Promises for Keeping God's Laws

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(Leviticus 26:1) "‘You shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up an image of stone in your land, to bow down to it, for I am the LORD your God.'"

God continued to tell Moses the words to speak to the people.  At the end of the last chapter God discussed the case of an Israelite who sold himself into servitude to a foreigner who dwelt among them.  Some of the early Jewish writers, like Jarchi and Aben Ezra, thought this law against idolatry was mentioned on account of the Israelite sold to a stranger, as he might be drawn into idolatry as was the custom of the stranger, I suppose was their reasoning.  I'm not sure I believe that in this case.  I suppose it's possible there was some idolatry going on in the foreigners' homes, but these were foreigners who dwelt among the Israelites and had to adhere to certain laws, including how they were to release the Israelites who sold themselves into servitude to them, and how they were to treat them while in their possession.  It may just be that this was a principle law that bore repeating at this time.  The original word for "idol" here was "eliyl", and it literally meant "nothing", a thing of no value.  Any likeness of any man or beast made out of anything--wood, stone, gold, silver, or brass--was literally worthless and could in no way represent their Lord God.  He alone was their Lord God.

(2) "'You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the LORD.'"

The people were to observe and keep all God's Sabbaths, the seventh day Sabbaths, and the seventh year Sabbaths, that had just been discussed in the last chapter.  They were to honor and reverence God's sanctuary, for He alone was their Lord God who had the supreme right to such reverence and worship, and the right to command such laws and to expect them to be obeyed.

(3) "‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and do them, (4) Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.'"

God promised that if the people walked in His statutes and kept His commandments, then He would bring them rain in due season which would make their land fruitful.

(5) "'And your threshing shall reach till the vintage, and the vintage shall last till the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.'"

Continuing His promises to the people if they would walk in His ways and obey His commandments, God would bless the people with plentiful harvests, so abundant that there would be no intervals between threshing and vintage, and vintage till the next sowing time.  They would be able to dwell in their land in safety as they would have no need to go out of it in search of food.

(6) "'And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; and I will rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword will not go through your land.'"

God promised peace in the land; the people would be able to lie down in peace with no fear of evil beasts or war in their land.

(7) "'And you will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.'"

Rather they would chase their enemies and those enemies would fall before them by the sword of the Israelites.

(8) "'And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.'"

As the proportions are not the same, I believe the sense is that a small number of Israelites will put a large number of enemies to flight, and they will fall before them, through the blessing of God.

(9) "'For I will have respect to you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish My covenant with you.'"

The word translated as "respect" was "panah" and it literally meant "to turn to or face".  If they walked in His ways and obeyed His commands, God would turn toward them, be with them, making them blessed and fruitful, and He would increase their numbers in the land.  I think rather than "establish", one of the other meanings of the original word "qum"--"confirm" or "continue"--would be a better interpretation; if the Israelites adhered to their side of the bargain, and followed in the Lord's commands, He would bless them and confirm and continue His covenant with them.

(10) "'And you shall eat the old harvest, and bring out the old because of the new.'"

The sense is that the people would have so plentiful a harvest, they would still be eating of the old harvest, and would have to move it out to make room for the new harvest.

(11) "'And I will set My tabernacle among you; and My soul shall not abhor you.'"

Continuing His promise to the people if they walked in His ways and obeyed His commandments, God would set His tabernacle among them and be a constant presence with them.  Although in their sinful selves, they were loathsome and abominable, God would not detest them if they adhered to His laws.

(12) "'And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people.'"

God would be a constant presence with the Israelites, He being their God, and them being His special people, if they walked in His statutes and obeyed His commandments.

(13) "'I am the LORD your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.'"

The Lord God who was to be with the Israelite people constantly was the same God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt, breaking the bonds of slavery and allowing them to walk upright, that is, not under the yoke of bondage, but as a free and confident people.

(14) "‘But if you will not hearken to me, and will not do all these commandments, (15) And if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not do all my commandments, but that you break my covenant, (16) I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, consumption 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.'"

However, if the people did not listen to their Lord and obey His commandments, and even worse, if they treated His word and laws with disrespect and contempt so that they had no intention of even trying to adhere to His laws, thereby breaking their part of their covenant with their God, then He would bring terror to them.  The original word translated as "terror" was "behalah" and indicated panic or sudden ruin or destruction.  The terror would include panic, and also disease that would not only seize their bodies, but would fill their hearts with grief and sorrow because of their pain and agony.  It would also mean that they would sow their fields in vain for their enemies would besiege their cities and plunder their fields and granaries.  Note these are the very opposite of what God promised if His people would follow Him and obey His commands.  Instead of peace they would have panic; instead of more than enough food from their harvests, it would be stolen by their enemies, which also indicated war where He had promised none if they walked in His statutes.

