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I am aware, my brothers and sisters, that the interpretation I have given of the two and a half tribes and Moses' insistence that they must go across Jordan and fight, and if they were prepared to do that, they could come back east of Jordan and have that part as their inheritance. I am aware that that interpretation disappoints many believers, you'll see, and that on two grounds. I was brought up by godly men and women who sometimes preached on this matter and ha- assured me that the two and a half tribes insisting on living east of Jordan were what my seniors called world borderers. Uh, do you see? They wanted to live as near the world as they could, uh, only to be part of the people of God, but were not prepared to go onward with the rest of the people of God seriously into their inheritance, you see. Those who hold that view will find what I said in the first session somewhat unacceptable, because I was saying that they were good and godly people and had no intention of deserting the rest of the tribes and were prepared to go ahead of the rest of the tribes in the vanguard and fight with the tribes for the possession of the Canaan east, uh, west of Jordan, and not come back until Joshua gave them permission to come back, to say. So it is not fair to say that they were world borderers. It contradicts the very facts of the history that are recorded. Uh, however, in all due humility, practiced over many years, I, uh, to say, submit my interpretation to those of better judgment. And then, of course, I shall have disappointed many who, for whom the notion of pressing on to perfection is to be understood in the terms of Philippians chapter three. That's why I read Philippians chapter three to start with, to show I do believe it, of course. And the, uh, need to press on to perfection, not only now to, to, uh, accept the Messiahship and deity of the Lord Jesus, and the fact that his sacrifice has done away with all other sacrifices. His priesthood has done away with the priesthood of Aaron. His, uh, uh, temple service in heaven does away with any earthly temple. Uh, do you see? Uh, so to press on into that perfection, but also, of course, as Philippians three tells us, now that we're redeemed by Christ, we are to press on that we might know him and be conformed more to him daily, that is, press on into the enjoyment of our great inheritance. So yes, I hope I don't disappoint people too much because I took the historical approach as at the beginning of the meeting, pointing out that for the Jew it has a special lesson in the New Testament. The leadership of Moses ceased, and Joshua succeeded him, and the tribes were required to follow Joshua under his leadership and under his command to fight for the full inheritance west of Jordan as a condition for coming back and enjoying the inheritance that Moses had given them east of Jordan. And I tried to make the point that the analogy fits us as well. Those who are prepared to follow Christ and his perfection of his sacrifice, uh, uh, uh, of his priesthood, of the temple in which he now ministers, uh, and see to, and see it, understand it clearly that it makes obsolete the Old Testament sacrifices and temple and priesthood, so that we don't copy that priesthood with high priests and garments and all sorts of paraphernalia, you'll see, and altars and things. Uh, so long we we're clear about that. We nonetheless can go back and enjoy the inheritance that God gave his people under Moses and the prophets, uh, uh, do you see, in the Old Testament. Yes? Very good. And we are to press on into the enjoyment of that inheritance. You will notice, of course, that when they went into the land under Joshua, they had to fight. And if you read all the detail of Hebrews about these people that profess to f- have faith in Christ, they had had to fight hard, not with sword, but they had endured the spoiling of their goods, of their houses. Some had been, uh, uh, executed. As Orthodox Jews, if they get converted to Christ, will to this day endure great afflictions with, with their parents, of course. And you get a Muslim converted to Christ, you know what happens. And we who have trusted Christ and enjoy his salvation, nonetheless are called to fight. We're not in heaven yet. If you haven't noticed that, well, let me tell you. We're not yet in heaven, you'll see, and therefore we have to gird up the loins of our mind, and we have to put on the whole armor of God and make progress in, uh, enjoyment of our Christian inheritance and the development of Christian character until the Lord comes and takes us physically home into the glories of our eternal inheritance, yes. And if you like to think with Peter of entering Canaan as an analogy of our eternal inheritance, well, carry on do, I give you permission. Doesn't that sound silly? I give you permission to follow Peter in his thinking. Do see, we have been begotten again unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, fades not away, reserved in heaven for us. All that having been said, I want to call us, uh, wa- uh, brief attention to some of the provisions in the last part of the book. Provisions now for the tribes and the Levites. We began with them, and what should be done about the inheritance of the tribes and then of the Levites in the Promised Land. Because technically the Levites didn't have any inheritance. God says to them, the Lord, I am their inheritance. So they had no claim on, on land. But the other tribes, when they got their parts of the land and their cities, they had to be prepared to give some of the cities to the Levites, because now when they got into the land, they no longer lived all around the tabernacle and moved with it. Now they were stationary, and the tabernacle was in Shiloh or somewhere else like that, you see, and some of the tribes were living quite a distance from Shiloh. And therefore, the Levites had to have homes in different parts of the country, and certain of them would come up at one stage to the temple to perform their duties, and then they would go home, and