I was looking up the word "blasphemy" in the Bible encyclopedia one day when I experienced a life-changing moment. Totally unexpected but definitely one of those "bolt from the blue" moments. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what blasphemy is but for some random reason I decided to look it up. I'm so glad I did.
This is from the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, entry under BLASPHEMY, entry written by W. White Jr.: "Blasphemy is one of the most serious of all spiritual iniquities in the OT because it denies and makes sport of the overwhelming concept of all the OT history and law, namely the sovereignty of the Creator" (emphasis mine). I had to chew on that a while. I realized the author is right - God's sovereignty, His right and ability to rule, really is at the core of all OT history and law. "More than any other act of man it (blasphemy) eradicates the fundamental creator-creature distinction upon which all the cosmic law orders are based." According to the author of the article there are 5 different Hebrew words translated as blasphemy and they mean to revile, curse, taunt, show disrespect for, reproach or despise. "To defame or defile the sacred name was to reject the mercy and power of God." Pretty serious stuff. I can easily see that to disrespect the name of God is to reject God Himself. The thing that caused my huge ah-ha moment was what followed, where the author dealt with the NT passages on blasphemy and then concluded with this statement: "The noun, (un-type-able Greek word here), is used also in regard to all railing and slandering of both men and the devil as well as God. All such condemnatory statements are prohibited in Scripture for the basic reason that such judgments belong to God alone (Matt 5:33-37).
If I follow the author's argument here, he is saying that blasphemy is sin because it dishonors God (which is pretty obvious) and denies His sovereignty (not quite as obvious). Any time I mentally or verbally rail or complain against anyone - not just God - I am condemning that person in my heart and violating God's sovereign right to alone judge that person. Yikes. "All condemnatory statements are prohibited" has been playing in my brain for weeks now and I'm finding that there are a LOT of condemnatory and critical thoughts that need purging every day. Thoughts toward people who do crazy things in traffic, are unhelpful or rude in stores, the list goes on and on...the myriad encounters of daily life where people do things that rub me the wrong way. And not just people but even circumstances of life that I don't like. God is sovereign over circumstances and to rail against circumstances is to reject that sovereignty. I'm becoming more and more aware of those thoughts, confessing and repenting of them and finding that there's a lot of space created for positive thoughts in my mind when all the rubbish is cleared out! And it's refreshingly liberating to simply leave that all to God to take care of. He is God, I am not. He is sovereign, I am not. Get the fundamental creature-Creator relationship straight.
This is another example of a principle I learned long ago - to rightly understand God is to rightly understand life. As Ruth Myers said, "For every need, problem, inadequacy or trial there is something about God that can see us through triumphantly." I think that's also true for every sin in my life - if I see how my sin violates His character I am much quicker to repent of it. It's not just a "weakness" or "problem" I have. It is sin against the mighty One.
Bible study really changes my life because God's truth is life-changing.
