Midweek Bible Study | Joshua 20-22:12 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] joshua chapter 20 is where we are tonight and it's only um nine verses long the whole chapter so i'm going to read all of it and then i'm going to pray and then we're going to dig out chapter 20 and get into chapter 21 and maybe even chapter 22. we'll see lord thank you for this time we can gather together in your house tonight we just pray that you would bless your word now as we study it together i thank you for everybody here tonight and for those who are watching online we thank you in advance for those who are going to be baptized tonight we just give you praise for changing lives and we thank you jesus that you still do that today and we love you and we give you praise glory and honor in jesus name we pray these things and everyone said amen all right joshua chapter 20. it says this the lord also spoke to joshua saying speak to the children of israel saying appoint for yourselves cities of refuge you can highlight that or underline that cities of refuge of which i spoke to you through moses that the slayer who kills a person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood and when he flees to one of those cities and stands at the entrance of the gate of the city and declares his case in the hearing of the elders of that city they shall take him into the city as one of them and give him a place and he may dwell among them and then if the avenger of blood pursues him they shall not deliver the slayer into his hand because he struck his neighbor unintentionally but did not hate him beforehand and he shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment and until the death of the one who is high priest in those days then the slayer may return and come to his own city and his own house to the city from which he fled and so they appointed kadesh in galilee in the mountains of naphtali shechem in the mountains of ephraim and kiryat arba which is hebron in the mountains of judah and on the other side of the jordan by jericho eastward they assigned baser in the wilderness on the plane from the tribe of reuben ramoth in gilead from the tribe of ghad and golan golan in bashan from the tribe of manasseh these were the cities appointed for all the children of israel and for the stranger who dwelt among them that whoever killed a person accidentally might flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stood before the congregation okay so what is this chapter all about so again remember that when the children of israel came into the promised land they received an allotment of land uh by the casting of lots and it was divided out among the 12 tribes of israel and one of the things that god is making provision for here in this 20th chapter is a place of refuge a city of refuge for someone who accidentally now that's key to this who accidentally or unintentionally killed uh his or her neighbor and so they they were six cities that were marked as cities of refuge to which you could flee if you ever killed someone accidentally now three of these cities were on the western side of the jordan river and three of the cities were on the eastern side of the jordan river to spread it out among the territory of the twelve tribes so that if again you killed someone accidentally you could flee to this city and be protected not not that you should not still face accountability because even accidental death has some consequences but that you would not be outright killed by the avenger of blood now that phrase you might have noticed as we read through chapter 20 the avenger of blood uh if you'll if you notice the first time it's used is in verse 3 at the end of verse 3 it talks about the avenger of blood in hebrew it's one word gowell g-o-e-l now a gowell was someone who was appointed by a family to seek vengeance upon a death you know you have to remember this is before the days of law enforcement there were no police officers who would try to you know keep the peace and make sure the law was being upheld these were the days kind of in our more recent history like the hatfields and mccoys if you if you didn't like somebody you would just you know take the law into your own hands and it was like the wild west back in these days and so what would happen is if somebody in your family was accidentally killed then the family would appoint an individual from within the family to get vengeance on the death of their loved one and that goel that person who was selected by the family was called here in english the avenger of blood but what god is doing here is he's distinguishing between murder okay and killing now there's a difference between premeditated murder even in our laws today but in biblical times too there's a difference between premeditated murder and accidental homicide or involuntary manslaughter and so i want to talk about this a little bit so that we understand from a biblical uh vantage point here what god thinks about the difference here because there is a difference in the bible between murdering the hebrew word is razak and killing the hebrew word is naka murder is condemned by in the bible but killing is sometimes justified now let me explain if you know your ten commandments you know that commandment number six is in the king james thou shalt not kill but new king james and niv translates the word better because it is actually ratsaq in the sixth commandment in exodus chapter 20 it's you shall not murder and in fact you shall not murder its four words in english but in hebrew it's only two words lo ratzaq no