(17) "'And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies; they who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.'"

Indeed, if the people refused to adhere to their Lord's statutes, He would not only turn His face away from them, turning His protecting arm away from them, but He would actually set His face against them, actively exerting His power against them to be slain before their enemies, in direct contrast to their enemies falling before them.  Rather than the people being free and walking upright in liberty and confidence, they would again be ruled by their enemies, and in their fear, they would flee even though no one actively pursued them, in stark contrast to the promised blessing of very small numbers of them being able to chase hundreds of their enemies.

(18) "‘And after all this, if you will not yet hearken to me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.'"

If after these punishments the people still did not listen to their Lord and walked in disobedience to Him, He would punish them abundantly more, not necessarily exactly seven times more, but the number seven generally represented perfection or completion, which in this case, might mean the complete measure of His wrath, which no man could endure.

(19) "'And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass.'"

With that more complete and severe measure of His wrath, He would indeed break their pride and arrogance in their own power.  To make their heaven as iron would be to make it solid and dry, giving no rain or dew; their earth would be as brass, so that nothing could grow out of it.

(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.'"

All their work would be in vain as their land and the trees of the land would not bear any fruit or produce.

(21) "'And if you walk contrary to Me, and will not hearken to me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins.'"

If still the people refused to walk with their Lord, but were in active opposition to His ways, He would bring even more plagues in proportion to their transgressions of His righteous laws.  Again, it's not another seven times His wrath, but a more complete measure of it now including the following additional plagues:

(22) "'I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate.'"

Not only would they work in vain and be attacked by their enemies, but even wild beasts would be allowed to destroy their livestock, kill their children, even kill them reducing their number, and making their highways desolate, both by the reduced number of them and because of their fear of the beasts of prey.  Again this is in stark contrast to the peace they would feel when God rid the land of evil beasts (v. 6) if they obeyed Him and followed in His statutes.

(23) "'And if you will not be reformed by Me by these things, but will walk contrary to Me, (24) Then I will also walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins.'"

Finally, if the people refused to be reformed by God's previous punishments (for that is always the goal of God's chastisement, to bring His people back to Him, back to their only life), and if they continued to walk contrary to Him and His ways, then He would also be contrary to them, turning away from them, and even setting His face toward them to punish them even more severely.

(25) "'And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of My covenant; and when you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.'"

If the people refused to be reformed, God would bring a sword against them, bringing war and captivity by their enemies, or killing them Himself by pestilence.  He would avenge the outraged cause of His covenant.

(26) "'When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.'"

When God cut off the supply of their bread, rather than everyone baking in her own oven, there would be only enough for ten women to bake in one oven, and it would be divided and rationed by weight among ten families, and would not be enough to satisfy their hunger.

(27) "'And if you will not, after all this, hearken to me, but walk contrary to me, (28) Then I will walk contrary to you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.'"

If still the people refused to reform their ways, and continued to walk contrary to the ways of their Lord, He would also walk contrary to them in fury.  Not just contrary to them, but in heated anger.  The original word translated as "fury", "chemah", a form of our word "chemical", also means "venom, poison".  The Lord Himself, even HE, would bring even greater punishment than they could imagine, as described in the following:

(29) "'And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat.'"

Truly this was an unimaginable horror that they would be reduced to cannibalism of their own children because of their desperate hunger.

(30) "'And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you.'"

The high places were elevated areas dedicated to idol worship according to other scriptures (Deut. 12:2, Num. 22:41).  The word translated as "image" is "chamman" and referred to idols and images used in idol worship; I can't help but see the similarity to our word "shaman" that refers to someone dealing with supernatural and otherworldly spirits.  The Lord then vowed to cast their dead bodies upon their dead worthless idols, and He would detest them.  I couldn't help but notice that all the other verses above spoke of "IF you...", but this one didn't say "if you" worship images of idols in high places, but assumed the people would positively be worshiping idols if they were not following God's statutes and refused to reform their ways.  I think this proves people will always choose to follow something; even if they think they are agnostic and don't take a position either way, they are listening to spirits that are seeking to move them away from the one true God of life.  There are only two choices, life and death, everlasting life in the one true God and death in anything else:

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live, that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days..." - Deuteronomy 30:19-20a

He alone is your life!  Anything else in which you put your faith is a worthless idol, and you will die upon your dead worthless idols, whatever they might be.

(31) "'And I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the scent of your sweet odors.'"

