It Should Hurt when you hear God's Name Being Cursed.

The Lamp Oil, The Showbread, and On Blasphemy & Cursing the Name of God 

Leviticus 24:1-23

This is Easter Sunday morning. Very overcast outside. Not a good day for Sunrise services but even if it were, we wouldn’t be allowed to go as we are still being self-isolated in our homes. This is day 25 for us. We will be streaming a worship service and remembering the Lord’s resurrection in a very different way but with the same meaning, if not more, this year than ever before. In the meantime, I continue my study of Leviticus.

The Passage

This chapter is divided into three parts:

      i.         Verses 1-4 deal with the kind of oil that the Israelites were bring to Aaron to keep in the lamp for the sanctuary, and the fact that it was to be kept burning in perpetuity.

    ii.         Verses 5-9 discuss the showbread – how it was to be made, how it was to be placed on the table, and how it was to be used every Sabbath and then eaten by the priest and his family.

   iii.         Verses 10-23 can be labeled as the Law of the Sanctified Name of God. I reproduce here for it has some most interesting features with respect to how it came about and how Moses and God reacted to it.

 ¹⁰ Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the sons of Israel; and the Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel struggled with each other in the camp. ¹¹ The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name and cursed. So, they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) ¹² They put him in custody so that the command of the Lord might be made clear to them.

¹³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁴ “Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then let all the congregation stone him. ¹⁵ You shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If anyone curses his God, then he will bear his sin. ¹⁶ Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

Thoughts on the Passage

We understand God’s directions for the oil in the lamp and for the showbread.

In the third section of the chapter, we have the account of a man whose mother was an Israelite and whose father was an Egyptian getting into a fight with another man that apparently was an Israelite by both parents. First, we note that those who fled Egypt included some who were married to an Israelite at the time. And as one would expect the distinction remained for their offspring.

It was the son of the Egyptian father that blasphemed “the” capital ‘N’, name.  So, by that we know he blasphemed God. We also notice that this was a very rare occurrence otherwise why would those that heard it bring the man to Moses, and why would Moses have him put in custody until they had heard what God wanted done with him. We congratulate them for that.

God told Moses to have him taken outside the camp, have those that heard him curse lay their hands on his head, and then the rest of the congregation was to stone him. Hopefully this was two separate steps, or it would be quite dangerous for those who had their hands on his head, I would think.

Chuck Smith says we should not disregard how important it was for the Israelites to get God’s direct instructions for this matter. We seem to have replaced all that because our pastors and clergy are professionals, they have been to theological colleges, they have been ordained by a denomination, and they always know what to do.  Some of us, who are not clergy, even think we know what to do and we bypass the clergy. But the success of the Israelites with Moses as their leader, and the success of the early Church, was that they waited upon God to get His instructions on how to deal with issues that arose, at least for the first time.

But the most important lesson here seems to be for the Israelites. God told Moses (after the stoning) to tell them that if one curses the name of the Lord, “he will bear his sin”. And that such cursers, both of the house of Israel, as well as aliens, would be stoned to death. God considered this very serious. David Guzik says the Egyptians may have cursed their gods, by practice, but that was not excuse. Don’t confuse Jehovah God with other gods. Many do just that today and treat God the same as they would other gods in their past.  That does not fly with God.

Guzik goes on to suggest that God chose stoning for two reasons. First, stones were plentiful in ancient Israel (and maybe even in the desert). Secondly, it allowed the community to participate because this sin was a sin against the community as well. I wish we would consider the swearing that we hear against our God as a sin against us and act more accordingly.

Smith also points out that the law was the same – one law for all. How different this is today when people who commit the same crime, the same sin if you like, are treated very differently depending on who they are, who they know, where the trial is, who the judge is, or in the case of Christians, what church they attend. No wonder we are all so mixed up as to what is right and what is wrong. We didn’t even need the onset of relativism to help us with that.

There was no way out; there was no leeway. For some reason, we have ignored this whole instruction and both curse and/or allow cursing of God’s name in our midst. I believe we do so at our own peril. God does not change.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.