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In Joshua 20
● notice that, though there is no allotting going on, there is appointing (2), indicating that organization, setting up, is still underway, according to what “the Lord” (1) spoke to Joshua,
● understand that the appointing of “cities of refuge” (2) is a working out of expectations announced by God to Moses in Numbers 35,
● consider how the establishment of these cities achieves another element of order for God’s people as a people together: as allotting ordered land, property, and livelihood, these safe cities order due process, justice, and safety,
● see that the work of cities of refuge, six of the cities given to the Levites, was to provide a place where a “manslayer” (3) has an opportunity to tell his story in the gate to the elders, to be safe from the “avenger of blood” (3) and to stand “before the congregation for judgment” (6, 9), and
● notice how time, place, and procedure work together to create an opportunity for discernment of motive, an escape from the hasty “avenger of blood,” and to establish God as the source of justice.
Thank you,

Randy Tumlinson