"A Place for (Almost) Everyone (Numbers 35-36)", Will DuVal | 6/22/25
Numbers 35-36 | 6/22/25 | Will DuVal
As our sermon series in NUMBERS draws to a close this morning, I want to THANK you for joining me on the journey through this wonderful, under-appreciated book. And I want to specially thank those of you who shared your “Wilderness Stories” with us along the way, and helped bring to life for us the GOOD NEWS of Numbers: that even though we ALL encounter trials and tests of our faith throughout life here in the wilderness - God has promised never to leave or forsake us; to be WITH us SUSTAINING us, every step of the way, with His GRACE. So THANK you, to those of you who bravely and faithfully shared your difficult, personal testimonies with us; you truly BLESSED us. Can we give them ALL another round of applause and “THANKS” for sharing…
But most of all, of course, we applaud GOD for HIS work in our lives, redeeming our hurts and failures and areas of brokenness and transforming them to USE them for our good and His glory.
And we also applaud and praise God for the GIFT of this book of Numbers. It’s been such a blessing to me over these past 24 Sundays now; we devoted almost the entire first half of the year to Numbers, and I believe it’s proven worth every WEEK of it. And I know many of you have too; I’ve been so encouraged by the encouragement YOU have shared with me, of how much God has taught and GROWN you over the past 6 months.
So before we put a bow on it, as we do at the end of EVERY sermon series, I want to take the first 15 or so minutes this morning to look back together over all that God has taught us, the 30,000 ft. view. We do this for 3 reasons:
Few if ANY of us have been here for all 24 Sundays (I know I missed a couple). And I hope when you DO miss you’re in the habit of watching or listening to the sermon online the following week when it gets posted. Maybe this little trailer / teaser will prompt some of you to go back and fill in the gaps you missed; ALL Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16); we don’t wanna miss one single BIT of it!
Secondly, like ISRAEL, we too are FORGETFUL; we need frequent REMINDERS if we’re actually going to learn the lessons that God has for us here. Even if you CAUGHT all 24 sermons, we need reminding.
And THIRD: it’s an opportunity to zoom out and try to see the FOREST for the TREES. What is the OVERARCHING message of Numbers God wants us to glean, as we look back and consider the book as a WHOLE?
Well, we tried to capture it in our SUBTITLE for the book: “Life in the Wilderness”. Here’s how I set it up for us way back in our Intro in week ONE: “Suffering. Sin. Sameness. This is life in the wilderness. The space between God’s decisive work to save us and His consummate work to bring us into the land of promise. It is the story of every believer still roaming this fallen world today, awaiting “a better country, a heavenly one” (Heb 11:16). And it is the story of God’s Old Testament people too - Israel - journeying from God’s salvation at the Red Sea (back in the book of Exodus) to their homecoming in Canaan (still ahead in the book of Joshua). And in between, is THE WILDERNESS.” (DuVal, “Getting Organized, pt1”).
And what was God’s first STEP, in leading Israel THROUGH it? Ch1 was all about “Getting ORGANIZED”. God called Israel to OBEDIENCE - he says, “If you’re gonna survive much less THRIVE out here, you’re gonna have to listen to ME, follow ME, let ME lead and guide you”. Second, God called them to ORGANIZATION - He orders Israel to take a census, to bring order to the camp before they set out. And THIRD, God called Israel to order their PRIORITIES - the only tribe NOT counted in the census was the LEVITES, because they were “set apart” to be wholly devoted to the Lord and his WORSHIP. And we TOO ought to organize our lives, think and plan carefully how we spend our time and money… EXCEPT when it comes to our worship of the Lord. THEN God encourages us not to even keep COUNT of how much we give to HIM; He is worth it ALL and infinitely MORE than we could ever give!
