Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 26:1
Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up [any] image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I [am] the LORD your God.
1. a pillar ] mabh, an upright stone, frequently mentioned in connexion with local worship. See for illustrations of those discovered at Gezer, Driver’s Schweich Lectures, p. 63.
any figured stone ] i.e. with some idolatrous representation carved on it.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1, 2. These two vv. contain only repetitions of the precepts already given (Lev 19:3-4; Lev 19:30); in fact, the direction to observe the sabbath appears here for the third time. The redactor of H attached great importance to these vv., and accordingly closed his legislation with them. Their position, however, at the commencement of this ch. is unsuitable and may be owing to accident. Still their importance, as corresponding to the first four Commandments, may account for their insertion.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Idols – literally, things of nought. Hebrew ‘elylm. There appears to have been a play on the similarity in sound of this word to ‘elohym (God). Compare 1Co 8:4.
Standing image – Either an upright statue, or a pillar, such as an obelisk or a Celtic menhir, set up for an idolatrous purpose (compare Exo 34:13 note). The public worship of Yahweh required, first, the exclusion of all visible symbols of deity as well as of all idolatrous objects, and next Lev 26:2, the keeping holy the times and the place appointed by the Law for His formal service. The word sabbaths must here include the whole of the set times. See Lev 23:3 note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XXVI
Idolatry forbidden, 1.
The Saobath to be sanctified, 2, 3.
Promises to obedience, of fruitful fields, plentiful harvests,
and vintage, 4, 5.
Of peace and security, 6.
Discomfiture of their enemies, 7-9.
Of abundance, 10.
Of the Divine presence, 11-13.
Threatenings against the disobedient, 14, 15.
Of terror and dismay, 16.
Their enemies shall prevail against them, 17, 18.
Of barrenness, 19, 20.
Of desolation by wild beasts, 21, 22.
And if not humbled and reformed, worse evils shall be inflicted
upon them, 23, 24.
Their enemies shall prevail, and they shall be wasted by the
pestilence, 25, 26.
If they should still continue refractory they shall be yet more
sorely punished, 27, 28.
The famine shall so increase that they shall be obliged to eat
their own children, 29.
Their carcasses shall be cast upon the carcasses of their idols,
30.
Their cities shall be wasted, and the sanctuary desolated, 31;
the land destroyed, 32,
themselves scattered among their enemies, and pursued with utter
confusion and distress, 33-39.
If under these judgments they confess their sin and return to
God, he will remember them in mercy, 40-43;
Visit them even in the land of their enemies, 44;
and remember his covenant with their fathers, 45.
The conclusion, stating these to be the judgments and laws which
the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in
Mount Sinai, 46.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXVI
Verse 1. Ye shall make you no idols] See Clarke on Ex 20:4, and See Clarke on Ge 28:18; “Ge 28:19“, concerning consecrated stones. Not only idolatry in general is forbidden here, but also the superstitious use of innocent and lawful things. Probably the stones or pillars which were first set up, and anointed by holy men in commemoration of signal interpositions of God in their behalf, were afterward abused to idolatrous and superstitious purposes, and therefore prohibited. This we know was the case with the brazen serpent, 2Kg 18:4.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A standing image, or, pillar, to wit, to worship it, or bow down to it, as it follows. Otherwise this was not simply prohibited, being practised by holy men both before and after this law. Compare Exo 23:24; Deu 16:22. So Exo 20:4. They are forbidden to make images, not simply or for any use, but for worship.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Ye shall make you noidolsIdolatry had been previously forbidden (Exo 20:4;Exo 20:5), but the law wasrepeated here with reference to some particular forms of it that werevery prevalent among the neighboring nations.
a standing imagethatis, “upright pillar.”
image of stonethat is,an obelisk, inscribed with hieroglyphical and superstitiouscharacters; the former denoting the common and smaller pillars of theSyrians or Canaanites; the latter, pointing to the large andelaborate obelisks which the Egyptians worshipped as guardiandivinities, or used as stones of adoration to stimulate religiousworship. The Israelites were enjoined to beware of them.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Ye shall have no idols, or graven image,…. Some of the Jewish writers, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, think this law against idolatry is mentioned on account of the Israelite sold to a stranger, spoken of in the latter part of the preceding chapter, lest he should be drawn into idolatry; [See comments on Le 25:48]; but this is rather mentioned as being a principal law, respecting the honour and glory of God, and the foundation of all religion and godliness, and the breach of it a capital crime, and which led on to other sins, and exposed to the displeasure and resentment of God, and brought on all the calamities after mentioned in this chapter. “Idols” here signify “things of nought”, as an idol is nothing in the world, 1Co 8:4; and a “graven image”, any likeness of man or beast cut out of wood, or stone; and may include any molten image of gold, silver, or brass, and then engraven with a tool, as the golden calf was, Ex 32:4:
neither rear you up a standing image; or pillar g; an heap of rude stones, set up pillar, not bearing the likeness of any creature; otherwise graven and molten images were standing ones, but these were statues without any figure; such as the Arabians used to worship; the god Mars, worshipped in Arabia Petraea, was no other than a black stone four square, unformed, four feet high, and two broad, and was placed on a basis of gold h;
neither shall ye set up [any] image of stone in your land, to bow down unto; any “figured stone”, as the Targum and Aben Ezra interpret it, which had figures and representations of creatures cut in it, in order to bow down unto and worship: the word has the signification of covering, as they cover a floor with a pavement of stones:
for I [am] the Lord your God; who is the alone object of religious worship and adoration.
