Numbers 35 · a question people ask
Is the city of refuge a picture of Jesus?
The New Testament never names the cities of refuge. The nearest words are these: "we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us" (Hebrews 6:18), a hope "entering into that which is within the veil, where as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever" (Hebrews 6:19-20). Christians read the cities in two main ways. Both agree on what Numbers 35 says they were: a real place in Israel's land, for one who "kills any person unwittingly" (35:15).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A picture of fleeing to him
Those who hold this view hear the cities in the words "fled for refuge" (Hebrews 6:18), which come a few words before Jesus is called "a high priest forever" (Hebrews 6:20). They note that the cities were open to "the stranger, and… the foreigner" as well as Israel (35:15), and that the one who fled lived by staying inside (35:26-28). On this reading the cities are a picture of the safety of those who flee to Jesus.
Hebrews 6:18-20 · Numbers 35:15 · Numbers 35:26-28
Israel's law, not a picture
Those who hold this view note that Hebrews 6:18 comes in a passage about God's oath to Abraham (Hebrews 6:13-17) and doesn't mention the cities, and that the cities sheltered only the one who killed "without hostility" (35:22), never the murderer (35:16-21, 35:31). On this reading the cities of refuge are the LORD's law for Israel's land (35:29, 35:34), and they are not read as a picture of Jesus.
Hebrews 6:13-18 · Numbers 35:16-22 · Numbers 35:29-31 · Numbers 35:34
The verses
“that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil, where as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
“These six cities shall be refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the foreigner living among them, that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.”