Leviticus 26

1 "Don't make idols for yourselves; don't set up an image or a sacred pillar for yourselves, and don't place a carved stone in your land that you can bow down to in worship. I am God, your God.

2 "Keep my Sabbaths; treat my Sanctuary with reverence. I am God. "If You Live by My Decrees . . . "

3 "If you live by my decrees and obediently keep my commandments,

4 I will send the rains in their seasons, the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit.

5 You will thresh until the grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting time; you'll have more than enough to eat and will live safe and secure in your land.

6 "I'll make the country a place of peace - you'll be able to go to sleep at night without fear; I'll get rid of the wild beasts; I'll eliminate war.

7 You'll chase out your enemies and defeat them:

8 Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand and do away with them.

9 I'll give you my full attention: I'll make sure you prosper, make sure you grow in numbers, and keep my covenant with you in good working order.

10 You'll still be eating from last year's harvest when you have to clean out the barns to make room for the new crops.

11 "I'll set up my residence in your neighborhood; I won't avoid or shun you;

12 I'll stroll through your streets. I'll be your God; you'll be my people.

13 I am God, your personal God who rescued you from Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I ripped off the harness of your slavery so that you can move about freely. "But If You Refuse to Obey Me . . . "

14 "But if you refuse to obey me and won't observe my commandments,

15 despising my decrees and holding my laws in contempt by your disobedience, making a shambles of my covenant,

16 I'll step in and pour on the trouble: debilitating disease, high fevers, blindness, your life leaking out bit by bit. You'll plant seed but your enemies will eat the crops.

17 I'll turn my back on you and stand by while your enemies defeat you. People who hate you will govern you. You'll run scared even when there's no one chasing you.

18 "And if none of this works in getting your attention, I'll discipline you seven times over for your sins.

19 I'll break your strong pride: I'll make the skies above you like a sheet of tin and the ground under you like cast iron.

20 No matter how hard you work, nothing will come of it: No crops out of the ground, no fruit off the trees.

21 "If you defy me and refuse to listen, your punishment will be seven times more than your sins:

22 I'll set wild animals on you; they'll rob you of your children, kill your cattle, and decimate your numbers until you'll think you are living in a ghost town.

23 "And if even this doesn't work and you refuse my discipline and continue your defiance,

24 then it will be my turn to defy you. I, yes I, will punish you for your sins seven times over:

25 I'll let war loose on you, avenging your breaking of the covenant; when you huddle in your cities for protection, I'll send a deadly epidemic on you and you'll be helpless before your enemies;

26 when I cut off your bread supply, ten women will bake bread in one oven and ration it out. You'll eat, but barely - no one will get enough.

27 "And if this - even this! - doesn't work and you still won't listen, still defy me,

28 I'll have had enough and in hot anger will defy you, punishing you for your sins seven times over:

29 famine will be so severe that you'll end up cooking and eating your sons in stews and your daughters in barbecues;

30 I'll smash your sex-and-religion shrines and all the paraphernalia that goes with them, and then stack your corpses and the idol-corpses in the same piles - I'll abhor you;

31 I'll turn your cities into rubble; I'll clean out your sanctuaries; I'll hold my nose at the "pleasing aroma" of your sacrifices.

32 I'll turn your land into a lifeless moonscape - your enemies who come in to take over will be shocked at what they see.

33 I'll scatter you all over the world and keep after you with the point of my sword in your backs. There'll be nothing left in your land, nothing going on in your cities.

34 With you gone and dispersed in the countries of your enemies, the land, empty of you, will finally get a break and enjoy its Sabbath years.

35 All the time it's left there empty, the land will get rest, the Sabbaths it never got when you lived there.

36 "As for those among you still alive, I'll give them over to fearful timidity - even the rustle of a leaf will throw them into a panic. They'll run here and there, back and forth, as if running for their lives even though no one is after them,

37 tripping and falling over one another in total confusion. You won't stand a chance against an enemy.

38 You'll perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will eat you up.

39 Any who are left will slowly rot away in the enemy lands. Rot. And all because of their sins, their sins compounded by their ancestors' sins. "On the Other Hand, If They Confess . . . "

40 "On the other hand, if they confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, their treacherous betrayal, the defiance

41 that set off my defiance that sent them off into enemy lands; if by some chance they soften their hard hearts and make amends for their sin,

42 I'll remember my covenant with Jacob, I'll remember my covenant with Isaac, and, yes, I'll remember my covenant with Abraham. And I'll remember the land.

