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