NUMBERS 35
The only cities in the land mentioned in this book are the cities which were to be given to the Levites, so that Numbers presents the thought of cities to us in [p. 395] a levitical connection. This follows upon the inheritance being taken up by the children of Israel, because it was “of the inheritance of their possession” that they were to “give unto the Levites cities to dwell in” (verse 2). The possession of the inheritance was to result in a definite place being secured for what was levitical, and this was to be universal amongst the people of God, for all the tribes had to contribute to it in proportion to what each inherited.
The Levites had encamped round the tabernacle in the wilderness in readiness for service, but now they were to be distributed throughout the tribes so that their service as teaching Jehovah’s ordinances and laws (Deuteronomy 33:10) might be known throughout Israel. “Cities” convey the idea of administration, and the number of them here (12 x 4) links this thought with what suggests universality. So that the first thought of administration in the land is a levitical one. All Israel was to be prepared to give first place to what the Levites represented; the inheritance was, first of all, to provide for that, and to give it a permanent place.
The Levites, as taken instead of the firstborn, represent the saints as “the assembly of the firstborn who are enregistered in heaven” (Hebrews 12:23), but set apart here for the service of God. They are typical of those who can serve in a spiritual way, whether Godward or manward, and who can exercise an influence that is intended to give character to all the people of God. It is not God’s thought that only a few of His people should be Levites. It is the privilege of all saints to be Levites, and priests too, but God has separated these things in the types that we may apprehend them more clearly, and see the spiritual significance of each. Presenting the matter in this way helps to give definite exercise as to whether we know what it is to take up these different characters. The whole [p. 396] of the people of God were to be marked by the presence and influence of what ministered to His pleasure. So far as any of us can bring such an influence as that to bear we are true Levites. I have no doubt God has in mind that, as a result of the inheritance being taken up spiritually, all the assemblies of His people shall be levitical cities, where every feature proper to His service shall be found as a far-reaching influence.
Cities are prominent in this chapter, for the words “city” or “cities” occur in it nearly thirty times. This serves to remind us that God has the thought of a city very much before Him. He has prepared a city for those who seek what is heavenly (Hebrews 11:10, 16), and when that city appears it will perfectly satisfy the desires of all who have waited for it from Abraham’s day onward. For from it will emanate divine light and rule to fill the earth, where sin’s confusion has been, with the knowledge and glory of God. Now I think it must be admitted that any “city” that is worthy of the name in a divine sense must partake morally of the character of God’s city. All the inhabitants of a levitical city would be persons devoted to, and engaged in, the service of God. In relation to God’s city it is said that “his servants shall serve him” (Revelation 22:3); what is levitical will continue there. But God’s thought is to set up something here that has that character at the present time. When the Lord said, “A city situated on the top of a mountain cannot be hid”, He had in mind something that would correspond morally with God’s city, and that His saints would have that place. I believe God intends it to come into view that a service is being continued amongst His people which is after the pattern of the service carried on in the heavenly city. Those who serve God according to His pleasure — and such are the true tribe of Levi — are certain to carry in some way the features of His city.
So that “cities” which have levitical character are of deep interest as bringing out typically an aspect in which God’s “city” thought finds expression at the present time. Where His people are together as devoted to His service there will be some power of testimony to this thought.
What is truly Levitical is intended to shed abroad the influence of God and of His will as brought out in a practical way in those who serve Him. It would seem that this was in the mind of the Spirit in appointing that levitical cities should be in every tribe of Israel. Their dwelling throughout Israel was in view of a continual radiation of light as to God, and what was due to Him in service, being preserved amongst His people. How important it is that there should be an all-pervading influence of this kind at the present time! No locality where God’s testimony is found should be without it. The forty-eight levitical cities speak of such a sovereign distribution of light in practical testimony that all God’s people come within the range of a spiritual influence that will impress them with the true character of His service, and that will rightly affect them in relation to it. This is what God has in mind at the present time. It must be remembered that taking up the inheritance preceded this, which shows the importance of understanding the “borders” in chapter 34. It is clearly the will of God that we should take up the inheritance within its borders, and also that we should become “fellow-citizens of the saints”, viewed levitically as dwelling together in definite separation from all that is of the flesh and of the world, and committed to God for His holy service. To dwell in a levitical city at the present time is a privilege which we might all truly covet.
The “suburbs” attaching to each city intimate, I think, that the firstborn ones who serve levitically will [p. 398] have as much of earthly mercy as they need while they are here. They must not expect an extensive territory as regards temporal things, but they will assuredly be provided with a sufficiency. The thousand cubits, or the two thousand, do not suggest more than will be actually needed, but the full limit of this is assured to God’s Levites. “Your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things” (Matthew 6:32).
