And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Every one when he revileth his God shall bear his sin.
Israel had just stoned a blasphemer outside the camp. God now turns that one case into a standing law for the whole nation, and the wording raises a question: what does it mean for a person to carry his own guilt?
The chapter opens with the lamp burning in the sanctuary and the twelve loaves set out before God. What comes next stands against that scene.
There is the provision for the full light of Christ to shine without interruption in the sanctuary — until the morning without clouds, during the night, and linked to the pledge of blessing for all Israel. In sharp contrast with that stands the public insult to Jehovah, recounted here along with His judgment on it.
One man had cursed. God did not stop at punishing him. He made a law for the offence itself.
But this sin made a new revelation necessary. God knew perfectly well that only one man was convicted of blaspheming that day, yet others would be guilty of it later. So the law given here, in verses 15-22, set the punishment for that sin for anyone who offended in the same way.
The phrase runs right through the law, and it is not vague. One writer gathers the places where it occurs — this verse among them — to settle its force.
Do you want to see the connection between bearing sin in Isaiah 53:12 and the punishment due to it? Then compare Leviticus 5:1, 17; 17:16; 20:19; 24:15; Numbers 5:31 … In all of them you will see it means coming under all the consequences of the sin committed, and being answerable for it before God.
So the man who curses God holds the full account himself.
The verses after this one move from cursing God to killing a man, and on to lesser injuries.
Verse 17 mentions killing a man, and cursing the Lord is as serious a sin as that, for death was the penalty for both. The chapter mentions lesser evils too, and we get the law, "eye for eye, tooth for tooth," which appears in Exodus and Deuteronomy as well. The Lord referred to it in Matthew 5:38, to set off the grace He was beginning to reveal, which would mean His disciples showing grace to others.
Rules about a neighbour's life and rights appear elsewhere in the law. One writer explains why they come in right here.
Elsewhere these commands stand as the witness of the perfectly righteous rule the law set up among them (Exodus 21). But here they come in connection with turning away from God. If a man would deny God His place, or try to rob Him of His rights that way, he might not be careful of his neighbour's life or his neighbour's rights unless he was commanded to be. That neighbour, like himself, was made in the image of God.
The offender was the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father. One writer traces the blasphemy back to that marriage.
Sadly, here is the sample in this one man of Israel after the flesh. He was the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian father — an unholy union, whose offspring insults the holy Name. No doubt all flesh is like grass; but Israel was to be holy to Jehovah. Shelomith married an Egyptian, one of that oppressing world out of which Jehovah brought Israel with a high hand.
Commentators read the incident forward. What one man did in the camp, the nation did later on a larger scale.
Here it is defiance, cursing the true God, or blaspheming Jehovah. This became emphatically true later. By then Israel had been weaned from idols, yet they despised and blasphemed the Name in the Messiah, who was Himself also Jehovah their God. So, as a nation, they are given up to something worse than the Babylonian captivity.
Yet the chapter holds both scenes at once, and that is where hope sits.
Many passages prove the same thing. Israel is suffering divine judgment because of sin, yet still "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." The blasphemer is being stoned outside the camp, but the twelve loaves lie undisturbed inside the sanctuary.
- Contrast — The chapter holds two scenes at once: the light and the loaves inside the sanctuary, and the cursing in the camp.
- Case becomes law — God did not stop with one man. He gave a standing rule, because others would sin the same way.
- Bear — To bear your sin is to come under all its consequences. You answer for it before God. Nobody else carries the account.
- Weight — The chapter sets cursing the Lord beside killing a man. Both carried the death penalty, and the verses after grade lesser wrongs down from there.
- Reach — What one man did in the camp, the nation later did to the Messiah. Yet the loaves lie undisturbed: God's gifts and calling are irrevocable.
And he that blasphemeth the name of Jehovah shall certainly be put to death; all the assembly shall certainly stone him; as well the stranger as he that is home-born, when he blasphemeth the Name, shall be put to death.
The sentence on the blasphemer does not stop with one man; it becomes a standing law that binds foreigner and native alike. Why does God treat contempt for His name as a matter of life and death?
The sin here is not turning to other gods. It is turning on the true God.
It is not that sin of idolatry for which they were to be swept off the land into Assyria... Here it is defiance, cursing the true God, or blaspheming Jehovah. This became especially true later. By that time they had left idols behind, yet they despised and blasphemed the Name in the Messiah, who was Himself Jehovah their God.
Later teachers misused this very verse. They built from it a rule that God's name must never be spoken at all.
"Hallowed be Your name": compare Leviticus 24:16. By misusing that verse, the Jews came to treat Yahweh (Jehovah) as a name no one may speak. They used it in the temple services only, and in the synagogues they used Adonai (Lord) alone... In everyday life they spoke of "the Name."
This began as one man's sin. It did not end there.
But this sin required a new revelation. God knew full well that though only one man was convicted of blasphemy that day, others would be guilty of it later. So God gives the law here, in verses 15-22. It sets out the punishment for anyone who commits the same sin.
This is not mob justice. The man waits in custody. The witnesses who heard him act first. Only then does the nation carry out the sentence.
They put the offending man in custody, for the case had to be judged with calm thought. Then the Lord told Moses to take him outside the camp. There the witnesses were to lay their hands on his head, testifying to what had been done. Then all the congregation had to stone him to death. This was solemn, humbling work, but the law was absolute. Being under law, there was no alternative. Today, under grace, we carry out no such sentences. But we must not think the evil is any less serious than it was then.
The verse names the foreigner alongside the native-born. Privilege and accountability travel together.
Any stranger who lived among the Israelites was subject to the same law as all others (v. 22). This should remind us of something. Any stranger who comes to share the privileges of fellowship in an assembly comes under the same discipline as everyone else.
The curse did not stop with the man who earned it. Writers see the whole nation falling under it.
Israel as a whole have fallen under this dreadful curse... The people who should have brought blessing to everyone else have themselves passed under this curse. They have been guilty, in the most painful form, of "blaspheming the Name." We know how this happened. We know how they treated Him who is the Word of God and made the Father known, who was and is Jehovah Himself. Israel gave way to the thinking of the world — as it says here, the son of an Israelite woman whose father was an Egyptian. They fell completely into merely human wisdom about the Messiah, and so were guilty of rejecting God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and of blaspheming the Name.
The charge against Jesus was the very crime this verse punishes. His accusers knew what claim they were answering.
When He said, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30), the Jews took up stones to stone Him. Asked why they would stone Him, they answered, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." They understood very well how high His claims were.
Yet at the trial they hid the law's own penalty from the Roman governor.
The Jews hid from Pilate that the punishment set in Leviticus 24:16 was "stoning." They had already tried it several times.
The chapter places this execution right after the lamp and the twelve loaves in the sanctuary. That order matters.
Many passages prove the same thing. Israel is suffering divine judgment because of sin, and yet "the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable." The blasphemer is stoned outside the camp, but the twelve loaves stay undisturbed inside the sanctuary.
- The Name. The crime is not idolatry but open contempt for the true God — defiance aimed straight at Him.
- The law. One man's sin became a lasting law. God knew others would follow him.
- The reach. Foreigner and native fall under one law. Share the privileges and you share the discipline.
- The irony. The nation trusted with that Name broke it. They used this very penalty against Christ, then hid it from Pilate.
- The promise. Judgment falls outside the camp. Inside the sanctuary the twelve loaves are untouched — God's calling stands.