After Pentecost Devotional - Day 27

“Six of the towns you give them will be Safe Towns where a person who has accidentally killed someone can run for protection. But you will also give the Levites forty-two other towns...” Numbers 35:6

Grace, mercy, and forgiveness are not what we look for in these instructions of the Mosaic code. We have accustomed ourselves to find harsh language, unyielding retribution, and a legal code based on anger and punishment. In the midst of that, we find several passages that speak to the establishment of Safe Towns or cities of refuge. If anything, the very existence of such towns seems to fly in the face of what we have come to expect.

We look at language like “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” without stopping to recognize that these laws intended to place limits or restrictions upon revenge. Sure, these restrictions did not go far enough for us to call them progressive today, but they were a far cry from the expectations of the societies among whom the nation was in the process of building their own nation. These issues of unlimited revenge were a real struggle for the nation as a whole.

We could look to the actions of King David and many to follow him and see unwarranted bloodshed for little more than sensing a potential threat to power, position, and privilege. These cities of refuge, however, were designed to assist the nation in recognizing that revenge needed limits. They were a reminder that people made mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes brought about disastrous consequences.

The code in those cases offered an escape valve that allowed the inadvertent murderer to live in a city of refuge and find protection from those who wanted to enact revenge. The law had its limitations. If one left the safety of the city of refuge, they could still be killed in revenge. Even with those limitations, however, this was a far cry from the cultural standards regarding revenge. Violent retribution was the order of the day. Yahweh's instructions, however, placed a damper upon revenge we could learn from.

Revenge killing does not benefit anyone. It does not and cannot restore the life that was lost. It amplifies the distress of one family, extending it to another. It often extends to the kind of feuding we saw among the Hatfields and McCoys in our own nation. It hamstrings communities, families, and places children at great risk.

The greater problem we face, however, is that we still struggle with our own penchant for retribution, revenge, making those who have harmed us pay. In the process, we forget that we also have injured others. We have caused our own share of pain and suffering by what we have done and failed to do. So often, that pain and injury is unintentional. We did not recognize the extent to which we hurt others. In coming closer to understanding, we find that we need grace for our failings.

It is on understanding our failings that we come to understand just how much others need the very same grace that we have and yet need to receive for ourselves. We also need those safe places, just as we need to offer them to others.

Who are those that you have injured unintentionally? Determine to offer the same grace to those who injure you that you also need.

"Lord, transform my penchant for revenge into a desire to lavish grace upon others."

—©Copyright 2016, Christopher B. Harbin

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