g Sept. “titulos”, V. L. “titulum”, Samar. Ar. “pillar”, Ainsworth. h “Suidas in voce” Vid. Arnob. adv. Gentes, l. 6. p. 232.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Lev 26:1 and Lev 26:2 form the introduction; and the essence of the whole law, the observance of which will bring a rich blessing, and the transgression of it severe judgments, is summed up in two leading commandments, and placed at the head of the blessing and curse which were to be proclaimed. Ye shall not make to you elilim , nugatory gods, and set up carved images and standing images for worship, but worship Jehovah your God with the observance of His Sabbaths, and fear before His sanctuary. The prohibition of elilim , according to Lev 19:4, calls to mind the fundamental law of the decalogue (Exo 20:3-4, cf. Lev 21:23; Exo 23:24-25). To pesel (cf. Exo 20:4) and mazzebah (cf. Exo 23:24), which were not to be set up, there is added the command not to put , “figure-stones,” in the land, to worship over (by) them. The “figure-stone” is a stone formed into a figure, and idol of stone, not merely a stone with an inscription or with hieroglyphical figures; it is synonymous with in Num 33:52, and consequently we are to understand by pesel the wooden idol as in Isa 44:15, etc. The construction of with may be explained on the ground that the worshipper of a stone image placed upon the ground rises above it (for in this sense, see Gen 18:2). – In Lev 26:3 the true way to serve God is urged upon the Israelites once more, in words copied verbally from Lev 19:30.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Promises. | B. C. 1490. |
1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God. 2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. 3 If ye 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 her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. 6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. 7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. 10 And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. 11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. 13 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.
Here is, I. The inculcating of those precepts of the law which were of the greatest consequence, and by which were of the greatest consequence, and by which especially their obedience would be tried, Lev 26:1; Lev 26:2. They are the abstract of the second and fourth commandments, which, as they are by much the largest in the decalogue, so they are most frequently insisted on in other parts of the law. As, when a master has given many things in charge to his servant, he concludes with the repetition of those things which were of the greatest importance, and which the servant was most in danger of neglecting, bidding him, whatever he did, be sure to remember those, so here God by Moses, after many precepts, closes all with a special charge to observe these two great commandments. 1. “Be sure you never worship images, nor ever make any sort of images or pictures for a religious use,” v. 1. No sin was more provoking to God than this, and yet there was none that they were more addicted to, and which afterwards proved of more pernicious consequence to them. Next to God’s being, unity, and universal influence, it is necessary that we know and believe that he is an infinite Spirit; and therefore to represent him by an image in the making of it, to confine him to an image in the consecrating of it, and to worship him by an image in bowing down to it, changes his truth into a lie and his glory into shame, as much as any thing. 2. “Be sure you keep up a great veneration for sabbaths and religious assemblies,” v. 2. As nothing tends more to corrupt religion than the use of images in devotion, so nothing contributes more to the support of it than keeping the sabbaths and reverencing the sanctuary. These make up very much of the instrumental part of religion, by which the essentials of it are kept up. Therefore we find in the prophets that, next to the sin of idolatry, there is no sin for which the Jews are more frequently reproved and threatened than the profanation of the sabbath day.
II. Great encouragements given them to live in constant obedience to all God’s commandments, largely and strongly assuring them that if they did so they should be a happy people, and should be blessed with all the good things they could desire. Human governments enforce their laws with penalties to be inflicted for the breach of them; but God will be known as the rewarder of those that seek and serve him. Let us take a view of these great and precious promises, which, though they relate chiefly to the life which now is, and to the public national concerns of that people, were typical of the spiritual blessings entailed by the covenant of grace upon all believers through Christ. 1. Plenty and abundance of the fruits of the earth. They should have seasonable rain, neither too little nor too much, but what was requisite for their land, which was watered with the dew of heaven (Deu 11:10; Deu 11:11), that it might yield its increase, v. 4. The dependence which the fruitfulness of the earth beneath has upon the influences of heaven above is a sensible intimation to us that every good and perfect gift must be expected from above, from the Father of lights. It is promised that the earth should produce its fruits in such great abundance that they would be kept in full employment, during both the harvest and the vintage, to gather it in, v. 5. Before they had reaped their corn and threshed it, the vintage would be ready; and, before they had finished their vintage, it would be high time to begin their sowing. Long harvests are often with us the consequences of bad weather, but with them they should be the effects of a great increase. This signified the abundance of grace which should be poured out in gospel times, when the ploughman should overtake the reaper (Amos ix. 13), and a great harvest of souls should be gathered in to Christ. The plenty should be so great that they should bring forth the old to be given away to the poor because of the new, to make room for it in their barns, which yet they would not pull down to build greater, as that rich fool (Luke xii. 18), for God gave them this abundance to be laid out, not be hoarded up from one year to another. He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him, Prov. xi. 26. That promise (Mal. iii. 10), I will pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it, explains this, v. 10. And that which crowns this blessing of plenty is (v. 5), You shall eat your bread to the full, which intimates that they should have, not only abundance, but content and satisfaction in it. They should have enough, and should know when they had enough. Thus the meek shall eat and be satisfied, Ps. xxii. 26. 