“And among the cities that ye shall give unto the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, which ye shall appoint for the manslayer, that he may flee thither” (verse 6). It is remarkable that, immediately after the distribution of the inheritance has been spoken of, provision is made for persons who might forfeit the title to live in that inheritance. It shows that in the divine economy provision is made for abnormal conditions. It is in great mercy that it is so, for sin makes everything abnormal that it touches, and if there were no divine provision for what is abnormal, the outlook for us all would be hopeless. God foresaw that things would happen amongst His people that would be inimical to life in the land, and that would cause title to the land to be forfeited. No doubt He had specially in view the slaying of Christ, by which Israel would forfeit all title to the promises and the inheritance. But He was minded to take occasion by this to bring in blessing of a heavenly order in a risen and glorified Christ, and to set it up here in the assembly in the power of the Spirit so that it might become a refuge even for the blood-guilty. It is this which is set forth in the cities of refuge.
What is levitical at the present time has a peculiar distinction in being identified with the provision of “refuge”. This is additional to anything we have read of before in connection with the service of the Levites. God’s thought is to have a levitical company here [p. 399] amongst whom He can set forth the great resources of His mercy, so that those resources may be available for those who would otherwise perish. God glorifies Himself in mercy in presence of dreadful things, and His Levites have to be fully identified with His actings in mercy, so as to be able to serve Him in a way that is in accord with His pleasure. The provision of “refuge” is a great thought in the divine mind, and God identifies His Levites with it. It was so very manifestly in the early chapters of the Acts.
God knew that Christ would be slain, and that all men would come under blood-guiltiness in respect of His death. So in this remarkable type He made known how His grace would act even under such circumstances. It is deeply touching to think that God would, in His grace, take account of the slaying of Christ as done “without intent” (verses 11,15). But the Lord’s own words upon the cross, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), and Peter’s words later, “And now, brethren, I know that ye did it in ignorance, as also your rulers” (Acts 3:17), show that He did so account of it. On this ground the city of refuge was available, and thousands fled to it.
But “refuge” had a wondrous character in the newly formed assembly, for all that was truly levitical was there. Every acceptable service, every divine and heavenly influence, was there. Never before had men occupied such an elevated place; never before had such holy things been known and cherished in the hearts of men. But all the privilege of the assembly was available to be known as a refuge by the slayers of Christ. And in the thought of God this remains true. If men fear as they realise their sinfulness, and particularly their sinful hatred of Christ, they can flee to a “city” where Christ is loved and honoured. They are welcome to live in that “city”, to share the place where God’s Levites dwell, to have their part where all are committed to the service of God. Normally everyone who turns to God should have a deep sense that the only true city of refuge is to be found where God is served in the way of His own appointment. The Thessalonians had a sense of this, for they “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God”. God has been ready to account that much that we have done in the time past of our lives was done “without intent”. But He has given us light as to the true state of things that we might flee for refuge, and reach a “city” where we are secure because we are where Christ is believed on, and loved, and honoured, and where God is served levitically. A rightly exercised person could not feel safe anywhere else. We must not be deceived by the fact that the world assumes now, to some extent, a Christian guise. It is still without, God and without Christ; it has only earthly and perishing things. We must, like the early believers, flee from the earthly to the heavenly. We can only have “strong encouragement” as we are found in the place of refugees, having “fled for refuge to lay hold oft the hope set before us, which we have as anchor of the soul, both secure and firm, and entering into that within the veil, where Jesus is entered as forerunner for us, become for ever a high priest according to the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 6:18 - 20). All those who realise the present state of the world, and the awful extent to which the will of man rules in the Christian profession, must feel it to be an imperative necessity to fly for refuge to what is of God. There is no other true city of refuge.
We have remarked that the cities of refuge were a provision for an abnormal state of things in Israel. Nothing could have been more abnormal than the rejection and slaying of the Messiah. But this gave [p. 401] occasion for Him to be known and believed on as in heaven, and for the refugees to find a place where God was served in a levitical and priestly way that far surpassed anything that had been known in Israel. For something better, and heavenly, had come in with its surpassing glory.
