(Numbers 35)

It is in the wilderness-book of Numbers we have the cities of refuge. There were six of these cities, three on each side of the Jordan. They were a merciful provision of God for one who had accidentally killed a person. Immediately upon such an accident occurring, the guilty party, in order to save his own life, should run at once to the nearest city of refuge. In this place he would be protected until the judges met and considered his case. If it was an accidental killing, then the slayer would be restored to his city of refuge. There he would remain until the death of the high priest, after which he would be at liberty to return to his inheritance.

There are different lessons to be learned from all this. It is a beautiful

Picture of God's Salvation

offered for sinners, to "whosoever will." Here is a person who has committed an offense punishable by death. That is the case with each one of us. We have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Because of this undeniable fact we are guilty and responsible. Judgment must take its course; punishment must be meted out unless a way of escape be found. That way of escape has been provided by God. Just as the slayer was told to flee to the city of refuge, and would make haste to do so, in like manner God has made Christ a refuge for us, and He warns all to "flee from the wrath to come." But suppose the man is indifferent. He thinks there is time enough to get to the city of refuge. Why hurry? Speedily comes the relative of the dead man who falls upon him and kills him. He loses his life because of his neglect. He had time enough to have made his escape to the city appointed. It was on his side of the Jordan and easily reached, but he thought he had plenty of time, so he delayed and lost his life. Does not this describe many today who are putting off the salvation of the soul? The devil says, Plenty of time; why hurry? And if you listen to him you will perish in your sins.

This gospel story is easily read upon the surface. There is also an underlying and deeper meaning which is most interesting and instructive to consider.

The Jews at the present time

stand in the same relation to God as the man-slayer who had fled to a city of refuge. There he must remain, away from his home, until the death of the high priest, and after this occurred he was free to return. This is Israel's present position. They are absent from their home-land, driven out because guilty of blood-the blood of Christ.

At the cross Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," and after the day of Pentecost, Peter charges them with their guilt in these searching words; "But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired 'a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of life." He then goes on to speak of extenuating circumstances connected with the act, saying, "And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers… .Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out'" (Acts 3:14-19).
They were at that time in the position of the man-slayer who had killed a person "at unawares," but who must flee at once to the city of refuge or be slain by the avenger of blood. Christ was the only refuge for them in their desperate plight, and Him they refused. They would not repent. The appeal to them was in vain; so in the year A. D. 70 the armies of the Romans were let loose, and

The days of vengeance

of which the Lord had forewarned came upon them (Luke 21:20-24). Driven from their inheritance they have become refugees in strange countries. "The blood which defiled Israel's land was, above all, the blood of Christ shed by them, on account of which they have been for so many centuries kept from their inheritance" (Num. Bible, p. 519).

The man-slayer in his city could only return to his inheritance when the high priest died. It is when Christ's priestly work at the .right hand of God is finished, and He returns in power and glory to the earth, that the trumpet will be blown for the reassembling of Israel, and they will be gathered from all lands (see Matt. 24:31; Isa. 27:13). Not till then will His time have come for His people, Israel, to return to their own land from which they have been exiles for so long a time. A return in unbelief

is already in our day beginning to take place. It is as the return of the man-slayer to his home before the death of the high priest. The avenger of blood could fall upon him and slay him, "Because he should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest." And yet Jacob is going back. He is planting the land with trees and vines and shrubs. Irrigation systems from the River Jordan also furnish electric power sufficient to supply the whole land, it is said. The Jew trusts in his own resources and in the help of the nations to reestablish him in his own place. The end of all this will be tragic, as the prophet Isaiah in his vivid word-picture describes;"Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips. In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish, but the harvest shall be an heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow" (Isa. 17:10,11). These brief sentences tell the story, and the mind fills in the tragic picture from other scriptures. "It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it" (Jer. 30:7).

The valley of dry bones of Ezekiel's vision (ch. 37) would seem to be in the beginning of its fulfilment. "I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone…. but there was no breath in them" (vers. 7, 8). A limited awakening there may be, but the Spirit of life from God has not entered into them. Whatever of a national awakening there may have been through the Balfour Declaration and other agencies, they are still dead in their sins. Thomas-like, they will not believe until they "look upon Him whom they have pierced," and see the print of the nails in His hands. Then like him too, they will exclaim, "My Lord and my God." The pouring out of the Spirit of which Pentecost was a foretaste will then occur in full measure, and it will be said of them, "They shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jer. 31:34). "Neither will I hide My face any more from them, for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God" (Ezek. 39:29).

It is sweet to contemplate that day when Israel's long misery shall be forever ended, and they shall be enjoying the favor of Jehovah in fulfilment of His unconditional promises to their fathers. Then, too, the groan of the present groaning creation will have ceased, and, "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9). Sweeter still it is to realize that introductory to this earthly blessing there will take place the removal of the Church from earth to heaven, "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." May our hearts keep this ever in view as we approach daily nearer that eventful moment! Roger B. Eames