Joshua 20 Preparation for the Cities of Refuge

Dr. Terry starts by sharing a story about an IRS agent and a pastor, then transitions to an update on a baby named Piper, who is going home after a hospital stay. The focus then shifts to discussing chapter 20 of the book of Joshua, which introduces cities of refuge for unintentional killers, highlighting the tribe of Levi's lack of land allotment and their role in the cities of refuge. The explanation delves into the historical context and the significance of these cities for the Levites. The discussion also touches on the duties of Levitical priests, with a mention of Zachariah and his son John the Baptist. The lesson ends with a preview of next week's topic on the duties of the three sons of Levi. Good morning. I see the crowd heard I was teaching this morning, so long weekend. Labor Day weekend. How many are doing something special for Labor Day? Good, we aren't either. I'm glad because we're not either. Heard a cute story this week about a IRS agent who called a pastor, Brother Jimmy, of a very large church and said to him, Pastor, do you have a member and gave him his name? And the pastor said, Yes, I do. He is one of our wealthiest members. He said, Yes, I know. He said, Could you do me a favor? Could you see if he gave your church a half a million dollars two weeks ago? And the pastor said, Sure, I'll be happy to check it. So he checked and called back. He said, He didn't give me two and a half million a couple of weeks ago. He said he will this week. Evidently, he was reporting that which he had not done. Piper went home today! She went home today. Barbara has a picture of her in a hospital, had a little graduation outfit with mortarboard and everything. And we have a picture of her graduating from the hospital to home. So Piper is going to thank you all for the last five and a half months of prayer and thoughts and love and concern. She's doing well. She weighs eight, what Dave? Eight? Eight two? Yeah, she's a big little girl. And she's growing up. And in fact, she is so big. She's strong. She pushes against them. I told Barbara, she'll be crawling before she gets home. She's a beautiful little girl and appears to be doing well. So you all continue to pray for her as she goes home. Haley took some of the medicinal stuff with her home so that she can take care of her in the event. But she is off the feeding tube, no longer feeding tube. And she's taking and the picture that Barbara has, she is sound asleep in her graduation robe. And Patricia said she took a huge bottle. They put her in the robe and she went to sleep. So anyway, thank you all for your prayers, your concern, your thoughts. We appreciate it. She appears to be going home. She is going to be going home today. And we're grateful for that. OK, today we're in the 20th chapter of the book of Joshua. And this is a real short little chapter. It only has nine verses, but I would take the whole hour to tell you about it because there's something that you know about, need to know about it. I'm going to read all nine verses because I want you to hear them. And then we're going to go back because as you hear them, you're probably going to have a number of questions that come up in your mind. And I'm hoping during the process of us being together, I can answer the majority of those questions in the lesson. So chapter 20 reads this way. The Lord also spoke to Joshua saying, speak to the children of Israel saying, appoint for yourselves cities of refuge of which I have spoke to you through Moses, that the slayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there and they shall be your refuge. They shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. Make a note of that. So that those two or three words avenger of blood. We'll talk about that in a few moments. And when he flees to one of those cities and stands at the entrance of the gate of the city and declares his case in the hearing of the elders of the city, they shall take him into the city as one of them and give him a place that he may dwell among them. Then if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not deliver the slayer into the hands because he struck his neighbor unintentionally. We would call that manslaughter in our present day, but did not hate him beforehand. And he shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment. And until the death of one who is the high priest, make a note of that, please, because that's very much interesting. He will stay in that city until one who is the high priest in those days dies. Then the slayer may return after the high priest dies and he cannot live in the city until the high priest dies. I'll talk about that in a few moments. Then the slayer may return and come to his own city and his own house in the city from which he fled. And then it starts another statement about, well, where are these cities located? And it starts in seven says, so they shall appoint Kadesh in Galilee, in the mountains of Naphtali, Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim and Kiroth Arba, which is Hebron in the mountains of Judah. And on the other side, the eastern side of Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assign Bezer in the wilderness of the plains of Moab for Reuben, Ramoth-Gilead for the tribe of Gad and Golan-Bashan for the tribe of Vanessa. And so now you have three cities on the western side, three cities on the eastern side. These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel and for the