2. Peace under the divine protection; “You shall dwell in your land safely (v. 5); both really save, and safe in your own apprehensions; you shall lie down to rest in the power and promise of God, and not only none shall hurt you, but none shall so much as make you afraid,” v. 6. See Ps. iv. 8. They should not be infested with wild beasts, these should be rid out of the land, or, as it is promised (Job v. 23), should be at peace with them. Nor should they be terrified with the alarms of war: Neither shall the sword go through your land. This holy security is promised to all the faithful, Ps. xci. 1, c. Those must needs dwell in safety that dwell in God,Job 9:18Job 9:19. 3. Victory and success in their wars abroad, while they had peace and tranquility at home, Lev 26:7; Lev 26:8. They are assured that the hand of God should so signally appear with them in their conquests that no disproportion of numbers should make against them: Five of you shall have courage to attack, and strength to chase and defeat, a hundred, as Jonathan did (1 Sam. xiv. 12), experiencing the truth of his own maxim (v. 6), that it is all one with the Lord to save by many or by few. 4. The increase of their people: I will make you fruitful and multiply you, v. 9. Thus the promise made to Abraham must be fulfilled, that his seed should be as the dust of the earth; and much more numerous they would have been if they had by their sin cut themselves short. It is promised to the gospel church that it shall be fruitful, John xv. 16. 5. The favour of God, which is the fountain of all good: I will have respect unto you, v. 9. If the eye of our faith be unto God, the eye of his favour will be unto us. More is implied than is expressed in that promise, My soul shall not abhor you (v. 11), as there is in that threatening, My soul shall have no pleasure in him, Heb. x. 38. Though there was that among them which might justly have alienated him from them, yet, if they would closely adhere to his institutions, he would not abhor them. 6. Tokens of his presence in and by his ordinances: I will set my tabernacle among you, v. 11. It was their honour and advantage that God’s tabernacle was lately erected among them; but here he lets them know that the continuance and establishment of it depended upon their good behaviour. The tabernacle that was now set should be settled if they would be obedient, else not. Note, The way to have God’s ordinances fixed among us, as a nail in a sure place, is to cleave closely to the institution of them. It is added (v. 12), “I will walk among you, with delight and satisfaction, as a man in his garden; I will keep up communion with you as a man walking with his friend.” This seems to be alluded to, Rev. ii. 1, where Christ is said to walk in the midst of the golden candlesticks. 7. The grace of the covenant, as the fountain and foundation, the sweetness and security, of all these blessings: I will establish my covenant with you, v. 9. Let them perform their part of the covenant, and God would not fail to perform his. All covenant-blessings are summed up in the covenant-relation (v. 12): I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and they are all grounded upon their redemption: I am your God, because I brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, v. 13. Having purchased them, he would own them, and never cast them off till they cast him off. He broke their yoke, and made them go upright, that is, their deliverance out of Egypt put them in a state both of ease and honour, that, being delivered out of the hands of their enemies, they might serve God without fear, each walking in his uprightness. When Israel rejected Christ, and was therefore rejected by him, their back is said to be bowed down always under the burden of their guilt, which was heavier than that of their bondage in Egypt, Rom. xi. 10.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
LEVITICUS- TWENTY-SIX
Verses 1, 2:
These verses summarize the first four of the Ten Commandments, Ex 20:1-10.
“Idols,” Will, “a thing of nought,” denoting those things which the heathen substituted for the true God, see 1Co 8:4-6. The idols were represented in three forms, called “images,” maskith:
I. Graven image, a carved wooden pillar, such as a totem pole;
2. Standing image, a sacred pillar, obelisk, or stele;
3. Image of stone, a sculptured stone idol.
“To bow down unto (toward) it,” means to worship the image, or to worship before the image as a representative of a deity.
Verse 2 is an exact repetition of Le 19:30.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Religion as determining a Nations Destiny
SUGGESTIVE READINGS
Lev. 26:1-13.If ye walk in My statutes, etc. The Lord engaged to enrich them as a nation with temporal blessings and religious advantages, if, and so long as, Israel maintained allegiance to Gods worship and statutes, His Sabbaths and sanctuary. He crowns the enumeration of favours relating to this life with higher assurance that He would dwell among them in all the spiritual nearness ensured by His covenant. Our fidelity to God is the measure of our prosperity and happiness. They who fear the Lord shall not lack any good thing. Human life is so dependant, in nothing sufficient of itself, either to provide the necessities of physical being, or to ensure for the soul fitness for Divine acceptance and favour; that we may well prize the exceeding great and precious promises, which are all ours in Christ, if we but maintain a true relationship with Him by obedience and faith. God does not ask a hard thing in what He requires: how gratefully we should yield Him our utmost in return for the riches of His grace!
Lev. 26:14-39.But if ye will not hearken unto Me. A happy people, honoured and privileged so long as they were religious, could sink to lowest degradation and misery by revolt against the Lord their God. The picture of Israels pitiable desolation and anguish delineates the awful spoliation which now sin inflicts on transgressors, and the dark terrors which will follow in the world beyond. These terrible denunciations show how aggrieved God is with human wrong doing, how He regards with abhorrence mans impious rebellion against His goodness and grace, and how heavily He will avenge it. Let sinners fear before Him, and kiss the Son, lest He be angry. A brilliant light casts the blackest shadows. Gods great grace for unworthy men throws on those who maltreat it the darkest gloom of His indignation and wrath (Rom. 2:8-9.)
Lev. 26:40; Lev. 26:46.If they shall confess their iniquity. Though having deeply sinned, yet, if by their miseries they return in contrition, infinite mercy would receive them again. Wondrous pity: grace abounding! Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity? It is the glory of the gospel to proclaim salvation even unto the uttermost, and our comfort to know that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1Jn. 1:9.)