another lot would come up. So Zechariah, for instance, father of John the Baptist, when you meet him in Luke chapter one, he is as a priest. He is doing his job as a priest, uh, doing his say days of service, and when he had completed them, he would go home to his particular city. The tribes were therefore, out of their inheritance, to provide cities for the Levites, and the cities were given a bit of ground around the city, so the Levites blessed them, could keep a goat or two, or the odd cow to give the babies milk to use, and all that kind of thing, as Levites had to. But then I, uh, uh, for tonight, I want to come to the final provision. The tribes had to mark out certain cities as cities of refuge. And these were for the following purpose. They were to cope with the possibility of what we call accidental homicide. When somebody, a man, killed a fellow Israelite, but not intentionally. Perhaps he was cutting wood, his axe, axe head fell off, came off the haft and hit the other chap in the head and killed him. He was not intending to murder him, but he had killed him anyway. Now, under the provisions in those far off days, if a person was killed, then his next of kin had the duty and the right to avenge that killing. And so the, uh, next of kin could come and kill the person who had killed his relative, do you see? Now, in some countries, that still exists. It used to exist in Afghanistan. If accidentally, when you were motoring across A- A- Afghanistan and somebody walked straight in the front of your car and you knocked them down and killed them, the advice given by the tourist authorities would be you didn't stop, you carried on driving faster than ever to get away, for if you didn't, the next of kin would come and kill you. No, no listen to or but I didn't intend it and it was an accident or anything like that. You killed him is the main thing, and the next of kin would kill you, do you see? And when that system of law existed, it existed at one stage in Greece and elsewhere, uh, do you see? No provision was made for the man who had, yes, commit- uh, killed somebody, but accidentally, without intending it, as the Hebrew quaintly says, without knowing it, do you see, without meaning to do it. There were these cities, so that if somebody accidentally killed somebody, he could take off and run to the nearest city of refuge. And once he reached there, then the elders of that city took him in and heard what his story was. And as long as he was there, the avenger of Blood was not allowed to touch him. If the Avenger of Blood tried to touch him and kill him, the Avenger of Blood would be had up for murder, or say. So the elders of the city then examined the case of the man. Was it really an accident, or was this malice a forethought? Then they had to bring him before the all-tribal c- uh, council, as it was called, for judgment. And then if the All Tribal Council agreed with him, with the city elders, he came back to the city of refuge, do you see? And it was pronounced therefore innocent. It was an accident. The interesting thing about that, uh, ancient law system was this, that the elders in the All Tribal Council, having decided the man was innocent, he had not intended to murder anybody. He was innocent. Yet it insisted that the re- man remained in the city of refuge. Why couldn't he go home? Is he innocent? You say, well, it wouldn't be safe because if the other chap got hold of him, he would still murder him, but the law would then murder the avenger of, uh, the next of kin if he murdered this man. That would be made very plain to them. Do you see? So why couldn't he go home? And the, uh, other relevant thing was that he had to stay until the death of the high priest. Well, that seems very arbitrary because the high priest could die next Tuesday, who knew? Then he could go home, or the high priest mightn't die for the next thirty five years. So a man had to stay in the city till the high priest died. Why on earth was that? And some people have said, well, because it was so luxurious in the city of refuge, but that's imagination, as you say. Why was it? Well, all you lawyers present and others, solicitors and accountants and things, uh, you'll have your, uh, attitudes. I've asked many lawyers, uh, still waiting sometimes for, uh, explanation of the jurisprudence, do you see? Never mind. Eh, do you see? Uh, but um... there was two possible reasons. You see, even though the thing was an accident. I mean, you, you, you think of the thing as Mr. Smith here, and he was chopping down wood, uh, uh, along with his neighbor, Mr. Brown, and the axe head flew off and killed Mr. Brown. Dead now. So the man got ran to the city, was cleared, pronounced innocent. Why couldn't he come home? Well, partly because the consequences. Why should this man come home and enjoy his inheritance and the other chap's widow, living across the road, be robbed of her husband for the rest of her life. Does that sound to you to be fair? You see, there are consequences even of our unintentional actions, aren't there? So perhaps the fact that the man was required to stay in the city for a while was meant to soften the blow of the consequences for the injured party. However that may be, it is said that when the high priest died, the man could go home. That raises another big theological question. What had the death of the high priest to do with it? A theory to which I am myself inclined. It's only a theory, it's not stated in black and white, is that the high priest was a representative of the nation, and when it came to things to do with God and the temple and and so forth, and the holiness of God, then the high priest wore a a a piece of metal across his mitre here, churis l'heche, holiness to the Lord. And it is said about it, he wore it because he shall bear the iniquity of Israel. That is to say, if Israel had done wrong and he was their representative, he took the punishment. He bore the iniquity of the holy things. We have a hymn in the, in one of the books we use. I don't know if it's in the one we still use. For us he wears the mitre where holiness shines