Day 20 - February 8/09

Joshua 20

This chapter is about the cities of refuge set up throughout Israel so that if someone accidentally kills another, he can flee to one of those cities. By their law, if he does not flee and someone thinks he is guilty, they have the right to murder him.

When I was younger I used to go to this camp during the summer, and two of our cabins, Hebron and Bezer, were named after cities of refuge. I'm sure this wasn't by accident.

God always provides a way out for us in temptation and, from the looks of it, He also provides a way out for those who are falsely accused or genuinely did something wrong without meaning to. It's so fascinating to me how trials were done by prayer, and God, unless the High Priest was corrupted, had the final say in all matters. So if they were following the right protocol, whatever that may be, to find out what He wanted, then there should never have been false convictions.

Right now, I don't hear God's voice, and it's the strangest thing for me to not have His voice in my head all the time. But life isn't lived in the high times; life is all about when we're down in the dumps, "up to our knees in mud...." I need to persevere through this season and trust in who I know He is, even when I can't hear Him right now. I'm standing at the gate of the city, waiting to be let in so that I can sit in His refuge.