Punishment For Cursing The Lord
November 11, 2021
Commentary
The Lord told Moses to say to the community of Israel (vv. 1-2): You must supply the purest olive oil for the lamps in the sacred tent, so they will keep burning. Aaron will set up the gold lampstand in the holy place of the sacred tent (vv. 3-4). Then he will light the seven lamps that must be kept burning. The “Sacred Bread” the Lord said: use your finest flour to bake twelve loaves of bread about four pounds each, then take them into the sacred tent and lay them on the gold table in two rows of six loaves (vv. 5-6). Alongside each row put some pure incense that will be sent up by fire in place of the bread as an offering to me (v. 7). Aaron must lay fresh loaves on the table each Sabbath, and priests in all generations must continue this practice as part of Israel’s agreement with me (v. 8). This bread will always belong to Aaron and his family; it is very holy because it was offered to me, and it must be eaten in a holy place (v. 9).
Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri from the tribe of Dan, had married an Egyptian, and they had a son (vv. 10-11). So the young man was dragged off to Moses, who had him guarded while everyone waited for the Lord to tell them what to do (v. 12). Finally, the Lord said to Moses (v. 13): This man has cursed me! Take him outside the camp and have the witnesses lay their hands on his head. Then command the whole community of Israel to stone him to death (v. 14). And warn the others that everyone else who curses me will die in the same way, whether they are Israelites by birth or foreigners living among you (vv. 15-16). Death is also the penalty for murder (v. 17), but the killing of an animal that belongs to someone else requires only that the animal be replaced (v. 18).
Personal injuries to others must be dealt with in keeping with the crime, a broken bone for a broken bone, an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth (vv. 19-20) It’s possible to pay the owner for an animal that has been killed, but death is the penalty for murder (v. 21). I am the Lord your God, and I demand equal justice both for you Israelites and for those foreigners who live among you (v. 22). When Moses finished speaking, the people did what the Lord had told Moses, and they stoned to death the man who had cursed the Lord (v. 23).
Application
Sin is fun [Hebrews 11:25]... for a season. The problem is that sin always has consequences [Galatians 6:7]
Leviticus 24:1– 23 (NET)
1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Command the Israelites to bring to you pure oil of beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually. 3 Outside the special curtain of the congregation in the Meeting Tent, Aaron must arrange it from evening until morning before the Lord continually. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations. 4 On the ceremonially pure lampstand he must arrange the lamps before the Lord continually.
5 “You must take choice wheat flour and bake twelve loaves; there must be two-tenths of an ephah of flour in each loaf, 6 and you must set them in two rows, six in a row, on the ceremonially pure table before the Lord. 7 You must put pure frankincense on each row, and it will become a memorial portion for the bread, a gift to the Lord. 8 Each Sabbath day Aaron must arrange it before the Lord continually; this portion is from the Israelites as a perpetual covenant. 9 It will belong to Aaron and his sons, and they must eat it in a holy place because it is most holy to him, a perpetually-allotted portion from the gifts of the Lord.”
10 Now an Israelite woman’s son whose father was an Egyptian went out among the Israelites, and the Israelite woman’s son and an Israelite man had a fight in the camp. 11 The Israelite woman’s son misused the Name and cursed, so they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) 12 So they placed him in custody until they were able to make a clear legal decision for themselves based on words from the mouth of the Lord.
13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 14 “Bring the one who cursed outside the camp, and all who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the whole congregation is to stone him to death. 15 Moreover, you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If any man curses his God he will bear responsibility for his sin, 16 and one who misuses the name of the Lord must surely be put to death. The whole congregation must surely stone him, whether he is a resident foreigner or a native citizen; when he misuses the Name he must be put to death.
17 “‘If a man beats any person to death, he must be put to death. 18 One who beats an animal to death must make restitution for it, life for life. 19 If a man inflicts an injury on his fellow citizen, just as he has done it must be done to him— 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth—just as he inflicts an injury on another person that same injury must be inflicted on him. 21 One who beats an animal to death must make restitution for it, but one who beats a person to death must be put to death. 22 There will be one regulation for you, whether a resident foreigner or a native citizen, for I am the Lord your God.’”
23 Then Moses spoke to the Israelites and they brought the one who cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. So the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.