Pancake Hurlers and Avengers of Blood

You know, I've written so many blog posts since September of 2020 that I can't remember if I told this story or not -- it's likely I did -- but since it serves my point, and since it's probably been a while... and since it's a good story... I'll tell it again.

My work-study job at Rosedale Bible College (when it was still Rosedale Bible Institute) was filling the role of breakfast cook. There was always cereal and bread that could be laid out, but we had a specific menu for every morning of the week: Mondays: Bagels. Tuesday: Scrambled Eggs. Wednesday: Baked Oatmeal. Thursday: Pancakes. Friday: Coffeecake.

The schedule became so ingrained in me, I kept track of what day it was -- not by my calendar -- but by what I'd had for breakfast that morning. What's today? Oh, Wednesday, because I made Baked Oatmeal this morning.

I got up at 5:00 a.m. every morning (except the days I slept through my alarm and came hustling into the kitchen at 7:00 a.m. to a very annoyed-looking head-cook). Half asleep, I'd head out into the frigid Ohio air, unlock the cafeteria doors, flip on the lights, and start tossing ingredients onto the kitchen island to mix in the mixer.

Anyway, keep in mind, at five in the morning, to sleep-befuddled eyes, salt and sugar look precisely the same, especially when they're stored in two identical bins in the same pull-out cabinet drawer, and especially when both labels begin with an S.

See where I'm going here? 

One Thursday, my pancake batter was super lumpy. I couldn't figure out why it looked different from what it normally did, but it was morning, I was sleepy, no one else was up yet, and I had limited time to get the pancakes into the warming pan and out for people to eat. So I mentally shrugged and flipped those babies super quick ('cause that's one thing I had gotten good at after however many months as a breakfast cook -- flipping pancakes). :)

The usual morning crowd began to file in, taking their plates and loading up their pancakes. I was on my last little bit of frying batter, so I kept at it while I heard them settle down at the tables. After a little bit, one very kind young man entered the kitchen and asked -- so very diplomatically -- "Tamara... have you, uh... tasted... the pancakes yet?"

Why no, I hadn't. So, alarmed into wide-eyed wakefulness, I grabbed one of the freshly-fried pancakes from the pan and took a bite... and then turned around and spit it into the kitchen trash can. It had enough salt in it to mummify me.

What followed was a good-natured pancake fight. The students at the tables had been watching for my reaction, and when it came, somebody yelled "Food fight!" and it all dissolved from there. It was me against the world...

Until one of my friends thought that didn't look fair. He ran around from the dining room into the kitchen and hid behind the cabinets with me as we hurled pancakes back.

It was loads of fun... and I was glad to have a compatriot. ;) The clean-up was less fun, but we all pitched in.

Anyway, something caught my attention in Joshua 20 today, which is a short chapter detailing the rules about Cities of Refuge. 

Cities of Refuge were introduced back in Numbers 35:6-34. Essentially, the Cities of Refuge were -- in this developing nation of Israel that needed some settled governmental regulations, but as yet, was still sorting things out -- six designated cities. These cities were specifically Levitical towns -- that is, towns where those from the tribe of Levi lived, who were also, if you recall, the Israelite priesthood. On the western side of the Jordan River, spaced strategically north, middle, and south, were three of the Cities of Refuge. On the eastern side, again spaced north, middle, and south, were the other three Cities of Refuge.

Easy access. Someone living way south in the land of Judah wouldn't have to travel all the way up to Galilee to reach a City of Refuge; they could hit up Hebron, which is much more convenient (I'm having flashbacks to Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy's conversation in my favorite Pride & Prejudice: "An easy distance, you call it? 'Tis nearly fifty miles!").

Sorry, minor sidetrack.

So anyway, in this new setting up of government, it became apparent that there was a need for some oversight of capital punishment. As we all know (see the entire last year and all events surrounding George Floyd, etc.), the untimely ending of someone's life stirs up all sorts of feelings, and usually (not always), if that ending of life is caused by another person, the first reaction is hatred and vengeance. Blood feuds have been virulent throughout history because of this very reaction. 

