Refuge is not impunity. Refuge is protection while the truth is still being sorted out. Which takes time.
We live in reactionary times. We have little patience for waiting. Our verdicts often arrive before the facts do.
In a culture with a hair trigger for vengence, where are the cities of refuge?
Israel set apart six such cities—places where a person who had killed without meaning to could run, be heard at the gate, and sheltered from the avenger coming after them. The system was intended to spare the community from further harm until a trial could be conducted.
In the information age, judgment travels fast, which means that structures of mercy must be built just as quickly.
“Mercy triumphs over judgment,” as James writes. But that does not mean that mercy negates or erases judgment. It just slows our reflexes. Mercy pumps the brakes on retaliatory judgment that is based on unverified guilt. Mercy protects so that due process can be performed.
But then, once all is sorted out, there are still real world consequences for harm done.
Mercy and judgment are not opposites. We just often get them out of order.
(See Joshua 20:1-9).