Joshua 20:3 Senseless

Joshua 20:3 so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood.

I am sure you have heard of the senseless killings that are capturing the headlines these days. It is not that there are more than any other time in our history, but that the media wants to make money and political points for covering them with the greatest possible hype in order to push an agenda. These deaths are beyond tragic. But there is another story that doesn’t get told.

Every day in our cities, especially, young men and women are gunned down by their peers. Every day mothers loose their children, and almost exclusively with illegal guns. But this story does not get told. It becomes part of the fabric of their lives, a fabric that is torn and tattered.

There are accidental shootings, like a younger brother who picks up a family gun and pulls the trigger sending the projectile into their sibling. I want to ask, “Why was the gun loaded and not secured?” But this isn’t about the guns. This is about the meaningless deaths.

Our text tells us that accidental and unintentional deaths have been part of life for thousands of years. Accidents happen that result in death. And it is possible that no one is at fault. That is a statement that lawyers hate to hear. Sometimes things, bad things, very bad things happen.

Our text gives us a glimpse into the formation of a new community, a community based on the centrality of the LORD’s presence in their midst. Remember, this community had been slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years. Then they become involuntary wanderers for forty years. Now they are entering a land with foreign people still around. How are they to conduct themselves?

This small bit of instruction about “cities of refuge” gives us a flavor for a new justice that would be evident in this new community. Revenge killings would not be allowed. Life was precious, so the taking of a life had to be thought out, not an impulsive act of a moment in time.

So in order to ensure that accidental killings weren’t avenged in the heat of the moment, cities were established that gave time for deliberation and cooler heads. People who had accidentally killed someone could rush there and be protected until the time of the trial. Makes sense, doesn’t it!

It is amazing how many things written about in the Hebrew Bible make sense. In our part of the world, the system of justice might not be perfect, but it is so much better than so many other parts of the world. We at least have some sense of the value of life, unlike some parts where human life at all its stages is devalued or considered worthless.

But for this new community, life had value, because humans are made in the image and likeness of God. We have value because His stamp is on us. We have a purpose here that is different from the other life on this planet.

So because life, human life, is so important, it must be protected. Many of us might react in haste if someone close to us was accidentally killed, especially if you didn’t know the circumstances of the death. If there was a gun, we might just pick it up and use it against the person who killed our loved one. But then the accidental nature of the death might remain hidden. Two deaths would occur, one accidental and the other intentional.

So our text gives time to slow the process down, protecting both parties in the incident. Impulsive reactions get minimized, and so less death would happen. Let the cooler heads prevail!