In chapter 2, part TWO, we reviewed 5 additional facets of godly organization: 1) Empowering leaders - Moses enlists the chiefs of each tribe to assist him in leading; we 2) Center on the Lord - even the lay out of Israel’s camp, with the tent of meeting at the center, was a reminder of God’s CENTRALITY in life; 3) Know your place - not all tribes were EQUAL: Judah was called to step UP and lead, Dan had to HUMBLE themselves and bring up the REAR. So too, we must each know and PLAY our God-given role within the Body of Christ. And related, 4) we must UNIFY as God’s people; many tribes, one CAMP; many members; one BODY. Collectively, together, #5) TRUSTING GOD. Christ is the HEAD of the body; HE must lead us through this wilderness. Just as He led Israel. We can trust him.
Then in chs 3 & 4, we considered the “SPECIAL Appointment” that the LEVITES received from the Lord; they were the PRIESTLY tribe. But TODAY, the NEW Testament considers the entire CHURCH to be a “priesthood of ALL believers”. So we noted that, like the Levites, we TOO have been appointed 1) to OBEY God, 2) to SERVE Him - whole-heartedly, carefully, humbly, compliantly, and sacrificially - and 3) we’ve been appointed to REMIND those around us of God’s redemption. We are ambassadors of God’s grace.
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In chs 5 & 19, we got down & dirty, and delved into our UNCLEANNESS - how it causes SEPARATION from the Lord, requires RESTITUTION TO the Lord, must be EXPOSED BY the Lord, so that (MOST importantly), we might be CLEANSED BY the Lord. This was true of ISRAEL, with their ceremonial uncleanness, and it is especially true of US, and our SPIRITUAL uncleanness, our SIN; we need a SAVIOR - we need Jesus.
In ch6 we considered the calling and vow of the NAZIRITES - you didn’t HAVE to be a priest (and TODAY- you don’t have to be a PASTOR…) to be “wholly devoted to the Lord”; this pledge was possible for ANY Israelite to make, as a sign of their loyalty and LOVE for the LORD. God wants to know: “Do you love ME more than PLEASURE? More than CONTROL? More than FAMILY? More than your SIN? Your PRIDE? Do you love me more than ANYTHING this world has to offer, because you understand just how much I first loved YOU?” So much I sent my only SON, for YOU.
In chs 7 & 8 we discussed “Preparing for Worship”, through 1) our sacrificial generosity to God’s work - our faithful, costly, whole-hearted, JOYFUL giving - through 2) our collective remembrance of God’s work in our lives, and through 3) our selfless serving to help perpetuate God’s continued work.
In chs 9 & 10 we discussed “FOLLOWING the Lord”, by 1) remembering his redemption; 2) complying with his commands; 3) LISTENING for his leading; 4) practicing his processes; 5) appealing for his aid; and 6) ISSUING God’s INVITATION to OTHERS, to JOIN us on our journey to the Promised Land, Heaven.
And then we came to chs 11 & 12, and the FIRST of Israel’s MANY REBELLIONS against the Lord. And we recognized that we TOO have a choice to make: “To GRUMBLE… or be GRATEFUL”. Will we complain about our problems, or be grateful that God PURIFIES us through trials? Will we complain about our privation (what we DON’T have), or be grateful for God’s provision of what we DO have? Do we complain about our responsibilities, or thank God that he even recruits us to His work? Do we complain about playing second fiddle - like Miriam & Aaron - or are we grateful for God’s Servant-Shepherd JESUS, our BETTER Moses, and his loving leadership of our lives?
Similarly, in chs 13 & 14, we were confronted with the question: “Fear, or FAITH?” Will we be like the 10 FEAR-ful spies who returned from Canaan fretting, or like Joshua & Caleb, who FAITH-fully declared, “Let us go up at once and take it, for we are well able to overcome” these Canaanites with GOD on our side. Fear objects; faith obeys. Fear DOUBTS the Lord; faith DEPENDS on Him. Fear looks INWARD to self, and SHRINKS; faith looks UPWARD to God, and is STALWART. And fear is ultimately REJECTED by God - Israel is CURSED for their fearful faithlessness - while FAITH is RECEIVED by God; Joshua & Caleb were welcomed INTO the Promised Land. We enter heaven by FAITH alone.