PECULIARITIES OF CHAPTER 26
i. Ceremonial institutions, social regulations, and moral injunctions, have hitherto constituted the substance of the book of Leviticus. Now they yield place to PROPHETIC PROMISES AND WARNINGS concerning the nation (which extend over all after ages of Israels career, sketching the national apostacy and overthrow, its disappearance through long centuries, and its ultimate repentance and restoration.
ii. The camp of Israel has hitherto been regarded as a sacred community surrounding the Shekinah within the Holy of Holies, with whom Jehovah was maintaining gracious relationship and hallowed fellowship, through priests and sacrifices. Now Israel is viewed as a NATION TO BE RULED BY DIVINE GOVERNMENT, with material rewards and secular blessings, affixed to loyal obedience to Jehovahs laws, and likewise secular punishment threatened in the event of revolt from the Divine sway.
iii. Although the aspect of Israel as a sacred community passes into that of a nation under Divine government, yet THE BOND OF SPECIAL AND SPIRITUAL UNION BETWEEN JEHOVAH AND ISRAEL is forcefully emphasized, and Israels national security and prosperity are bound up with the maintenance of the Theocracy: Religion being the secret of her life and continuance.
iv. The predictions of this chapter form THE BASIS OF ALL AFTER PROPHECIES concerning the future of Israel, the very phraseology of these promises and threatenings reappearing almost literally in the messages of Gods prophets in successive agesE.g.,
Lev. 26:4.Then will I give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit; Lev. 26:5.And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time; and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely; Lev. 26:6.And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
Compare Ezekiel 34, Lev. 26:26, I will cause the shower to come down in his season, there shall be showers of blessing; Lev. 26:27.And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land; Lev. 26:25.I will make with them a convenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land.
Compare with Lev. 26:5, Amo. 9:13, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed.
Notably, let Joe. 2:19-27, be read with these verses under view. Thus Lev. 26:23, He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month; and Lev. 26:24.And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
v. The providential sway of Jehovah is claimed as ORIGINATING, AND ORDERING THESE MATERIAL FAVOURS or distresses, making them consequent upon the religion or irreligion of Israel, although they may be naturally accounted for as results ensuing from certain physical conditions in the land or in the nations social development. But behind natural incidents lies the supernatural hand of God, physical laws have an invisible legislator administering them, and all the occurrences in Israels career, bright or dark, are traced directly to Jehovahs personal dealings with His people. If ye walk in my statutes, then I will give you rain (Lev. 26:3-4). I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my convenant with you (Lev. 26:9), etc.
SECTIONAL HOMILIES
Topic: THE ADVANTAGES OF RELIGION IN A NATIONS LIFE (Lev. 26:1-12)
We know, says Burke (in his Reflections on the Revolution in France), and, what is better, we feel inwardly, that religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good, and of all comfort.
To this may be added the famous testimony of Josiah Quincy (Boston, 1830): Human happiness has no perfect security but freedom; freedom none but virtue; virtue none but knowledge; and neither freedom, nor virtue, nor knowledge has any vigour, or immortal hope, except in the principles of the Christian faith, and in the sanctities of the Christian religion (see Addenda to chapter, National Irreligion).
I. WHEREIN A NATIONS RELIGIOUS LIFE CONSISTS.
The recognised presence of God in the midst of the people (Lev. 26:11-12): I will set my tabernacle among you; and I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. This may be realized
1. In sanctuaries consecrated to Divine worship throughout the land, and in assembled congregations gathering to adore Him (Lev. 26:2).
2. In sacred literature diffusing religious knowledge among the people.
3. In benevolent and elevating institutions diffusing Christianity in its practical forms.
4. In educational agencies for the training of children early in moral and religious truth.
5. In homes and family life sweetened by the influence of piety.
6. In a legislature ruled by the fear of God and observant of Scripture precepts.
7. In wealth, gathered righteously, being expended for evangelical and Christian ends.
8. In the happy relationship of all social classes, based upon goodwill and respect.
9. In the stores of harvest and gains of commerce being acknowledged as Gods providential gifts and generous benefactions (Lev. 26:4-5). All such public recognitions of the authority and the claims of religion, emphasize and declare that within this nations life God dwellsknown, revered, and served.
II. ADVANTAGES WHICH RESULT TO A NATION FROM RELIGION.
1. Religion impels to industry, intelligence, self-respect, and social improvement; and these will affect every branch of labour and enterprise, resulting in material prosperity (Lev. 26:4-5).
2. Religion leads to avoidance of agitation and conflict, checks greed, ambition, and vainglory, and thus promotes a wise content among the people, and peaceful relationships with surrounding nations (Lev. 26:6).
3. Religion fosters sobriety, energy, and courage, and these qualities will assert themselves on the fields of war when sad occasion arises, and will ensure the overthrow of tyranny and the defeat of invasion (Lev. 26:8).
4. Religion nurtures the wise oversight of homes and families, the preservation of domestic purity, the development of healthful and intelligent children, and these will work out in a strong and increasing population (Lev. 26:9).
5. Religion corrects the intrigues of self-destructive commerce, and teaches honesty, forethought, and justice in business arrangements; thus checking waste, extravagance and insolence, and these issue in the enjoyment of plenty (Lev. 26:10).
6. Religion enjoins Sabbath observance and sanctuary services (Lev. 26:2) which nourish holiness in thought and life, sweeten character, purify the springs of action, incite to righteous and noble deeds, to social good will, to mutual regard, to sacred ministries, to reverence for Scripture, to recognition of the claims of the unseen world, and thus bring down upon all people the blessings of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Lev. 26:11-12).
How can religion fail to convey benefits of every valuable order to society and the whole nation when it makes the individual a nobler, kinder, purer, Godlier man? That land is enriched in which dwells a people whose individual character may be sketched thus:
I venerate a man whose heart is warm.
