When Death Brings Freedom: Cities of Refuge, God’s History, and the Unity of His People

The First Time Death Atones for Another's Sin

At the very end of the book of Numbers, tucked into the final chapters of Parashat Masei, is one of the most theologically profound principles in the entire Torah — and almost nobody preaches it. Numbers 35 establishes six cities of refuge: three on each side of the Jordan River. Any person who killed someone by accident, without premeditation, without malice — could run to one of these cities and be protected from the blood vengeance that the murdered person's family would otherwise be entitled to exact.

And here is the extraordinary provision: when the high priest dies, everyone in the cities of refuge is released. They can go home. The family of the person who was accidentally killed cannot touch them. They are free.

This is the first time in all of Scripture that we have this very important principle: the death of an appointed person, like the high priest, redeems those who sinned inadvertently by mistake. It is a unique law among all the ancient laws of the Middle East, because vengeance — even until today in Arab society in the Middle East — goes on. There are murders because of family feuds and accidental deaths that set off chains of reprisal: murder for murder, family against family, generation against generation. God saw fit to create a system in which whoever sinned by mistake can survive, can live, can be forgiven, and the chain of hate can be broken.

The Greek world had something superficially similar: the temples of Artemis — Diana in Latin — served as a kind of city of refuge. The temple at Ephesus was especially famous for this. But there was no release. If you entered, you had to give up your manhood and stay there for the rest of your life. No high priest dying. No freedom. The Ottomans later took that great marble temple apart and ground the stone for lime — a further loss to archaeology and to history.

Keeping all of this in mind, in this weeks Torah Portion we find a theological question that opponents of Yeshua's followers have raised for two thousand years: how can one person's death atone for someone else's sin? The standard objection is that a human being simply cannot atone for another human being by dying. But as mentioned above, the Torah itself provides a direct counter-example. The death of Israel's high priest — a man who was himself a sinner, just like everyone else — released and atoned for those confined in the cities of refuge for accidental killing. If a flawed, sinful high priest's death could accomplish that much, the argument goes, how much more can the death of someone who was sinless accomplish for all of humanity. The Torah doesn't merely permit this kind of substitutionary logic; it builds an entire legal institution around it, centuries before the question of Yeshua's atonement was ever asked.

The Month That Proves God Directs History

These final chapters of Numbers are usually read in the Hebrew month of Av — and that month deserves a word. The Temple of Solomon was destroyed on the ninth of Av. The Temple that Herod the Great built was destroyed on the same date. The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 happened on the same date. Some sixteen different calamities in Jewish history — spanning more than a thousand years — have fallen on the same calendar date.

This is not coincidence. This is proof that someone is actually directing history and controlling the affairs of mankind. As God said to Amos the prophet:

If there is any proof that these words of Amos are clearly evident, it is in the calamitous events that took place in Jewish history on the ninth of Av over more than a millennium.

The Tribes Who Wanted to Stay East — and What Moses Said

The end of the book of Numbers also contains the story of the two and a half tribes — Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh — who wanted to stay on the east side of the Jordan River. Their reasons were primarily economic: the land there was good grazing land, captured from the victory over Sihon king of Heshbon. They liked it. They had livestock. They wanted to stay.

Moses does not say: "Sorry, brothers, this is not the land God promised to Abraham." What Moses does say is this:

The issue for Moses was not the land. The issue was the unity of the nation. The collective responsibility is greater than the private desire of any individual tribe.

The resolution was conditional: the two and a half tribes would go to war first, fighting alongside their brothers for the conquest of Canaan. Only after the work was done would they return to their grazing land east of the Jordan. They had to fulfill their obligation to the whole before they could enjoy their private portion. Moses granted their request — but only on those terms.

The application for the body of the Messiah today is direct. Christian denominations, like the tribes of Israel in the ancient world, often settle east of the Jordan. They find their good grazing land — their particular theology, their particular tradition, their particular culture — and they dig in. They don't want to cross over into the harder work of fighting together with all the other tribes for the shared inheritance. They want their private portion without taking their share in the national burden.

The unity of the body of Christ is something we must all strive for and fight for. The only way it can be done is for all of us to change our own narrow-minded approach to the faith community, and broaden our tents to include and feel responsible for the good and welfare of those who might be out in left field, but still hold the Bible to be the word of God and Yeshua to be the Messiah and the Holy Spirit to be alive and active. There is no value to the restoration of the 'church' if there is no sincere and honest drive for the unity of the body of the Messiah Yeshua. Everything that is restored by different groups pales in front of the need to unite to fight the last battle in the kingdom of God.