In ch15, we observed the contrast between “LAW and GRACE”, and what some of these old covenant laws concerning sacrifices, unintentional sins, Sabbath-breaking, and even tassels on GARMENTS have to teach us about the NEW covenant of GRACE we are now under thanks to Christ.
In ch16, we weighed God’s calling to “Submit to Your Leaders”, and God’s expectations OF those leaders: to be confident, called, compassionate yet able to confront when needed, and most of all: CONCILIATORY; we are reconciled reconcilers.
Who are further called, in chs 17 & 18, to be “EXAMPLES to the FLOCK”. Godly leaders 1) SHEPHERD their followers - protecting & flourishing the sheep; they 2) sacrificially SERVE the flock, even as they are 3) supported BY the flock; and most importantly, godly leaders 4) SUBORDINATE themselves to the GREAT Shepherd of our souls: JESUS.
In ch20, we noted how NOT to make it into the Promised Land: we can’t get in through REBELLION, or through the LAW (even MOSES won’t make it in!); FAMILY can’t get you in; SERVICE can’t get you in (Aaron too, despite all he’s done - giving his LIFE to serving the Lord as a priest - still comes up short…); because we ONLY reach the Promised Land through GRACE! Through God’s undeserved gift of eternal life, offered us in His son JESUS.
Who we celebrated on EASTER, in ch21; JESUS “Gives us the VICTORY!” The victory over the ENEMY through God’s EMPOWERMENT; the victory over SIN through God’s SON, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so [was] the JESUS lifted up [on the CROSS], that whoever believes in him may have eternal life”. He’s given victory over our aimless wandering through his WORD (God GUIDES us in right LIVING); but MOST crucially: God gives us victory over DEATH through Christ’s DELIVERANCE - “through death [Jesus] destroy[ed] the… power of death… and deliver[ed] [us from death]” (Heb 2:14-15). Now we TOO can be resurrected to new, ETERNAL life, in Christ.
In chs 22-24 we saw “God’s Determination to BLESS” his people, no matter the opposition; the ENEMY - whether it was the wicked prophet BALAAM 3500 years ago or SATAN HIMSELF today - their curses are NO match for God’s blessing. “Nothing in all creation can now separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:39) We are irrevocably BLESSED!
And yet IMMEDIATELY on the heels of it, we saw Israel fall prey, once again, to SIN. Pernicious, proliferative, PUNISHABLE sin, that MUST be dealt with, because of God’s holiness and justice. But in PHINEHAS, we saw God purge and PARDON his peoples’ sin, as a type and FORESHADOWING of our BETTER Phinehas - Jesus - who purged OUR sin not by piercing US with his spear, but by BEING pierced FOR us, dying the death we sinners deserve in our place, to save us.
Chs 26 & 27 - Church in the Park - “Generation: NEXT”; the OLD generation of Israelites DIE OUT in the wilderness; time for a fresh START. So we recommit to: 1) FOLLOW the Lord and work TOGETHER; 2) KNOW our history and learn from our PAST; and we 3) claim our inheritance, while paying it FORWARD to the generations AFTER us as well.
Chs 28-30 - what is our “Top Priority”? We are here to WORSHIP the LORD. In many rhythms, for many REASONS; with our RICHES; and most of all, through right LIVING, our OBEDIENCE. And when we still fall short, we remember it’s not OUR righteousness but CHRIST’s, which justifies us.
In ch31 we surveyed “The HOLY War” to which God called Israel historically against the Midianites, and to which God calls us TODAY, metaphorically, SPIRITUALLY, against our SIN. We’re called to make WAR on sin; to “put to DEATH” the works of the FLESH, that we might now WALK in the SPIRIT.
And we AVOID, ch32: “SETTLING”. As blood-bought sons and daughters of THE KING, we don’t SETTLE for anything LESS than the full PROMISE of God’s intended BLESSING for us - our heavenly INHERITANCE. We must AVOID being led ASTRAY by prosperity, or reason, or the fear of man, or generational sins, or compromise, or confusing our OWN will with GOD’s. We don’t have to settle, because CHRIST is ENOUGH. JESUS is BETTER than ALL that this world has to offer.