If the people repeatedly refused to reform and follow God's statutes, He would destroy their cities or allow them to be destroyed by their enemies, and would also destroy their sanctuaries.  Since the word is plural here, it seems to imply that the people might have more than their one sanctuary, their Lord's tabernacle; He vowed to bring them all to desolation, and He would refuse to accept any of their incense and sacrificial offerings.

(32) "'And I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.'"

God would bring their entire land to desolation, and their enemies who took possession of their land would be astonished at the desolation of the land once so fruitful.

(33) "'And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.'"

The Lord would drive the people out of their promised land and scatter them far and wide among the heathen nations.  Whether the Lord figuratively drew a sword and drove them out or if by the swords of their enemies they were driven out, they would be definitely driven out.  Possibly the meaning is that the sword would follow them into the heathen nations and they would have no rest there, either.  The fact that their land would be desolate and their cities waste is repeated.

(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. (35) As long as it lies desolate it shall rest because it did not rest in your sabbaths when you dwelt in it.'"

When the people were driven out of the land into their enemies' lands, their promised land would then enjoy those sabbatical years of rest from tilling that they did not give it in their disobedience.  Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, pointed out that this was prophecy that became a historical truth:

“From Saul to the Babylonish captivity are numbered about four hundred and ninety years, during which period there were seventy Sabbaths of years; for 7, multiplied by 70, make 490. Now the Babylonish captivity lasted seventy years, and during that time the land of Israel rested. Therefore the land rested just as many years in the Babylonish captivity, as it should have rested Sabbaths if the Jews had observed the laws relative to the Sabbaths of the land.”

(36) "'And upon them who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when no one pursues. (37) And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.'"

God would then strike any of the children of Israel who were left alive in the lands of their enemies with such a fear that the sound of a rustling leaf would cause them to flee, as if fleeing for their lives, and they would fall even when no one was really pursuing them.  In their fear and confusion, they would stumble over one another, fleeing for their lives, even though no one was actually pursuing them.  They would have no power or strength of spirit to oppose their enemies.

(38) "'And you shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.'"

The people would die among the heathen in their lands that would eat them up, in one way or another, perhaps by the sword or by disease.  Perhaps the meaning is just that they would die in these heathen lands as the graves in these lands would swallow them.

(39) "'And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they waste away with them.'"

The children of Israel who remained alive after all this, would waste away in their enemies' lands for their iniquities, the same iniquities of their fathers before them, and they would likewise waste away with them.

(40) "'If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they 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 then their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity, (42) Then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.'"

Wow!  What a merciful and loving God He was, that no matter how far and long the people rejected and resisted their Lord, if they were to confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers, acknowledging that they had been sinning against their Lord for a long time, admitting they had walked contrary to their Lord, acknowledging that was the reason He, in turn, had walked contrary to them and had brought them to the land of their enemies...  If then their uncircumcised hearts were humbled, "uncircumcised" meaning "exposed", as in the acknowledgment of the sin in their hearts, and if they then bore their punishment without grumbling, realizing it was just punishment for their sins against their God, then He would remember His covenant with their fathers before them.  It's not that He had ever forgotten it, but He would then fulfill and make good all He had promised Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, and He would remember their promised land.

(43) "'The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they shall accept the punishment of their iniquity because they despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes.'"

When they accepted their just punishment, and acknowledged their land lay desolate because of their iniquity, they would understand it was all because they had despised and resisted the judgments and statutes of their Lord.

(44) "'And 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.'"

Even after all their wickedness and refusal to reform that would necessitate the ever increasing severity in the punishment of His people in verses 14 through 39 above, God would never totally destroy them thus breaking His covenant with them.  He will always leave a remnant and allow for the repentance of His people and their return to Him, for He is, was, and will always be their Lord God.

(45) "'But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God; I am the LORD.'"

Not for the sake of their merits, but because He so loved them, for their own good and benefit, He would remember the covenant of their ancestors whom He brought out of bondage to the heathen Egyptians, that He might be their God.  Once again, He was their Lord, THE Lord, whose sovereign power rescued them and continued to save a remnant of them in spite of their sinful ways, ever faithful to His promise to their forefathers, no matter how far these descendants might have strayed.

(46) These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the LORD made between Himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

All the preceding statutes and judgments and laws in this and preceding chapters of the book of Leviticus were part of the covenant made between the Lord and the children of Israel in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, delivered through Moses.  This chapter dealt mainly with God's promises to His people if they kept the commandments laid out in previous chapters, His punishments if they refused to obey them, and His promise to remember those who repented and to always save a remnant.  How wonderful that our sweet Lord saves us in spite of our sinful selves!  Isn't that exactly what He did by sending Jesus to save us?