Ali- Women at the Well
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We’ve seen Joshua commissioned to lead the people into the Land
We’ve seen the crossing of the Jordan
We’ve seen the taking of Jericho, Ai, Southern and Northern lands
We’ve seen the Lord subdue the inhabitants of the Land for His people to be at rest in the Land
CITIES IN THE LAND
Cities of Refuge
1 Then the Lord said to Joshua,
2 “Say to the people of Israel, ‘Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses,
3 that the manslayer who strikes any person without intent or unknowingly may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood.
4 He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and explain his case to the elders of that city. Then they shall take him into the city and give him a place, and he shall remain with them.
5 And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not give up the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor unknowingly, and did not hate him in the past.
6 And he shall remain in that city until he has stood before the congregation for judgment, until the death of him who is high priest at the time. Then the manslayer may return to his own town and his own home, to the town from which he fled.’ ”
Joshua 20:7-9 - The cities that were set apart
The Priest is holy and his death is a symbol of atonement
Joshua ((2) Specific Instructions (20:4–6))
It is not specifically stated what removed the manslayer’s guilt.
He was sentenced to a period of exile in the city of refuge, away from his home, and he could not return home until the high priest died. Many have argued that the high priest’s death marked a period of amnesty ushering in a new era.
However, a more probable explanation is that since the high priest represented the sacrificial system, his death atoned for the sins of the manslayer.
No ransom was to be accepted for a murderer or for a manslayer (Num 35:30–31). Only on the occasion of a death—the high priest’s—was the manslayer free to leave.
As Greenberg states, “The sole personage whose religious-cultic importance might endow his death with expiatory value for the people at large is the high priest.”
In Numbers 35, the high priest is mentioned as having been anointed with “holy oil” (v. 25), which would tend to support his position as the acceptable “sacrifice.” For Christians, the typological associations with the death of Jesus Christ—the great High Priest whose death atones for their sins—are certainly visible here.
Levitical Cities
1 Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites came to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel.
2 And they said to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, “The Lord commanded through Moses that we be given cities to dwell in, along with their pasturelands for our livestock.”
3 So by command of the Lord the people of Israel gave to the Levites the following cities and pasturelands out of their inheritance.
Joshua 21:4-42 - The Levitical City allotments
Completion of Giving of the Land
43 Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there.
44 And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands.
45 Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
God fulfilled every promise
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,
2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”
3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,
4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.
7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
GO WITH THIS...
I’m a Levite
You’ve heard me talk about this slide which is a picture of how I see the activity of the local church functioning
Within the activity of the church is an understanding of the authority structure given to the Body of Christ
I make the correlation between the priestly leadership given to Israel and the local church today to make this point.
In my vocational ministry role, I am a Levite.
Any vocational minister has forsake the opportunity to earn a living in the world, but rather be dependent in some form on his brothers and sisters in Christ for the Lord’s provision
This is exactly what was happening when the people of Israel received the Land…the Levite had no inheritance, but out of the inheritance of Levi’s brothers and sisters, they were taken care of with cities and pastureland among the territories (4*12 = 48) … 4 = Potentially a symbol of a room, or a space, or a Kingdom
If vocational ministers are Levites and not priests, then who are the priests but every believer in Jesus?
GO WITH THIS...
I’m a Levite
We are Priests
We are all priests and ministers of the New Covenant...
Ministers of Reconciliation
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is I give myself the title of LEAD MINISTER rather Pastor or Senior Minister, etc.
A holy priesthood...
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
GO WITH THIS...
I’m a Levite
We are Priests
God fulfills all His promises
20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace.
16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea.
17 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time?
18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No.
19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes.
20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us,
22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
23 But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth.
24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.
Jesus is the fulfilment of every promise God made to his people
Jesus is the perfect version of every leader that came before Him
He’s a better Adam
a better Noah
a better Abraham
a better Jacob
a better Joseph
a better Moses
a better Joshua
a better David
Jesus is God’s answer to every promise and his death has paid for all our sin.
The truth is...WE are like the manslayer on the run from the avenger of blood… the penalty of sin has chased us to a city of refuge and what we found out when we got there was that the great high priest has died for our sin and we are free!