The Avenger of Blood

Colossians 1:13-14

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The Old Testament is full of these rules, these customs and rituals that seem so foreign to us today. One of the most interesting ones, in my opinion, is the custom of the Avenger of Blood. This is not a Marvel character. This according to God’s Old Testament law was a person who had the legal responsibility for seeking vengeance for his family. If somebody was killed, whether it was by accident or on purpose, the closest male relative of that person who had died had the legal responsibility to chase after the person who was responsible for that death and kill them.

Now, this might sound extreme, but God put in some safeguards so that it wouldn’t be a free for all. He established in his word, six cities of Refuge. These were cities that were spread throughout Israel that were easy to find and easy to get to. They were evenly spread out so that you could find one or get to one within about a day’s worth of running. And once you were in that city of refuge, that avenger of blood couldn’t touch you.

Now, the example given in numbers is with two lumberjacks. They are in the woods, cutting down trees and as one lumberjack swings his axe, the head of that axe flies off and and kills his coworker. The person who accidentally killed his coworker better start running because the avenger of blood, once he hears about this, is required to chase after him. Now it’s usual in Old Testament times that the person would reach a city of refuge. Now, once in this city of refuge, the elders of that city would have to make a judgment about whether or not this death was accidental or not. If it was not done on accident, they would hand over that person for punishment.

If it was an accident, they were not free to go. They had to stay in that city of refuge. They had to live there away from their family, away from their home, until the death of the current high priest. Now, again, this sounds so strange. It makes us wonder why this kind of thing is in the Bible. Like so many Old Testament customs and rituals, what this does is it points us to Jesus. What this custom does is it exposes to us some of God’s nature, some of his heart.

God’s nature is one that wants to offer us forgiveness, that desires to give to us his grace, his undeserved love, that offers to us refuge. We need that grace and that forgiveness because we too are on the wrong side of the law. Not man’s law, but God’s law. We have fallen short of his expectations, and we have to admit that we have sinned. As a result, we deserve punishment and God’s law is clear. The punishment that we deserve as lawbreakers is death. We deserve eternal separation from our righteous God.

Now, unlike these people in the Old Testament Israel, we can’t run away from the consequences of our actions. But God still desires to offer us grace and forgiveness. The City of Refuge that he has established for us, the City of Refuge that he offers to us is his Son. Jesus is our City of Refuge. So in our sin, in our failure to live up to God’s law, we don’t have to run away. We don’t even have to leave our home. We simply must turn to Jesus in repentance and faith. And it’s that gift of faith that unites us to our refuge. And as long as we are united to Jesus, that punishment of death. It doesn’t come near us. As long as we are in Christ and He in us, we are safe.

Now Jesus is able to be this refuge for us because he was perfect. You never once sinned. And then on the cross there, he gives himself for us. There on the cross, he carried in himself everything that we’ve ever done wrong. And he suffers our punishments that we would never have to. Through Christ we have forgiveness. Through him we have that grace, that refuge, that we seek. The Apostle Paul, he emphasizes all of this in his letter to the Colossians and in chapter one, verse 13. He says

He [Jesus] has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14)

We pray, God, we thank you that even while we were still sinners, you sent your Son to be our redeemer and our refuge. Through your words, strengthen our faith, enable us to turn away from our sin and towards our Savior for forgiveness, grace, and redemption. Amen.

God’s peace be with you.