Slices
Prepare
Thank God that we can enter his presence freely.
Bible passage
Olive oil and bread set before the Lord
24 The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. 3 Outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law in the tent of meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the Lord from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 4 The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the Lord must be tended continually.
5 ‘Take the finest flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using one fifth of an ephah for each loaf. 6 Arrange them in two piles, six in each pile, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. 7 By each pile put some pure incense as a memorial portion to represent the bread and to be a food offering presented to the Lord. 8 This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. 9 It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in the sanctuary area, because it is a most holy part of their perpetual share of the food offerings presented to the Lord.’
A blasphemer put to death
10 Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. 11 The son of the Israelite woman used the Name blasphemously with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) 12 They put him in custody until the will of the Lord should be made clear to them.
13 Then the Lord said to Moses: 14 ‘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. 15 Say to the Israelites: “Anyone who curses their God will be held responsible; 16 anyone who uses the name of the Lord blasphemously is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they use the Name blasphemously they are to be put to death.
17 ‘“Anyone who takes the life of a human being is to be put to death. 18 Anyone who takes the life of someone’s animal must make restitution – life for life. 19 Anyone who injures their neighbour is to be injured in the same manner: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury. 21 Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a human being is to be put to death. 22 You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native-born. I am the Lord your God.”’
23 Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the Lord commanded Moses.
Explore
After details of the annual festivals come instructions for the ongoing maintenance of the Holy Place. It is a reminder that the maintenance of regular worship is as important as the great celebrations. While the Most Holy Place – containing the Ark of the Covenant – was visited by the High Priest only once a year, priests entered the Holy Place to burn incense each morning and evening (v 7).
The Holy Place also contained a gold-covered table and a golden lampstand on which were seven lamps (see Exodus 25:23–40). Olive oil was used to fuel the lamps (which provided the only light in the Holy Place) and the lamps burned continually (v 2). On the table were 12 loaves of bread, representing the 12 tribes of Israel; these were replaced weekly (vs 5,8). The life of faith cannot be sustained only by occasional celebrations but by regular refreshment.
Guidance is sought from the Lord about a particular case of blasphemy; the commandment (Exodus 20:7) did not prescribe a punishment. Today, we live in different times. Is there a danger of us becoming inured to the casual misuse of the Lord’s name?
If ‘an eye for an eye’ seems harsh, we must remember that it gives a limit to punishment. And notice that crimes against property were not punished as harshly as crimes against other people (v 21). Jesus goes further: turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39).
Respond
Pray for Christians accused of blasphemy in Islamic societies.
Deeper Bible study
Is there anything that dims your light?
Christian, in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress,1 was shown a fire burning against a wall in the house of the Interpreter. Someone kept pouring water upon the fire to quench it, but it burned higher and hotter. The Interpreter then revealed the secret: on the other side of the wall was someone else continually pouring oil to animate the fire. An important part of the priests’ duties is to keep the light shining on a lamp stand of pure gold before the Lord, even through the darkest night. Oil often stands for the work of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. This is what enables us to keep the lamp of our testimony burning, whatever the enemy may throw at us.
As we read stories of Christians being falsely accused under blasphemy laws in some countries, what are we to make of the death sentence on a man for taking the name of God in vain in a dispute with an Israelite (vs 10–17)? Several factors in the story are worthy of note. First, the people took care to ascertain God’s will in the matter (vs 11,12). There was no distinction between foreigners and Israelites (v 22). God’s immutable attributes are bound to his name; his commandments are not empty suggestions (vs 15,16). Finally, bearing in mind the concept of progressive revelation, we must remember that this was appropriate at that time and in that place – we must not judge the past with what obtains today.
The way it applies to us is on the basis of New Testament revelation. There we read of how Jesus Christ demonstrated grace to the woman caught in adultery. Grace does not reduce the sinfulness of sin in the sight of God. Noteworthy is the conclusion of that story: ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’2
‘This little light of mine, / I’m gonna let it shine!’3
1 John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, 1678 2 John 8:1–11 3 Harold Dixon Loes, ‘This little light of mine’, 1920
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Ruth 3,4; Psalm 45
Pray for Scripture Union
Creative Developer Esther Calvert- Jordan thanks God for his wisdom in guiding the development of the Showtime collection of resources. Pray for her as she explores more ways in which young people can be equipped to reach their peers with the good news of Jesus.
