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Patriarchs and Prophets
He who fled to the city of refuge could make no delay. Family
and employment were left behind. There was no time to say farewell
to loved ones. His life was at stake, and every other interest must be
sacrificed to the one purpose—to reach the place of safety. Weariness
was forgotten, difficulties were unheeded. The fugitive dared not for
one moment slacken his pace until he was within the wall of the city.
The sinner is exposed to eternal death, until he finds a hiding place
in Christ; and 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 is not sensible of his danger, and does
not earnestly seek shelter in the eternal refuge, will fall a prey to the
destroyer.
The prisoner who at any time went outside the city of refuge was
abandoned to the avenger of blood. Thus the people were taught
to adhere to the methods which infinite wisdom appointed for their
security. Even so, it is not enough that the sinner believe in Christ for
the pardon of sin; he must, by faith and obedience, abide in Him. “For
if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the
truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful
looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the
adversaries.”
Hebrews 10:26, 27
.
Two of the tribes of Israel, Gad and Reuben, with half the tribe of
Manasseh, had received their inheritance before crossing the Jordan.
To a pastoral people, the wide upland plains and rich forests of Gilead
and Bashan, offering extensive grazing land for their flocks and herds,
had attractions which were not to be found in Canaan itself, and the
two and a half tribes, desiring to settle here, had pledged themselves
to furnish their proportion of armed men to accompany their brethren
across the Jordan and to share their battles till they also should enter
upon their inheritance. The obligation had been faithfully discharged.
When the ten tribes entered Canaan forty thousand of “the children
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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 had fought bravely by the
side of their brethren. Now the time had come for them to get unto the
land of their possession. As they had united with their brethren in the
conflicts, so they had shared the spoils; and they returned “with much