Numbers 35:16-28 Bible Study | Episode 831

December 16, 2024

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Numbers 35:16-28 Bible Study | Episode #831

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to hope alive, applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him, and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today, in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in numbers, chapter 35. Numbers 35. And we're working our way through, um, the cities of refuge. And, uh. And today we're going to deal with. Today we're going to deal with the. The, um. The idea of manslaughter. And actually, the scriptures go into a pretty, indeed in depth explanation of what manslaughter actually is. And then, uh, tomorrow we're going to deal with the death penalty. Because in numbers, chapter 35, you find the implementation of the death penalty, and it goes into pretty good detail about that and the death penalty in regard to murder. And so. And by the way, that's really only the only place where the death penalty in our modern societies is implemented. Now, there are some places in the world where it is implemented for rape or for robbery, and also, interestingly enough, for drug dealing. And so there are places in the world where the death penalty in United States for espionage and things like that, that's true of all over the world. That's more of being a traitor to your nation than committing a violent act against someone else. Generally, that's what the death penalty is for, is for violent acts against someone else. And so manslaughter is the unintentional killing of another by a wrongful act or by a act that is not a. Not. It's not illegal, but it was wrongful. It was. It was. It was something that shouldn't be done. And maybe sometimes it's illegal, maybe sometimes it is a. Something you were doing that was a violation of some law, and then that caused the person to die. The. The main thing is there's no intent to kill. There wasn't. There's not an intent to kill the person. So let's go through it. It says, but if he strikes him with an iron implement, verse 16, so that he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. And you go, I thought we were talking dealing with manslaughter. Well, it's going to explain to you what is a murderous. Then it's going to deal with the death penalty. In verses 29 to the end of the chapter, it says, and if he strikes him with a stone in his hand by which one could die, and he does die, he's a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he strikes him with a wooden hand weapon by which one could die, and and he does die, he's a murderer and the murderer shall be put to death. Notice all three of those are acts that were done with an implement that would be used to kill someone. And what he's saying is if you use something that is, is easily recognizable as a, as a tool or a weapon to kill someone and they die, well, then you murdered them. That is, that is what a murder is. And so kind of obvious, but God is trying to make sure that they understand. If you use a weapon to kill someone and they, they do ultimately die from your strike, from you striking them with those things, then you've committed murder. And then you're going to have to have a reason for why you did that. And there are reasons, there are defenses to the crime of murder, but, but you're going to have to be able to do that. It says, the avenger of blood, him shed himself shall put the murder to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death. Now this is where we get that double act. The two sides of the Goel. And the, the side that is talked about here is the avenger of blood. You do have the kinsman redeemer side of the Goel. The Goel is a leader of the family. He is a person who is in the leadership role in the family. And, and he goes out and you're going to see that he's not. This is nothing, you know, Clint Eastwood action movie. This is, this is not the rock, the avenger of blood. That's, that's not, this is not the position that it seems to be. Even though I'm going to tell you, it's a really cool title. It really is the avenger of blood. The, that, that's not, that's not what this is. This is a person who is, who is, uh, has a legal right and a moral obligation for the community to handle a person who intentionally kills another person. Because a person who intentionally kills another person, if there is no consequences to it, will likely do it again. Now, most of the murderers I know, and I've met a lot of them in prison. I've preached in prisons many times in the years I've been pastor. In fact, I preached in Bullock County. I mean, Bullock prison, which is a state prison in Bullock county, preached there many, many times. And actually the group of men who were my, I guess, bodyguards is the best way for me to describe it. They got me men who made sure that nothing happened during the service were mostly murderers. And that's the only violent crime they'd ever committed. And they were in prison for a good long while and likely would not commit another crime now that they're older. Most of them committed those crimes in their youth and many of them in the passion of their youth. And so they were unlikely to do it. But if you allow murder to take place in the community and allow the murderer to go free, there's a likelihood that they will do it again. The punishment usually ends up rehabilitating the murderer so that when they're older, they, they don't commit that crime ever again. The avenger of blood himself is the person from the family that has been wronged who goes out and he searches for the person who committed the murder, usually with the rest of his family. And when they find him, he is the one who is to execute him. He put. If he pushes him out of. Of hatred. Now notice we're going into what is. What is manslaughter. If he pushes him out of hatred or while lying in wait, hurl something at him and he dies, or in enmity, he strikes him with his hand so that the. That he dies, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death. Now this is a little bit more stringent than our laws are. This is a person. If you push him or if you lie in wait and hurl, throw something at him, or if you. If you hit him with your fist and the person dies, well, that's murder. According to biblical law, that is murder. In our justice system, that would be an assault. You would have a person who was. Who assaulted someone and then they died. And in our justice system, that would be manslaughter. But for God's word here, you're intentionally going for to up to someone and you push them and they either hit their head or fall off something and they die. You throw something at them and they die. Or you strike them with your fist because you're, you're, you're mad with them. There's enmity between the