Bible Study with Jairus - Leviticus 24

Leviticus 24 begins with the Lord commanding Moses to let the Israelites bring olive oil to him to make the lamps burn continually (which Aaron is in charge of doing). The Lord also instructed him to put the twelve loaves of bread on the table of pure gold and as well as some pure incense on the bread to be presented as food offering to Him. Every Sabbath, the breads shall be changed before Him. The second story is about the son in the tribe of Dan of Israel, who is married to an Egyptian, who blasphemed the Name of the Lord with a curse. In the end, the Lord commanded Moses to let the Israelites stone him to death. After this story, the Lord enacted a law regarding murder. It is as follows: 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 neighbor 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.” (NIV, Leviticus 24:17-20) What is the relationship between these three stories? What is this chapter trying to say? First of all, one of the questions that we have to consider is why the Lord immediately established the law at the trial regarding the punishments for murder after the son blasphemed the Name of the Lord. My insight is that in the eyes of God, murder is as serious as blaspheming His name. Because man is created in the image of God, the dwelling place of God is with man, and our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, whoever hurts the temple of God, will be hurt by Him. We started discussing the death penalty and trial in our Bible study. This passage in Leviticus 24 is often used as one of the arguments for those who support the death penalty. But there is also a lot of debate in the United States regarding whether or not there should be a death penalty. I remember when I was a reporter in Los Angeles, I was covering an event. There was a murderer who turned to God in repentance in prison and has become a role model for youth street gangs. He helped many youth street gangs to repent and believe in the Lord. So when California Governor Schwarzenegger approved his death sentence, it caused a lot of controversy. In one of the events, I interviewed a group of Christian pastors who protested against the death penalty sentence for this man. One of the pastors at the event said that God did not apply a death sentence to Cain, the first person to commit murder. God even prevented others from killing Cain and put a mark on him. Anyone who killed Cain would suffer vengeance seven times over. The pastor’s words left a deep impression on me.