Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Hey there, dear ones.

The day is gone…and my head is trying to shut down. We returned late from our run to Dallas where we had another Bible lesson session with our grandkids. The day was full too. The pillow is now calling.

Sweet dreams.

Love, Dad/Ray.

It was like a light bulb came on for me this morning as I read these instructions again for establishing cities of refuge throughout the land of Israel. I’m sure this has been presented to me before, but apparently it never before took on this degree of clarity. I’m also sure that if I cracked some commentaries I could find it all laid out for me in nice clear terms. My inspiration is not so much concerned with the moral and philosophical issues presented in this historical account. I guess it’s more allegorical—recognizing afresh the New Testament fulfillment that these Old Testament principles as it relates to us in general, and myself in particular.

Take note of the purpose for a city of refuge—for the protection of someone who “kills a person accidentally and unintentionally.” All of a sudden it occurred to me that that is exactly what I have done. Without forethought, malice, or premeditated intent I, Ray Sparre, contributed to the death of an innocent man. And that man, of course, was no ordinary man—the greatest and finest man that ever lived. Here’s where it becomes wonderfully complex—yet profoundly simple. While I contributed to His death, He actually died to atone for the very sin I was unintentionally committing. He was, in fact, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)—including my sin. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). “He himself bore our (my) sins in his body on the tree, so that we (I) might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you (I) have been healed (and acquitted from my guilt for unintentionally killing an innocent man)” (1 Peter 2:24-25).

Now get this: Jesus Christ is not only the innocent One Whom we have helped to unintentionally kill, He is not only the sacrificial “Lamb of God” Who pays for (atones for) that injustice, but He also becomes our “city of refuge” to protect us from “the avenger of blood” which, in this case, I reason to be justice. This becomes the foundation of our entire Biblical Christian faith by which “we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” (Hebrews 6:18-19, KJV).

Finally, get this: If I reject this offer of pardon, my part of unintentionally killing this man is now computed to intentional.