Leviticus 26 – 27
In Leviticus 26, God describes for the Israelites what will happen “If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands” and “if you do not listen to me or obey all these commands, and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands.”
If they followed His decrees and obeyed, God said:
- He would send the seasonal rains
- The land would yield its crops
- The trees of the fiels will produce their fruit
- The threshing season would overlap with the grape harvest
- The grape harvest would overlap with the season of planting grain
- They would eat their fill and live securely in their own land
- God would give peace in the land
- They would be able to sleep with no cause for fear
- God would rid the land of wild animals
- God would keep their enemies out of their land
- The Israelites would chase down their enemies and slaughter them with their swords (five would chase a hundred and a hundred would chase a thousand)
- All their enemies would fall beneath their sword
- God would make them fertile and multiply their people
- God would fulfill His covenant with them
- They woud have a surplus of crops that they would need to clear out to make room for the new grain
- God would live among them and not despise them
- God would walk among them and be their God and they would be His people
Now, that’s some serious incentive for obedience. However, if the did not listen to God or obey all these commands, God said:
- He would punish them
- He would bring sudden terrors upon them
- He would bring wasting diseases and burning fevers that would cause their eyes to fail and their life to ebb away
- They would plant their crops in vain because their enemies would eat them
- God would turn against them and they would be defeated by their enemies
- Those who hated them would rule over them
- They would run even when no one was chasing them
- If in spite of these things, they disobeyed, God would punish them seven times for their sins
- He would break their proud spirit by making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze
- All their work would be for nothing for their land would yield no crops and their trees would bear no fruit
- If they remained hostile toward God and refused to obey Him after that, He would inflict disaster on them seven times over tor their sins
- He would send wild animals that would rob them of their children and destroy their livestock
- Their numbers would dwindle
- Their roads would be deserted
- If they failed to learn the lesson and continued their hostility toward Him, God would be hostile toward them
- He would personally strike them with calamity seven times over for their sins
- He would send armies against them to carry out the curse of the covenant they have broken
- When they run to their towns for safety, God would send a plague to destroy them there
- They would be handed over to their enemies
- God would destroy their food supply so that ten women would only need one oven to bake bread for their families
- They would ration food by weight and though they had food to eat, they would never be satisfied
- If in spite of all that they still refused to listen and still remained hostile toward the Lord, He would give full vent to His hostility
- He would punish them seven times over for their sins
- They would eat the flesh of their own children
- God would destroy their pagan shrines and knock down their places of worship
- God would leave their lifeless corpses pile on top of their lifeless idols
- God would despise them
- God would make their cities desolate and destroy their places of pagan worship
- God would take no pleasure in their offerings that should be a pleasing aroma to Him
- God Himself would devastate their land and their enemies who come to occupy it would be appalled at what they see
- He would scatter them among the nations and bring out His sword against them
- Their land would become desolate and their cities would lie in ruins
- At last, the land would enjoy its neglected Sabbath years while they are in exile in the land of their enemies
- Those who survived would be demoralized in the land of their enemies
- They would die among the foreign nations and be devoured in the land of their enemies
- Those who survive would waste away in their enemies’ lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors
Please note that God, in His Mercy, set levels of punishment beyond which He would not go unless the Israelites continued in their sin (see where I italicized and bolded the text). In His Mercy, God uses these punishments to try to bring the Israelites back to Himself. At the end of the list of what would happen if they disobeyed, God reaffirms His covenant with them, promising not to wipe them out, but to remember the ancient covenant with their ancestors.
The last chapter deals with the redemption of gifts offered to the Lord. I admit I don’t understand how or why the values were set as they were, but they were applied consistently.
This chapter also covers the tithe as one-tenth of the crops, one-tenth of the livestock.
Tomorrow, we begin the book of Numbers, reading chapters 1 – 2.
Lunch with Viv, Bill and Richard
Since Richard had to go to his eye doctor today and had to have someone drive him, we set up lunch with Viv and Bill McMillan. Viv is Richard’s cousin and the daughter of my mother’s friend from childhood, Irene Miller.
We had lunch at The Fireplace in Largo. I had a gyro and a small Greek salad. It was delicious.
Viv is having a difficult time right now with her health and I know she and Bill would appreciate your prayers. These are some fine folks. It’s hard to see them struggling
Until next time…
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