Leviticus 24:10-15 “Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and this Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp. (11) And the Israelite woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed; and so they brought him to Moses. (His mother's name was Shelomith the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) (12) Then they put him in custody that the mind of the Lord might be shown to them. (13) And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, (14) “Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. (15) "Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin.”
One of the main reasons why it is unscriptural to arbitrarily lay hands on people in the church is because of the contamination effects of sin. Events occurred in the Old Testament as examples for us to look at, and were recorded for our admonition. In the above recorded incident, we see God’s judgement being pronounced on this individual for the sin that he committed. But there is something else that we see in this incident, which is a picture of contamination. Sin is like a virus, and if not dealt with, a virus can spread. This individual had sinned; in that he had blasphemed. But his blasphemy had been heard by others, and that had the effect of contaminating them with the same sin. To cleanse Israel from the sin that had manifested among them, the person or carrier of the sin virus, if you will, had to be destroyed. But at the same time the Lord had to decontaminate those who had been infected, so to speak, by that sin. The Lord did that by having them lay their hands on the person who had committed the sin, thus transferring the sin virus back to its originator.
Michael E.B. Maher
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