stranger. Note that if you're a stranger in Israel and you unintentionally kill someone, you as a stranger can go to the city and they will protect you as well if it was a manslaughter, if it was unintentional. So it shall be for the stranger who sojourns among them that whoever killed any person accidentally might flee there and not die by the hands of the avenger of blood until he stood before the congregation. And that's the chapter 20. So let's begin talking about what we're saying here and what is this avenger of blood? It's very interesting that in the process of God establishing these cities, everybody to chapter 20 had been allotted land except one tribe. And the one tribe that had not had any allotment whatsoever was the tribe of Levi. Now you do remember that Levi was the third born and Reuben was the first born. And you remember that the second born was also Simeon. And so you have Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. And according to Jewish law, Simeon, Reuben, should have been first born. But you recall what happened to Reuben. Years before, Reuben slept with his father's concubine and he was cursed by God for that defilement. So he was nixed as the first born. And then later on you remember that Simeon and his brother Levi killed a king and his son. Killed Moab and Shechem. And when they were trying to get the area of Shechem and then killed all of their soldiers, all of their men, killed the entire tribe. And they were negated. And so now when you get to the first born, you've got to go all the way to Judah, who was the fourth born. You had Reuben, you had Simeon, you had Levi. Any of the three should have been the first born if the other had been negated. But all three of them had been negated. Therefore Judah had the first choice of the land and you see where Judah chose his land. Judah had the most productive area of the entirety of the land of promise. And Judah, because of the negation of his other three brothers, became the first born and had the first choice. And so Simeon was put into Judah and later on absorbed. Reuben was on the eastern side and you know what happened to him eventually in Moab. He was absorbed into the population as well. And of course what happened to Levi? Well, Levi was the only of the tribes who was not allotted any land. They gave Levi nothing. It was part of his punishment for what he and his brother did to Shechem. And so when it came to this place, God decides through Moses that he's going to give all of these cities to the Levites. The cities will not have a portion of land. Before it's all over with, the Levites will have 48 cities in which they will live. They will live in the city, they will not own the city as the others have allotted land, but they will live in the city and they will be Levitical cities. And each of these six that I just read are Levitical cities in the north of the western side, in the middle in Ephraim of the western side, and in Judah in the south of the western side. And on the other side you have Reuben in the eastern side and you have Gad and they're going to have a city and you have Manasseh. And so the six cities now are cities of refuge with, by the way, a possibility, at least God had told Moses in his instructions to Moses, that as the children of Israel grow and if they obtain additional lands beyond the land of promise, then you will be adding cities of refuge to that land, which never happened. They never did go beyond the land of promise. And so the six cities of refuge remain the six cities of refuge for the entire time. They were still very active during the time of King David and King Saul, and they were very active during the time of Solomon and during the other kings. So the cities of refuge never went away and they were in nature Levitical. And that's what God gave the tribe of Levi. He gave them the six cities of refuge and 48 other cities in which to live. Now pause for a moment and think for just a moment. How many Levitical priests are there? Well, as we get into this lesson, I'm going to bring you up to date on a Levitical priest that you know well. His name is Zachariah. Zachariah was the husband of Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Zachariah were the mother and father of John the Baptist. Okay. Zachariah was a Levitical priest. Zachariah lived in Hebron because he was of Judah. And of course, when he came to Jerusalem, he did his performance of duties. We'll talk about that next week when we come to talk in chapter 21 about the duties of the three sons of Levi. And each of them had specific duties in the tabernacle and later on in the temple. And we'll go through next week and identify what was the what was the duties of the Kohoutites? And what were the duties of the Mariites? And what was the what was the duties of the Gershiites? Those were the three sons of Levi. And what were they responsible for doing? They didn't have any land. They had a city over which they had to at least be in charge of what was going on in the city, especially the city's refuge. But as far as land, so each of them had to spend some time in Jerusalem at the temple. And we'll talk about that next week when we come to talk about the three particular boys and who their later people born to them were. So today we're going to look at this Avenger of Blood. Actually, there's a Hebrew word that identifies the Avenger of Blood. It's a very simple little word. In fact, the interesting thing is Jesus is called this word in the New Testament. And the word