Cities of Refuge

The LORD said to Joshua, “Now tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed Moses. Anyone who kills another person accidentally and unintentionally can run to one of these cities; they will be places of refuge from relatives seeking revenge for the person who was killed. [Joshua 20.1-3]

I feel like our modern society does not even possess the capacity to understand all that cities of refuge meant in the Old Testament times of Israel.

One thing that stands out to me is that killing another person was only murder if it was intentional. However, because that person took the life of another, the family of the deceased had every right to reciprocate by taking the life of that person in revenge.

Why was it not murder then for the family of the deceased to take revenge by killing the killer?

The 'eye for an eye' scripture comes to mind here at this point.

However, it is most interesting that even though a person is proven to have killed another person accidentally, he is still subject to revenge by the deceased person's family unless he flees to a city of refuge. Why is this?

What I see here is an example of what forgiveness does or, in this case, what the lack of forgiveness  (as an ideology) does.

Until Jesus 'set the bar' (so to speak) of forgiveness, no one really had a circumstance to compare sacrificial love to.

I believe the cities of refuge mentioned in today's OYCB reading have great significance in what Jesus declared about the Old Testament writings: that they all pointed to Him as Messiah. I believe we can never really comprehend cities of refuge unless we do so in the light of Jesus.

So, while I am somewhat vague in my understanding of it all right now, I take comfort that Jesus' life, death, and resurrection explain it all.

Father, please help me to comprehend how cities of refuge point to Jesus.