And ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are; for blood, it polluteth the land; and there can be no atonement made for the land, for the blood that hath been shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
Numbers ends with laws for the land Israel is about to enter, and this verse names what would ruin it: murder stains the ground itself. So why does one killing pollute a whole country, and what happens to a land whose worst murder was the death of God's own Son?
God's answer to deliberate murder did not begin with Moses. It goes back to Genesis, and He has never withdrawn it.
Where the evidence showed intent to kill, the image of God in which He made man left no room for pity. God had already spoken on this long before, in Genesis 9, and that word has never been taken back and never can be: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image." That ground remains. This verse also affirms the guilt that rests on a land which does not avenge such blood. Those who in our day would abolish the death penalty may well weigh it: "the land cannot be cleansed of the blood shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it."
(The older translation quoted here says "cleansed." The ESV says "no atonement can be made for the land.")
Two verses earlier the law refuses any ransom for a murderer's life. That refusal shows what the Bible's word for atonement really means.
In Exodus 21:30 a man pays a kopher (translated "sum of money") to save his life, where his ox had killed his neighbour. But Numbers 35:31 allows no kopher for the life of a murderer. Verse 33 tells us why: the land cannot be cleansed, kaphar, except by the blood of the man who shed blood as a murderer. This shows what the force of kopher and of kaphar is. A satisfaction is offered that suits the eye and mind of the one who is displeased and who judges. Through it comes purging of the offence, cleansing, forgiveness, and favour.
The verse has sometimes been stretched to justify punishing a criminal's family. Its wording forbids that.
True, "the land cannot be cleansed of the blood shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it." But "the blood of him who shed it" means the very opposite of the blood of his descendants. The word of God does not contradict itself like that, and the Spirit of God rejects the principle outright.
The next verse gives God's own reason. He lives in that land.
God's presence among them was always to be the spring of holiness and separation for His people... In the law about the manslayer we read, "You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the LORD dwell in the midst of the people of Israel." God's dwelling place must be holy... The way God deals with people may change from age to age. But God — blessed be His name — can never stop being "the holy, holy, holy Lord God of Israel." Nor can He ever stop working to make His people like what He is Himself.
One writer applies this law to Israel's long exile.
Eighteen hundred years ago the manslayer lifted up his hand and shed innocent blood. From that day the blood of Jesus has defiled the land of Canaan. The manslayer has lost his inheritance and fled from his own city. The Jews have been driven out of their land... But the High Priest lives inside the veil, in the heavenly sanctuary... While He stays there, Israel will remain without their inheritance. But the heavenly High Priest will come out. Then Israel will receive full forgiveness, and each man will inherit his dwelling place once more.
If only blood can clear blood, what could ever clear the death of Christ?
We cannot fail to see that the blood Israel is guilty of shedding is, above all, the blood of Christ (see Psalm 51), and the blood of Jesus is the only atonement for the sin that shed it.
- Life — Murder defaces the image of God in man. The death penalty for it goes back to Genesis 9, not to Moses, and God has never withdrawn it.
- Ransom — No money and no substitute can buy back a murderer's life. The word behind "atonement" means a satisfaction that the offended Judge Himself accepts.
- Limit — Only the blood of the one who shed blood — never his children's — can clear the land.
- Presence — The land must stay clean because God dwells in it; His dwelling place must be holy.
- Cleansing — The land still carries the stain of Christ's blood. That same blood is the only atonement for the sin that shed it. When the High Priest comes out, the exile ends and the inheritance returns.
And ye shall not defile the land that ye inhabit, in the midst whereof I dwell; for I am Jehovah who dwell in the midst of the children of Israel.
The closing words of the law of the cities of refuge do not rest the case on public order or on the value of human life alone. They rest it on who lives in the land. That makes every drop of innocent blood spilled on Israel's soil a matter between the nation and God Himself.
These words come as a reminder at the close of the wilderness years, just before Israel enters the land. One writer hears delight in them.
What a delight it evidently was to God to dwell among His people! He gathered Israel around Himself in the wilderness in an order He was pleased to appoint. He told them to put outside the camp everyone who was unclean, "that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell." Again, at the close of their wilderness life, God spoke to them of the land of their inheritance, where innocent blood was not to lie unavenged. He reminded them that He the LORD dwelt among the children of Israel.
The chapter has been dealing with murder and with accidental killing. Behind the whole arrangement lies one question: who owns human life?
The prime thought underlying the whole matter is that life belongs to the God who gave it. No man has any right to take it away… The wilful shedding of man's blood pollutes and defiles the land. Only the shedding of the murderer's blood cleanses it. That is what the end of our chapter says. In the light of this, we live on an earth that is deeply defiled, and above all by the death of the Son of God.
A city of refuge was never a hiding place from judgment. One writer shows how far back that ruling goes, and what it still says in our own day.
The city of refuge was never meant to turn judgment away from someone who was in God's sight a "manslayer." Where intent to kill could be shown, the image of God in which He had made man pleaded effectively against pity. God had already ruled on this case long before, and no one has revoked that ruling or can: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image." That ground remains. This verse affirms the guilt that rests on a land which does not avenge such blood, and those who in our day would abolish the death penalty may well weigh it.
The same writer names the one death that stained Israel's land above every other, and what has followed for the nation since.
…the blood which defiled Israel's land was above all the blood of Christ, shed by Israel. Because of it they have been kept from their inheritance for so many centuries. Yet as a nation they have been spared — the Lord Himself making for them the plea that prevails, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Grace alone does not explain the whole of it. One writer ties His dwelling among them to redemption.
Blessing to man in simple grace is not the full display of who Jehovah is. It must be righteous grace; for if Jehovah dwells among the children of Israel, it is because He has redeemed them.
Israel's land laws have passed. The reason behind them has not, because the reason is God's own character.
God's presence among them was always to be the spring of holiness and separation for His people… And again, in the ordinance about the manslayer, we read that they were not to defile the land where He dwells. God's dwelling place must be holy… There can be no change in this. Dispensations may change, but God, blessed be His name, can never stop being "the holy, holy, holy Lord God of Israel." Nor can He ever stop working to make His people like what He is Himself.
One writer draws the same line to God's people now.
Being the living God, He not only dwells in the midst of His people but He walks in their midst, observing all their ways. And holiness is fitting for His house forever.
- Dwelling. God's presence runs like a thread from the wilderness camp to the promised land, and it is a delight to Him to be there.
- Redemption first. He lives among Israel because He redeemed them; His demands rest on grace already given, not on a bargain.
- Defilement. Life belongs to the God who gave it, so blood deliberately shed pollutes the very ground where He dwells.
- Cleansing. Nothing less will do: only the blood of the one who shed blood cleanses the land, by a ruling God gave long before Israel and never revoked.
- Today. God's dwelling place must be holy. Dispensations change, God does not, and He still works to make His people like Himself.