Numbers 30:2-36:13
Jeremiah 1:1-2:28; 3:4; 4:1-2

Long ago, the Jewish sages created the parsha, a reading calendar to be read annually throughout all the synagogues every sabbath. They are from the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), and the Haftarah (selected readings from the prophetic books or Nevi’im of the Old Testament or Ketuvim). Today, I continue my series exploring the Messiah in each of these portioned readings that was planned and scheduled in ancient days and appointed for our present days.

This portion is a double portion including Mattot and Masa’ei, and it was read in synagogues on July 11, 2026. The Torah part covers laws about vows, vengeance on Midian and the division of the spoil, how Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh inherited the land east of the Jordan River, a recounting of the stages of Israel’s journey during all their years of wandering, instructions concerning the borders of Israel’s inheritance and how to divide the land by tribe, instructions for cities to be given to the Levites, instructions for cities of refuge and refugees, and instructions for marriages and inheritance for female heirs. This parsha concludes the Book of Numbers. The haftarah portion covers the calling and first oracles of Jeremiah against Judah.

The Death of the High Priest

²⁶ But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the boundaries of his city of refuge to which he fled, ²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside the boundaries of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood. ²⁸ For he must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest, but after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession. ²⁹ And these things shall be for a statute and rule for you throughout your generations in all your dwelling places (Num. 35:26-29).

God commanded that when Israel entered the Promised Land, a certain number of cities and land around those cities should be given to the Levites, and of those cities for the Levites, six of them should be cities of refuge or sanctuary cities for anyone who committed manslaughter. Three should be on the west of the Jordan, and three on the east side, distributed such that people anywhere in Israel could access one readily enough for refuge. If they were caught outside of a sanctuary city, they could be killed by the next-of-kin- avenger of the dead. Regardless of intention, according to the covenant going all the way back to Noah, a person deserved death for murder or manslaughter.

“Whoever sheds the blood of man,
    by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image (Gen. 9:6).

The text is silent about intention. The intention was irrelevant. The consequence was death, and that death called for vengeance. But Numbers 35 makes it clear that if a person killed another intentionally or with intent to harm, then they cannot take refuge in a sanctuary city. They have to be delivered the capital punishment. For the person guilty of manslaughter without intent, they could go free in the land again only upon the death of the high priest.

I remember listening to a Jewish podcast put out by the Temple Institute on the parsha years ago, and the commentator was very experienced and knowledgeable. I have learned a lot from him. But when he got to this passage, he said he did not know why the manslayer could go free at the death of the high priest. It was just a God said it so therefore it is thing, but the understanding is not there. It is a mystery. I longed so badly, and still do, to invite that person to sit down for some coffee and share with him how its meaning is brought to light in Messiah. I am not smarter or more experienced than him. Hardly. But I do know the Messiah, and he does not. I do have the Holy Spirit who teaches me in my inner heart, and he does not. But if he knew and believed, he could too. I may not be able to sit down and have coffee with members of the Temple Institute in Israel, but I can invite you to sit down with your computer or device, and grab your favorite drink if you desire, and read what I absolutely love to talk about with you: our Messiah in the parsha.

First, I want to explain that spiritually, we are all guilty of manslaughter. We all deserve to have the avenger take our lives for our guilt. Secondly, I want to explain how God is our refuge from the vengeful wrath of, well, God. Third, I want to explain how the death of Jesus, our High Priest, allows us to go completely free again.

First: we are all guilty of manslaughter. The Apostle Paul explains in Romans chapter 5,

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— ¹³ for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come (Rom. 5:1214).

Adam was in effect guilty of manslaughter. He took the weapon of sin and wielded it on all successive generations, causing death. He did not intend to bring all successive generations to death. It was unintentional in that sense. It’s manslaughter. Sin is the weapon that brings death, like the shove or thrown object or stone that brought death upon another unintentionally according to Numbers 35.

We, like Adam, perpetuate that sin by committing sin ourselves, which continues to bring death. The pattern goes on and on and on. But if God, the Avenger, executed His right immediately, no one would survive. Just like God told the Israelites to set up cities of refuge, God set up a refuge for us: Himself. The sons of Korah wrote,

God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble (Ps. 46:1).

And indeed, God is a refuge mentioned in all the Psalms 47 times. I won’t quote them all here for sake of time and space, but you get the point. By sin, we are guilty of manslaughter, rightfully to be killed ourselves, but God provided us refuge in Himself.