Whose hands are pure, whose doctrines and whose life
Coincident, exhibit lucid proof
That he is honest in the Sacred Cause.Cowper.
III. WITHIN A RELIGIOUS NATION GOD PLEDGES HIMSELF TO DWELL.
And where He makes His tabernacle (Lev. 26:11) there
1. Happiness will be realised, the joy of the Lord will be known, His loving kindness, which is more than life, will be enjoyed.
2. Security will be assured. None make you afraid (Lev. 26:6), for He will be as a defence to His people.
3. Sanctity will flourish. Intercourse with God (Lev. 26:12) will elevate, refine, and grace a peoples character and life. Happy the people in such a case, yea, happy the people whose God is the Lord.
Topic: THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE (Lev. 26:3-14)
Throughout Leviticus the voice of mercy sounds; for what is mercy but a remedy for woe? At Sinais base grace sweetly smiles; for what is grace but safety for the lost? These final words from God have an awakening import. There is a seriousness in parting words. Last admonitions usually sink deep.
Ere the tribes advance to Canaan, God seeks to admonish and impress. Truly when sinners rush to ruin they strive against a warning God, they stop their ears, they set their faces like flint, they harden their necks. Here God adjoins paternal counsels to a Sovereigns command. He shows what blessings crown obedient paths, what miseries beset the rebel-way.
I. ALLURING PROMISES.
Unfold the roll (Lev. 26:3-13). It is a picture in which plenteousness abounds:
The earth in season yields luxuriant stores. Peace waves her gentle sceptre. No invading hosts scare the quiet vales. No ravening beasts watch for prey. If assailing armies dare make attack, they advance to sure defeat. A little band puts multitudes to flight. A happy progeny rejoices in each house. These are external gifts.
Spiritual delights are scattered with copious hand. Gods presence is assured. His near abode is among His people. He claims them as His own (Lev. 26:12). He gives Himself to them.
Such are the blessings pledged if His statutes are observed. Could any hear, yet choose the rebel path?
II. TREMENDOUS THREATS.
The scene now changes. Peal follows peal of terrifying awe (Lev. 26:14-39). The disobedient must prepare for appalling miseries:
Health shall wither: pining malady, sore disease, and racking pain shall prey upon the tortured frame.
Famine shall raise its ghastly form: penury shall sit at every hearth.
Nature shall not yield increase: no crops shall spring from sown seed, the trees shall mock with fruitless boughs.
Savage life shall ravage: children and cattle shall be mangled in the roads, and the homesteads become solitary.
War shall rage: the hostile banner deride the fallen city.
The holy sanctuary should be no refuge: its offerings God would refuse.
Such is the heritage if Gods covenant be not kept.
III. FORESHADOWED DOOM REALISED.
Gods word is sure. Performance follows.
1. Israel madly scorned His sway. They rashly followed their own hearts desire.
3. Threatened vengeance fell. Witness the desolation of their bounteous land and the tribes scattered through the worlds breadth. The sterile plains at home, the outcast wanderers abroad, bear witness that the doom predicted comes.
IV. A SPIRITUAL ALLEGORY.
1. A picture is given of the fair land of grace. The obedience of faith wins the full possession of that beauteous inheritance which Christ purchased for His redeemed. And faith finds abundance in the land of grace. Surely that life is blessed which gains all-sufficiency in Christs perfect righteousness, renewing power, plenteous redemption, unspeakable peace. All things are yours, for ye are Christs. Supplies of grace are lavishly given; the heavens come down in showers of goodness.
2. But a fearful contract appears. Crowds upon crowds refuse to obey; slight the Saviours charms. Therefore sins remain. The world enslaves. Troubles abound. Misery steeps your life. If you look upward the heavens are barred; God frowns; each attribute condemns. Friends bring no peace; foes wound, and no balm heals. Life is a misery, death plunges into deeper woe, eternity is hell.
When Gods grace is scorned, when His precious Son is crucified afresh, Mercy can show no mercy, pardon cannot release. The heritage of unbelief is one unmitigated curse.
The blessing and the curse are set side by side. So sweetly point the blessing that eager souls will grasp it. So awfully pronounce the curse that alarmed sinners may dread it. Happy souls are they, who, yielding obedience to the persuasions of Almighty goodness, inherit the blessing.
Partly evolved from Dean Laws Christ is All.
Topic: NATIONAL TRANSGRESSION AND DISASTER (Lev. 26:14-19)
For 770 years before they were literally fulfilled in their bitter experience, these appalling warnings, graphic and minute in their details, were in the hands of the Hebrew nation, were continuously read in their hearing as a voice of entreaty that they would cleave to the Lord their God. But because sentence is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil (Ecc. 8:12).
Yet deferred sentence, both
1. Manifests the Divine patience and His unwillingness to smite; and
2. Prolongs mans opportunity to forsake evil and find mercy.
Nevertheless: The Lord is not slack concerning His promise; He does not relax because He delays. The storm only gathers greater violence when long pent up. Here is vividly delineated.
1. A NATIONS PROGRESSIVE APOSTASY.
1. Passive indifference to divine teachings and appeals (Lev. 26:14). Mental obliquity or wilful inattention to the known will of God. This mere listlessness is commonly the first downward step: Ye will not hearken unto Me. To this non-attention next succeeds,
2. Non-compliance with divine calls and claims (Lev. 26:14). Will not do all these commandments. Practical resistance of Gods authority: We will not have this man to reign over us. Not as yet profane rebellion, but settled unconcern and neglect. This leads forward to,
3. Contemptuous rejection of Gods statutes. Ye shall despise My statutes (Lev. 26:15). Pride lifts the heart into dislike and derision of sacred regulations and requirements. Who is the Lord that I should serve Him? It is vain to serve God, etc. (Mal. 3:14-15).