I get it, blood feuds aren't quite the same as pancake hurling, but you get the picture. If someone throws a pancake at you, what do you do? You hurl one back, right? 

The purpose of the Cities of Refuge was -- when someone accidentally killed someone else (involuntary manslaughter), the accidental killer was allowed to avoid trial by a highly prejudiced jury in the vicinity of the involuntary killing, thus also avoiding what would likely be a closed-court's corruptible prosecution, and the accidental killer could flee to the nearest City of Refuge.

Once there, the accidental killer would stop at the city gate, where the city elders sat and carried out small-claims court -- and he would present his case. The elders would approve his reasoning and allow him to enter, and any pancake throwers -- I mean, "avengers of blood" -- who were bent on targeting this guy would be turned back at the gate. They were not allowed to enter and take their vigilante justice.

To note, this was only the case with involuntary manslaughter. Killers who committed premeditated murder received capital punishment by stoning.

Okay, anyway, it took me all that to lay out the interesting thing that I noted in Joshua 20 this morning: "Then the Lord said to Joshua, 'Tell the Israelites to designate the Cities of Refuge, as I instructed you through Moses, so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood" (Joshua 20:1-3).

Avenger of blood is also translated, according to my footnotes, as "kinsman-redeemer," or more simply, "redeemer."

How very, very interesting. Because the only other place I've heard the term "kinsman-redeemer" is in the story of Ruth, chapter 3, where Ruth uncovers Boaz's feet while he's sleeping and lies down. "Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down. In the middle of the night something startled the man, and he turned and discovered a woman lying at his feet. 'Who are you?' he asked. 'I am your servant Ruth,' she said. 'Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer'" (Ruth 3:7-9).

I know this sounds squirmy -- or at least it did to me as a kid growing up. Why is Ruth sleeping, essentially... in the same sleeping bed as a near stranger? It was hard for me to wrap my mind around this point of culture, but this is important: This was a person who was living in fairly desperate straights, who was appealing -- in the most impactful way that she possibly could -- to the only person she knew of who could help her.

And Boaz took that appeal seriously. "The Lord bless you, my daughter (this doesn't mean he saw her as his daughter, y'all; that's also squirmy, since he -- spoiler -- marries her). This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier (Ruth leaving everything to go with her mother-in-law Naomi back to her homeland). You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character (Proverbs 31). Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I. Stay here for the night, and in the morning, if he wants to redeem, good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it. Lie here until morning" (Ruth 3:10-13).

Okay, but Ruth's not an accidental murderer -- she's a poor woman who understands the need to be able to take care of her mother-in-law, to get food for her, to help provide for her needs, so she wants protection, help, assistance. On Naomi's advice, Ruth appeals to the kinsman-redeemer, also translated the avenger of blood. 

Suddenly... the avenger has become the redeemer. Someone has run around from the cafeteria into the kitchen join in pancake warfare.

Someone has stood in my place to fight for me.

See where I'm going?

Look at Psalm 19:13-14. First, verse 13: "Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression." Those Cities of Refuge were specifically designated for the accidental killers, the involuntary manslaughterers. Willful sins are a whole different ball of wax, and David pleads for protection from them. 

Then in verse 14, he names his Avenger of blood, his Kinsman-Redeemer -- who (I love this) is literally his Kinsman, because Jesus is called "the Son of David," because He is "of the house and line of David" (Luke 2:4). "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, oh Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."

Jesus... has every right to fulfill the original meaning of the "avenger of blood." All of us have, at one point or another, broken the rules, all of us have done the harm, all of us have pushed past the point of no return. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

Because God is the Rule-Setter, He is perfectly within His rights to avenge the blood that has been spilled. 

But look: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life."

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God... and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood -- to be received by faith" (Romans 3:24-25).

Jesus walked around that wall from the cafeteria and entered the kitchen, took His place at your side, fought the battle in your place, because He is the Redeemer, the Kinsman-Redeemer, the Avenger of blood.