And finally, LAST week in chs 33 & 34 we BEGAN the process of “Looking Back & Looking Forward” - reflecting on the past and preparing for the future. In order to GLEAN from our failures, to GLORY in God’s faithfulness, and even be grateful in life’s FLATNESS, its MUNDANE-ness, because God’s there WITH us. And He’s promised He WILL be with us “ALWAYS, to the end of the age”, all the way to the FINISH line.
So now we’re ready to wrap it all up in chs 35 & 36, with a concluding sermon I’ve entitled “A Place for (ALMOST) Everyone”. As Numbers draws to a close and Israel prepares to finally enter the Promised Land, one last MASSIVE question still remains: Who’s getting IN? God made it clear back in ch14, when the OLD generation trusted the fearful, faithless spies more than the LORD, that none of those “listed in the (first) census… shall come into the land”, except Joshua & Caleb (Num 14:30). But what about their offspring, this new generation? Is there a place in the Promised Land for everyone? If it’s a metaphor for Heaven in OUR journey, then who gets IN? Is there a place there for everyone… for ME? For YOU?
Let’s read and find out. (SCRIPTURE:) Would you STAND with me as you’re able; we’ll try and soak in the last of Numbers here, but we ARE gonna skip a few verses here and there; hear the word of the Lord:
“35:1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, 2 “Command the people of Israel to give to the Levites some of the inheritance of their possession as cities for them to dwell in. And you shall give to the Levites pasturelands around the cities… [then God outlines the DIMENSIONS of those cities…]
v6 “The cities that you give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, where you shall permit the manslayer to flee, and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities. 7 All the cities that you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight, with their pasturelands. 8 And as for the cities that you shall give from the possession of the people of Israel, from the larger tribes you shall take many, and from the smaller tribes you shall take few; each, in proportion to the inheritance that it inherits, shall give of its cities to the Levites.”
v9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 11 then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there. 12 The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment. 13 And the cities that you give shall be your six cities of refuge. 14 You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan, to be cities of refuge. 15 These six cities shall be for refuge for the people of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills any person without intent may flee there.
16 “But if he struck him down with an iron object, so that he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall be put to death. 17 And if he struck him down with a stone tool… Or with a wooden tool that could cause death, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall be put to death. 19 The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death. 20 And if he pushed him out of hatred or hurled something at him, lying in wait, so that he died, 21 or in enmity struck him down with his hand, so that he died, then he who struck the blow shall be put to death. He is a murderer…
22 “But if he pushed him suddenly without enmity, or hurled anything on him without lying in wait 23 or used a stone that could cause death, and without seeing him dropped it on him, so that he died, though he was not his enemy and did not seek his harm, 24 then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood, in accordance with these rules. 25 And the congregation shall rescue the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge to which he had fled, and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil. 26 But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the boundaries of his city of refuge to which he fled, 27 and the avenger of blood finds him outside the boundaries of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood. 28 For he must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest… 29 And these things shall be for a statute and rule for you throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
30 “If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses. But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. 31 Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death. 32 And you shall accept no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest. 33 You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. 34 You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the Lord dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.”
ch36:1 The heads of the fathers' houses of the clan of the people of Gilead the son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of the people of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the chiefs, the heads of the fathers' houses of the people of Israel. 2 They said, “The Lord commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the people of Israel, and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. [That was back in Numbers ch27; normally the family inheritance passed to the MALE heirs, but Zelophehad had 5 daughters, BOLD daughters, who asked, “Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father's brothers.”” And God GRANTED their request. But NOW that presents a NEW problem; v3:] 3 But if they get married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the people of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry… 4 And when the jubilee of the people of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”
5 And Moses commanded the people of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying, “The tribe of the people of Joseph is right. 6 This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: ‘Let them marry whom they think best, only they shall marry within the clan of the tribe of their father. 7 The inheritance of the people of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for every one of the people of Israel shall hold on to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers… [and God REPEATS that in vv8 & 9… ]
v10 The daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord commanded Moses, 11 for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to sons of their father's brothers. [their first cousins] 12 They were married into the clans of the people of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father's clan.