is Goel, G-O-E-L, G-O-E-L, Goel. Very simple little word, Goel. It means near kinsmen, the nearest relative, the nearest male relative. And the Goel is your nearest male relative. And so that word Goel can attach itself to two different kinds of activities that's talked about in this chapter. One is the activity of the Avenger of Blood. For you see, it was the Goel's responsibility to redeem the family. It was his responsibility to see to it that if the family had been insulted, that that insult needed to be taken care of. It was his responsibility to see if someone had been killed in that family, that it was his responsibility to kill that person. Now you do remember back in the book of Genesis, there is a statement in the book of Genesis when God is telling these people about what they're going to be doing when they get into the land of promise. And it goes this way. When you get there, if someone kills someone, it will be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a foot for a foot, and a hand for a hand. Ladies and gentlemen, that is really strong affliction when someone is killed that way. Now listen very carefully. If someone kills someone on purpose, if it was premeditated murder, the Israeli people never ever protected that person at all. That person could not go to a city of refuge. If he went to a city of refuge, he would be ousted from the city of refuge if the murder was intentional. Now they may give him a trial in the city of refuge, finding that the murder was intentional, they would throw him out of the city of refuge, and he was at the hand of the avenger of blood. And the avenger of blood was a near male kinsman, a goel. That's kind of interesting. Later on, that same word is going to be used for another person. And it's going to be used as a near kinsman of that other person. And we'll see that as we go through. So the avenger of blood had one responsibility. Number one, he was the nearest of kin, a male kin, to the person who was killed. It was his responsibility to bring the honor back to the family, and in case of premeditated murder, to kill the murderer. But in the case of unintentional or manslaughter, to be certain that that person was killed before he got to the city of refuge. Now that's kind of interesting. And as we get toward the end of this chapter, I'm going to show you where the rabbis and the Sanhedrin made certain responsibilities for the people who were in the cities of refuge, that everything around the city of refuge coming to it was clean, available, and the person who was running from an unintentional murder could get to the city without being hampered. The bridges were there, the roads were clear, the brush was taken away, it was a clear shot to get to the city of refuge. Those cities of refuge were very important, because if the unintentional killer did not get there before the avenger of blood got to him, he was dead. Now the law does say that if a person has committed unintentional murder, then for someone to murder him, that puts a blood spike on the people of Israel. So the six cities of refuge were available so that these people who had committed manslaughter, unintentional murder, could get to the city, could stay there, and could be a part of that city until they had a fair trial. And after the fair trial, they had to stay in the city until the present high priest died. It was sort of a punishment for them not being able to go home until the high priest died that was in power when they committed the murder. And so they had to stay there, it was sort of a penal punishment for them having killed somebody, yet it was unintentional, yet this is their penal punishment. And so they stayed there in the city of refuge, though declared innocent, though declared manslaughter, though declared unintentional, they stayed in the city of refuge until the high priest died. Later on as we get toward the end of the lesson, you'll find something interesting about that with the apostle Paul. Very interesting story. So let's look at this avenger of blood. Who could it be? Well, it could be any male relative who was closely associated to the person who was murdered or who was unintentionally killed. Most of the time it was a brother, sometimes it was cousins or uncles, always it was what they identified as a near kinsman or someone who was near. Now there's two interesting illustrations, biblical illustrations in the word of God. And I'm going to share those two biblical illustrations with you because one of them is about an avenger of blood, the other is about a near kinsman. Oh, by the way, you know both of them. Oh, yeah, you know, when I start, you'll remember them. The first one is found in the book of 1 Samuel. It's about King David and King David's responsibilities as a man of God that he was. So in the book of 1 Samuel, David is a shepherd kid, a young older teenager, and presents himself at the armies of God in the Valley of Leon, and there they're fighting the Philistines. King Saul is the king, and in the 18th and 19th chapters of the book of Samuel, you find that King Saul is there, and David is there as well, and he's trying to help if he can. He's a shepherd kid. Now then, he comes to this particular place, and he talks to Saul, and he talked, he actually, he would sit there and take food to his brothers who were fighting with King Saul. And so as he gets to the Valley of Elah, and he sees all the people there, he sees this giant whose name was Goliath, and the giant had been abusing the armies and