Leviticus
chapter 24 begins with a command to the nation of Israel that they
must bring clear oil of pressed olives to the Tent of Meeting, so the
“lamps
may be kept burning continually“.
CONTINUALLY, what a great word. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit
of God, and you and I must continually be refilled with the Spirit to
be a light to the world around us. “Let
your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father in heaven”
(Matthew 5:16). Is your light less than bright? Ask God to pour out
His Spirit on you again and again. Next, Israel is told to “take
fine
flour and bake twelve loves of bread… set them on a table of pure
gold… before the Lord“.
Bread represents sustenance, our very lives. We are to present our
lives before God to acknowledge He is Lord over all our lives.
Notice, bread gets stale quickly. If you have not had an experience
blessing God recently, you may be a little stale too. Come Before
God and acknowledge Him as Lord and praise Him; amazingly it is YOU
that will be refreshed!
The
text then explains a man who is a son of an Israelite mother and
Egyptian father is involved in a fight. In the process he
“blasphemed
the Name with a curse; so they brought him before Moses”.
“The
Lord said to Moses, take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those
who heard him are to lay hands on his head, and the entire assembly
is to stone him. Whether an alien of native-born, when he blasphemes
the Name he must be put to death“.
Notice, there must be individuals willing to step forward to
represent God’s standard of righteousness in their community. They
could not step back and idly let the system work, they were required
to be involved. Our nation and our community require us as
individuals to be personally involved in representing righteousness.
It doesn’t take a village; it takes committed individuals.
Finally,
the chapter reminds us of the value God places on human life alone.
“If
anyone takes a human life, he must be put to death. Anyone that
takes the life of someone’s animal must make restitution“.
The life of an animal is not on par with the value God puts on human
beings. We are created in God’s image and have dominion
(responsibility for) all other creatures, but human life can only be
taken for human life. Once again, God puts restrictions on our
tendency to escalate our retaliation when we are harmed. “Fracture
for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth…As he has injured the
other, so he is to be injured“.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus refers to this passage and teaches
His followers, “Love
your enemies and pray for those who persecute you“.
And he explains this is to differentiate us from the non-believers.
The Law restricted men to fracture for fracture, but the resurrection
motivates us to give to others the mercy we have been given.
May
we live our lives as examples of righteousness tempered by mercy.