murder no murder and so god condemns murder which is the premeditated intentional deliberate taking of another person's life god condemns that in the bible but there are some exceptions to the sixth commandment and i'll put them up on the screen for you here are these exceptions one exception is as i mentioned accidental homicide now chapter 20 here of joshua is all about that so i'll come back to that in a moment but this is accidental homicide this is you know um involuntary manslaughter this is when you kill someone but it's an accident for example um somebody is chopping wood and and you're swinging an axe well the axe head flies off the handle hits somebody else in their head and kills them okay that's that's accidental but nevertheless somebody's died and you were the cause of it so that's accidental homicide and in numbers chapter 35 um the bible spells out the the reality that sometimes you might accidentally kill an individual so how is that person to be treated because that is not a violation of the sixth commandment that's not premeditated ruthless deliberate taking of another person's life the second exception to the sixth commandment is there in your screens it's justifiable homicide a justifiable homicide has two components to it one is self-defense in exodus 22 verse 2 it specifically says if a thief breaks into your house and intends to do you harm it's justifiable homicide if you defend yourself self-defense is still a defense today for the taking of another individual's life if it is in fact for the purpose of protecting your own life or that of your family if you've you know if a thief breaks in or somebody trying to kill you it's okay for you to defend yourself in this way and the bible spells it out that way and then the other thing and i get this often particularly from law enforcement officers or people in the military saying you know i've killed people uh in in the line of duty and you know am i violating the sixth commandment the answer is no because those who are an extension of the government romans 13 4 talks about how uh that um those who bear the sword are given authority by the government to as in fact in romans 13 4 it says as ministers of god to carry out his justice against the evil in the world and so part of government like it or not but part of government is to restrain evil in the world and so government then can sanction times of war and in terms of um you know law enforcement having to you know defend the country or you know take somebody out because it's it's justifiable these are and of course that's become a very debatable topic these days but it done right and done properly these things are allowed in scripture on the basis of self-defense or on the basis of law enforcement or military in the line of duty and then the third exception to the sixth commandment is capital punishment the bible does allow for capital punishment you know it's interesting that when you think about the sixth commandment you shall not murder lo ratzhak that doesn't come until exodus chapter 20. that doesn't come until the mosaic law is introduced but you know this before moses was inspired by god to pen the mosaic law all the way back in genesis chapter 9 and i'll read it to you this is after the ark came to settle on mount ararat and one of the things that god said as moses rather as noah and his family come off the ark in genesis chapter 9 verse 6 god says whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed for in the image of god he made man in other words what we even read before the mosaic law was given all the way back at the time of noah on mount ararat god is saying listen if man deliberately intentionally takes the life of another man he shall be held accountable for that that's a violation of what will end up being the sixth commandment and god says why because it's a desecration of my image we are all made in the image and likeness of god we are created in his image and in his likeness and when someone deliberately intentionally takes another individual's life that is a desecration of the image of god because you're taking the life of an individual who's created in the image and likeness of god and so god says you'll be held accountable for that you shed innocent blood your luck your life your blood shall be shed that's genesis 9 6. jesus even says in matthew 26 52 those who live by the sword will die by the sword you take up the sword and you deliberately intentionally premeditatedly murder someone the sword will be coming against you too so these are three exceptions to the sixth commandment and what you have back here in joshua chapter 20 is basically an explanation of how god made provision for the first one on this list which is accidental homicide if you are you know you're chopping wood just to use that illustration the axe head flies off you end up killing somebody what are you to do well the family of the person you killed is going to come after you so what do you need to do you need to flee to a city of refuge and that's what this chapter is all about so there's six that were marked out within the territory of the tribes and one of these cities whichever one was closest you could run there and you could make your defense and what would happen is you would go to the door the gate of the city of one of these six and you could explain your case the elders would hear you out and then take you in and they would protect you from because if it was accidental and unintentional they would protect you from being murdered by someone who's just angry at what you've done and