the fighters of Israel. He had been cajoling them. He had been cursing them. He had been threatening them. He'd been making fun of them because of his size, and because of their size, everyone was afraid of him. And so David comes up to King Saul, and he says, let me go after Goliath. And King Saul looks at him and says, you kid, a teenager, you're going to go after King Saul? He said, yes. So you remember that David, they tried to clothe David in King Saul's armor, you remember? They tried to put the armor on him. It was so heavy he couldn't carry it. It didn't fit him. In fact, it says, so Saul clothed David with his armor and put on a bronze helmet on his head. He also clothed him, verse 38, chapter 17, and put a coat of mail on his body. And David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, I can't walk in these clothes. I have to not, I haven't tested them. I haven't tested this sword. I don't know if it'll cut anybody. Now look at verse 46 of chapter 17. Then David took his staff in his hand. He chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and put them in a shepherd's bag in a pouch, which he had, and his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine giant. Interesting. He reached down and picked up five stones. Did he think he was going to miss? Did he think maybe he might be off target in the first one, maybe need a second or a third? No. You see, ladies and gentlemen, Goliath had four brothers, a avenger of blood. He had four near kinsmen. We'll talk about all of them. They have names. They're in the book of second Samuel and they were named. They're in the book of first Samuel. They were named and they were all giants from Gath in Philistia, which is now, you know it very well, Gaza. And so David comes and he comes before the giant and so the Philistine giant in verse 43 says, so the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David and cursed his gods. Oh, that made David mad. So in verse 45, David said to the Philistine, you come to me with, uh, uh, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled. And you dropped down to verse 48. And as thought it was the Philistine arose and came toward David and David drew near with to meet him. And David hastened and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And if David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone and put it in the sling and struck the Philistine in his forehead so that it knocked him to the ground. He ran over, took the Philistine giant sword, killed him, cut off his head and gave it to King Saul. Now David's got a problem. He's under the Avenger of blood. And there are four of them. And these four giants never forgot what David did to their brother. God, I'm getting a little feedback. It's kind of ringing a little bit. They never forgot what they did, what he did to God. And so as you go through first Samuel, Goliath's invention and the giant's permission a few times, but as you get into second Samuel and you come to the 21st chapter of second Samuel, you once again find the four giants fighting the Israelites. In fact, in verse 18 of second Samuel 21, it says when the Philistines were at war again with Israel, ladies and gentlemen, sometimes when you're reading the word of God and you're reading the book of first and second Samuel and first and second Chronicles and first and second Kings and first and second Chronicles, read and identify how many times they fought the Philistines. Every time they turned around, they were fighting the Philistines. And so it came again that the Philistines were at war with Israel and David and his servants went with him down and fought against the Philistines. And David began to be weak. Then Isha Benab, brother number one, giant from Gath. Then Isha Benab, who was one of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose bronze spear was 300 shekels, who was bearing a new sword, thought he could kill David. And David was weak. David was an older man. David could not have faced Isha Benab. And so Abishai, the son of Zariah, came to his aid and struck the Philistine and killed him. And the men of David swore saying, you shall no longer go out against these giants and battle unless for unless you will quench the flame of Israel. If you should die, the flame of Israel would die with you. You will not go out anymore, David. You can't fight these giants anymore. So number two, giant is gone. Isha Benab is gone. Verse 18. Now at Haferd after that, there was again a battle with the Philistines. Can you imagine? And it was at Gob. Then Sibitiah, the Hunshite, killed Sap, giant number three. He killed Sap, who was one of the sons of the giant. Verse, and again there was a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elahanna, the son of Jerad-Aramin, the Bethlehemite, killed the brother of Goliath, the Gittite, whose name was Luhumi. Three. Now one left. All the avengers of blood are being killed by David Smith. And then it says, and yet again in verse 20, there was another battle at Gath, where there was a man unnamed. We don't know his name. We know he was the fourth son of the giant. There was a man who had six toes on each foot and six toe fingers on each hand. Twenty-four in number. He was also born to the giant. And when he defeated Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the brother of David, killed him. All of the avengers of blood are dead. Now that is probably one of the best biblical illustrations of the avengers of blood. And you see how they tumble one