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International headlines of division and street chaos echo an ancient command for places of safety that God Himself established in Israel. What if those long-forgotten cities hold the key to surviving not only physical danger, but the greater threat of divine wrath? One overlooked chapter in Joshua answers where anyone—Israeli or foreigner—could run for safety whenever life turned into a nightmare, and the same truth applies today.
📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/finding-safe-refuge
#mlcc #church #churchonline
📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/finding-safe-refuge
#mlcc #church #churchonline
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LearningTranscript
00:00Now, since 1999, Kosovo basically had been under UN and NATO management, if you want to say that.
00:05But they declared last Sunday, a week ago from today, we are now an independent country.
00:10And you've probably seen in the news this week that some nations have acknowledged their existence,
00:15some nations have not acknowledged their existence,
00:17and you've probably seen the uproar that's taking place now in Belgrade over the last couple of days.
00:22It's all over the news. You can't help if you watch any kind of news.
00:27Because on Thursday, actually, all this last week, several thousand of the Serbs were out front yelling stuff like,
00:36Kosovo is Serbia.
00:37And then what's a bit frightening to me is not only are they yelling Kosovo is Serbia,
00:42but they're also invoking the name of the Russian president.
00:46They're crying out, Russia, varme Putin, as they're running around in the streets.
00:51Russia is opposed to Kosovo declaring independence.
00:54And I'm thinking to myself, as I'm listening to the news, I'm saying,
00:58you know, something was nagging me about this whole incident.
01:03And I began doing a little bit of research and looking back over our history,
01:06and I started asking myself, is history repeating itself?
01:10And you say, what does that mean?
01:12On June 28, 1914, right there in the general location that was in Sarajevo,
01:18this is taking place in Belgrade, that general location,
01:21Archduke Ferdinand, or Francis Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist,
01:2618-year-old student who killed him.
01:29The result of that was the dividing of the nations and what we know as World War I.
01:36Now, I'm not a prophet.
01:37I don't know what's going to come of this.
01:38But with the nations dividing up like they're doing now,
01:41Russia, Turkey, Middle East, and the European nations in America,
01:44it seems to me that the world is dividing itself once again.
01:48Is this the spark that sets it off?
01:50I have no idea.
01:51I'm not a prophet.
01:51All I know is I'm wondering, is history repeating itself?
01:56While I watched the news reports that came on, I believe it was Thursday night,
02:01it became very intense fighting in the streets and turning over cars and burning stuff.
02:06At that time, they attacked the U.S. Embassy.
02:09They firebombed it or tried to firebomb it, and it's unclear whether they actually got into the embassy or not.
02:14Some say they did.
02:15Some say they didn't.
02:16Nevertheless, some of the offices inside the embassy, United States Embassy, were burned.
02:22At the time this was taking place, there were 14 employees of the U.S. Embassy
02:26in the general location inside the embassy.
02:29And they're thinking to themselves, I'm sure, while this is taking place
02:32and thousands of people are protesting on the street,
02:35they're thinking to themselves, where is the one place I can be safe in this city?
02:39And they're thinking to themselves, this is U.S. soil.
02:43The embassy belongs to the country that is,
02:45and they're thinking, where else can I go that's safe other than here in the U.S. Embassy?
02:48Where can I find safety in this turmoil that's going on around me?
02:53So hoping to find a safe place, they remained, and they waited inside the embassy.
02:57And the U.S. Department tells us that all 14 of them did survive.
03:01They survived.
03:04So, where do we go when our life is caving in around us?
03:11I mean, here's protests, thousands of people on the street,
03:14their life is in jeopardy, these people in the U.S. Embassy,
03:17and they're asking themselves, where can I go to find safety?
03:22Where do I go when my life is caving in around me?
03:27When you find yourself part of a bad dream,
03:31when you want to pinch yourself and say,
03:33I just want to wake up from this, it can't possibly be real.
03:36But you know that it is.
03:38And you pinch yourself and you realize,
03:41ouch, that hurts, I'm awake.
