OK, just two more chapters. Chapter 26 will outline the various blessings and cursings that God promises the people for obeying and rejecting Him. He promises to bless them for obedience, and He promises cursings for their disobedience. So many times when we think about the “promises of God” we only think about the good promises—long life, Heaven, etc. But we often forget that God also promises punishment. Are the promises of God ‘Yes’, and in Him, ‘Amen’ (2nd Corinthians 1:20)? Absolutely. If He promises good to us, He will give good to us. But, He also promises to chasten those whom He loves, and to scourge His children when they need it (Hebrews 12:6). And He is faithful in providing such chastenings and scourgings. This chapter of Leviticus is proof of that. Because it will not be long until the people put Him to the test, and go chasing after other (little-g) gods, for which God sends severe punishment. But when they return to Him, He pours out the blessings that He promises. And we will see how God rewards and punishes Israel as we study the text. Now, since much of the content of this chapter is rather self-explanatory, this will be more of a commentary than an expository teaching. Some parts will require more comment and depth than others, and when necessary they will be treated with the depth they require. And we see an example of the “self-explanatory” category in the first verses in this chapter.
Leviticus 26:1-2—“‘1 You shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God. 2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD.’” Does this need much comment? We have discussed the idolatry of Israel many times. But that is because we humans are so enamored with things we can see and touch and feel. We want something other than the true God. So we set up idols, we forget to remember the LORD, and we worship the god of self. These people, who saw the mighty works of God, were no different. They could see the graven images of Ba'al, they could touch the Asherah poles, they could feel these images they craved. But they could not see, touch or feel YHVH. And because of this fact it was easy for them to ignore Him. How quickly would a king, and the people, turn from worshipping God to turning to idols who could do nothing for them? They could not prevent them from going into exile to Babylon, and God had to prove this fact to them in 587BC, as God led Nebuchadnezzar to sack Jerusalem and carry Zedekiah and the people into captivity for 70 years because of their idolatry (see Jeremiah 34:18-22)
Leviticus 26:3-4—“‘3 If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, 4 then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.’” Did the Israelites live in a land where it rained a lot? Or did they live in a relatively arid climate, where every bit of rain that fell was cherished? If you ever wondered why God would choose to place His people in a desert land, one which received very little rainfall, I think I can give you the answer. If He had put them immediately into a land flowing with milk and honey, how would they ever learn to rely on Him? How could one generation say to the next, “Wait on the LORD and He will provide.” And it was because they lived in such a climate that they learned the faithfulness of God.
Leviticus 26:5—“‘Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing.’” Because we can walk into any grocery store and pull nearly any kind of produce off the shelves—thanks in large part to cold storage, a concept which did not exist at this time—we don’t fully grasp the significance of this statement. The barley crop was sown in autumn—usually October—and reaped around the time of Passover. Grapes were reaped, usually, around the month of June. So think about the promise God is giving them—if they would continue obedient, He would cause their crops to be so plentiful that the barley harvest would last all the way to June—another 2-3 months. And the grapes? They would still be gathering them when it was time to sow the barley in October. In other words, before they could finish gathering in the crops from the field, it would be time to bring in the harvest of the vineyard. And before they could finish gathering the harvest of the vineyard, it would be time to plant the field crops. That’s why He says in Leviticus 26:9-10—“‘9 For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you. 10 You shall eat the old harvest, and clear out the old because of the new.’” They would have so much produce that what they brought in last year would still be in their barns, and they would have to make room for this year’s crop.
In foretelling of the gathering of Gentiles into the kingdom of God, He makes the following promise to the people by the mouth of the prophet Amos. The context of the prophecy is this: God is warning the house of Israel that the day will come when He will sift the grain (the faithful) from the chaff (the unfaithful). And in that day, there will be so many coming into the kingdom of God that the laborers will be tripping over each other bringing them in. Amos 9:13—“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed…” Is there ever a time when the people of Christ are not reaping and harvesting and sowing and threshing? There are always some who are sowing the word of God; there come behind them those who tend the vineyard and field; there may be still others who see the reaping of the fruit. I planted, Apollos watered (1st Corinthians 3:6). And just as every crop in a field is different from another—barley is different from wheat, wheat is different from grapes—so too every soul who reaps and is reaped to the kingdom of God is different from one another. Ephesians 4:11—And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. And the work goes on, non-stop, around the world. But in the end, we are not really the ones who are responsible for bringing in the harvest. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 1st Corinthians 12:4-6—4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.