after the other. Each one, nearest relative to the one killed, now becomes the avenger of blood. But there's another story, illustration in the Bible. It's not about killing. It's about reforming and once again, rebuilding. And it's the story you love. I'll give you a verse from it, and you'll understand where it is. Intrigue me not to leave thee, nor to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will go. And wherever thou lodgest, I will lodge. And thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God. And where thou diest, I will die also. And where you are buried, I will be buried as well. Sweet little gal, by the name of Ruth, who was talking to Naomi, her mother-in-law. Naomi and her husband had left Bethlehem during a famine, went down to Moab. She had two sons. They had two sons. Each of the sons married a beautiful Moabitess. One of them's name was Ruth. The other was there. Both of the boys died prematurely, and Naomi was left by herself. Her husband was dead. She was in Moab. She wanted to go back to Bethlehem. On the way out, she, these two girls followed her, and one of the girls turned around, went back to Moab. But Ruth continued to follow Naomi, and Naomi said to Ruth, Ruth, please go back. Find you a husband of the Moabites. You realize how old I am. The only way you can get a husband through me, Naomi, because I am of nearest kin, is for me to have another boy child. And it would take several years, 18 or 20 years, for that boy child to grow up to be able to marry you. By that time, you will be old, I will be dead. Please, Ruth, go back home. And Ruth looked at her and said, entreat me not to leave you. Okay? So Ruth goes back to Bethlehem with Naomi. And when she gets there, she finds out, Naomi finds out that there is a near kinsman who is very wealthy. And his name is Boaz. And Boaz has a great form in Bethlehem. And it's a cute story, you've read it many times, how Naomi did her cunning, her cute little things, where she got Ruth in the presence of Boaz as often as possible. And then all of a sudden, Boaz got the picture. He thought she was a pretty good looking gal. But, there was a problem. It so happened that between Boaz and Naomi, there was another Goel, another near relative male. And he had, as my good friend Charles Brinkley used to say so often, he had the first kick at the pup. He was the first one who could marry Ruth. In fact, it was incumbent upon him to marry Ruth. It was kind of a law that the near kinsman marry the one who had been left. Well, he goes home and tells his wife what he's thinking about, and guess what mama says? No way, Jose! I'm the only woman in this house, and I'll be the only woman in this house. If you ever had thoughts about marrying Ruth and bringing her here, have other thoughts, because it's not going to happen, do you hear me? So now you go tell Boaz that you're out, and if he wants her, he's in. So, he goes to Boaz, and he says, I relinquish my position as Redeemer kinsman, Goel. Nothing about blood, nothing about murder, nothing about killing, this is all about refurbishing a family, rebuilding a legacy, rebuilding a life. It's all about rebuilding, for you see, this Goel can do either rebuilding and legacy, or he can do avenging of blood, either of the two, they're both the same. They just have different responsibilities. And so, Boaz comes and he marries Ruth. Now, the interesting thing about all that is what happens in the book of Matthew, chapter one. In the book of Matthew, chapter one, we have a beautiful little scripture that talks about the legacy and the actual fulfillment of prophecy in the lives of King David. In fact, in Matthew 1, 5, it begins to give you the legacy of who was born to whom, and it's kind of interesting. A Moabitess name is going to appear in an Israeli legacy. For Matthew 1, 5, 6 says, Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. Remember her? Okay. Jericho? Everybody okay? Remember Jericho? Remember Rahab? All right, come on, get on with me. And so, Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed by Ruth. That's where a Moabitess ends up in the legacy, and a Jerichoite ends up in the legacy. And Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David, the king of Israel, and Jesus is of the lineage of David, and Jesus has become our Goel. He is our near kinsman. He is our kinsman redeemer. For Jesus Christ, when he died on the cross, redeemed us from the sinfulness of our life and put into us his righteousness, and we are pure and righteous in the sight of God. And Jesus became our near kinsman. And so you see what happened to Ruth and Boaz, and what happened to near kinsman, and to blood of injury. So now we're talking about the cities. These cities of refuge. Six on the, three on the western side, three on the eastern side, and these cities are to perform the following kinds of responsibilities. In fact, in verse 22-28 of the law of refuge, it talks about these towns must be guaranteed protection for the person found not guilty of murder, but if a person murders from the town, he may be killed by the avenger of blood. And so it simply rehearses what we've been talking about, the avenger of blood. And so we begin looking at these cities of refuge. The law carefully distinguished between intentional and unintentional murder. One we call manslaughter, the other we call homicide. And so, the former punishment of death penalty, whether indicted by the avenger of blood or by society, was put on the intentional killer. So what