Lords Helpers

By Linda Sedrick Pearson

I was reading through some of the Levitical laws today and found and interesting verse I had not noticed before. The verse is Leviticus 19:14. It reads:

“Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shall fear thy God: I am the LORD.”

Thinking about what this verse says, I wondered about these things. Take for instance the part that says, “Thou shalt not curse the deaf.” Now, if a person is deaf, she would not be able to hear any curses said against her. What does it matter if you curse that person? It matters because this is one of God’s creations. It makes no difference whether the person hears you speak matters against him or not. God hears it. It’s not about doing things against someone that cannot hear you. It is about the speaker and God. The one speaking the cursing is really uttering cursing upon herself. God hears it and is displeased. This makes me think that this part of this verse could go along with the verse about backbiting (2 Corinthians 12:20).

When you are backbiting you are uttering things against a person that cannot hear you. You are talking to others about a person and behind the subject’s back. Is that any different than cursing someone who is deaf? No, it is the same thing. You are hurting your own soul when you backbite or curse the deaf (Romans 1:28-32).

Now, back to Leviticus 19:14. It also says we are not supposed to put a stumblingblock before the blind. Imagine that you cannot see. Think about your daily living conditions, how everything is arranged in your home. Close your eyes and walk through a room where you know the exact placement of all the objects in that room. Next, you are going to do this a second time only this time someone is going to place an object in your path. It will cause you to stumble over it. You may even fall down to the floor. You are blessed because you have a choice to open your eyes and see or keep your eyes closed and stumble.

We can associate “nor put a stumblingblock before the blind” with a spiritual blindness. People that are spiritually blind are those who have never accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. We are not to put a stumblingblock in front of those who are spiritually blind either. These types of stumblingblocks are lying, gossiping, backbiting, cheating, or anything else that is against God. Sometimes as Christians we stretch our freedoms too far by thinking we don’t have to obey speed limit laws, or maybe we think we can cheat on our taxes. These are not showing a Christlike nature to those who are spiritually blind. These things become stumblingblocks to the unsaved people.

When the unsaved see Christians committing un-Godlike behavior, they wonder why they should accept Jesus Christ as Savior because we Christians are doing the same things they are doing. Where is the difference? Can people see a difference in you? How are your ethics and integrity? Double check yourself to see if there is anything that can be a stumblingblock to the blind (spiritually or physically).