Leviticus 19:14 Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.
Today, we will be talking about Leviticus 19, and in my Bible that chapter is labelled “Laws Concerning Personal Conduct.” There are a variety of things that God addresses here with the people of Israel as they come out of Egypt and are going towards Canaan. Leviticus 19:14 is but an example of the kind of instruction that God gives to the nation. Verse 14 says, “Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.”
So, don’t trip the blind or curse the deaf. Now, who is this about? If I were to trip a blind person, would he know who had done it? If I were to yell curses at a person who could not hear, would they know who had spoken or that anything was said at all? Maybe they would not. So, why is this so important? It is important because it is not about you and it is not even specifically, strictly about the person in question. It is about God. If you belong to God, your actions belong to Him. So, you ought to communicate with your life what is true about your relationship with God.
The verse ends by saying, “But [you] shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.” This entire chapter is all about that. In fact, almost every other verse has the refrain, “I am the LORD your God.” Verses 1-2 say, “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy.” A couple times God says not to profane hallowed things; don’t trample underfoot something that is special and set apart to God.
The last verse of chapter 19 says, “Therefore, shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD.” This chapter talks about your relationship with your parents. It talks about your relationship with the blind and the deaf. It talks about your relationship with foreigners who live among you. The bottom line is that who God is should inform who you are and how you are. Who God is should inform my thoughts, words, and actions. It is not merely about the other person.
Others are valuable because God created them just as God created you and you are valuable. But how I treat them says something about how I esteem God. It is interesting that verse 17 says, “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.” Who would know if I hated my brother in my heart? Eventually he might, but if he never did, God knows. That’s the point. It is not about you, your neighbor, a foreigner, or your parents. It is about God.
The Bible says, “Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people.” A lot of times we bear our grudges against people that know nothing about the grudge we carry. It continues, “But thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.”
I have two sisters, and I love my sisters. I even loved them when I was young, but there were times when I was not the perfect gentlemen to my sisters. When those occasions occurred my dad and mom would come down on me. Why? Was it because my sisters were precious and innocent all the time? No! The point is that my parents addressed this because it really wasn’t about me and it wasn’t ultimately about my sisters. It was about me and my dad and mom. I had a relationship with my parents that informed all my other relationships. The same is true with you. If you know God as your Father and are in Christ, then who God is should inform who and how you are.