Leviticus 26:5-8—“‘5 You shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; I will rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword will not go through your land. 7 You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. 8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.’” What is one of the biggest concerns on the minds of most people right now? It’s the issue of ‘national security’. We need better weapons, better intel, newer, more sophisticated machinery and computers and tracking software and surveillance systems and… And yet who did God tell the Israelites to trust in? Him! God! Psalm 20:7—Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. Time and time and time and time again, God showed Himself faithful in this. We could spend weeks discussing the many victories He gave to Israel when they should have, by all rights, been utterly destroyed. Judges 7:8-21—8 And he sent away all the rest of Israel…and retained those three hundred men…12 Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude…20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers…and they cried, "The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!" 21 And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. God promised His faithful that five of them would cause one hundred to flee and one hundred would put 10,000 to flight. And on that night, three hundred men caused about 135,000 to flee.
When Ammon and Moab and those form Mount Seir came to attack the people of God, Jehoshaphat led the people in a prayer of faith to Almighty God. And when the enemy came, 2nd Chronicles 20:12-24—“12 O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You”…15 And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's’”…22 Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. 23 For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. 24 So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped. The people didn’t even have to pick up a weapon! God caused His enemies to fight against each other, and wipe each other out to the last man. And yet how many times do we try to win a spiritual battle with fleshly weapons? How many times do we feel the battle raging and think “I can do it this time. I can overcome this myself.” Or we just cave and do what we know we shouldn’t. When we feel the enemy pursuing us, instead of charging forward we need to just stop, wait on the Lord, and He is faithful to fight on our behalf.
Leviticus 26:11-13—“‘11 I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. 13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.’” Again, He reminds them that they did not break the bands of slavery themselves. They did not rise up and defeat pharaoh and his army. They did not part the Red Sea to walk through on dry land. It was God who did that. But, not unlike us, the people needed to be reminded, time and again, of who was really in control of everything. It was God who broke the chains of slavery to Pharaoh—and only God could keep them free. The people of Israel could no more keep themselves out of the hands of their enemies than they could have freed themselves from the grip of Pharaoh. And is there not an application in this for us today? Who brought us out of sin and iniquity? Did we bring ourselves out? Were we so strong and so wise that one day we woke up and said, “Gee, I think today would be perfect for becoming a Christian”? If you think that’s what happened, think again. There was nothing in you that wanted to—or could—break the hold of sin in your life. Ephesians 2:4-6—4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Who made us alive together with Christ? Who raised us up together? Who made us sit in the heavenly places in Christ? Who? You? Are you so bold as to say that you were different from the apostle Paul, and that even though he might have needed a boost from God to come to the saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, you didn’t? You mean you had enough good in you that God didn’t need to do a thing to make you believe, that you did it all on your own? Well, congratulations! You did what none of the apostles ever did! You came to know Christ Jesus as Lord all on your own, and God the Father didn’t have to show it to you!
No, none of us comes to know Christ unless that one’s spirit has been brought to life by the Holy Spirit. He does not give men the opportunity to be saved—He saves them, brings them to life, while they are still dead, unrighteous, sinful wretches. Even when we were dead in trespasses, [He] made us alive together with Christ. We were dead—He made us alive. And because it is God who brings us to life, it is God who sustains our life, and it is God who will continue to perfect us until the end. Philippians 1:6—He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. 2nd Timothy 1:12—I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. Either Paul understood that God was the one who keeps us in Him until the very end of all things—or he had his theology wrong.