Thirdly, just as the Torah gave provision for the manslayer to go free upon the death of the high priest, so we who are guilty can go free because of the death of the High Priest, Jesus Christ. The author of Hebrews says,

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone (Heb. 2:9).

This same author is the one who explains Jesus is the High Priest many many many times, again, too many to enumerate here, but I will give an example from the text:

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession (Heb. 3:1).

Because He tasted death for everyone, and because He is High Priest, by His death we can go free. Jesus Himself said,

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵ The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (Jn. 8:34).

Jeremiah, our haftarah prophet for this portion, from the very selected reading, also says,

“Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant?
    Why then has he become a prey?…
¹⁷ Have you not brought this upon yourself
    by forsaking the Lord your God,
    when he led you in the way? (Jer. 2:14, 17).

Forsaking God with our sin makes us slaves to sin. We are bound by it like the manslayer was bound to remain in the city of refuge lest the avenger of blood get him. God made Himself that refuge for Israel. But when Jesus died, he made the way for us to go free just as the manslayer went free at the death of the high priest. The high priest, being human, was going to die sooner or later. If the manslayer lived long enough, he would see his freedom. God knew He would send His Son Jesus Christ to die as our High Priest before the world even began, because He knows all things. So too, it was just a matter of time before our High Priest died that we may go free. That time finally came when Jesus was crucified on the cross.

Now the one guilty of intentional harm or murder could not take refuge in the sanctuary city. He was to be put to death. This echoes the same principle behind the sacrifices; that the expiatory sacrifices (the guilt offering and sin offering) were not applicable to people who sinned intentionally. For more on my commentary on the expiatory sacrifices, please refer to my earlier post, “The Sin Offering and the Guilt Offering He called for.”

So too, once we are confronted with the knowledge of sin, we can repent and run to our refuge, God, and be set free by our High Priest, Jesus Christ. But if we choose to continue in our old way of life, reject God’s refuge, and dismiss Jesus, then there is no escape from the avenger of blood, which is God Himself. I pray that you take refuge in God and that you let His High Priest’s death set you free. If you aren’t sure, I pray that you ask God to give you wisdom to discern these things and come to your own understanding. If you put in the effort to do this sincerely, then He will answer you.

The Fountain of Living Water

…my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
    the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
    broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jer. 2:13).

This verse tells us two things about God: 1) He is the source of living waters and 2) He was forsaken by His people. Likewise, I will show you how Jesus, as the Son of God, is the source of living waters (the Spirit), but He was also forsaken by His people, Israel. Jesus, speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, said,

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water (Jn. 4:10).

And again at the feast of Sukkot in the temple,

³⁷ On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” ³⁹ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive” (Jn. 7:37-39).

Jesus is the source of the living waters that God said through Jeremiah that He is the source of. Since Jesus is the Son of God, that is, Emmanuel (God with us), there is no contradiction. But just as Jesus is the source of living waters as the Father is, so also He was rejected as the Father was forsaken. He was not received as Messiah. Instead, He was delivered up unto death. Instead, Israel settled for less, much less, “broken cisterns that can hold no water.” In ancient Israel, it was idols, as confronted in the Book of Jeremiah. In Jesus’ time, it was also a form of idolatry, though they were not actually worshipping physical idols of wood and stone anymore. Instead, they had made an idol out of the Torah itself. Jesus said,

³⁹ You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 

Before you blow me off for saying this, remember God commanded Moses to make the bronze serpent in the wilderness, that whoever looked at it would live, and yet Israel had come to idolize it (2 Kgs 18:4). Therefore, Josiah had is destroyed. Like ancient Israel idolized the bronze serpent and even named it Nehushtan, the Jews idolized the Torah. As Judah failed to look at the true source of healing behind the bronze serpent, which is God, the Jews failed to recognize the true source of life, Yeshua ha Mashiach, Jesus Christ, behind the Torah. By rejecting Jesus, people once again rejected God (Lk. 10:16).

I hope that you flee to God, your Refuge, and go out freely now that the High Priest died. Not only has He died, but He is risen! Until next time, God bless.

The first Adam became a betrayer,
Guilty of sin, guilty of manslaughter,
Then death by sin became a manslayer
Successively slaying each son, daughter.
But God provided a Place of Refuge,
A Spot serving for a Sanctuary,
Himself as the troubled soul’s Subterfuge,
Himself the Fortified Holy City.
For freedom from the Avenger of Blood,
There is a means by which one is released.
Foreshadowed long ago is the method.
We go free at the death of the High Priest.
Not only did He die, but also rose.
We with Him enter the City God chose.