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Leviticus 24 Bible study: The lamp, the bread and the Name

Leviticus 24 sets the lamp and the bread "before the LORD continually" (24:3, 24:8) beside a man who "blasphemed the Name" (24:11). Nobody decided his case alone: they waited "until the LORD’s will should be declared" (24:12). The law that came is "one kind of law for the foreigner as well as the native-born" (24:22), and its "life for life" is about an animal (24:18).

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“You shall have one kind of law for the foreigner as well as the native-born; for I am the LORD your God.’”
Leviticus 24:22 · World English Bible

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“In Leviticus 24, the man who blasphemed was held in custody until the LORD's will was declared.”

Is that in Leviticus 24, or not? Make your call.

What's really going on

Kept before the LORD continually

In the text

The chapter opens inside the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil (24:3), with two things that were never to lapse. The people bring the oil: "Command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually" (24:2). Aaron tends the lamp "from evening to morning before the LORD continually" (24:3). Then the bread: twelve cakes in two rows on the gold table (24:5-6), and "Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the LORD continually. It is an everlasting covenant on the behalf of the children of Israel" (24:8). "Continually" comes four times in eight verses (24:2, 24:3, 24:4, 24:8; tap continually).

Where it leads to Jesus

"You blaspheme"

Interpretation

Leviticus 24:16leads toJohn 10:31-33

The law says of the one who blasphemes the LORD's name, "All the congregation shall certainly stone him" (24:16). After Jesus said, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30), "the Jews took up stones again to stone him" (John 10:31). They said, "We don’t stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God" (John 10:33). John doesn't cite Leviticus 24; the charge and the stones are the ones this verse names. Jesus' answer, quoting Psalm 82, is that psalm's line on the map. Reading John 10 beside this verse is an interpretation.

Honest questions

Questions people ask about Leviticus 24

That was a taste

The rest of Leviticus 24 is waiting in Favor

  • A case nobody decided alone
  • From one man to everyone
  • Laws that mirror each other
  • "Eye for eye" in the law, and in Jesus' words
  • The charge brought against Jesus
  • Bread set out on the Sabbath
  • 8 questions as you read
  • 12 more Hebrew words
  • A short check at the end
  • Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it

שֵׁםshemsay SHEM

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "name", including its use "as designation of God". Strong's: "an appellation, as a mark or memorial of individuality". In 24:11 the Hebrew has just ha-shem, "the Name", and the WEB prints it that way: "blasphemed the Name". The same verse uses the word again: "His mother’s name was Shelomith" (24:11). The law in 24:16 says it in full, "He who blasphemes the LORD’s name", then again simply "the Name". The commandment had already said, "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God" (Exodus 20:7), and Leviticus 22 says, "You shall not profane my holy name" (Leviticus 22:32).

For your group

Leviticus 24 Bible study questions

  1. 1The lamp was tended every evening and the bread set out every Sabbath (24:3, 24:8). What small, regular habit keeps your attention on God from week to week?
  2. 2"They put him in custody until the LORD’s will should be declared to them" (24:12). When have you had to wait for an answer before you acted? What helped you wait?
  3. 3"You shall have one kind of law for the foreigner as well as the native-born" (24:22). Where are you tempted to hold yourself to a different standard than you hold others?

Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Leviticus 24 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.

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Questions

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home