In Num. 35 we see the cities of refuge, six cities among the cities of the Levites who were assigned to be cities of refuge; these typify the all-inclusive Christ as the embodiment of the redeeming God into whom mistaken sinners can flee for refuge.
Today there’s such things as prisons, where the murderers – whether intentional or unintentional – are kept until, during, and after a trial of their peers with a judge.
But God in His wisdom has ordained that six of the cities in the good land would be designed as cities of refuge, cities where the man-slayer may flee and live until judgment is pronounced. These cities of refuge were spread in Israel, so that they would be accessible to the ones who needed them, and they were also inhabited by the Levites.
The cities of refuge are a wonderful type of Christ, the embodiment of the redeeming God, who came to die for us and redeem us so that we, mistaken sinners, would flee to Him, remain in Him, be freed from the avenger’s wrath, and live a peaceful life. Hallelujah!
Christ was mistakenly put to death by mistake-making people, and He died to redeem us and make a way for us, mistake making people, to flee into Him as our city of refuge and remain in Him for the rest of our life.
And the fact that these cities were also inhabited by the Levites shows that in the local churches (the cities of the Levites) we need to set aside time and space to preach the gospel so that mistaken sinners may flee into Christ and come into the church life, the corporate life of Christ, for them to find peace, rest, enjoyment, and refuge. Hallelujah!
We may not be those who commit murder, but we commit mistake after mistake; even when we try not to commit mistakes, we still make them, and no matter how much we try not to commit mistakes, we still do it.
We are a mistake-making factory; some mistakes are bigger while others are smaller, so we need to flee from the avenger of the blood, that is, we need to flee from the judgment that is coming.
How and when and where can we flee? We can come to the Lord, the One who came into the world so that we, mistaken sinners, would look at Him, believe into Him, and have eternal life.
Hallelujah, we can flee into Christ as the reality of the cities of refuge, and in Him we find everything we need; in Him we have refuge and in Him we have life, peace, joy, and all the riches of God! Thank You Lord Jesus!
As Mistake-making Sinners we Flee into Christ, the Reality of the Cities of Refuge
The cities of refuge typify the all-inclusive Christ as the embodiment of the redeeming God, into whom mistaken sinners can flee for refuge (Num. 35:6-7, 9-34).
Christ is the only One who lived on earth and never made a mistake; however, He was delivered by God into the hand of sinners (see Acts 2:23; Rom. 4:25), who mistakenly put Him to death (Luke 23:34; 1 Cor. 2:8). Pilate knew, king Herod knew, and even the Pharisees and leaders of God’s people knew that Jesus had no mistake in Him, yet they still put Him to death.
On the cross the Lord prayed, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing! He knew that they were mistake-making sinners. None of the rulers of this age knew who Christ was, for if they had known, they had not crucified the Lord of glory.
Now, if any sinner repents, God will regard him as a mistaken sinner and will forgive him (see Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38), and every repenting sinner can flee into Christ. But if anyone hears the gospel, refuses it, and does not repent, God will regard him as a willful sinner, one who is destined to perish (Num. 35:16; John 3:16-18).
Christ came as light into the world; He didn’t come to condemn man but to save man, and whoever believes into Him will not perish but have eternal life, but whoever doesn’t, is condemned.
By His mercy, we as mistaken sinners have believed into the Lord and we flee into Christ as our cities of refuge.
There were six cities of refuge – three on each side of the Jordan river; the number six signifies mistake-making man, who was created by God on the sixth day (Gen. 1:26-27, 31). We all are mistake-making people, but praise the Lord, we have Christ as our city of refuge, and we can flee into Him!
The number three signifies the Triune God as the refuge for man who makes mistakes; the number two (there were two sets of three cities each) signifies a testimony standing in the universe, testifying and declaring to the universe that the Triune God is living on earth among human beings to be their city of refuge.
The Bible testifies, our experience testifies, and the church testifies that the Triune God has been embodied, lived on earth, was put to death, died, and resurrected so that He may be the reality of the cities of refuge for all the mistake-making people who believe into Him and thus flee to Him.
These cities of refuge were not only for the children of Israel but also for the strangers and sojourners among them; this signifies that the Triune God as the refuge for mistake-making man is for all mankind.
Everyone who repents and believes into the Lord can flee into Christ as the city of refuge, and this Christ – the embodiment of the Triune God – is so near and available. He has spread out to all men, among all men, to the very place where we are, to be a city of refuge for all those who make mistakes.
We all make mistakes; the first step to deal with these mistakes is to admit we made mistakes, and then flee to the Lord Jesus, our Redeemer and our city of refuge, for in Him we find refuge, peace, life, and joy.
