Joshua 20
Leaders Prep Section
Watch this video, read these notes, and send the pre-written email (below) to your group 2-3 days before you meet.
Notes
We’ve seen God is a warrior and leader. Now we get to see a different side of God…as a place of refuge and peace.
Group Guide Starts Here
Context of scripture
The conquest continues, but God’s followers are settling in the land and making it home.
Read Joshua 20: 1-3
“Manslayer” is a person who commits manslaughter. The avenger of blood or “kinsman-redeemer” was the nearest male relative responsible to protect the family’s lives, liberty, and property. When a life was taken, the kinsman-redeemer became the avenger of blood (Numbers 35:19).1 In other words, if you killed someone, even by accident, the avenger of blood would come for you.
The city of refuge was not a jail or courthouse. Israel already had laws and ways of administering justice. The city of refuge was a new concept, a safe place to run when things went bad.
Have any of you ever told a kid that they can come to you if they get into serious trouble or need real help, regardless of whose fault it was?
What are you trying to accomplish when you say things like that?
Read Joshua 20: 4-9
The cities were arranged geographically so you were never more than a day’s travel away from one of them.2 Also, notice even the gentiles (non-Jews) were allowed the same protection of these places of refuge. God is fulfilling his promise to Abraham (Genesis 12) that what he does through the Israelites is meant to bless all people. God is also introducing this idea that, when we royally screw up, we can go to him.
When people do something that really, really harms someone else (in this example: murder), they tend to believe one of two things:
- They just believe they’ve wronged a person.
- Or, they also believe they’ve wronged a larger law of the universe.
Which do you believe?
Notice the person in the city of refuge is safe as long as they stay there…but they are not safe outside the walls of that city until the death of the high priest at the time. God is introducing another idea here…you’re safe the moment you go to the city of refuge, but you’re not free from the blame until the reigning priest dies.