Lost in the Promised Land, Part 3; Joshua 19-21

May the mumbling commence!

It’s me again.  I am still lost in the Promised Land.  I wonder if I could get a GPS.

Are you iron deficient in your diet?  There is a dose of irony in the choice of one of the cities of refuge.  In case you forgot, cities of refuge were to be set aside throughout the Promised Land so that someone who unintentionally kills someone else would have a refuge to run to from the avenger of blood. 

One of these cities of refuge was set up in the hill country of Ephraim.  Shechem was set aside in Ephraim for a city of refuge.  It is highly ironic that Shechem was chosen for a city of refuge.  Shechem was the scene of the crime.  Do you remember the story of Dinah, the sister of Simeon and Levi, from Genesis 34?  Dinah had gone into town, where the prince of Shechem raped her.  The king approached Jacob and his sons to ask for Dinah as a wife for his son.

Jacob’s sons asked for the entire male population of Shechem to be circumcised in order to make marrying a possibility.  They agreed and did as they were told.  While they were still hurting, Simeon and Levi attacked the city and killed every male.  What vicious hatred and retaliation!  It was because of instances like this one that the Lord set restrictions on human vengeance in the first place.

Now, this city was to be a city of refuge.  Its past of rampant retaliation was being transformed by the Lord.  I wonder if the choice was intentional.  I wonder if it was a foreshadowing of hope that the Lord had for Israel coming to fruition.

And the irony runs even deeper than this!  The cities of refuge were set aside for the Levites.  Levi’s wrath on the city of Shechem and Levi’s fervor for the Lord which atoned for this wrong had come full circle.  The city that their father once helped to destroy now was theirs.

Sometimes, our lives seem to go in cycles.  My hope and prayer is that these cycles in my life will lead me ever closer to the man that the Lord has created me to be.  May the hatred and vengeance that I carry within me be transformed to fervor for the Lord.  May I own and transform the memories of my past failures.

Enough mumbling for today…

Peace Out