you need to understand from the book of Genesis, it says that if a person kills someone intentionally, then that person needs to be either murdered by the avenger of blood, or he needs to be put to death by the society. And they are to rid themselves of an intentional murder. But it goes on to say that if it was an unintentional killing, he is not liable for the death penalty, but to put the killer to death would be to put innocent blood to death, and would be a blight on the people of Israel. And so they named these cities in order that these people might have a place to go. Now it's kind of interesting, the rabbis and the Sanhedrin saw to it that these Levitical cities were taking care of all of the approachments to the city. If there was a road coming to the city of refuge, either in the north or in the center or in the south of the western side, north, center, or south of the eastern side, if there was a road, that road had to be 32 cubits wide, and it had to be cleaned of all debris. It had to be perfect for the person who was running for the city of refuge to get to it. If there was a creek or a river over which that person running for the city of refuge had to cross, the Levitical people and the rabbis and the Sanhedrin said you need to see to it that the bridge is proper and built well. Everything needs to be in perfect order for these people who are going toward the cities of refuge. When they get to the city of refuge, they go inside, they present themselves, they tell them what happened, an unintentional killing, it was a manslaughter, and they ask the Levitical people who run the city, also overseen by the high priest, they ask these Levitical people, the Levites, to please give me an opportunity to share my case with you. And the city of refuge, and the Levites who are there, and the high priest would hear the case of these people who had committed unintentional murder, and they would decide that they were not guilty. But, again, they could not leave the city. They had to stay in the city as part of a penal punishment for having killed somebody, even by manslaughter. And they could only leave if the high priest of the present situation died. And if the high priest of the present situation died, then everything in Israel was released. If you had a debt, and the high priest died, it was forgiven. If you had sold some land, and the high priest died, it came back to you. If you had killed someone, and you were unintentionally, and the high priest died, you were forgiven, and you could go home. So it was upon the death of the high priest that you stayed in the city of refuge, and at his death, then you were free to go home. Fast forward 10 centuries, and go with me to the city of Caesarea Marantima, the Caesarea by the sea, where Herod built a beautiful palace, where Felix and Festus, the governors, put up their justice system, where Felix was a crook, and Festus no better. And yet Paul, now having been captured in Jerusalem, because they said that he took two aliens into the temple, that they were not Israelites, and yet they were Jewish men, and the people that were around them didn't know that, and they accused Paul, and they gave him to the Roman soldiers, they took him down to Caesarea from Jerusalem, which was about a 75-80 mile ride, and they put him in Herod's palace in Caesarea Marantima as a prisoner, and he was a prisoner of the Roman Empire. And while he was there, realizing that if they let him go back to Jerusalem, that the Sanhedrin and the rabbis in Jerusalem would kill him, he made an appeal to Caesar, because he was a Roman citizen. And when you make an appeal to Caesar as a Roman citizen, that appeal cannot be abrogated. It is there forever until you go. And so Paul, while he was in Caesarea Marantima, made an appeal to Caesar, and he was going to have a trip to Rome to see Caesar. While he was there, Festus had a good friend whose name was Herod Agrippa, and Herod and his cousin Bernice came to visit with Festus. And Herod, young king, says to Festus, I hear you have a notable prisoner. And he said, yes, we have the apostle Paul here. He is our prisoner. He said, I would like to hear him someday. Well, long story short, they set up a time when Paul will appear before King Herod Agrippa. By the way, do you remember that Paul had prayed two really important prayers? One prayer was, Father, let me testify before a king. Do you remember? And the second was, Father, let me testify before the emperor. That was Paul's prayer. The first of Paul's prayers can be answered here in the 26th chapter of the book of Acts. When Festus has Agrippa, King Herod Agrippa, and his cousin Bernice there to hear him, Paul gives a wonderful testimony in the presence of Herod. Such a testimony that it moves Herod so much that he's almost weeping. To such an extent that Paul says to him, Herod, do you believe? I see by the way you're acting, you're thinking, oh, King Agrippa, I would that you would be like me, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, except for these chains. You remember? And so after they heard Paul, King Agrippa stood up and Festus and Bernice and they left the room. They go to another ante room and they're talking in the chapter. Listen what King Herod says to Festus. Festus, do you know that if this man had not appealed to Caesar that he today would be free? Guess what had happened in Jerusalem, ladies and gentlemen? Tell me. The high priest died. And Herod Agrippa, who was Jewish of sorts, said to Festus, who was