13 These are the commandments and the rules that the Lord commanded through Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.”
This is the word of God… Seated…
Now be HONEST - SOME of you are thinking: “That’s a pretty LAME ending. Talk about anticlimactic…” But I wanna spend our LAST 15 or 20 minutes now trying to convince you that you’re WRONG; that this is actually the PERFECT ending to the book of Numbers, because God is answering here the last and most important question of ALL: “Who gets IN, to the PROMISED Land?”
And He answers it in FOUR ways here, that collectively, taken together, accounts for ALL of Israel, and every one of US as well.
#1- For STARTERS, God says, “The Promised Land is A place for the DEVOTED. (35:1-8)
Vv1-8 are all about the LEVITES, and remember that’s what they represented: their lives were to be WHOLLY devoted to the LORD. Just as OUR lives TODAY ought to be wholly devoted to Him as well. And here is God’s PROMISE: “For those who DO - YOU honor ME in THIS life, and I will honor YOU in the life to COME.”
Two Sundays ago, when we were warned against SETTLING for the things of THIS world, we read the story of the “Rich Young Ruler”, who refused to sell all his STUFF so he could come follow Jesus, and “went away SORROWFUL because he had many possessions.” But here’s how that story actually ends: PETER, Jesus’s BOLDEST disciple watches the rich guy walk away sad, and then turns to Jesus and asks, “Well what about US, Jesus?! We actually have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”” (Matt 19:27) And you know the other disciples probably all took a step AWAY from Peter, in case Jesus was upset by his BRASHNESS; “You can’t ASK that, Peter! We’re not following Jesus just for the REWARDS…” But you ALSO know they were secretly listening more INTENTLY than EVER for Jesus’ reply, “But since he DID ask, Jesus; what WILL we receive?!”
And Jesus promised: ““Truly, I say to you, in the new world, [the RE-CREATION; the new heavens and new earth]... everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. And many who are first will be last, and the last first” (vv28-29).
The more DEVOTED we are to the Lord in THIS life, the closer to the BACK of the line we’re gonna be; NO ONE was more devoted to the Father than JESUS, and it cost him a home and a family and a paycheck and ULTIMATELY his LIFE. Who’s most devoted TODAY? The missionaries who sell everything they’ve got to move to Papua New Guinea and risk getting eaten by cannibals because otherwise that tribe has NO access to JESUS, to the GOSPEL, to the HOPE of eternal life - THOSE missionaries may be last in line HERE, but Jesus says “they’ll be FIRST in line in HEAVEN… and receive a HUNDREDFOLD” in the life to come.
And as the martyred missionary Jim Elliot added: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot KEEP to GAIN what he cannot LOSE.”
Our devotion may COST us dearly in THIS world, but God promises to REWARD it for all of ETERNITY.
And there are plenty of other interesting questions you could ask here - “Why did God only give the Levites 15 square miles total, only like 0.1% of the land of Canaan?”; “What is the practical, historical… and the symbolic, spiritual significance of the numbering and geography God assigned to these 48, evenly distributed cities of refuge?” - lots of little NUGGETS I’d love to EXPOUND on in our “After the Sermon” podcast. But for now, let’s keep it high level: “Who gets in? The DEVOTED.”
But not JUST the devoted. Because we keep reading in vv9-15 now and discover that there’s EVEN a place - #2 - for the OUTCASTS. (35:9-15, 22-29)
The DEVOTED makes sense; the Levites - the priests; the professionally religious people like missionaries and PASTORS - it makes sense that God’s gonna take care of them, reserve a spot for THEM in the Promised Land… But the OUTCASTS? The folks SHUNNED by the rest of society - and not because they’re so HOLY; quite the OPPOSITE: because they were RESPONSIBLE for committing one of the most serious offenses imaginable: MAN-slaughter.