bright. For us his robes are whiter than heaven's unsullied light. It is the fact that our blessed high priest has paid not only the guilt of our sin, but will ultimately pay all the damages. Yes, indeed. The damage sin does is a serious business, isn't it? Here's a teacher, and in his young days, coming out of university elsewhere, and full of good confidence, of course, eh, a- a- and he's teaching the kids, and he has openly told them there's no God, and so forth, and so on, and so on. And students of his have grown up into atheism and gone out into life and wasted their life anti-God. And the man of fifty gets converted. And some of the students that he taught atheism have died. Consequences? How will that be put right? And all the consequences of sin in this evil world that have come upon people comparatively innocent. It is my belief that Christ will compensate, put right the damage of sin, not merely the penalty thereof. That being said, let me now come back to my hobby horse of this evening, to interpret this thing as a prototype in the context of Judaism to start with. Because in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter stands up and accuses the people of Jerusalem and their rulers of having murdered their Messiah. And in a famous verse, he says to them, Acts chapter three verse seventeen it is. Acts 3 and verse seventeen: You'll see. Let's read the context. Verse thirteen: the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied before the face of Pilate, who- when he had determined to release him. But you denied the holy and the righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of Life, whom God raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And by faith in his name has this man, uh, ha- uh, by by faith in his name has his name made this man strong, whom you behold and know. Yea, the faith which is through him hath given this, him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Now listen to what Po- Peter adds. And now, brethren, I realize that in ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers. Well, I would have thought the people did it deliberately. But here, through the mouthpiece of Peter, God is saying, I realize you did it in ignorance, not knowing what you did. And therefore, serious though the crime was, that they took him, and by the hands of lawless men, Romans, uh, crucified him. Yet the vast majority didn't know what they did. And hence repentance was offered them through faith in that same Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing, isn't it? Through the death of their true high priest. It wasn't only the people of Jerusalem. Listen finally to Paul, uh, reminding Timothy of how Paul himself got saved, you see. He says, you know, I was the veritable chief of sinners. I persecuted the church of Christ. Do you see? Tried to eliminate the name of Jesus from the earth, did he not? But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief. And the mercy of God, uh, uh, through Jesus Christ was outstanding, says Paul, that in me first, the very chief of sinners, Christ might show forth the wonder of his long suffering. You'll see. Amaz- amazing that, isn't it? God has taken the worst of sinners, in the sense that Paul deliberately tried to eliminate the name of Jesus from the earth and tortured Christians. What God will put up with is amazing. What Christ would put up with when Saul of Tarsus persecuted him. Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And God has done it. What for? As an example to the rest of us who shall believe on Christ for salvation. Paul, the example convert. Mercy shown him because he did what he did, unillumined by God's spirit, and therefore in ignorance. All of us who know the Lord looking back understand a little bit what that means. We were opposed to Christ, we were not interested in Christ. We certainly were, were not stretching out and moving forward to make progress in our glorious inheritance. Now, looking back upon it, when we have come to know the Lord, we say what fools we were. We did what we did in sheer ignorance of what Christ is really like. So thank you for tonight and your patience. I know you have been, uh, induced by the marvelous buns and cups of tea, you'll see. I'm not taking the credit for that, but thank you very much for coming to the series. You have done our hearts good. I pray that God will s- use the series to stimulate your interest in Holy Scripture. One of the ways in which we go in for our inheritance is to be consistent with what we profess to believe. If this book is the word of inspired word of God, then the implication seems to be that we shall do our best, each in his own way and according to his own gift, to get to know it. If you're going to be a cook, I have occasionally tried it, so I'm aware of what I say. Going to be a cook, you know, you can't do it haphazardly. You have to have at least one cookbook that tells you how to go about things juicy, don't you? And you have to take it seriously. If this book is God's word, God save us from treating it with less diligence than we would our cookbooks or our books on accountancy or physics or woodwork. This is God's inspired word. It leads us nearer the Savior and draws us towards our great in heaven. So let's pray as we go. Our Father, we thank thee for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. And the more we explore it, the one more wonderful it becomes. The superabundance of thy grace and the glory of thy saving ingenuity that has provided such a vast inheritance for us beggars of the earth. So we thank thee for Christian fellowship, and we thank thee for thy word. Help us to treasure it, we pray. And Lord, as we have thought of its practical implications, give us the grace to go out in our own, uh, uh, way, to go on with the Lord Jesus, and help us, Lord, to take the glorious gospel of which we have thought to those whose consciences are not yet made perfect, who live in darkness and spiritual unawareness of the wonder of thy salvation. Pass us now with thy blessing, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.