and they could be guilty the other person the avenger of blood the gowell could be guilty of murder because now they're just angry at what you did so they want to deliberately kill you when you know it was it was an accident and so you flee to find refuge in one of these cities and you would be allowed to remain there now if if the elders of the town found that it was justifiable then you could live out your life in that city if you ever left that city all bets were off and the goel could kill you so you had to remain if you wanted to keep keep your life you had to remain in that city now there's an interesting little phrase here though it says this if you jump back to verse 6 it says and he shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment okay in other words if he's found to be uh not guilty on the basis that it was accidental okay not intentional not deliberate it says and until the death of the one who is high priest in those days then the slayer the one who accidentally killed somebody may return and come to his own city and his own house to the city from which he fled it's an interesting little statement there and here's why it's important for us to hear this because one of the one of the things that you got when you fled to a city of refuge was this temporary protection and and the day that you could return to your hometown from which you fled was when the high priest died now there's this interesting foreshadowing here because here's here's the beautiful parallel for us a city of refuge was only for those who were innocent in the sense that what they did was accidental they didn't mean it they weren't deliberate they they didn't intentionally want to kill somebody the city refuge were for those who were quote innocent and when you were finally free was when the high priest died whoever was high priest at that time however long that took what the beautiful parallel for us of course is jesus is our city of refuge but he's the one that we run to not because we're innocent it's not a refuge for the innocent jesus is our refuge because we're guilty the city of refuge then was only for the innocent the city of refuge for us now jesus is for the guilty and we're all guilty but the beautiful thing about what christ did was when he dies on the cross he becomes our refuge for us and we run to him and we find forgiveness for our guilt so this this provision that god makes here is actually a picture for us of the greater refuge that we have in jesus because we're guilty and he's the one who can forgive us and the bible is full of i'll just read a couple of examples from the book of psalms the bible is full of this parallel talking about how god is our refuge all through just the psalms listen to psalm 9 verse 9 the lord also will be a refuge for the for the oppressed a refuge in times of trouble and psalm 46 1-2 god is our refuge and strength and ever-present help in times of trouble therefore we shall not fear in psalm 91 1-2 he who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty i will say of the lord he is my refuge my fortress my god in him i will trust amen so he is our refuge and so god provided these cities of refuge for people to not be prosecuted for something that was accidental and the lord is our refuge even when we do things intentionally and we're guilty we can find forgiveness and grace with him into chapter 21 in chapter 21 now if you remember from our previous studies the 12 tribes of israel had different land allotments except for the levites the tribe of levi the descendants of levi because they were a priestly order they were to find their inheritance in the lord alone so they were not given large land tracts however they needed a place to live so they were given towns they were given cities and chapter 21 is about these different cities that are given to the levites and you'll notice we're not going to read through all of them you can thank me later there are 48 48 cities that the levites are given now at the end of the book of numbers the tribe of levi numbers 23 000. so 23 000 are going to be levites are going to be distributed among 48 cities or towns so that's roughly about 480 give or take per town that they would live in as their uh inheritance they would just get these various cities so chapter 21 it says then the heads of the father's houses of the levites came near to eleazar the priest to joshua the son of nun and the heads of the father's houses of the tribes of the children of israel and they spoke to them at shiloh in the land of canaan saying the lord commanded through moses to give us cities to dwell in with their common lands for our livestock and so the children of israel gave to the levites from their common lands sorry gave to the levites from their inheritance at the commandment of the lord these cities and their common lands so here's what happened they're going to cast lots now for the various cities within the tribal allotments so from the tribe of judah you're going to have to give up some cities and from the tribe of issachar you're going to have to give up some cities from the tribe of zebulun you've got to give up some cities so that the levites can live there and so it separates it and i'll just read a little bit of this verse verse 4. now the lot came out for the families of the koaphites and the children of aaron the priest who were of the levites had 13 cities by lot from the tribe of judah from the tribe of simeon and from the tribe of benjamin the rest of the children of koat had 10 cities by lot from the families of the tribe of ephraim from