In the midst of the laws and regulations of Leviticus we suddenly find the account of a man who is put to death for blaspheming the Lord. In a way it seems strange that this story is inserted where we find it, but on the other hand perhaps this legal case came up while Moses was relating the Lord's instructions to the people. It could be that Moses was interrupted so he could deal with the case of the blasphemer, for we were told in Exodus 18:25-27 that although Moses appointed judges to hear cases, the most difficult ones were still brought to him.
"Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out between him and an Israelite. The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) They put him in custody until the will of the Lord should be made clear to them." (Leviticus 24:10-12) In relating this story to us, Moses takes care to let us know that the man had an Egyptian father. This indicates that the man's parentage has something to do with his blasphemous attitude toward the God of Israel, and this is quite likely if the Egyptian father never forsook his own gods and converted to the God of Israel. For the blasphemer to be a grown man at this point in time, his mother would have had to marry his father while the Israelites still lived in Egypt, and perhaps growing up in that idolatrous land under the influence of an idolatrous father caused the man to hate the Lord and to hate the Lord's people.
The word translated as "fight" is translated in some versions of the Bible as "strove together". It can also mean "to bring to ruin, to make waste". I think the half Egyptian/half Israelite man intended to kill the Israelite with whom he fought---to "make waste" of him. The Israelite is not brought up on any charges and I believe that's because he did nothing to instigate the fight. He is the innocent party, attacked and abused for his faith. I feel that the blasphemer is guilty not only of saying the worst imaginable things about God but that he is also guilty of attempted murder.
Now it's interesting to note that when Moses killed an Egyptian in Exodus 2 for beating an Israelite slave, the same word was used for the beating that is used in our chapter today for the word "fight". The Egyptian was beating the Israelite so savagely that the Israelite would die, for whether or not the Egyptian intended to kill the slave, the beating was severe enough that the slave would probably have died. The same word is used in Exodus 2:11 as we find in Leviticus 24:10 and I think that's because in both cases the death of an innocent party would have occurred. A life would have been laid to waste.
It's also interesting to note that there is an ancient tradition that the blasphemer of Leviticus 24 is the son of the Egyptian whom Moses killed in Exodus 2. While this would explain a motive for the man's intense hatred for the Israelites and their God, there's no solid evidence to prove whether or not he was the son of the Egyptian Moses killed, but it's worth mentioning here. It doesn't seem likely that an Egyptian slavemaster would have married an Israelite woman, considering how far beneath them the Egyptians considered the Israelites to be. When you consider the extreme prejudice the Egyptians harbored toward the Israelites, an Egyptian slavemaster who married an Israelite and fathered mixed-race children would have lost considerable status among his people. I won't discount the theory that the blasphemer could have been the dead Egyptian's son but I don't particularly adhere to it either. I think it's more likely that the blasphemer's father was just an ordinary Egyptian citizen, perhaps even of the lower classes, whose choice of marriage partner would have had no effect on his social standing, political affiliation, or employment.
Moses hears the case against the man, listens to the testimony of the victim (if he's physically able to give testimony) and the witnesses, then places the offender in custody to seek the will of the Lord before rendering judgment. The Lord's verdict is that this was a capital crime. "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. Say to the Israelites: Anyone who curses their God will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death.'" (Leviticus 24:13-16)
It's clear there were a number of witnesses to the blasphemy and the fight. The death penalty could not be carried out unless a minimum of two or three people witnessed the crime. (Deuteronomy 17:6) The testimony of these witnesses had to be basically the same. (Mark 14:56, 59) There could not be any glaring or crucial differences in their testimonies. If their testimonies differed in anything other than minor details, guilt was not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt and the death penalty could not be carried out.
No one but the high priest was allowed to utter the true name of God, and then only once a year on the Day of Atonement when he had to take extreme care to pronounce it clearly and correctly. Even writing out the name of God has been generally avoided by the Jewish people in order to avoid making an error or to avoid anything happening to the paper or other material upon which is written the Lord's name. A piece of paper with the Lord's name on it might inadvertently become damaged or destroyed, for example. I think over time (and especially for those of us who are Gentiles) the enormous significance and utter holiness of the Lord's name has been somewhat lost to us. And that's a shame because if we treated the name of the Lord more reverently I think we would regard Him with more respect and a greater level of obedience. I think we'd trust Him more if we regarded His name with the same awe as the Israelites of ancient times. In ancient times a good name was to be protected and defended at all costs. The half Egyptian/half Israelite man so thoroughly repudiated any association with God and so horribly assaulted His character and cursed His name with so much profanity and filth that he can't be allowed to live and to influence and affect those around him. If this level of disrespect for the Creator and Giver of life (and this level of disrespect for the human life the Lord created) is not punished as a capital crime, others in the land who harbor ill feelings toward God might be emboldened to say and do the same things this man said and did. In our day we can't imagine putting someone to death for speaking against the Lord, but we have to consider this case in the context of the time and place in which it occurred.
God is taking the people of Israel to the promised land. Nothing can be allowed to disqualify them, on their way there, for this great gift. If all Israel fell away from the Lord, not only would they miss out on the promised land but on so many other covenant blessings----including the promise of a Messiah from among their own people. If there is no Israel, and no tribe of Judah from whence the Messiah will come, where is hope? Where is redemption? Where is salvation?
I believe the incident we've studied today was one of many attempts by Satan to derail the fulfillment of the Lord's precious promises to Israel, and to us as well, for it was always the Lord's intention to bring not only Jews but also Gentiles to salvation. The Lord promised Abraham that from his family line would come the One who would bless the nation of Israel and all other nations. (Genesis 12:1-3) The Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah and said that those who were not called by His name (Gentiles) would find their way to Him. (Isaiah 65:1, Romans 10:20) In the birth story of Jesus of Nazareth in Luke 2, we find a devout man named Simeon who realizes through the Holy Spirit that the child who has been brought to the temple is the Messiah, and he speaks of the Lord's intention to save both Jews and Gentiles, "Sovereign Lord, as You have promised, You may now dismiss Your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel." (Luke 2:28-32)
Every time we see temptations coming against the people of Israel in the Bible, we can regard it as an attempt by Satan to prevent the Messiah from coming. Every time the Lord pronounces a harsh sentence against wrong actions and wrong attitudes in Israel, it is His counterattack against the forces of darkness because He will never allow anything to prevent the Messiah from coming. His plan of salvation was already in place before He ever spoke the universe into existed or created the first cell of the first human body. No plot---not even from the pit of hell---was going to stand against Him or come between Him and the souls He dearly wants to save. The Lord kept His promise to send the Messiah, and in keeping that promise He sometimes had to take action to prevent total apostasy among the people, so that "when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son". (Galatians 4:4)
No comments:
Post a Comment