Now, we stand at the very end of the third portion, after all the land has been divided up among the tribes. In addition, in chapters 20 and 21 we find a portion that deals with the establishing of certain special cities. There were 48 cities throughout Israel that were given to the priests, who came from the tribe of Levi. One category of these cities, the cities of refuge, we looked at last week. There were six of these cities, strategically spread out around the country, to which a person who had unintentionally killed another person could flee for refuge lest the avenger of blood should overtake him in accordance with the customs of that period.

We’re drawing quite near the end of our study of this great Old Testament book. It’s an appropriate time to look back over it a bit in terms of the outline and see how far we have come and how we have yet to go. Joshua falls into four main parts. There’s a preparation for the conquest, which occupies a surprisingly large portion of the book. It concerns the preparation of Joshua himself, which is found in chapter 1.

A third parallel about these cities is that they were open to aliens as well as to Jews. It's easy to apply that. The way to salvation—the way to life through Christ—is open to anyone. It's open to you, no matter who you may be. You may say, “Well, I’m too old. I’ve lived a whole life and I’m now firmly fixed in my own pattern of behavior.” But why should you die and suffer in hell because of an earlier pattern of behavior?  That pattern can be undone. The Apostle Paul was in a rigorous pattern of behavior, but the Lord Jesus Christ reached him on the road to Damascus and turned him around radically. Why shouldn't he do the same for you?

But even though it is not an exact parallel between the refuge that these cities gave and that which is found in Christ, there are still wonderful and quite instructive parallels. First, we’re told in Deuteronomy 19 that roads were to be built to these cities. That's interesting, isn't it? You'd expect there to be paths made simply from all the people going in and out. But that’s not what Deuteronomy 19 is talking about. It says that special roads were to be built to these cities.

Yesterday we talked about the first important thing from the creation of these cities of refuge, which was the great value on human life, rooted in God’s revealed law. The second thing about them is also quite interesting, and it’s based on what’s mentioned here in Joshua 20:9 about who was welcome to flee to those cities: "Any of the Israelites or any alien living among them who killed someone accidentally could flee to these designated cities." Most societies, just in order to exist, have to have some code of law by which to measure justice. But it has often been the case, and still is in many areas of the world today, that one kind of law applies to the citizens of the country or the resident of that particular area, and quite another standard applies to those who don't belong to that people. You treat residents fairly while you basically treat foreigners or aliens anyway you want.