03:44And I'm part of this bad dream,
03:45but I don't know where to go where there's safety.
03:50Where in this world is a safe place?
03:55When we come to our text today in Joshua chapter 20,
03:58that really is the idea that's taking place here in Joshua chapter 20.
04:03Where is it safe?
04:06Where's a place I can find grace and mercy
04:10instead of wrath and anger and punishment?
04:13You're probably saying, hey, wait a second,
04:15we skipped an awful lot of chapters from chapter 14
04:17all the way to chapter 20.
04:18Yes, we did.
04:19And if you go back and read those, they're very valuable.
04:22They are talking about the dividing of the land,
04:24how one tribe gets this amount,
04:25where this tribe has settled down.
04:26It's a division of the land, and it's valuable information.
04:30But we want to come to chapter 20
04:31because we're now at the end of the dividing of the land
04:34and all the land has been given out,
04:37appointed to the particular tribes,
04:39and now we come to a very important time
04:41in the nation of Israel
04:42where they needed to establish safe places.
04:45Here, chapter 20 of Joshua.
04:47Let me read verses one through six,
04:49and we're going to see these safe places.
04:51We're going to see the reason why God says
04:53these are important to have,
04:55why I want these in the land,
04:58why I think that these are important
04:59for the nation of Israel
05:01and all the people living in Israel at that time.
05:03Here's why, verses one through six.
05:07Then the Lord said to Joshua,
05:09say to the people of Israel,
05:11appoint the cities of refuge
05:13of which I spoke to you through Moses,
05:16that the manslayer who strikes any person
05:19without intent or unknowingly may flee there.
05:22They shall be for you a refuge
05:24from the avenger of blood.
05:27He shall flee to one of these cities
05:28and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city
05:31and explain his case to the elders of that city.
05:34Then they shall take him into the city
05:36and give him a place and he shall remain with them.
05:39And if the avenger of blood pursues him,
05:42they shall not give up the manslayer into his hand
05:44because he struck his neighbor unknowingly
05:46and did not hate him in the past.
05:49And he shall remain in that city
05:50until he has stood before the congregation for judgment
05:53until the death of him who is high priest at that time.
05:56Then the manslayer may return to his own town,
05:59to his own home,
06:00to the town from which he has fled.
06:02Now we are going to be introduced to some things
06:05that are so foreign to our idea of American jurisprudence,
06:09our idea of American justice.
06:11We're going to read some things today that say,
06:13wait a second,
06:13this doesn't even fit to what we understand.
06:16Vigilantism is something we say,
06:18no, that's not good.
06:19Leave it to the courts to take care of this.
06:20What we're going to see is something
06:22that's completely foreign to us.
06:26When the law of Moses was given,
06:28it was very clear if you premeditatedly murdered somebody,
06:31then the result was you were to be executed.
06:34You were to be stoned to death.
06:35You were to be put to death for premeditated murder.
06:38But there was a case where there was murder that took place,
06:40but it was unintentional.
06:41It was an accident.
06:42For example, one illustration given was
06:44you go out to chop down a tree,
06:46chop down wood to build a fire
06:48or whatever the case you're going to do.
06:50You go out with your friend, your neighbor,
06:51you're hacking away at the tree,
06:53the axe head flies off,
06:54hits your neighbor and kills him.
06:56You didn't mean to do it.
06:57We call it manslaughter today.
06:59You didn't mean to do it.
07:00It was unintentional.
07:02But we read about this person called the Avenger of Blood
07:06who had the ability to chase you down
07:08if you shed someone's blood
07:10and they could actually kill you.
07:12Well, what do you do if it was an accident?
07:14Where do you run to to find safety
07:16when you didn't mean to kill somebody?
07:18Now, if you premeditated that,
07:19then of course there was a punishment for that.
07:21But unintentional deaths, what do you do?
07:25The Avenger of Blood is another way of saying
07:28the Redeemer of Blood.
07:30Avenger of Blood means the Redeemer of Blood,
07:32the Goel Hadam.