two of you. You're. That you commit murder here. And that. That is. That is. That is how it is handled in the book of numbers. Uh, the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him. Now, how do we deal with manslaughter? However, if he pushes him suddenly without enmity or throws in anything at him without lying in wait or uses a stone watch, why? By which a man could die, throwing it at him without seeing him, so that he dies while he was not his enemy or seeking him harm, then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood according to these judgments. So what's going on here? Well, this is how this, the real city of refuge, avenger of blood, manslaughter cases are handled. If you kill someone. If you kill someone, the first thing you've got to do is you've got to seek refuge. You've got to seek. Seek protection, which is a very biblical idea. You've got to seek the protection of God. You did not act wrongly at all. You didn't do anything that is wrong. You weren't intentionally trying to hurt anyone. And that is the key to this. You do not have the requisite intent to do harm to someone. And if you do those acts, push them, uh, throw something and it hits them, uh, you strike them in some way with something that, uh, you weren't intending to strike them with, and they die, then that is manslaughter. That's manslaughter according to biblical law. And that means that, uh, you need to seek refuge because your actions have caused someone to die. Remember, you've got the actus rea, meaning you've got the, the actual act that would cause somebody to die. But you don't have the mens rea, which is the intent, the mental process by which you intended someone to die, but the act caused someone to die. Well, then that is manslaughter. And in many ways that's manslaughter in our justice system. But it's more intricate here. The main thing is, is that your actions were not intent. Had, did not have an intent. But someone's got to decide that. You can't just decide it yourself. And the, and the, uh, and the avenger of blood can't decide, uh, for you. So what do you do? You seek refuge. You run to, or you escape to one of these cities of refuge. And when you get there, there is going to be a congregation, a jury, a jury of the people of the city, and they're going to come together and they're going to judge between the man, slayer and the avenger of blood. Notice, the avenger of blood is not just a hired hitman that goes out there and takes somebody out because he killed somebody in your family. It's a person of some influence. It's a person of some intelligence. It's a person who can handle going before a group of people. It's usually a leader of the family. And they go and they plead their case before the congregation. As the avenger of blood does also, Avenger Blood tells his side of the story. The. The. I'm sorry. The. The person who is the manslayer, he tells his side of the story, and then the avenger of blood prosecutes him for what happened. And the congregation. Verse 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 is, where he had fled. And he shall remain there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil. What does that mean? Well, just because. Just because you are not guilty does not mean that. And when I say you're not guilty, you still are guilty of manslaughter, in that you. That you killed someone unintentionally. As far as biblical law is concerned, you killed someone unintentionally. There was no intent. Kill them. You have to stay in the city of refuge. You get delivered into the city, you are judged as acceptable to the city, and you stay there until the high priest that is in office at the time. Till his death. Now you go. Well, that could be a long, long time. Not usually. Usually, it would only be five or ten years, maybe even a lot less than that. So you get to stay in the city of refuge, and you get a place of refuge from the avenger of blood until the high priest that is in office at that time dies. But if the manslayer, at any time, goes outside the limits of the city of refuge, where he fled, and the avenger of blood finds him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the Avenger blood kills the manslator, he shall not be guilty of his blood. So there is a. There is a revenge factor here. There is a taking of blood for blood being shed. And so you can't leave the city until it's time. Now, if the Avenger blood kills you inside the city or kills you after the high priest in office has passed, then he's guilty of murder. And the. The same rules apply to him as they would apply to any other murderer. So we see that there is a necessity here. Verse 28 says, because he should have remained in the 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 possessions. There is. There's some intent here to set limits on society. God is given his law, and that's the whole purpose of the law. God has given his law to place some limits on how major and important criminal activity is handled. And in such a way that the people can expect that there is justice and that people can expect that they can live somewhere without people killing them, robbing them, murdering them, raping them. They can live somewhere in peace and harmony with their neighbors without the law, because of the sin nature of man. There is. There is always upheaval, destruction. There cannot be community, there cannot be harmony, there cannot be. Well, there cannot be growth or economic freedom and economic power. If we live in a society where the criminal element goes unchecked, well, the society begins to break down. And that's the whole purpose of these ideas of the city of refuge and the manslayer and the. And the avenger of blood is God is giving them an orderliness to some of the things that happen in this fallen world. Mainly someone dying at the hand of another unintentionally great passage of scripture, great study in God's word I, and a great understanding both at the 10,000 foot level, that we have to have some orderliness to our society. We have to have justice, but we have to have laws that make. Make us understand that we can't just do as we desire. We must do as we should write to each other. And then also at the very a personal level, that families who lose people due to the wrongful act of others, there is compensation for that. And so when you have orderliness to society, you generally have prosperity and good, well, good life. When you don't, well, then nobody is safe. So I pray that as we. As we go through this, you do make a note about the importance of the law and the importance that people who are in charge of the law that they enforce. As you go today, I pray that.

The Lord will bless you and keep.

You, that he'll make his face to.

Shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace. Today, in Jesus name.