Have you ever felt that God was distant? Are you feeling spiritually dry? Tucked within Leviticus 26 are some truths about God's heart for His people that might be surprising for us!
(A) Keeping the Covenant: Abundance, Security, and God’s Presence (Lev 26:1-13)
The passage starts off with God reminding them to not make idols for themselves and to keep the Sabbaths (Lev 26:1-2) . This call to spiritual fidelity would sound familiar as it is the second and fourth Commandments that God gave to Moses (in the first table of the Law). (c.f. Exo 20:4,8). Why does God give these at the end of this Law, the covenant document with Israel? We realise that the vertical relationship of Israel and God is the reason behind the Law. Remember the central problem of Leviticus is to address the issue of how a Holy God can live amongst a sinful people. God reminds them that they will be unlike any other nation around them. They will not bow down before idols and they will rest in God.
Following this reminder, the next verses begin with a condition, before God reveals a set of outcomes (Lev 26:3-13). The condition is that the people walk in His statutes, observe His commandments and do them (Lev 26:3). Verses 3 to 13 go on to list out 5 different sets of blessings:
1. Productivity and output (Lev 26:3-5, 10)
They will receive rain in their season and the land will yield fruit as it should (Lev 26:4). There is a continuous provision of food and resources, as their threshing will last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time of the sowing (Lev 26:5). They will also "eat [their] bread to the full" and they will have abundant provisions, so much so that they will have to "clear out the old to make way for the new" (Lev 26:5,10).
2. Peace (Lev 26:6-8)
God's people are also promised that they will dwell securely in the land, enjoy peace in the land and the ability to rest (Lev 26:6). They will enjoy the blessing of being able to sleep securely! A removal of dangerous animals and enemies are also promised and they will defeat their enemies with absolute superiority (Lev 26:7-8).
3. Covenant Confirmation (Lev 26:9)
God promises to confirm His covenant with His people. God's covenant is God's special, formal, legal promise. This promise runs through the Bible and gets more specific and gets clearer. Part of the covenant confirmation involves God making them fruitful, as He promised Abraham.
4. God’s Presence (Lev 26:11-13)
God will dwell (tabernacle) among them and his soul will not loathe, reject them. He will also walk among them as He is their God, the God who has saved them from slavery.
What can we see from these verses? The Bible's definition of blessing is not about a happy or prosperous life. It is more than that! The Bible defines blessing as reversing the curse spoken of in Gen 3 because of sin. Leviticus teaches us that a restoration of the Gen 1 relationship with God is made possible only when there is obedience to God's Word. And obedience comes with a huge amount of blessing. The picture painted here cannot be smoother. It is almost as if you dreamt up your best-case scenarios for every single part of your life: work, family, relationships, security, national productivity, society’s welfare, etc. and there it is. There will be peace and no wars. You can sleep securely. There is joy in population increases and the land would be fruitful. Above all, God’s presence is there, He walks among them, and he identifies with them as their God, their personal God. Everything falls into place. This is the great blessing.
Blessings come when we read God's Word, walk in His statutes, observe His commandments and do them. Are you taking God’s word seriously today? For those who keep God’s word, there is blessing upon blessing.
(B) Breaking the Covenant: Futility, Exile, and God’s Judgement (Lev 26:14-39)
The next section starts with a “but”, signalling a contrast to the previous section. The conditions laid out here is the opposite of the previous section, addressing the situation where the people will not listen and do all these commandments, spurn the statutes of God and when their souls abhor God's rules so that they do not do all His commandments but break His covenant. We see here that the Israelites’ souls were mentioned as part of the condition. Hence, keeping God’s laws is not just about outward physical actions, there is something about the inner lives of the Israelites that matter to God. God also cares about the hearts of His people.
There are 5 sets of punishments for disobeying God’s Law. The consequences are listed here below:
What can we observe from these verses? How are we to interpret them? The last two sets of punishments seem different and stand out because it has starts with a more personal tone from God (“I myself”). While the first three sets of punishment seem to be concerned with the removal of material blessings, the last two paints a more serious picture of God actively and fully in opposition to them. There are phrases describing how he will walk contrary to them (as they did to him), that God’s very soul will abhor them.
The sets are separated by a chance for repentance of Israel ("hen if you walk contrary to me", "but if in spite of this"). Each section happens because they persist in disobedience. This reminds me of the 10 plagues that God sent upon Egypt. Each time, Pharaoh did not repent. Israel is in the exact same position here when they are not keeping God’s law. How then, would you describe a God that would set out his punishment this way? He is full of grace. He gives his people to much time to repent, and time after time, he allows them a chance. Why didn’t God just mete out all of his punishment at one go? Even in the way God sets out his punishments, we are able to see his grace.
(C) Repentance: God keeping the covenant in Christ (Lev 26:40-46)
Instead of ending with the punishments, God inserts another condition paired with beautiful outcomes (Lev 26:40-46). In these final verses, another set of conditions are laid out, with its corresponding outcomes. If they confessed their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, and if their uncircumcised heart (although outwardly circumcised) is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then God promises to remember his covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham and will remember the land. It was also promised that while they are in the land of enemies, God will not spurn/reject/cast them away, nor abhor them so as to destroy them, and break his covenant with them. Why? Because He is the LORD, their God. He is Israel’s God. God will remember the covenant with their forefathers for their sake, that he might be their God. He wants to be their God
We started this study with the question about whether we are spiritually dry. But throughout this passage, it is clear that the God of the Bible is one that yearns to dwell with his people. There is no doubt about His heart in both blessing and punishments for disobedience. After all, in the punishment verses, they were also given chances to repent. In fact, this entire book is devoted to solving the problem of a Holy God dwelling with sinners. As the passage teaches us today, blessing and curses come directly from a relationship with God and we must take this seriously.
The Israelites unfortunately could never keep the law, and in fact many of the punishments here really did happen to them. In fact, no one could keep this law. Hence, God in his grace, not just took the curses himself, he gives us blessing. He did this in Christ, who came to fulfil the righteous requirements of the law for us, that we might never be cursed, but that we might come to repentance and walk with him daily, that we might be his people and he, our God. Christ took every single curse for us and obeyed the entire Law, so that we enjoy the blessings. This gracious God holds out repentance to us, how will you respond today? As a first step, let's take to heart Lev 26:40 and confess our sins. This is how we respond in obedience to God's Word.