07:34It has the idea that when blood has been shed upon the land,
07:37there needs to be a satisfaction for that.
07:39There needs to be a redemption for that blood
07:41that has been shed.
07:44And the law of blood revenge was based upon
07:47what we read in Genesis chapter 9
07:49after Noah came out of the ark.
07:50God gave him this idea.
07:52And he says in chapter 9, verse 6,
07:54whoever sheds the blood of man,
07:56by man shall his blood be shed.
07:58For God made man in his own image.
08:00And the idea of this Redeemer of Blood,
08:02this Avenger of Blood,
08:03if you put to death or if you kill
08:05one of my nearest relatives,
08:06I could chase you down and kill you.
08:09And there would be no repercussion.
08:11That was the Avenger of Blood.
08:13That is so foreign to our way of thinking.
08:15We don't think that way.
08:17And it was allowed.
08:20The Avenger of Blood had the sacred duty,
08:23according to Moses,
08:24to punish the murderer,
08:27to avenge that blood.
08:29As a matter of fact, he said in Deuteronomy 19,
08:32then the elders of his city shall send him,
08:34take him from there and hand him over
08:36to the Avenger of Blood so that he may die.
08:38The idea of avenging that blood that was shed.
08:42But what happens if it was an accident?
08:44You didn't mean to kill the person,
08:46yet the person is dead,
08:47and the Avenger of Blood is after you now
08:49to take your life.
08:50Where do you run to?
08:50That's these cities right here.
08:52These are the places you can find mercy and grace
08:54when the Avenger of Blood wants wrath and punishment.
09:00The cities of refuge are so important
09:02to God's thinking that they're mentioned
09:04in four books of the Old Testament.
09:07Over four times, God is talking about
09:09these places of grace and mercy
09:11where the person who didn't mean to kill somebody
09:12could run to and find safety.
09:16The judges were to sit at the gate,
09:18and when the person that came said,
09:19hey, I didn't mean to do it,
09:20it was an accident,
09:21they were supposed to listen to his story.
09:23Then they were to bring him into the city,
09:25and they were to put him on trial, basically.
09:27If it proved to be true,
09:28he's to stay in the city.
09:29He has refuge.
09:31But he was only protected
09:33within the boundaries of the city.
09:37If he was to leave the city,
09:38the Avenger of Blood,
09:39if the trial hadn't taken place,
09:41and it hasn't been proved
09:42that he was unintentionally guilty of murder,
09:45the Avenger of Blood,
09:45if caught outside the city,
09:47the Avenger of Blood could kill him.
09:48Could just strike him down right there.
09:52His only protection was within the city.
09:55He had to stay within the city.
09:56That's where safety was.
09:57That's where refuge was.
09:59Only within the boundaries of the city.
10:02And if he ever left
10:03before the death of the high priest,
10:05the Avenger of Blood could kill him.
10:09The death of the high priest
10:10could be seen as symbolically
10:12as a means of satisfaction
10:14for the blood that was shed
10:16to cover the land.
10:19For the manslayer,
10:21for the person who committed manslaughter,
10:23there was no neutral ground for him.
10:25He either had to be in the city
10:27and protect it
10:27or outside of the city
10:28and under the possibility
10:30of being killed
10:31by the Avenger of Blood.
10:32There was no neutral ground.
10:34He couldn't say,
10:34you know,
10:34I just want to sit on the fence.
10:36Well, there was no fence
10:36for the manslayer.
10:38There was no place of safety
10:39other than in the city.
10:41If he ever went out,
10:42there was danger.
10:44There is no neutral location for him.
10:46The only safe place
10:47was in the city.
10:48There's an example of this
10:49that we see in the Old Testament.
10:52There's a guy named Abner.
10:54He was the commander
10:55of Saul's army.
10:56We know Saul was killed.
10:58Then there was a civil war
10:59that took place
11:00against the people of Saul,
11:02basically,
11:02and the people of David.
11:04And there's a civil war
11:04going on.
11:06And Abner's still on Saul's side,
11:07even though Saul's dead.
11:09Well, Abner...
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