Read: Numbers 33:40-35:34; Luke 5:12-28; Psalm 65:1-13; Proverbs 11:23
Moses gives us a detailed map of their journey. God told them when they passed over the Jordan they were to drive out all the inhabitants of the land and destroy all their pictures, their molten images and totally destroy all their places where they practiced idolatry. Their pictures were their carvings in the rock and in the walls. They were to “dispossess” the inhabitants of the land. In other words, they were to drive them out and take their land as their inheritance because the land is the Lord’s and he gave it to Israel.
That is exactly what we are to do with the inhabitants of our land. We are born with fear, hate, sin, etc. We inherit the sins of our family and their prejudices but when we give our lives to Jesus, then we have to dispossess our bodies, minds and spirits. We have to change wrong mindsets and put on the mind of Christ. If we don’t, those wrong mindsets will remain and be pricks in our eyes and thorns in our sides and will vex us. A prick in the eye in the Hebrew means a brier as a hedge. It will keep us from seeing the big picture; we will only see the immediate and not through God’ eyes. A thorn in the side is an adversary that imbeds itself in us. Vex means an enemy that oppresses us, shuts us up and binds us up.
God told the Israelites if they didn’t drive out their enemies, He would do to them as he thought to do to their enemies. They would receive what was meant for the enemy. That does not sound good!
Cities of refuge are one of my favorite topics but I don’t have room to explain it in detail. It was a place where innocent people who were accused of murder could flee. The accused would present his case to the Levites at the gate and if they believed his account, he would be free to live there safely until the death of the high priest. Then he would be released to go back to his home.
In Luke, Jesus healed a Jew who had leprosy. This was one of the signs that the priests had decided was a Messianic miracle - one only the Messiah would be able to do. Jesus told the man to go show himself to the priest. Jesus was trying to show the religious leaders that he was in fact the Messiah. Instead, when Jesus pronounced a man’s sins were forgiven they accused him of blasphemy. They just didn’t know what to do with the things that Jesus did. When Jesus healed the paralytic they said, “we have seen strange things to day.” If the stuck around, they saw even stranger things.
Lord, help us to dispossess our selves and take our place in the kingdom. Help us to recognize our enemies and make them flee from us. Thank you that you are our city of refuge and no devil can accuse us of sin. We are safe in your city.
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