According to the laws of the city of refuge, if a manslayer is deemed innocent, he must stay in that same city until the high priest dies. That’s the law.
But why is it the law? What does a high priest’s death have to do with the safety of the manslayer?
There is almost no connection between these two individuals—at least, none that is readily identifiable. The manslayer may not ever even meet the High Priest; if not, that makes them even more distant.
They find their unification in the death that took place. As the one that is responsible for taking a life (directly or indirectly), the manslayer can’t just walk away with zero punishment. Otherwise, “accidents” would happen all the time.
And, as the representative of the nation, the High Priest has to handle the bloodshed somehow. The last thing you want is to pollute the land by distorting justice (Numbers 35:30-34), so the only way to rectify the situation is by taking a life. Blood for blood (Genesis 9:6).
But in the event of an accident where someone has died and nobody is to blame, how do you handle that? Who dies to cover up the sin?
Simple: The High Priest.
It needs to be clear here that nobody—either in the Text or elsewhere—is suggesting that the High Priest is responsible for the tragedy that occurred. Just because it happened in Israel doesn’t mean it happened “on his watch”, so to speak.
But it is his job to fix it. As the High Priest, he is the mediator between God and man. He stands at the altar to offer sacrifices on behalf of himself first, and then the nation.
As such, when his own death occurs, in a way, he is offering himself up as that final sacrifice for all of these accidental deaths. The blood shed by an accidental homicide has been paid by the blood of the high priest.
You don’t need me to tell you the implications of this for the New Testament and our walk with Christ, but I’m going to do it anyways.
If we’re honest, we don’t know all the ways in which we have sinned. It’s impossible. Things happen sometimes without our understanding—that is, we sinned without realizing it was a sin (Romans 6).
When we do sin, and we know about it, it’s up to us to ask for forgiveness and make it right, but it’s impossible to know all the times that has occurred in our life.
That’s where grace comes in. All of our righteousness is “as filthy rags,” but God’s mercy steps in to make us whole.
He is our great High Priest, and through His death we are forgiven.