OK, so God has promised all these things to the people. He has promised blessing to the people if they obey Him. That’s the good news. Now for the bad news. Leviticus 26:14—“‘But…’”
BUT.
That one little word is used countless times in Scripture to signal an abrupt change of course. One could be reading on and on about a certain thing, and all of a sudden, here comes that word.
BUT.
Paul uses it for the good in 1st Corinthians 15. From verse 12 he is rattling off this litany of all the misery that would be said of us who put our faith in Christ, if He has not risen from the dead. 1st Corinthians 5:13-19—13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
BUT.
1st Corinthians 15:20—But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For seven verses, Paul lays out this dark, dreary expectation of our lives if the one we look to as Savior and Lord is still rotting in a tomb, having persuaded us that we should be with Him in the glory of His mansion. And with one word, the entire focus and outlook changes.
BUT.
But now Christ IS risen from the dead. And now he can launch into this glorious section of the blessings and hope that we have in our risen Savior and Lord. And because He has risen, then we too will be raised up on the last day, to reign and rule with our Lord and to be in His presence forever.
However, in this section of Leviticus, the word BUT shifts the focus from the grace and blessing of YHVH the sore punishment inflicted if they disobey Him and go chasing after other (little-g) gods. Leviticus 26:14-17—“‘14 But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, 16 I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. ’” Wasting disease and fever. One possibility here would be tuberculosis. There was a time many years ago when TB was called “consumption” because of the drastic and horrific weight loss that accompanied it. It also comes with a great fever which cannot be broken. That is what the people looked forward to if they did not obey the word of the LORD. Instead of living in relatively good health for many years, they would be laid out and open by this disease that wracks the body and crushes the soul.
Second, their crops would not grow. They could sow the fields with every seed they had, and there wouldn’t be one stalk to grow. And even if one did grow, He would surely send locusts to devour it. Finally, instead of putting their enemies to flight, their enemies would put them to flight. Not long after the death of Joshua, the one who would lead them into Canaan, the people did exactly what God said they would do—they went chasing after other (little-g) gods.
Judges 2:8-15—8 Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. 9 And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. 10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel. 11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; 12 and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. 13 They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. 15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.
OK, let’s think about this a minute. The people followed the pillar of smoke and the pillar of fire all through the desert. They taught their children about God, about His commands, about the promises of blessing and the promises of cursing. And the very next generation, when they get old enough, they say, “Well, yeah, that was good for you old folks. But we’re young, hip, cool and relevant. We need something a little more exciting to draw in the crowds! Hey, I know—let’s be like the culture around us, and incorporate some of their more worldly elements into our worship service!” Yeah, does kinda sound like some churches today, huh? And so, they go out to the surrounding nations, and they borrow their Ba’als and their Ashtoreths and their groves and sacred pillars. And what does God do? He does EXACTLY as He promised. He fights against them, He sells them into the hands of the neighboring lands. Hmmm…seems as though God said something about setting His face against them, about them being defeated by their enemies, those who hate them ruling over them and the people fleeing when no one pursued them. Oh yeah, Leviticus 26:17—“‘I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.’” And yet, what is their response when that which God specifically promised comes to pass? They were greatly distressed. No kiddin’!
God knew that was going to happen. If He didn’t, He would not have warned them about it. But He also knew that the heart of man is always bent on destruction. Genesis 8:21—“The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.” All we ever think about is what we want. And even after being punished, we go back for more. And God gave them another warning, Leviticus 26:18-20—“‘18 And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.’” In other words, God is saying that if it isn't enough allow them to be defeated and plundered and scared of their own shadow, and they want to keep coming back for more, then He will give it to them. And in their obedience, when the earth brought forth its produce, this no doubt gave them a sense of pride. But, when they became prideful of all their crops, God said, “OK, enough of those things. I’m shutting up the heavens, and I’ll turn the ground to bronze, and all your sweat and toil will not be able to break it up to sow anything.” And you would think that would be enough to make the people turn back to God. And you would be wrong. And we will see why next week
