Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses. … The Lord commanded through Moses that you give us [Levites] towns to live in… (Joshua 20:2; 21:2).
The Israelite leadership designated 6 cities of refuge and 48 Levitical cities. It was a big responsibility for the leadership of those towns to protect both the innocent person who was being pursued by the avenger of blood, and ensuring that the Levites were taken care of.
There is one city that particularly stands out to me: Hebron.
This city was formally called Kiriath Arba: so named after the biggest, baddest of the Anakite giants who had lived there. This is the strongly-fortified city that was inhabited by not one—but three!—giants that the 85-year-old Caleb defeated (15:13-14).
Hebron became both a city of refuge and a Levitical city. Caleb also secured Debir, which became a Levitical city too (15:15-17; 20:7; 21:11-15). Later on, Hebron would be David’s capital city for seven years until he moved his throne to Jerusalem.
A mark of a godly leader is one who sows the seeds that others will harvest.
What would have happened if Caleb hadn’t defeated those giants?
Or if he wasn’t willing to take on the added responsibilities for fugitives and priests?
Caleb conquered in his lifetime to benefit people for hundreds of years after he was gone!
God still needs these forward-looking, boldly-conquering servant leaders. I want to be a leader like that, and I hope you do too!
This is part 46 in my series on godly leadership. You can check out all of my posts in this series by clicking here.
Craig T. Owens 