4. Spiritual revolt from all sacred demands. Your soul abhor my judgments (Lev. 26:15). For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, etc. (Joh. 3:20). These are they that rebel against the light (Job. 24:13). It is the souls loathing of all holy rule and heavenly allurement. It argues a fearful departure from God. How great a fall was that!
5. Violation of all covenant relationship. Ye break my covenant (Lev. 26:15). It severs all bonds between the soul and God; denies His right to command; rejects Him utterlyin atheistic scorn, in wilful rebellion. The thing made disowns Him who made it.
Notes: (a) Such decline from God, whether by communities or individuals, only occurs by progressive stages. The wreck is not instantaneous. The castle falls not a ruin by one stroke; it wastes by the process of dilapidationstone from stone; crumbles to decay.
(b) This decline from God is not allowed to proceed without gracious efforts made to arrest its course. God sent His prophets to plead and warn, His judgments to awaken, His providential mercies to win, His sanctuary privileges to allure. A sinner goes from God amid pathetic pleadings and arresting importunities: Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?
II. AN APOSTATE NATIONS CALAMITIES.
1. Sin brings disease and physical suffering in its train (Lev. 26:16). Terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. Impiety inevitably drifts into impurity. When God is rejected, the lusts of the flesh and the eyes and the mind dominate. And in physical degradation, defilement, and decay the fruits of sin are reaped. Destruction and misery are in their way. These are the natural consequences of sin; but God smote Israel with supernatural afflictions.
2. Failure and penury follow quickly upon habits of indulgence and impurity. Sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it (Lev. 26:16). Nothing succeeds in the hands of a dissipated and dissolute man; and he becomes a prey to his hated scorners and rivals. There was a peculiar fulfilment to Israel of this threat; for God laid their land open to the incursions of predatory tribes and despotic spoilers, by which the people were continually wasted.
3. A godless life invites the ravages of the enemy (Lev. 26:17). God withdrew His protection, and adversaries swept down upon Israel. They who repudiate Divine government are taken captive by the devil at his will, and serve their enemies. Sin is very cruel. It slays its victims; slaughters their virtue, peace, happiness, hopes; detroys precious souls.
4. Sin also fills the life of wrong-doers with terrors: they flee when none pursuit. Even in nations there is strong confidence and a sound mind only when conscious of rectitude and the enjoyment of Gods approval. It paralyses a peoples heart to feel that Heaven is alienated and Divine favour lost. Armies, too, have gone with assurance into battles when convinced that God is with them; as Cromwells Ironsides: while enemies have fled with panic, as did the Spanish Armada, when possessed with alarm that God was against them.
5. There are the yet darker calamities of abject overthrow and Divine desertion: I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass (Lev. 26:19)a picture of prostration and helplessness which finds verification in
(a) Babylons fall: now lying buried amid bleaching sands, emblem of rebuked pride.
(b) The desolation of Jerusalem: now a waste scene, and her children the tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast.
(c) The buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum: interred beneath volcanic ashes, a monument of sudden wrath on a voluptuous people.
Such historic admonitionsWarn against National Impiety, and Call mankind to seriousness and prayer. For even in the solemn threatenings of God, there lies an overt assurance of mercy, that if a nation or individual will cease from apostacy and sin and hearken unto Him (Lev. 26:18), He will turn aside the seven times more punishment for sins, and show the forgiveness in which He delights, and the salvation which the glorious gospel of His grace proclaims. (See Addenda to chapter, National Irreligion).
Topic: DESOLATION UPON ISRAEL (Lev. 26:29; Lev. 26:39)
Though chosen in grace, and pledged in covenant, as Gods people; though being led miraculously to Canaan, to be settled in the goodly land; yet an alarming picture of woe and ruin is outspread whose realisation seemed incredible.
I. HOW HORRIFYING THE MISERIES WHICH MAY BEFALL A PRIVILEGED PEOPLE.
The miseries of penury and siege (Lev. 26:29); of captivity and slaughter (Lev. 26:33); of anguish and derision (Lev. 26:36); of pitiless misery and disaster (Lev. 26:39).
1. None are so secure in grace and privilege that they can disregard the possibility of a fall.
2. None are so rich in sacred favours as to be beyond danger of their total loss.
3. None are so honoured by Gods selecting and distinguishing grace but they may lapse into alienation and desolation.
II. HOW AMAZING THE DISASTERS WHICH MAY DEVASTATE A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY.
Canaan was a wealthy land, a scene of loveliness, abundance and delight. Yet on it came the disasters of depopulation (Lev. 26:31): sterility (Lev. 26:32); desertion (Lev. 26:35)even enemies abandoning it.
1. National plenty and prosperity are conditional upon national righteousness and piety.
2. National greatness and glory have been withered by the anger of an insulted God.
3. National strength and safety are only guaranteed as religion is fostered by the laws of a country, and in the habits and lives of its people.
III. HOW PITEOUS THE PROFANATION WHICH MAY DESPOIL A NATIONS SANCTITIES!
Canaan was the scene of Jehovahs sanctuary: the Temple rose on Zion; and the land sent up her tribes to the celebration of sacred feasts and to the holy worship of God. Yet all her sanctuaries were brought unto desolation (Lev. 26:31), all the fragrance of her sacrifices became loathsome to Jehovah (Lev. 26:31), and her desecrated Sabbaths were avenged in the bleak silence and loneliness which fell on hallowed scenes (Lev. 26:34).