43 "The land will be empty of them and enjoy its Sabbaths while they're gone. They'll pay for their sins because they refused my laws and treated my decrees with contempt.

44 But in spite of their behavior, while they are among their enemies I won't reject or abhor or destroy them completely. I won't break my covenant with them: I am God, their God.

45 For their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I, with all the nations watching, brought out of Egypt in order to be their God. I am God."

46 These are the decrees, laws, and instructions that God established between himself and the People of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.

Leviticus 26 Commentary

Chapter 26

Promises upon keeping the precepts. (1-13) Threatenings against disobedience. (14-39) God promises to remember those that repent. (40-46)

Verses 1-13 This chapter contains a general enforcement of all the laws given by Moses; by promises of reward in case of obedience, on the one hand; and threatenings of punishment for disobedience, on the other. While Israel maintained a national regard to God's worship, sabbaths, and sanctuary, and did not turn aside to idolatry, the Lord engaged to continue to them temporal mercies and religious advantages. These great and precious promises, though they relate chiefly to the life which now is, were typical of the spiritual blessings made sure by the covenant of grace to all believers, through Christ. 1. Plenty and abundance of the fruits of the earth. Every good and perfect gift must be expected from above, from the Father of lights. 2. Peace under the Divine protection. Those dwell in safety, that dwell in God. 3. Victory and success in their wars. It is all one with the Lord to save by many or by few. 4. The increase of their people. The gospel church shall be fruitful. 5. The favour of God, which is the fountain of all Good. 6. Tokens of his presence in and by his ordinances. The way to have God's ordinances fixed among us, is to cleave closely to them. 7. The grace of the covenant. All covenant blessings are summed up in the covenant relation, I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and they are all grounded upon their redemption. Having purchased them, God would own them, and never cast them off till they cast him off.

Verses 14-39 After God has set the blessing before them which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient, he here sets the curse before them, the evils which would make them miserable, if they were disobedient. Two things would bring ruin. 1. A contempt of God's commandments. They that reject the precept, will come at last to renounce the covenant. 2. A contempt of his corrections. If they will not learn obedience by the things they suffer, God himself would be against them; and this is the root and cause of all their misery. And also, The whole creation would be at war with them. All God's sore judgments would be sent against them. The threatenings here are very particular, they were prophecies, and He that foresaw all their rebellions, knew they would prove so. TEMPORAL judgments are threatened. Those who will not be parted from their sins by the commands of God, shall be parted from them by judgments. Those wedded to their lusts, will have enough of them. SPIRITUAL judgments are threatened, which should seize the mind. They should find no acceptance with God. A guilty conscience would be their continual terror. It is righteous with God to leave those to despair of pardon, who presume to sin; and it is owing to free grace, if we are not left to pine away in the iniquity we were born in, and have lived in.

Verses 40-46 Among the Israelites, persons were not always prosperous or afflicted according to their obedience or disobedience. But national prosperity was the effect of national obedience, and national judgments were brought on by national wickedness. Israel was under a peculiar covenant. National wickedness will end in the ruin of any people, especially where the word of God and the light of the gospel are enjoyed. Sooner or later, sin will be the ruin, as well as the reproach, of every people. Oh that, being humbled for our sins, we might avert the rising storm before it bursts upon us! God grant that we may, in this our day, consider the things which belong to our eternal peace.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 26

In this chapter, after a repetition of some laws against idolatry, and concerning keeping sabbaths, and reverencing the sanctuary of God, Le 26:1,2; in order to encourage the Israelites to keep the various statutes and commandments in this book, and in the preceding, many promises are made of plenty, and peace, and safety from enemies, and of the presence of God with them, Le 26:3-13; and on the contrary, to such as should despise and break his commandments, the most grievous things are threatened, as diseases of body, destruction by their enemies, barrenness and unfruitfulness of land, the sore judgments of wild beasts, famine, sword, and pestilence, Le 26:14-39; and yet after all, when they should confess their sins, and were humbled for them, the Lord promises to remember the covenant he made with their ancestors, and would deal kindly with them, and not cast them away, and utterly destroy them, Le 26:40-46.