What is God’s attitude toward blasphemy?

Leviticus 24:10-16One day a man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father came out of his tent and got into a fight with one of the Israelite men. During the fight, this son of an Israelite woman blasphemed the Name of the Lord with a curse. So the man was brought to Moses for judgment. His mother was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. They kept the man in custody until the Lord’s will in the matter should become clear to them. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and tell all those who heard the curse to lay their hands on his head. Then let the entire community stone him to death. Say to the people of Israel: Those who curse their God will be punished for their sin. Anyone who blasphemes the Name of the Lord must be stoned to death by the whole community of Israel. Any native-born Israelite or foreigner among you who blasphemes the Name of the Lord must be put to death.”

God and his name are not to be treated lightly, even in anger. The deadly dangers of this kind of blasphemy were driven home early for the Israelite nation.

Isaiah 3:8Jerusalem will stumble, and Judah will fall, because they speak out against the Lord.

The fall of Judah, like the fall of any nation, can be attributed to many immediate factors. But ultimately, nations exist by God’s permission, and if they violate his purposes by consistently blaspheming God or rebelling against his directives for social order, they are eventually brought to judgment.

2 Chronicles 32:16, 20-21Sennacherib’s officers further mocked the Lord God and his servant Hezekiah, heaping insult upon insult. . . . Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to God in heaven. And the Lord sent an angel who destroyed the Assyrian army with all its commanders and officers. So Sennacherib was forced to return home in disgrace to his own land.

These foreign invaders had little understanding that the same God who had permitted their rise could as easily remove his permission. Blinded by their apparent superiority, they couldn’t see God’s power, and their arrogance was their doom (see Psalm 139:20).