Yet it is also the book where the command first appears to "love your neighbor as yourself." It commands kind and fair treatment of the aliens among the Israelites. There is a commandment not to pick clean a field, but to leave some remainders of its grain or fruit for aliens and the poor to glean.
And there is a story that at first seems to illustrate harshness. But it also a sorrowful story of love.
1. The story of Shelomith’s son, part 1.
The story involves a man who in a fight blasphemed against God. Here is the story from Leviticus 24:
10 Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. 11 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) 12 They put him in custody until the will of the Lord should be made clear to them.
13 Then the Lord said to Moses: 14 "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. [NIV.]The man was stoned to death.
This might seem like a straightforward tale of crime and punishment. But it’s not. It solicits compassion from the reader.
That’s true for a couple of reasons. There’s enough detail in this story that a thoughtful reader can see the side of the nameless blasphemer. For example, we know that his father was Egyptian. Entering into this tale with imagination, we can see what his life might have been like among the Israelites.
He was the son of one of the oppressors from whom God rescued Israel. How much was he accepted by his mother’s people? How much was he an outsider? How much was daily provocation a catalyst of the fight that he got into?
I believe that when the Bible gives a detail, it gives it for a reason. So I believe that the story suggests that this unnamed man’s life was hard, his life was lonely, he felt like an outsider, and the fight might not have been completely his fault.
And because he was an outsider, he might have believed that the God of Israel was not his God. At least, he might have thought that God was not his God like God was the God of the insiders who made him feel like less than them.
So in his rage he was provoked to fatal speech about that God. Again, the otherwise unimportant details of this story invite the reader to see why this hot-blooded man might have blasphemed foolishly.
There’s more. Aside from Moses, one person in that story is named. The name of the blasphemer is lost to memory. The name of the man he fought is lost to memory. The names of the witnesses to the fight and to the stoning are lost to memory. The names of the ones who threw the stones are lost to memory. But we know the name of the blasphemer’s mother; her name was Shelomith.
There was a point to giving her name. By naming her, and by naming her alone, Leviticus directs the reader to think on her. It’s like a picture, and everyone is shown in black-and-white except for Shelomith, who is shown in color. This focus on her invites us to weigh her response to this tragedy.
Her husband, the Egyptian, very well might have stayed in the comfort of Egypt, rather than to pack his bags with the slaves. If that’s true, then it might have been that Shelomith's future support and welfare depended largely on her son. The loss of him would have been everything to her, even beyond the natural love she had for her son.
So this is not a simple morality tale of just deserts. It’s a tale of sorrow.
2. The story of Shelomith’s son: Part 2.
This is an exercise in imagination, about the stoning of Shelomith’s son.
Shelomith’s son missed his father. His father had said, "Why should I carry my property in a cart with slaves into the wilderness instead of eating melons in my own land?" But Shelomith’s son went with his mother.
But if he was his mother’s son, he was also the son of an Egyptian, and it was rare for him to have friends among his mother’s people. For that matter, his mother too was slighted for her marriage to an Egyptian. People said, "Were the men among her own people hiding down a well? Did she have to marry with a cock that broke our backs?"
Shelomith’s son and his mother were kind to each other. Few others were.
Shelomith’s son herded goats. On this day, he was bringing his goats back from watering them. He suffered the usual taunts. The taunts were about himself, about his father, about his mother.
Close to his tent, he passed one of his usual provokers. The words stung. They always stung. Every time he took an insult and did not respond, he felt a little of his manhood slip away.
A kinsman of his mother was nearby. He was big, beefy, handsome, and he was younger that Shelomiths’s son. Shelomith’s son always assumed that this kinsman would get a good marriage. His family was well regarded, unlike his own.
The kinsman stepped beside Shelomith’s son and put his hand on his shoulder. He told the taunter to settle down – to leave alone this son of his kinswoman.
Shelomith’s son eyed his kinsman. However the kinsman meant his intervention, to Shelomith’s son it was condescension. It was a pronouncement that Shelomith’s son needed to be defended by his big, beefy, handsome, young kinsman.
Shelomith’s son slapped his kinsman. He slapped him across the face.
Shelomith’s son discovered that that felt good. He tried to do it again, but his kinsman pushed away the second slap. And he pushed away every slap after that that Selomith’s son tried to land on him.
Finally, the kinsman raised his fist as if he were going to strike Shelomith’s son. When Shelomith’s son ducked his head to avoid the blow, the kinsman locked his strong arm around Shelomith’s son’s head. Shelomith’s son wrestled furiously to escape, but his kinsman was too big and strong. A crowd gathered. Finally, Shelomith’s son stopped struggling. Then his kinsman pushed him to the ground.
Shelomith’s son lost any remaining dignity when he landed first on his buttocks and then on his back. His head struck a fist-sized rock, hurting him further.
He clambered to his feet. He shouted, "I spit on your God! I spit in the face of your God!"
The crowd erupted. Shelomith’s son suddenly was afraid. The crowd surged at him and grabbed him. He couldn’t move. Then they bound his hands and feet and lay him on his stomach.
They carried him to Moses. Shelomith’s son waited on his face. Then Moses pronounced judgment. The crowed carried Shelomith’s son, still bound, out of the camp.
There, he lay on his back surrounded by many. He could see faces. Some were angry. Some were glad. Some were grim. Some were blank.
He saw his kinsman. His kinsman’s face was sorrow.
Back in the crowd, he caught a glimpse of his mother. Compared to his kinsman, her face was a mirror of deeper sorrow. And Shelomith’s son knew that she could not save him; nor, in years to come, could he protect her or comfort her.
Then the stones came.
3. The implications of the stoning of Shelomith’s son.
I believe that we are supposed to feel compassion for Shelomith and her son.
In times to come, we would see this compassion in Jesus. Men of high position would wonder aggressively why, if he was a righteous man, he spent time with sinners. Simon the Pharisee would wonder why, if Jesus were a prophet, he permitted an immoral woman to bathe his feet with tears and wash them with her hair.
Jesus was invited to condone the stoning of the women caught in adultery. He saved her life; then he forgave her.
Sometimes I look at people I know with the eyes of Simon the Pharisee. As I judge them, these people exasperate me. The story of the stoning of Shelomith’s son reminds me to have compassion. It is compassion that Jesus taught. These are people he died for.
Salvation is a matter of high stakes. The future of humankind and every human is determined by choices people make from the beginning of history to the end. The ultimate choice was made by Jesus, but the Bible from beginning to end is a story of choices.
In the story of the stoning of Shelomith’s son, we see that choices have consequences. We also see compassion. It is a story of sorrow, but in that story love is the other side of sorrow.
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