blood Avenger caught him.

And could legally kill him based on an eye for an eye, and tooth for tooth.

if the manslayer, if the person who killed another individual accidentally, or unintentionally made it to the city, Inside one of the Cities of Refuge you would find security, he would find safety.

You would find serenity.

Outside of the city for this individual would be deaf.

Despair, doom and destruction.

This Refugee, this person who had committed this manslaughter.

He better not delay.

Because it Ventura blood was going to be on his tail and for him to the delay was very dangerous and disastrous.

He did not need to debate it outside of that City.

He did not need to try to argue his point outside of that City, that would mean death.

And then, for him to hesitate.

For him to just procrastinate would be hopeless.

Offer him to try to fight back.

Would be foolish.

The person who did such an act must flee, he must get inside the gates of the city.

Because a manslayer could die even on the steps of the gates of the city.

He had to be inside to find the security and the safety.

So, the Cities of Refuge were very, very important.

And because there was so important, the cities.

Because they were so important.

There were several conditions that were to be met.

A friend since the cities were Spread spread out in such a way throughout the land.

So that residents could be within, at least a Day's Journey to get there.

The Cities of Refuge were placed on heels.

Or they could be easily seen.

They were for all men.

They said he's a refuge, were not just for the Jews, but they were also for gentiles.

But also, the access to the cities were to be as easy as possible.

The leaders of Israel, the Sanhedrin will responsible to maintain the roads to the cities.

The roads had to be free from any stumbling boss.

They had to be free from all obstacles.

There had to be Bridges as matter fact, the bridges themselves had to be a certain width.

They had to be at least 48, ft wide.

There had to be large signs, erected on every corner street on every corner pass that red Refuge.

The sign had to be large enough so that it could be easily seen or read if the individual was running for his life.

The gates of the cities were always open.

And they were always attended to 24 hours a day by men.

Whose Duty was to receive these fugitives.

And once they're the manslayer will be given shelter.

You would be given food.

And once he was there, he would then plead his case before the elders in a trial.