Date: September 8, 2024
Key Scriptures: Numbers 35:9-34

Facilitator Questions:
Themes:  The cities of refuge, the avenger of blood, judgment
Start thinking:  Ask a question to get your group thinking.

• Read Numbers 35:9-34. What were the congregations in the cities of refuge obligated to do when someone came there for refuge?
• Who was the avenger of death, and why was he responsible for putting the murderer to death? What do this and the other verses about the death penalty for murder teach about God’s judgment?
• Reread verses 26-29. What did God allow to happen to the refugee who left the city during the lifetime of the high priest? What is the significance of this?
• Reread verses 33-34. What do they teach about the land and how shedding blood pollutes or defiles it?

Start sharing:  Choose a question to create openness.

• What are you learning by studying this passage of Scripture? How do these concepts apply to you and to the environment where we live?
• How has the death of our high priest, Jesus, released you from being confined within specific boundaries? What spiritual freedoms do you have that didn’t exist for people who lived under the Law? What is your response to knowing these things?
• Do you live in freedom from fear of the avenger of blood, or do you live under the guilt of your sin? What can you do to gain freedom from guilt?
• Have you been close to anyone who was victimized by unintentional or deliberate death? If not, think about how human lives in general are devalued and destroyed in our world. As a member of the congregation in the spiritual Promised Land, what can you do to uphold justice under the New Covenant of grace?

Start praying:  Be bold and pray with power.

• Thank God for His Word, which reveals His heart, His truth and His plan for humanity.
• Thank Him for His mercy to provide refuge for sinners.
• Pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal the availability of refuge to lost people and bring many to repentance and salvation in Jesus.
• Pray that He will forgive our nation and heal our land from the curse of blood that has been shed in it.

Start doing:  Commit to a step and live it out this week.

• Memorize 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
• Meditate prayerfully every day about how God values human life and how seriously He takes sins of violence. Ask Him to show you what He would have you do about it.