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transgressors of God’s law a sure retreat, into which they may flee for
safety from the second death. No power can take out of His hands the
souls that go to Him for pardon.
He who fled to the city of refuge could make no delay. There
was no time to say farewell to loved ones. Weariness was forgotten,
difficulties were unheeded. The fugitive dared not slacken his pace
until he was within the city.
As loitering and carelessness might rob the fugitive of his only
chance for life, so delays and indifference may prove the ruin of the
soul. Satan, the great adversary, is on the track of every transgressor
of God’s holy law, and he who does not earnestly seek shelter in the
eternal refuge will fall prey to the destroyer.
The prisoner who at any time went outside the city of refuge was
abandoned to the avenger of blood. Even so, it is not enough that
the sinner believe in Christ for pardon of sin; he must, by faith and
obedience, abide in Him.
Civil War Avoided
Two tribes, Gad and Reuben, with half the tribe of Manasseh,
had received their inheritance before crossing the Jordan. The wide
upland plains and rich forests of Gilead and Bashan had attractions
not to be found in Canaan itself. The two and a half tribes, desiring
to settle here, had pledged to furnish their proportion of armed men
to accompany their brethren across the Jordan and share their battles
till they also should enter upon their inheritance. When the ten tribes
entered Canaan, forty thousand of “the children of Reuben, and the
children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, ... prepared for war
passed over before the Lord unto battle, to the plains of Jericho.”
Joshua 4:12, 13
. For years they fought bravely by the side of their
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brethren. As they had united with their brethren in the conflicts, so
they shared the spoils. They returned “with much riches, ... and with
very much cattle, with silver, and with gold, and with brass, and with
iron, and with very much raiment,” all of which they were to share
with those who had remained with the families and flocks.
With an anxious heart Joshua witnessed their departure, knowing
how strong would be the temptations in their isolated and wandering