JOSHUA 20 - GOD OF JUSTICE AND MERCY
Joshua 20
Joshua 20 is an incredible reflection of the heart of our God, a God of justice and mercy. Following the establishment of the inheritance of the children of Israel, God’s first concern is with those who have made a mistake. We so often picture God as a traffic cop, sitting and waiting to catch us in the slightest failing in order to fulfill his quota of sin. But that is not what we see in Joshua. God instead is concerned with the fugitive. And having provided an inheritance to the tribes, his next immediate order of business is to provide safety for the fugitive by creating cities of refuge.
Cities of refuge were shelters where a person who had accidently killed someone could flee to “find protection from the avenger of blood”.
The avenger of blood was a family member of the deceased who had a rightful claim of revenge. It is certainly appears to be a strange focus to follow immediately after he has reaffirmed the inheritances of the tribes. You might think God would focus on infrastructure or government. But his concerns are with matters of justice and to provide mercy. Not surprising to those of us who know personally the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s priority has always been to provide safety and shelter, a refuge, for the lost.
God is a God of Justice, but also a God of mercy.
Justice and mercy are difficult intangible concepts. We all are seemingly concerned with justice. The first concept children espouse is often the notion of fairness. Even children understand that justice and mercy often cannot inhabit the same order. And what children often mean by fairness is that they wish to get things to be in their favor: punishment for the other, but leniency for themselves.
The Bible makes clear that real fairness or justice would see all of us punished, because we are all fugitives from God’s justice - lost and separated from our God and subject to revenge from the avenger of blood.
The Bible tells us all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. And so we are all fugitives in this life, lost because we are separated from God by our sins. And this often manifest itself in that sense we all get of not quite fitting in, or not belonging. A true sense of feeling lost, just like a fugitive.
But thank God, He is a God of mercy and justice. And in Jesus, God has reconciled two concepts that often must stand alone.
Jesus came to be our city of refuge. The city where we could find mercy. But in order to provide that mercy he first had to satisfy God’s justice. And by dying on the cross for sins he did not commit, he became the final resting place of God’s justice. Unlike the Old Testament cities of refuge where the fugitive still had to stand trial, could still be found guilty and even if innocent was still exiled until the death of the High Priest then in power. In Jesus we find immediate and permanent refuge from all our sins.
God invites us all today, to come to His city of refuge.
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus. (Acts 3:19-20)