the tribe of dan and from the half tribe of manasseh and the children of gershon had 13 cities by lot from the families of the tribe of issachar from the tribe of asher from the tribe of naphtali and from the half tribe of manasseh in bashan the children of marari according to their families had 12 cities from the tribe of reuben from the tribe of gad and from the tribe of zebulun and the children of israel gave these cities with their common lands by lot to the levites as the lord had commanded by the hand of moses so i don't know if you were counting there with me but those were the 12 tribes that were mentioned and various cities from each of these 12 tribes were given to the levites as their allotment now if you'll jump ahead because i won't i won't read all of these various cities and the names and locations just jump ahead to near the end of the chapter verse 41. it says in verse 41 all the cities of the levites within the possession of the children of israel were 48 cities with their common lands every one of these cities had its common lands surrounding it thus were all these cities and so the levites got a particular city and then they got some of the pasture land around the city to raise livestock and and so they were taken care of and notice the way the chapter ends then verse 43 so the lord gave to israel all the land of which he had sworn to give to their fathers and they took possession of it and dwelt in it the lord gave them rest all around according to all that he had sworn to their fathers and not a man of all their enemies stood against them the lord delivered all their enemies into their hand not a word failed of any good thing which the lord had spoken to the house of israel all came to pass i love the way this chapter ends because it reminds us of three things number one god keeps covenant everything that god says he does he is faithful and true to his word and when he makes promises he is faithful to all his promises and loving towards all he has made so number one god keeps covenant number two god gives rest and i love the way it says that there in the middle in verse 44 the lord gave them rest all around the ultimate rest that we find the peace that passes all understanding to god our hearts and minds is in christ jesus there is a rest there is a peace there is a contentment that only comes from the lord this world does not offer it this world offers the opposite anxiety fear worry but god offers us his rest and only in him can we find that so god keeps covenant number two god gives rest number three god gives victory because it talks here about how now the wars are over and god gives victory to them uh it says there in verse 44 the end of verse 44 not a man of all their enemies stood against them the lord delivered all their enemies into their hand and it is a good reminder because you know we we fight a battle often that is not a flesh and blood but of spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies that's ephesians 6 and so we have to constantly be looking to the lord to fight for us and to defend us against the enemy of our souls and he's faithful to do that he's faithful to do that so god keeps covenant god gives rest and god gives victory now into chapter 22. i think we'll actually make it through this here's chapter 22 the background to what we're about to read the israelites have been waging war in combat to take the land that god had promised them away from these pagans that have taken the land that god promised on oath to the israelites they have been fighting for seven years you have to imagine how weary they are the toll that war takes not just in terms of a physical toll but an emotional toll a spiritual toll and here in chapter 22 after seven years of fighting the land has been subdued now remember from last week's study they didn't effectively drive out everybody they unfortunately allowed some people to live still within their territories which they should not because it'll come back to haunt them but by and large the land has been subdued the land has been divided by tribal tribal allotment they are now settling in their territories and joshua basically lines up the army here he gathers the troops together and he's basically going to give them all an honorable discharge he's going to basically say to them your duty is done you can now go home to your families you can go to your territories you can begin to pitch your tents and live out your lives and raise your families and uh and so that's what chapter 22 is about and it says in verse one then joshua called the reubenites the gaddites and half the tribe of manasseh remember these are the two and a half tribes that were living on the had territory on the eastern side of the jordan river and what today would be jordan and he said to them in verse 2 you have kept all that moses the servant of the lord commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that i commanded you you have not left your brethren these many days up to this day but have kept the charge of the commandment of the lord your god and now the lord your god has given rest to your brethren as he promised them now therefore return and go to your tents and to the land of your possession which moses the servant of the lord gave you on the other side of the jordan on the eastern side but notice this this is good advice for all of us but take careful heed to do the commandment of the law the commandment of the law which moses the servant of the lord commanded you to love the lord your god to walk in all his ways to keep his commandments