129_The sin of blasphemy
Lev 24:10-16 Now an Israelite woman’s son, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the people of Israel. And the Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought in the camp, 11 and the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name, and cursed. Then they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. 12 And they put him in custody, till the will of the Lord should be clear to them.
13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 14 “Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. 15 And speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. 16 Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
In 2015, an airliner flying from Barcelona to Düsseldorf crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. The investigation revealed that the crash was deliberate. The copilot, Andreas Lubitz, had long suffered from depression and was declared unfit to fly, but concealed this from the airline. In his darkness, he planned to crash the plane, taking not only his own life but misusing his privileges to kill those who trusted him. He violated their confidence and his own honor, turning the flight into a mission of destruction.
Indeed, when an entity that represents righteousness and trustworthiness is perverted into a travesty of itself, devastating consequences occur. And nowhere is this more true than when it comes to the sacred Name of God.
Leviticus 24:10–16 recounts a serious moment in Israel’s journey. A man born to an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father got into a fight with another man in the camp. During the quarrel, he blasphemed the Name of the Lord. Far from being a slip of the tongue, this was an act of open defiance and contempt. God’s response was the command to stone the man outside the camp. Witnesses were to lay their hands on his head, putting the guilt of hearing such words where it belonged – on the blasphemer. Then the people were to carry out the terrible execution.
To modern ears, this looks like an overreaction. But the man’s guilt did not lie in his words, it was in his sabotaging all that Israel stood for. The preceding verses speak of the pure oil for the lamp, and the shewbread – 12 loaves made of fine flour. The emphasis was on purity—beaten and strained olive oil without impurities, and flour ground fine and sifted to remove coarseness. Why? Because the holy place was a reflection of who God is. He is pure. To deliberately defile the tabernacle would be to misrepresent who God is.
In ancient times, a person’s name represented their essence. To defile the Name was to defile the One who bore it. Blasphemy is more than just cursing or using God’s name in vain. It is treating God with contempt. It is speaking or acting so as to diminish who He is. This man’s blasphemy perverted the revealed nature of God before the people. It denied his holiness and authority. It threatened the entire foundation of divine righteousness on which the Israelite community was grounded.
Much later, in Isaiah 36 and 37, Sennacherib mocked the God of Israel as powerless, just like the gods of the other nations. King Hezekiah took the matter before the Lord, not simply as a political threat, but as an attack on the honor of the living God. God responded swiftly, sending an angel who killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers that night. Sennacherib had to return h0me, summoned by news of war on his border. While at home, his sons assassinated him. Ironically, he was killed in the temple of his god. False gods offer no protection against the power of the living God, as Egypt found to their cost in the time of Moses.
In Romans 2:24, Paul rebukes the Jews, saying, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” Their hypocrisy, their lives that contradicted the scriptures they professed to believe, led to a distorted picture of who God is. This too is blasphemy. False teaching, too, falls in this damning category. Paul instructs Timothy to deal with certain false teachers so that they might learn not to blaspheme (1 Timothy 1:20). To misrepresent God’s truth is to dishonor Him.
The Lord was, surprisingly enough, accused of blasphemy. His words of forgiveness to the paralyzed man scandalized the scribes: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” they asked (Mark 2:7). Their logic wasn’t wrong. But they failed to see that Jesus was God in the flesh. Their rejection of him because of their reluctance to be corrected and refusal to believe the truth happening in front of their eyes turned out to be, not just a theological error but a crime against God.
Matthew 12 and Mark 3 records the Lord’s warning against the unforgivable sin—blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The circumstances explain his words. He had healed a demon-possessed man. Unable to deny the miracle, the Pharisees attributed His power to Satan. This wasn’t mere ignorance or skepticism. It was a wilful denial of the work of God, labeling the power of God as demonic despite knowing better. It was driven by selfish ambition and envy.
“Whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” To blaspheme the Spirit in this way is to cut oneself off from the very source of conviction, grace, and forgiveness. It is to look at the light and understand its true nature, but convince oneself that it is darkness, and then refuse to come to the light. With such blasphemy, the heart has made its choice = to remain in unbelief.
There is hope even for the blasphemer. Paul raged against the truth, and tried to kill those who followed it. He called himself a blasphemer and a persecutor of the church who tried to force others to blaspheme, too (1 Timothy 1:13; Acts 26:11). And yet he received mercy. Why? “Because I acted ignorantly in unbelief.” When confronted with the truth that Jesus was the Son of God, he didn’t resist a moment longer but surrendered in instant humility. Forgiveness is ready for everyone who turns from their unbelief.
Today, the name of God is trivialized—used in jokes, curses, memes, and media. People speak of the Almighty without reverence and with outright contempt or flippancy. Even God’s people sometimes treat God’s name lightly—invoking Him flippantly, justifying our own opinions in his name, and misrepresenting his nature by our wrong lives.
We who call ourselves by His name cannot blaspheme him by our hypocrisy, our careless speech, or our distorted witness. When our lives reflect compromise, greed, insecurity and envy, injustice, cruelty, or pride, we blaspheme the God we claim to serve.
But we are called, not only to avoid blasphemy, but to actively honor and praise His name in all we do. In the words of the psalmist: “Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!” (Psalm 113:2–3).
As God’s people, let us walk closely with God, being filled with His Spirit, and allowing our lives to reflect His holiness. This is the preventive against blasphemy, rather than just avoiding bad words or cuss words. A heartfelt response to his great love will ensure that we reverence his name as he deserves. Lives marked by passionate purity, sincere humility, and unlimited grace, will draw others to praise the name that is above every name.
Let us review our lives. Let our words and actions bring honor to the Name we bear. Let us not reproach that blessed name. Let us live so as to lift high the name of the Lord and not drag it down before the watching world. Let us readily respond to the Spirit’s prompting, quick to repent, eager to honor, and bold to proclaim: “Hallowed be Thy Name.” God bless.