We skip over some ritual law that does not apply to us today, except to note that rituals are meant to stir the consciousness of our need for redemption.
The narrative turns to a story about a man whose loyalty to the Covenant is obviously questionable. His mother was Israeli, but his father was Egyptian. They hadn’t been out of Egypt all that long, and we can guess that he came along on the Exodus most likely because he was expelled from his father’s homeland at that time. Pharaoh kicked out a bunch of folks along with Israel, and many of them hung with the nation because they had nothing better to do. At any rate, the man’s sense of identity was divided, and during a bad moment tussling with an Israeli, he let his passions overload his mouth.
Blasphemy is defined as insulting Jehovah, diminishing His glory. Most often it takes the form of either pulling God down or elevating someone lesser to divinity. Either way, it is an attack on God’s unique position as Creator, suggesting He isn’t who He claims to be. We aren’t given the half-Egyptian man’s actual outburst, but we can guess it was designed to denigrate the Israeli man as inferior against the superiority of the half-Egyptian man. He could have said all kinds of things and not crossed the line.
Whatever he said was also an insult to Jehovah, under whose dominion this half-breed was living. Anyone living among the Israelis would have been required to respect the nation’s sovereign had he been a human, so how could it be less so when their ruler and owner is God? But it’s worse than mere rudeness. Human rulers could have come up with all kinds of penalties for it, and God made it plain that in His special domain, His name is sacred. A pagan can be forgiven for not knowing about the Covenant God, but not a pagan living among the Covenant People.
This would be a ritual execution. He was removed outside the camp. Everyone who witnessed the blasphemy would put their hands on his head. This is a condemnation of the man’s sin by those who had first hand knowledge. Then he was stoned — placed in a low spot where those condemning him would be first to drop large stones on top of him, a place he could not easily escape. It continued with everyone in their extended families getting involved, along with the appropriate elders, until the man was buried under the stones. Everyone has the duty to protect the Covenant. It was basically crushing the man to death.
Then the Lord takes a moment to put everything in context. He reiterates that humans are not treated as animals. Crimes against animals are actually crimes against the owners. And crimes that fall below execution will mean the perpetrator must bear the same loss as the victim. Jehovah is no mere man. Simply insulting His position as Sovereign of the Covenant is a pretty serious crime. You can insult men and injure them, and not be executed, but insulting God is a high injury because the shalom of the nation rests on God’s glory. Diminishing His glory is a threat to everything the Covenant stands for.