But God had the assembly in mind, and the whole of its history, in what was “written before” (Romans 15:4). And in the cities of refuge I believe we have an intimation that God would provide a retreat for His people in the sorrowful and abnormal circumstances of the last days. He foresaw that in the history of the church much would take place that would be destructive of spiritual life. The Christian profession, instead of being a refuge, as it was at the beginning, would itself become a subject of judgment. The state of things described in 2 Timothy makes some special refuge a necessity if anything is to be preserved for the pleasure of God amidst the general departure. The more we take in of the truth concerning Christ and the assembly which has been revived during the last century the more fully will the departure be exposed to us. And as we apprehend God’s thought as to the “land” which He has given to His people as a present inheritance we shall be convinced that most of what obtains in the religious world is really fatal to life in that sphere. There are not only manifest corruptions of a glaring kind, but even well-meant efforts to remedy things have resulted in the setting up of human order and sectarianism. If the truth is to be known in power and sanctification a refuge must be found from all these things. For they falsify what the assembly is as one body and as the house of God, and they put the whole levitical service out of order. All this is destructive to life in the land. God may be pleased to allow that a good deal of it has been done “without intent”. Probably it large part of what militates against spiritual life today is not done with harmful “intent”. But if what is of God is damaged it is a very serious matter. And when light is clearly thrown upon these things by the ministry of the word the plea of ignorance can no longer be urged.
But God has made provision in His mercy for cities of refuge to be available for those who come under conviction in regard to all these things. He has called upon His people to “withdraw from iniquity”; He has bid them purify themselves from vessels to dishonour in separating from them; He has enjoined them to “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”, (see 2 Timothy 2:19 - 22). In moving thus we shall assuredly find ourselves in a place of refuge. And it is obvious that in so moving we shall find ourselves in levitical surroundings. The two epistles to Timothy are, in a special way, levitical epistles, and the second epistle has in view the last days, and the kind of associations which are suitable if spiritual life is to be preserved and enjoyed, notwithstanding the abnormal conditions which have come in. What is truly levitical and priestly can only be found in a day of departure as we definitely act on the principle of separation from what is shown to be contrary to the truth. The levitical service, as we have known it in the early part of Numbers, was marked by particular care, under priestly direction, that every detail of what Jehovah had commanded in relation to His tabernacle should be faithfully carried out. The cities of refuge being levitical cities suggests that any true refuge, in a day when the normal order of divine service has been violated, must be found amongst those who are prepared to stand by what is of God at a time when it is in reproach. All in Asia had turned away from Paul, but he exhorted Timothy to “be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus. And the things thou hast heard of me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, such as shall be competent to instruct others also” (2 Timothy 2:1,2). In a levitical “city” one would expect to find a wealth of spiritual instruction, and the companionship of those who value that instruction. And to such a “city” God would lead all His exercised people today. We are not called upon to dwell alone, but to prove the truth of that word: “And he led them forth by a right way, that they might go to a city of habitation” (Psalm 107:7).
The cities of refuge in the land were in “the hill country” (Joshua 20:7). It is in going up into the elevation of what is spiritual and heavenly that a refuge is found from all those things which have brought so much guilt upon the Christian profession. The thoughts of God have never come down from the high level of the apostolic teaching, and He has most graciously revived that teaching in these last days, that His people may come to it as a way of escape from the many evils that are occurrent. I suppose that the teaching of Paul and John never came so widely before the saints as it has within the last hundred years, and this has been by actings of pure mercy, that exercised hearts might be drawn to what is most precious and elevated, and might enjoy together the thoughts of divine love that have been so long departed from. Whatever has been vouchsafed in the way of spiritual light and blessing is available as a refuge. But it must be understood that the refugees are under certain limitations. They must not play fast and loose with the conditions on which the refuge is provided. To go outside the walls of the “city” is to expose themselves to danger. There must be no relaxation of the principle of separation; no faltering in the pursuit [p. 404] of righteousness, faith, love, peace; no weakening of pure heart dependence; no want of loyalty to the bond in which we walk with our like-minded brethren. We shall not be freed from these limitations — nor would any true heart wish to be freed from them — until the present priestly service of Christ for us ceases, and He calls us up to be for ever with Him in conditions of glory (verses 25,28).
The “murderer”, so often referred to in the latter half of this chapter, who dies without mercy, no doubt typifies the Jews who manifested deliberate and persistent enmity against Christ. Stephen before the council did not address them as being manslayers “without intent”. They had now added to their great sin the refusal of the Spirit’s testimony to Christ as exalted, and he indicted them now as “deliverers up and murderers” of the just One. Personally Stephen was in the grace of the dispensation, for as to his own martyrdom he prayed, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”. But he regarded them as having come under the full guilt of what they had done to Christ. They not only despised the city of refuge for themselves, but afterwards they did all they could to hinder the glad tidings going out to Gentiles, and in consequence of this the wrath came upon them to the uttermost. In like manner those in the Christian profession in these last days who refuse to hear the Spirit’s voice will drift more and more into deliberate antagonism to what is of God, and will also perish.