to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul and so joshua blessed them and sent them away and they went to their tents now a little background if you remember you have out of the 12 tribes of israel you have two and a half tribes that are on the eastern side of the jordan river you have the other nine and a half tribes on the western side moses had allowed the two and a half tribes uh gad and reuben and the half tribe of manasseh to stay on the eastern side of the jordan river if that's the territory you want fine but here's what he said to them but you have to help your brethren fight on the western side of the jordan river you can't get all comfortable on the eastern side and just hang out there because your brothers who were trying to take the territory in the western side of the jordan river need your help you have to fight with your brothers so for seven years those who were given territory in the eastern side of the jordan came over to the western side and helped their brothers fight until they had subdued the whole land now joshua says okay the fighting is over you two and a half tribes you've been faithful you've come over here on the other side of the jordan to help us fight to subdue the land you can now go back go back home and with that parting instruction he gives them six imperatives that i just read there do the commandments love the lord your god walk it all his ways keep his commandments hold fast to him and serve him with all your heart with all your soul now you can go and they leave it says now the half tribe of manasseh moses had given a possession of bashan but to the other half of it joshua gave a possession among their brethren on this side of the jordan westward and indeed when joshua sent them away to their tents he blessed them and he spoke to them saying return with much riches to your tents and very much livestock with silver and gold with bronze and with iron and with very much clothing divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren and so the children of reuben the children of gad and the half tribe of manasseh returned and departed from the children of israel at shiloh which is in the land of canaan to go to the country of gilead to the land of their possession which they had obtained according to the word of the lord by the hand of moses okay so they say goodbye now something happens here and i want you to pay particular attention what's about to happen because as they depart they do something and it's going to get misinterpreted by their brethren okay by their fellow israelites and their fellow israelites because they misinterpret something are ready to kill their brothers is it very interesting what happens here and and pay particular attention why because i want you to notice what typically happens among christians today when they stopped fighting a common enemy they turned on each other this is what we're going to read here there's a huge misunderstanding but they end up about to turn on each other and about to slaughter each other because they'd stopped fighting a common enemy when we lose sight of who the real enemy is satan himself who's trying to wage war against us trying to deceive the world you know it's not like when we think about church we go okay you know we gather together we want to celebrate jesus we want to read the bible we want to you know love one another it's not like we're the good guys and the world is the bad guys okay we're all bad guys we all are in need of a savior okay but if we start to think that the world is the enemy the world's not the enemy the world is the harvest field the world is where we're supposed to be helping people to come to the same saving knowledge that we have of jesus the real enemy is the one who's trying to steal kill and destroy it's satan himself and yes does he turn hearts and manipulate and deceive and lie and all of that yeah sure so what we see happening in our world with all this cultural garbage and all this stuff that is happening in our world like we've never seen before we can't get angry at people because our battle is not against flesh and blood it's against satan who's trying to twist things and distort truth and help people to try to believe lies and convince them and persuade them about things that aren't even true that's our common enemy and once the church loses sight of what the real battle is what we tend to do is then we start to turn on each other so here's what happens verse 10. and when they came this is the two and a half tribes when they came to the region of the jordan which is in the land of canaan the children of reuben the children of god and the half tribe of manasseh built an altar there by the jordan a great impressive altar now the children of israel heard someone say can you underline that please in your bibles you want to know what that's called that's called hearsay that's called hearsay when they heard someone say behold the children of reuben the children of gad and half the tribe of manasseh have built an altar on the frontier of the land of canaan in the region of the jordan on the children of israel's side and when the children of israel heard of it the whole congregation of the children of israel gathered together at shiloh to go to war against them wait what what whoa whoa wait a minute what's happening okay someone you know who that someone is doesn't that someone bug you it's like who's that someone who's always like spreading rumors and saying things that aren't true you you hear half of the truth and then you start going around talking about it that's