Daily Journey: March 26th

Numbers 33:50-36:13, John 5:1-30

Thought from Today’s Old Testament Passage:

Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares. Numbers 35:11

Note, first, the person for whom the city of refuge was provided. It was not a place of shelter for the willful murderer; if he fled there, he must be dragged out of it, and given up to the avenger, after a fair trial; and the avenger of death was to kill him, and so have blood for blood, and life for life. But, in case of accident, when one man had slain another, without malice aforethought, and had therefore only committed homicide, the man fleeing there was perfectly safe.

Here, however, the type does not adequately represent the work of our Lord Jesus Christ; He is not a refuge provided for men who are innocent, but for men who are guilty,—not for those who have accidentally transgressed, but for those who have willfully gone astray. Our Saviour has come into the world to save, not those who have by mistake and error committed sin, but those who have fearfully transgressed against well-known Divine commandments, and who have followed the sinful dictates of their won free-will, their own perversity leading them to rebel against God. (C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the Old Testament, Vol. 1, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House) 1962, p. 391)