Lord, we admit that we are mistake-making people in need of a Redeemer. We flee to You, Lord, for You are the reality of the cities of refuge for us all, mistake-making sinners, to repent, believe into, and run to. Thank You Lord for dying for us; You were willing to be put to death by mistake by mistake-making sinners, and You have become a city of refuge for all those who repent and believe into You. Thank You for reaching out to us, coming where we are, and being a testimony of the cities of refuge to us. Amen, Lord, we flee into You!
The Triune God Reaches Man Everywhere to be a City of Refuge for all who make Mistakes
What the New Testament shows us in reality is a fulfillment of the type we see in the Old Testament; in Num. 35 we see that there were six cities of refuge spread out in Israel, and in Luke 15 we see the Triune God reaching to man to bring man into Himself.
In His Trinity God reaches us and has a relationship with us to become our salvation. When we believe into the Lord and repent of our sins, we are baptised into the name of the Triune God – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).
In Luke 15 in particular we see how the Triune God reaches out to sinners to bring them back to God: the shepherd typifies the Lord Jesus (v. 4), the woman typifies the Spirit (v. 8), and the father typifies God the Father (v. 20).
The Triune God reaches out wherever we are – He reaches out to all the cities and corners of the earth – to find man and be open as cities of refuge for the mistake-making men to flee.
The Father loves us and shows His love toward us, the Son comes to be grace to us for our enjoyment, and the Spirit as fellowship communicates and makes real all that God is in His love and Christ is in His grace to us (2 Cor. 13:14).
The Triune God comes to be our Savior and grace to have an intimate relationship with us; we as mistake-making men can repent, believe into Him, contact Him, and flee into Him for refuge and security.
Furthermore, the fact that the six cities of refuge were among the forty-eight cities of the Levites spread throughout Israel is very significant.
The cities of the Levites can signify the local churches, where the believers live and serve God in their spirit; the cities of refuge signify Christ as our Savior, sparing us from the judgment of death and delivering us so as to recover our spiritual possessions.
This means that, as we live in the local churches today, we need to function in preaching the gospel so that man may receive Christ’s redemption, be justified, receive the spiritual inheritance, and thus gain a dwelling place in Christ!
In the local churches we dwell among God’s people and we enjoy Christ; He is our God-allotted portion, and He is our unique portion allotted to the saints in the light.
However, God wants to bring many more into the cities of refuge, into Himself as the dwelling place; for this, we need to preach the gospel for many to flee into the redeeming Christ and come into the church life to enjoy living in the mutual dwelling place of God and man.
What God desires is this mutual dwelling place where both God and man find rest; for this, He has made arrangements so that God and man, man and God, may meet, live together in peace, and be built up together.
On one hand the Triune God has been embodied and enlarged to spread among man to the very place where people are so that mistake-making men would flee into Him; on the other hand, He reaches out to man through the saints in the local churches to bring mistake-making sinners into His dwelling place.
Thank You Triune God for being embodied in Christ and spreading everywhere on earth to be a city of refuge for all those who make mistakes! Lord, we take You as our city of refuge; we are mistake-making men, and today we made so many mistakes. We repent, Lord, under Your shining light, and we apply the precious blood of Christ. We come forward to You to flee into You as our city of refuge. We take Christ as our refuge and we exercise our spirit to be one spirit with the Lord, an intrinsic part of the mutual dwelling place of God and man!
Read this article / blog post in Romanian – puteți citi acest articol și în limba română la următorul link – Cristos este realitatea cetăților de refugiu: ca păcătoșii care au făcut greșeli, noi ne refugiem în El!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1960, vol. 1, “Synopsis of Numbers,” ch. 26, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallisation-Study of Numbers (1), week 10, The Major Types and the Prophecy concerning Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Righteous alone in Thee, / Jesus, the Lord! / Thou wilt a refuge be, / Jesus, our Lord! / Whom, then, have we to fear, / What trouble, grief, or care, / Since Thou art ever near, / Jesus, our Lord! (Hymns #65)
# Thou hidden source of calm repose, / Thou all-sufficient love divine; / My help and refuge from my foes, / Secure I am, if Thou art mine; / From sin and grief, from guilt and shame, / I hide me, Jesus, in Thy name. (Hymns #532)
# Oh, precious blood! poured freely forth for me, / My sins are sunk beneath thy crimson tide. / No more before th’ Avenger’s sword I flee! / Christ is the Refuge-City, where I hide. / My life’s dark page, blood-sprinkled, gleameth white; / My name shines forth in heaven in words of light. (Hymns #304)
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