Leviticus 26 Obedience & Blessings
(Lev 26 NKJV) '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.
Does this still apply today? Of course it does, but I think we need to get more practical than leaving it here:
(Col 3:5-6 NKJV) Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. {6} Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,
Covetousness—Serious enough that Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience
(Lev 26:2) You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD.
Is Sunday “the Christian Sabbath”? No!
Having said that, is there a principle here? Yes!
God asked for one day a week to be given to Him. What did Paul say of the Old Testament?
(Gal 3:24-25 NKJV) Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. {25} But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
Paul went on to say:
(Gal 5:13 NKJV) For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
I think too many “Christians” get the idea that the Lord requires almost nothing of them.
That they can give Him whatever crumbs they have left that they don’t need, and God will be pleased with them. This was certainly not the spirit of David, a man after God’s own heart.
(2 Sam 24:24 NKJV) Then the king [David] said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
David understood the meaning of sacrifice: Sacrifice is giving up something of value—in this case, giving something of value to God. We need to understand that we need to show our love to God by giving up things of value to Him.
Surely being in church for all the services is not asking too much for One Who gave His Son.
A great “If-Then” statement:
(Lev 26:3) '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. {5} Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
These are great and important promises.
(Lev 26:6) 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.
Did God make good on His promises? You know He did.
Think of the victories of Gideon, David, and others to whom God gave great victories.
(Lev 26:9) '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. {11} I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.
This is a promise that will yet be fulfilled for those of us who are faithful till the end.
(Rev 21:2-4 NKJV) Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. {3} And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. {4} "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
God made a wonderful promise to them:
(Lev 26:12) 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.
But what if they fail to Obey? What Then?
(Lev 26:14) '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.
Is this just something God is saying to scare people into being good, or did something like this really happen to them?
(Judg 6:1-6 NKJV) Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, {2} and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains.
(Judg 6:3) So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. {4} Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. {5} For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it. {6} So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.
So it was True! God goes on to say:
(Lev 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. {18} 'And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
Moving from Lev 26:18 to Lev 26:29, we have these horrifying words: “ You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.
Did it ever happen?
(2 Ki 6:28-29 NKJV) Then the king said to her, "What is troubling you?" And she answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' {29} "So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, 'Give your son, that we may eat him'; but she has hidden her son."
Times were terrible. There physical poverty was horrible, but consider what had happened to their spiritual values.
(Lev 26:33) I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.
Did it happen? Yes, it did!
Last time we read this verse:
(Lev 26:34) Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths.
The details of their punishment continues:
(Lev 26:38) You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. {39} And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; also in their fathers' iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.
But in the mist of all the tragic, God gives them hope
(Lev 26:40) 'But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me, {41} and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt;
(Lev 26:44) Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. {45} But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.'"
Did anyone ever repent? Daniel did!
(Dan 9:1-17 NKJV) In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; {2} in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. {3} Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. (Dan 9:4 And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, {5} "we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. {6} "Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. {7} "O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day; . . . {8} "O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. {9} "To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. . . . {17} "Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.” Daniel’s prayer was heard!
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