Now, in fairness, it’s INVOLUNTARY manslaughter; the text makes that very CLEAR, and it’s an important distinction that we’ll come BACK to; the culprits in view here in vv9-15 and 22-29 ACCIDENTALLY killed someone. And there’s a big difference between KILLING and MURDER. But you know, there’s ALSO a big SIMILARITY: in BOTH cases, someone’s DEAD. And that’s SERIOUS. Because our God is EXTREMELY pro-life.
Like, SO pro-life that the only way to restore JUSTICE when an innocent life has been TAKEN - whether intentionally OR accidentally; note this! - is through DEATH. Remember back to Exodus 21:24 and Leviticus 24:17 - “eye for eye, tooth for tooth…” LIFE for LIFE. “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death.” You TAKE a life, you OWE a life. It’s that simple.
Or IS it? In the case of MURDER, it really IS that simple, as we’ll see in just a moment in vv16-21: “The murderer shall be put to death.” But isn’t there ANY way for the ACCIDENTAL killer to AVOID death?
YES. He must FLEE to the nearest “city of refuge”, await a fair trial by a jury of his peers, and if acquitted (of premeditated MURDER, at least), then he must STILL remain in the city of refuge until WHEN?! V25: “until the death of the high priest”.
Just as the high priest was in some sense able to “bear the SINS” of the people, once a year on the Day of Atonement, so too, here, God permitted him to bear the DEATH of the “manslayer”, in his place.
Why? Because divine justice had to be served? A life for life? Yes. But don’t you see how there’s so much MORE to this fateful substitution than that? This is a prophetic prefiguring of our final, BETTER high priest - Jesus - whose death alone could pay for our sins, and set us FREE.
Make no MISTAKE, friends: SIN is still SIN even if it wasn’t “premeditated”. When God let my father leave our family in middle school, I was MAD at God; I PURPOSELY sinned to try and get BACK at God. It was premeditated, intentional, “HIGH-handed” SIN. Whereas pretty much ALL of the sins I commit THESE days aren’t calculated, willful sins of open defiance. But guess what: they’re STILL SINS! And like involuntary manslaughter, UNPLANNED SIN is still a PROBLEM, for a perfectly HOLY, perfectly JUST God. Still must be PAID for.
Praise GOD for our once-for-all-time ATONING high priest - his DEATH has paid our DEBT; JESUS paid it ALL! All to HIM we OWE.
Only JESUS can give - would WANT to give - OUTCASTS like us a place in the Promised Land. Maybe someone here is feeling like an OUTCAST, even in the Church, or ESPECIALLY in the Church. You need NOT feel that way in THIS church, by the way; we’re not an association of the angelic; this is a SANATORIUM for SINNERS; an INFIRMARY for the INIQUITOUS; a HOSPITAL where the HURTING can find HEALING, the FALLEN can find FORGIVENESS, and the SINFUL find SALVATION in JESUS CHRIST.
And if you feel like an OUTCAST, I’ve got good news for you: you are JESUS’s kind of people. The RELIGIOUS people of his day snidely nicknamed Jesus the “friend of sinners” because he LOVED hanging out with the folks everybody else HATED - prostitutes and tax collectors. “Because”, he said, “I didn’t come to save the RIGHTEOUS, but the SINNERS. It’s not the HEALTHY who need the doctor… but the SICK” (Matt 9:12-13). Those who KNOW they are SPIRITUALLY SICK, with a sin-saturated SOUL, and in SEVERE need of a Savior.
“THOSE are MY people!” Jesus said. The OUT-casts, are the “IN crowd”, in Jesus’s upside-down Kingdom.
So FLEE to Him! Jesus isn’t just the high priest in Numbers 35; he is our CITY OF REFUGE as well! He’s “open to all,” even the “stranger and sojourner” (v15); “no one needs to fear that they will be turned away… in their time of need.” (David Guzik, Enduring Word: “Numbers 35”) And just like ONE of those 48 cities of refuge, Jesus is NEARBY! You need not search far and wide to FIND him; the Bible says, “he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27), Jesus WANTS to be FOUND by us; he wants RELATIONSHIP with us. But the most important correlation, friends, is that like the manslayer within the city of refuge, you and I are ONLY safe and protected, from the rightful CONSEQUENCE of our sin, so long as we remain IN CHRIST.
