In this week’s Parashat Moses is still recapping the past 40 years. He is giving the last will and testimony before the Children of Israel enter the Promised Land. These are some of the most important words Moses ever speaks. Moses speaks about the Holy Holidays and reminds them to honor God’s Festivals. Then he talks about Judges and how the people are to do exactly as the Judges say. He then gives the guidelines for future Kings. How they are to support the Levites and to live Holy lives. Then how to discern true and false Prophets. The area I am interested in sharing with you this week is the next section about Cities of Refuge.
It the section about Refuge Cities it talks about a man who kills another man accidentally with an axe whose head flies off and strikes another man. There must be a city for the unintentional murderer to escape too. Moses explained there must be 3 Cities of Refuge established in their land. Then if they expand their territory they are then to build 3 more Cities of Refuge. This way they will prevent the death of innocent people.
We can trace everything we read in the Bible back to it’s origin in the Book of Genesis. Where will we find anything about a City builder and some being killed in Genesis? It is in chapter 4 of Genesis. We read about Cain and Able. We read about the death of Able caused by the hand of Cain. Now put yourself in Cain’s shoes for just a minute. No one on the planet has ever died. They have made sacrifices to God so they had seen death. However no human had ever died. Did Cain know hitting Able would kill, him? This is a deep question that takes lots of thought.
What actually gets Cain in trouble is when God asks Cain where his brother is and he replies, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Here we learn he has no remorse and assume he killed him on purpose. God then curses Cain by telling him the ground will no long yield it’s fruit for him. Cain tells God the punishment is more than he can bare. Cain then tells God someone will kill him because of what he had done. God puts a mark on Cain and says anyone who kills him will have a 7 fold punishment. The next thing we hear about Cain is that he Knew his wife and had a son. He then builds a city and names it after his son. Then we hear about all of Cain’s descendants.
Now compare the City of Refuge with the story of Cain. God gave Cain an opportunity to confess and he failed. Cain killed his brother in a similar situation like the 2 men in the woods. God came to Cain and gave him an opportunity to repent he chose not to show any compassion. God then marks Cain with a mark. Cain will always look at the mark being reminded of the compassion God showed him that he refused to show toward Able. He then builds a city for his son who is innocent. The City of Refuge is set up for a person who is innocent. They are now a marked person with the death of someone on them. Yet the congregation has to set up a safe place for them to live. Can you see how the story of Cain and Able sets up the law of the Cities of Refuge?