1. Religious favours, if abused, may be utterly withdrawn from us.
2. God loathes the offerings once delightful to Him: when the offerers love is estranged.
3. Holy scenes and holy days become a barren mockery if a trifling spirit alienate the sacred Presence:Ichabod!
Topic: THE LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL (Lev. 26:38-39)
Ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat yon up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies land: and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
Does this threat import the complete extermination of the outcast Israel! Are the exiles from Palestine literally eaten up in the land of their enemies! What are the rival theories?
i. THAT THE OUTCAST TRIBES OF ISRAEL ABSOLUTELY PERISHED IN THE LANDS OF THEIR CAPTIVITY: that they have ceased to be a distinct people; that they or their descendants are not to be discovered in any portion of the globe; and that, therefore, there is no possibility or hope of their recovery.
Against this theory it is to be urged that,
1. This threat applies equally to Judah and Israel; and that as certainly Judah it not exterminated, so equally it is probable that Israel, though not discovered, is still existing.
2. That as nineteen centuries have not sufficed to extinguish the Jewish part of the original Hebrew nation, so neither can it be thought that the preceding eight centuries, from the Assyrian captivity till the Christian age, would effect the obliteration of the Israelitish tribes.
3. That as it was predicted of the Israelitish tribes that they should be lost from sight (2Ki. 18:18), whereas the Jewish tribes were to be preserved as a visible witness among the nations, the non-discovery of the lost ten tribes is as literal a part of Gods plan as the distinctive preservation of the Jew.
4. That there are promises of God which absolutely affirm Israels ultimate discovery and restoration equally with Judahs.
Therefore this threat must be equally applied to all the twelve tribes, and can only mean their destruction as a distinct nation.
ii. That the LONG AND MOURNFUL OBLITERATION OF THE HEBREW NATION, AS A JUDGMENT, WILL ISSUE IN ITS FINAL MIRACULOUS RE-GATHERING. For,
1. The covenant of God with the whole nation ensures their imperishableness.
2. The threat of obliteration is qualified by the promise of recovery and restoration, if they should repent (Lev. 26:41-42). [Compare Deu. 4:27; Deu. 4:31].
3. It is pledged here absolutely that, though driven away in exile, God would not Himself cast them away, nor utterly destroy them (Lev. 26:44); because His covenant with them must stand (Rom. 11:2).
Topic: FUNDAMENTALS IN TRUE RELIGION (Lev. 26:1-2)
Israel was ever prone to depart from the living God, to forget His commandments. Hence the need of frequent reiteration of the divine precepts. The inculcation of statutes respecting fundamentals in religion comes very suitably here, enforcing Jehovahs claim to sole and supreme worship. Thus Israel was solemnly reminded
I. OF THE PERSON to whom alone religious worhip should be presented.
The light of nature and our inner consciousness suggest that the author of all things, our Creator and King, ought to be reverently worshipped; but they do not teach us whether or not He will accept our worship, nor what kind of worship He requires. In Levitical ritual the needed information was given, not only as to what He would accept, but what He righteously demanded. No idol of any kind was to be set up in Canaan. No material object could fairly represent the invisible and eternal Lord. Idolatry degrades and brutalises men; men never rise above their ideals. Idolatry is an insult to the only true and living God. The only image of the invisible God ever presented to the world was the Man Christ Jesus. Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, etc. Nothing short of the living God can satisfy the longing of the human heart. All his needs are fully met in the person and work of Christ.
II. OF THE TIME most favourable for the presentation of religious worship.
Worship is the duty, privilege, and prerogative of man at all times. His very work should be done in such a fervent and devout spirit that it may be worship, and all worldly service so performed that it may partake of the character of sacrament. But there are times when worship may be more full and devout: such are the divinely-appointed and weekly-occurring Sabbaths. They arrest the rush and roar of secular life. The hallowed associations of the day, the opportunity for public communion and fellowship suggest and foster reverence. The Sabbath reminds man that he has a soul to care for; and divine life in the individual and nation is generally concurrent with the extent to which the day of holy convocation is observed. Let the Sabbath be neglected and desecrated and at once the way is open for all kinds of irreligion and iniquity. The people were also reminded.
III. OF THE PEACE where religious worship is the most acceptable to the Lord.
Under the old dispensation God appointed certain spots and localities, where He would meet His people, and consecrated certain buildings as His audience chambers: among such places were the Tabernacle and Temple. He loved the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob, and spake glorious things of his own favourite city. The devout heart, nevertheless, could find any place a house of God and gate of heaven when God saw fit to make Himself known, as he did to the Patriarchs, especially to Jacob at Bethel. It aided men in worship, and gave them courage and confidence in seeking the Lord to know that He was to be found always at home as it were, in some places, and ready to manifest Himself, as He did, not to the world or out in the world. Reverence for special sacred places among the Jews was not superstition; Christ paid respect to the Temple, and twice showed His indignation at its profanation by expelling the unholy traders. Though under the new dispensation we have no Tabernacle or Temple, as of old, yet our meeting-places for prayer and praise are sanctuaries of the Lord, for He has promised to meet with those who gather together in His name, even though there be but two or three. The Divine presence consecrates the house where believers meet, and earthly worship may become preparatory to the worship of heaven, where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it.F. W. B.
Topic: INCENTIVES TO TRUE RELIGION (Lev. 26:3; Lev. 26:42).