not Jewish of sorts, he was Roman, said to Festus, do you realize that if this man had not appealed to Caesar today, he would be a free man. But because he appealed to Caesar, he must go. And to Caesar, he went. And so these cities of refuge that are set up are there for the protection and the justice of those who are killed unintentionally and with manslaughter. And the cities will be there in order that they might stay there until they are freed. Now next week, we're going to look at the lives of three men and what they did. Let me just give you a taste of next week. Zechariah is in Jerusalem. Elizabeth is not yet pregnant. And he's there on his Levitical course. It appears that there were so many Levitical priests in Israel during the time of Christ that they had to put them in courses. Because if they brought them all to the city of Jerusalem at one time, they could not operate. There'd be too many of them. So they had them in courses. They had some Kohathites, and they had some Mariites, and they had some Kirtianites. And they would come in the course. And if you read the book of Luke, Zechariah says that he was of the course of a bajah. That was the group of people, Levitical priests that came to Jerusalem for two weeks every year to perform their duties. The Kohathites performed theirs, the Kirtianites performed theirs, and the Mariites performed theirs. Performed their what? You'll find out next week. And so, Zechariah is there. And he's an old man. And he gets a real blessing. They cast lots for this kind of a priest. You see, Zechariah was a Kohathite. That doesn't mean anything to you right now or next week. He was a Kohathite. And they cast lots. And the lot fell to Zechariah that on this day, he was supposed to go into the holy place. Hey folks, as a priest, you just didn't walk into the holy place. As a priest, you never walked into the holy of holies. Only the high priests walked into the holy of holies. But as a priest, you didn't go into the holy place unless you had a responsibility of going there. And I'll give you a quickie. The Kohathites were responsible for the inside of the holy place. Okay? So, as a Kohathite, he gets the lot cast on him that he's going to get to go in and he's going to get to feed the altar of incense. Wow! That's a biggie. He'd never done that before. He could live a lifetime and never do it unless the lot fell to him. And the lot fell to him. And he went inside to feed the altar of incense. Oh, what a joy! He'd never been in there before. He'd never seen the inside. His job was to do that. And he went in there while he was feeding the altar of incense, an angel appeared. The enunciating angel, Gabriel. And Gabriel said, Zechariah, you and Elizabeth are going to have a son. He said, that's a joke. You realize how old I am? And Gabriel said, because you laugh, you're going to get kicked. He said, you're going to bear a son. And when he's born, you're going to call his name John. And it was supposed to be that after he fed the altar of incense, that he was supposed to go out on the porch outside the temple and to give the benediction. And he walks outside of the holy place and he starts to talk. And actually, the problem that he got was they cut his voice off. They made him a mute. God made him a mute. And he could not give the benediction. And so he said, bring me a piece of paper. Bring me something to write on. He wrote on something. He said, I can't speak. Oh, ten months later, would you like to read what Zechariah said? Go to the second chapter of the book of Luke and you will read the benediction. That which he was supposed to have said when he came out of the holy place. Ten months later, he says it when John the Baptist is born. Zechariah was a Kohatite. The Kohatites had a lot to do with the inside of the temple. I'll talk to you about that next week. We talk about the Kohatites, the Gershonites and the Mareites, the three sons of Levi. And we'll find out they had responsibility at the tabernacle. They had responsibility when moving the tabernacle. They had responsibility when seeing to it that everything in the tabernacle and the temple was right. They had responsibility in seeing to it that everything was moved correctly. They had the responsibility of cleaning the temple. They had responsibility. And it was given to the three sons of Levi. And Zechariah was a Kohatite. And he came to give the benediction. And he said, Lord, now let a servant be with thee. Amen? Amen. Next week, we'll see what the three boys of Levi does in the temple, around the temple, by the temple, with the temple, with the sacrifice, with the with the great big sea of water and with the ten rolling carts of water for the sacrifice and for the time of giving praise. Thank you for being here. May God bless you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you, Father, for helping us to understand how this Goel worked. Thank you, Father, for protecting those who killed intentionally and getting them out of the way. And thank you for protecting those who killed unintentionally, putting them in a city of refuge. And thank you, Father, for the way you did the Levitical cities in order that the people of Israel might have an opportunity for justice, for protection, and for returning home if the high priest died. And Father, we thank you for your word and bless it to your honor and to your glory is our prayer in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. See you next week. Read chapter 21. You'll get a kick out of it.