hearsay that's hearsay that's where we get the word from it's hearsay someone heard those stinking two and a half tribes they built an impressive altar you know what that means you know what that means they're worshiping they're worshiping other gods they're not worshiping our god they've built some stinking altar and they've they've resorted to paganism they're worshiping some other god now isn't this terrible yeah that's terrible and they start sharpening their swords like we ought to go kill them all yeah let's kill them all they've abandoned the true god what are they doing well that's because somebody heard nobody checked it out and here's what we're going to find okay what are we going to find is this those two and a half tribes before they crossed the jordan river they got together and they said you know what we need to build an altar as a memorial so that we will never forget the true and living god we must build this so that we will always be able to remember and our brethren that we're leaving will always remember this altar also as a reminder that we're on the other side of the jordan river but we still worship the same god so it was intended to be a memorial a reminder that's all not a pagan place of worship nothing more nothing less than a reminder but if you don't know all that you're going to sharpen your swords and want to kill them that's what happens with hearsay now this is an important moment to just kind of a teaching moment for all of us right hearsay write this down okay assumption leads to accusation you assume something you start to accuse and so the rest of the chapter is in that vein now we'll we'll save most of it for for next time but assumption leads to accusation we think you've done this and this is not what we're accusing you of but the remedy is and this is an important thing to also write down communication leads to clarification if the nine and a half tribes had asked of the two and a half tribes hey question for you we see this really impressive altar here we're not really sure what this is about what's this about it would have ended it it would have ended it communication leads to clarification it would give them the opportunity to say oh oh well we built that because we want to always have a reminder here that we serve the same true and living god that even though the river divides you and from us there's no division in terms of the same god that we serve that's what the altar is all about oh that's wonderful thank you for explaining that congratulations and it would have been a great day instead it's like we gotta kill somebody you know how many people want to kill somebody because you don't know all the facts it's a dangerous thing it's a dangerous thing to make all these assumptions it just leads to accusation how about having a conversation how about communicate how about ask some questions can i ask what did you mean by that or can i ask you know i notice this i don't want to misinterpret it can you explain this and give people an opportunity to actually clarify something it'll go a long way to preventing bloodshed right so this is important for us this is a common problem that happens among people you listen to hearsay you don't know all the facts you jump to conclusions you start making accusations that's not the way christians should behave you need to give the benefit of the doubt to somebody love believes all things you trust and you verify right you say i got a few questions you explore it you communicate you have some conversation and you allow a chance for clarification it's important in relationships it's important in friendships it's important in work environments this is an important principle hearsay has destroyed a lot of people don't give year to hearsay you confirm things communicate find out get some clarification they didn't it almost led to blood shed but fortunately it didn't because the two and a half tribes were able to clarify here's what we were doing so we'll pick up the story and see the full context later but for tonight let's just take home that lesson amen don't give place to hearsay somebody said somebody said somebody don't give place to hearsay you communicate allow a chance for clarification because assumption only leads to accusation let's pray lord thank you for this time in your word thank you for this good reminder to us it's important for us to give the benefit of a doubt to somebody to communicate to give a chance for somebody to clarify things too many conflicts have happened because somebody gives place to hear say and then they draw their own conclusions and then they start making accusations and we pray lord that we would learn from the story not to give place to hearsay not to be a party to it not to start spreading rumors or saying things that we have no business saying convict us of these things lord set a trap over the door of our mouths that we might guard our lips from giving place to saying things and guard our ears that we would not give place to entertaining and hearing things that we haven't verified so help us lord to be people who communicate better and give a chance for somebody to clarify things before something terrible happens we love you lord thank you for being our refuge thank you for being our high tower we can run to you and be saved we give you praise and glory and honor in jesus name and everyone said amen amen you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

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Length: 38min 47sec (2327 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021