If you haven’t already, FLEE to Jesus today, and be SAVED.
Because the only ones NOT welcomed in the Promised Land, in HEAVEN are the GUILTY. (35:16-21, 30-34)
#3- There is NO place for the GUILTY.
“The MURDERER shall be put to DEATH.” (v16, et al)
“You shall not pollute the land… in the midst of which I dwell” - if God wouldn’t stand for injustice in CANAAN, how much LESS so in HEAVEN! The “land” where HE dwells - it’s a perfect place reserved for perfect people, Jesus said in Matthew 5:48; “unless your righteousness EXCEEDS that of the scribes and Pharisees, [the PROFESSIONALLY righteous people] you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (5:20) 1 Corinthians 6:9 - “the UNrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God”
Why? Because “BLOOD POLLUTES the land” (Num 35:33), and friends we ALL have blood on our hands! “We have ALL SINNED” - we are GUILTY! - and the WAGES of sin is DEATH” (Rom 3:23; 6:23).
You do the crime; you gotta do the TIME.
UNLESS… JESUS pays your fine.
And declares, “Your GUILT is now MINE.”
So that WE can say, “Jesus- your RIGHTEOUSNESS is now MINE.”
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, the CROSS (1 Pet 2:24); “For our sake God made him [JESUS] to be sin [though he] knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21) - Just as the divine gavel FELL and God’s just verdict against our sin was announced - “GUILTY!” - JESUS stepped into the heavenly courtroom and declared, “God, punish ME instead, in their PLACE. I’LL take their guilt; THEY can have my righteousness.”
And here’s the craziest part: HE’s the GOEL! The Hebrew word here for “avenger of blood” - goel - may sound familiar to some of you; elsewhere in the Bible it’s translated “kinsman redeemer”. Like BOAZ in the story of Ruth. But HERE he’s more like the “kinsman HITman”, the “family ENFORCER”. They didn’t have POLICE back then, so if someone WRONGED your family, it was up to the goel to get JUSTICE.
Think about it: we’ve ALL sinned against GOD. And of ALL people, his Son JESUS - we’d expect - would be out for BLOOD, to AVENGE. But as commentator Iain Duguid rejoices (361): “In the gospel, the heavenly Avenger has become our Redeemer… In Jesus Christ, God himself took on human flesh and became our kinsman, not to pursue us and condemn us but to deliver us. The Avenger comes after us, yet when he catches us, instead of killing us, he throws his arms around us and says, “Come home - your sin has been atoned for. The one we expected to be our judge and executioner was himself judged and executed in our place.”
And now all who confess and repent of their sins, trusting in Christ’s sacrifice for our forgiveness, can have our GUILT removed and our eternal fate SECURED. We get our heavenly passports STAMPED, and we ENTER the Promised Land, because JESUS bore our guilt; “his soul makes an offering for guilt… making many to be accounted righteous, for he shall bear their iniquities.” (Isa 53:10-11) And he DID - praise God!
And NOW, LASTLY, #4 - There’s a place for the WHOLE FAMILY. (36:1-13)
That’s the big takeaway from ch36; I know it seems like a WEIRD place to end. And again, you can ask all your questions about marrying your COUSINS, and why women couldn’t just KEEP the land in THEIR family when they got married - ask it for the podcast. But let’s not miss the main POINT here; v7: “every ONE of the people of Israel shall hold on to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.” God ensures that EVERY Israelite has a perpetual RIGHT to their inheritance.
And friends: God has ensured that every one of US, too, has access to His heavenly FAMILY inheritance: “to EVERYONE who did receive [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God” (Jn 1:12).
There’s room in heaven for the WHOLE FAMILY. And you can become a child of GOD today: confess your sins, receive Jesus, and be SAVED.
Let’s pray…