Numbers 35:25—36:13 NKJV 25 So the congregation shall deliver the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall return him to the city of refuge where he had fled, and he shall remain there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil. 26 But if the manslayer at any time goes outside the limits of the city of refuge where he fled, 27 and the avenger of blood finds him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood, 28 because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.
29 ‘And these things shall be a statute of judgment to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 30 Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty. 31 Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. 32 And you shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the priest. 33 So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. 34 Therefore do not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel.’ ”
36 Now the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the chief fathers of the children of Israel. 2 And they said: “The Lord commanded my lord Moses to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel, and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. 3 Now if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance. 4 And when the Jubilee of the children of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”
5 Then Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying: “What the tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks is right. 6 This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them marry whom they think best, but they may marry only within the family of their father’s tribe.’ 7 So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. 8 And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be the wife of one of the family of her father’s tribe, so that the children of Israel each may possess the inheritance of his fathers. 9 Thus no inheritance shall change hands from one tribe to another, but every tribe of the children of Israel shall keep its own inheritance.”
10 Just as the Lord commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad; 11 for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to the sons of their father’s brothers. 12 They were married into the families of the children of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s family.
13 These are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded the children of Israel by the hand of Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho.
The fact that the manslayer was to remain in a city of refuge until the high priest died is a picture of how we are to remain in the church all the days of our lives. In His church, God richly and daily forgives the sins of His penitent faithful. But if we leave the fellowship of the church, so that we are no longer penitent and believing, then we become liable to the avenger of blood—God’s just judgment. God wants us to remain in His holy church—hearing and believing His word—throughout our entire life. This is evident in that the high priest of the New Testament—Christ Jesus—lives eternally.
In the concluding chapter of Numbers, the Lord gives us an example of how to take His word seriously. The Lord had given Zelophehad’s daughters his inheritance. However, their family members pointed out that if Zelophehad’s daughters marry members of another tribe, his inheritance will vanish from the land and Manasseh’s allotment from God will shrink. They saw that God’s verdict about Zelophehad’s daughters could be used to radically alter the layout of Israel’s inheritance over the course of time. These men bring the case to Moses and the Lord declares, “No inheritance shall change hands from one tribe to another, but every tribe of the children of Israel shall keep its own inheritance” (9).
Both legislations show that the Lord did not want anyone excluded from the inheritance He was giving Israel. The one who sinned unintentionally could be forgiven and remain in the land. The solitary, who had no protection, He set in families (Ps 68:6), yet in such a way that they are not disinherited.
As the land is a picture of the church in the New Testament—the body of believers—and a picture eternal life in the age to come, we see how God takes care to provide Christ as a refuge for us when we sin and how He promises an eternal inheritance “incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away” (1 Pe 1:4). In this life, let us take refuge in Christ each day by a true and lively faith and look forward to the inheritance He has promised us in everlasting life.
Let us pray: Keep us in Your holy church, O Lord, that taking refuge in You, we endure unto everlasting life. Amen.