20/02/2024
In the ordinance concerning the Sabbatical year (Exo. 21:2), it says that a slave who was serving for six years would be set free in the seventh year. This shows us how fallen man enslaved by sin is set free by God’s rest. From the picture of the creation in Genesis, we see how God labored for six days and rested on the seventh day. Additionally, God ordained that the seventh day of the week would be called the Sabbath, to remind His people that He rested on the seventh day. This is the good news of the gospel. As sinners who sold ourselves under sin (Rom. 7:14), we have been set free by our receiving of Christ, who is the real rest. God’s rest is our freedom!
Then in Exodus 21:13, we come to the ordinance concerning the city of refuge. When one killed another by mistake, he had the right to flee to the city of refuge, a place appointed by God where he could be safe from those who seek vengeance. This means that in God’s view, fallen man is a sinner by mistake and may flee into Christ, who is the reality of the city of refuge. Whenever we commit sins and ask the Lord for forgiveness, our repentance toward God indicates that we are mistaken sinners who can receive His forgiveness. The apostle Paul once said in 1 Timothy 1:13, “Who formerly was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insulting destructive person; but I obtained mercy because being ignorant I acted in unbelief.” Previously, he persecuted the believers in his zealousness for God, thinking he was pleasing Him. But when God shined upon him, he fell and repented, and received Jesus as his Lord, entering into Christ as his city of refuge. What good news this is that mistaken sinners can flee into Christ!
