24 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the sons of Israel that they bring to you clear oil from beaten olives for the [a]light, to make a lamp [b]burn continually. 3 Outside the veil of testimony in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord continually; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. 4 He shall keep the lamps in order on the pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually.
5 “Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. 6 You shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. 7 You shall put pure frankincense on each row that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to the Lord.8 Every sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually; it is an everlasting covenant [c]for the sons of Israel. 9 It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire, his portion forever.”
10 Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the sons of Israel; and the Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel struggled with each other in the camp. 11 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name and cursed. So they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) 12 They put him in [d]custody [e]so that the command of the Lord might be made clear to them.
13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 14 “Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then let all the congregation stone him. 15 You shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If anyone curses his God, then he will bear his sin. 16 Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
This is a bit of a “hard” passage, but the consequences of this man’s sin show two things. First, God takes sin very seriously, so much so, that we should be very thankful for the blood of Jesus which covers our own sin. The punishment for sin has always been death, not always immediate, but death is always the result of sin.
Second, this wasn’t just a casual slip of the tongue. Foul language is so common in our day that it’s tempting to think, “oh, he just slipped.” Elsewhere, the Bible says “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” In other words, this outburst wasn’t just some “oh crap” moment. This was a man who was defiant against God to his very core.
Again, sin always results in death, and it should make us all the more thankful that Jesus offered his body in our place, so that we could be made right with God, and not suffer eternal death.