Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Leviticus 24 is quite unusual.  We have instructions for the Show Bread that is to be on the altar every day.  Then a story about stoning a blasphemer is told.  Pomp and circumstance at its best, don’t you think?  Ceremony and discipline.  Jehovah wishes to be honored and respected.  Insulting His name is not permitted.  The entire assembly had to hit him with rocks. That is what stoning is. Over a million people threw a rock at this guy.  How big was that pile when they were done?  Every time they passed back that way, I am sure the story was told until they were sick of hearing about The Blasphemer.  Unfortunately, I don’t think they learned the lesson very well.

Crop rotation is what modern agronomists teach today, but in Leviticus 25 Jehovah instructed the Hebrews to give the land a rest every seventh year.  They never did it.

To compound things, even more, they were to observe a Year of Jubilee every fifty years.  During this fiftieth year celebration, all the property in the promised land was to be given back to those families that it was given to at the time the land was settled.  When selling property, it was to be remembered that God owned all the land and that the Israelites were given it to farm and raise their families on.

Another interesting item in VSS. 35-38 is that Jews were not to charge other Jew’s interest on loans.  If a fellow Israelite needed to borrow money, it was to be loaned without interest.  What If Christians did this today?  The restriction went further in vs. 37.  They were not to sell food at a profit to each other.  I’m sure that is another command that was not heeded.

The chapter ends with a reminder that the Israelites are to be God’s servants.  Followers of Christ have the same commitment.  We are to be Yahweh’s servants by serving others as Christ did.

©Copyright 2020 by Charles Kensinger