Leviticus is interesting in the way it seems to document history. The example of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10 is a random historical occurrence that reinforces the notion of acceptable worship in the immediate context. Once the Text is done explaining the real-life applications of Law, it goes right back into the statutes and judgments.
Leviticus 24 has another such incident. Right after a lengthy discussion of feast days and what to put in the Tabernacle, the Text gives a literal story that shows the importance of what it’s about to talk about. In these verses, the son of an Israelite woman named Shelomith “blasphemes the Name” of God and is stoned for it.
The teaching interlude happens in the middle of the story. Leviticus 24:14 has God telling Moses to let the entire congregation stone him for his blasphemy. Curiously, the Text says everyone is to take part in this capital punishment, including the foreigners that dwell with Israel.
It’s clear that God is trying to show the importance of His holy name, but the way He does it here is what I find fascinating. He places this story right alongside a really famous section in Leviticus: the part about taking “an eye for an eye” and a “tooth for a tooth.”
There’s more we could say about that law, but for now, zero in on the equality of the rule. If someone loses an eye, they are charged an eye. If they injure an animal, they’ll “make it good.” If they injure a man, they’ll have the same injury inflicted on themselves.
Why is this equality in punishment jammed into a story that is about treating the name of God as holy? God’s laws for capital punishment are extremely narrow. You don’t execute people for very many sins.
But defaming God’s name is one of them. And, given the context, it appears that blaspheming God is the closest thing to “murdering” Him that one can get. You can’t kill Jehovah, obviously, but you can defame Him publicly. And in the court of public opinion, that type of character assassination is enough.