The injunctions of this chapter are contemporaneous with, and confirmatory of, the laws contained in the Book of Exodus, especially of the Ten Commandments given on the tables of stone. The people were evidently not elected to unconditional favours and salvation; they are addressed as free and accountable agents, in a state of trial, and passing through a period of probation. It was merciful and just to acquaint Israel of the conditions of service and stewardship, to warn them from evil doing, to excite them to holy living. Notice,
I. THE BLESSINGS PROMISED TO OBEDIENCE.
To those who would walk in the statutes of the Lord and keep His commandments, there would be vouchsafed,
1. Temporal blessings. (a) Seasons of plenty; (b) Times of tranquility; (c) Joys of society. Thus their physical and social wants would be met, their minds kept in peace, their hearts and homes filled with joy.
2. Spiritual blessings. (a) The Lord would own them; be their Friend and King; (b) The Lord would dwell among them. These were blessings and honours enjoyed by no other nations, and which laid upon Israel commensurate responsibility. The Lord would be with them, and bless them abundantly, if only they would walk in His statutes. The Gospel does not destroy the moral teaching of the law; Antinomianism is not taught in the New Testament. Christ comes to and blesses those who love His commandments and do them, and will pronounce His final approval upon those who have in this life, not simply believed, but well done.
II. THE PUNISHMENT THREATENED TO DISOBEDIENCE.
Here we have held out the red danger-light, the warning beacon, that the people might be deterred from breaking the divine laws. When the Lord entered into judgment with His people, they could plead no excuse, they had His mind and will made known repeatedly. In this chapter to the disobedient are threatened(a) Physical and mental sufferings; (b) Useless labour; (c) Ignominious defeat; (d) Aggravated sorrows; (e) Degradation; (f) Desolation; (g) Destruction. Thus they would be chastised, and almost exterminated, if they turned from God and gave themselves up to iniquity.
We are here taught the doctrine of a righteous retributive Providence. The world is under, not only the natural, but the moral government of God. In this world God visits the sins of nations, and sometimes the sins of individualsthis is a place, though it is not the place of punishment. The covenants of the Lord with men have always been conditional; to obey has been to live; to disobey has been to die. While Israel obeyed, as in the days of Solomon, the blessing of this chapter came upon them; but when they forsook the Lord and gave themselves up to every kind of iniquity, the judgments denounced here were literally fulfilled. To-day the land of Canaan lies waste; and the Jews are scattered to the four winds of heaven. Blessing and curse are set before us in the gospel Life or death depend on our choice. The wages of sin in death, but the gift, etc.F. W. B.
Topic: THE BOW IN THE CLOUD (Lev. 26:42-45)
In the hope held out to the rebellious, and the mercy promised to the penitent at the end of this chapter, we see how the Lord delighteth in mercy, how slow He is to anger, and plenteous in goodness and truth. For though the people should rebel and bring upon themselves all the threatened punishments; yet if they would repent and confess humbly their sins, the blessings promised to obedience should come upon them to replace the punishments, as they again took delight in the commandments of the Lord. On the black cloud that hung threateningly over the land, there fell rays of hope, a bow of promise arched the darkest sky. The Lord was not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. These verses show,
I. THAT THE WAY WAS LEFT OPEN FOR THE REBELLIOUS TO RETURN.
1. It was the way of reflection. They were to look back upon the wrong doing of their lives, and see how far they had deflected from the good old way, how they had been guilty of dereliction of duty.
2. It was the way of confession. They were to feel sorry for their sins, and confess and acknowledge their iniquity.
3. It was the way of humiliation. They were not to return proudly, feeling they had not been rewarded according to their iniquities. The way is still open for the vilest to return; for, the New Testament teaches that these are the steps in the ladder of life, out of sin to holiness, from earth to heaven, from self to God, viz.: Repentance, conversion, consecration.
II. THAT IF THE REBELLIOUS RETURNED TO THE LORD IN HIS OWN APPOINTED WAY, HE WOULD GRACIOUSLY RECEIVE THEM.
1. He would do so for the sake of their fathers. He would remember His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
2. He would do so for the sake of His name. For I am the Lord. He had purposed, as well as promised, to deal mercifully with them.
3. He would do so for the sake of the land. He had selected Canaan as the arena where He would specially display His glory to men, and He would not allow it to lie waste for ever.
4. He would do it for the sake of His covenant. I will remember my covenant. The Lord does not make a covenant and then tear it rashly to pieces; if broken by man He will speedily renew, nor allow the irregularities and irreligion of men to thwart His beneficent arrangements. Here, indeed, was a resplendent bow of many colours, beaming with the beautiful light of the mild and merciful countenance of the Most High.
What encouragement for sinful men to return to the Lord, for He will have mercy upon them, and abundantly pardon. The Levitical Law closes with offers of mercy, the last words of the Law are words of entreaty and promise. Glad tidings reached the ears of Israel in the desert. The object of the Law was to restrain from sin and restore from its practice and power. Design of Law and Gospel identical; the tree of life has its roots deep down in the soil of the old economy. Gods written word is natural religion vocalised, and Christianity is Judaism fulfilled, in the final declaration of how sins may be forgiven. This truth could not be learned from Nature, and was only symbolically and typically taught by Moses. Whosoever will, may come now and take of the water of life freely.F. W. B.
OUTLINES ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 26
Lev. 26:1.Theme: IDOLATRY INTERDICTED.
The Israelites, having been surrounded by idolators during their sojourn in Egypt, would be in danger of yielding to the influence such surroundings would exert upon them, even when in the presence of circumstances calculated to keep alive constant recognition of the only true and living God. Hence the repetition needed of injunctions against all idol worship; indeed, the whole system of Judaism rests upon the sublime truth, there is but one God. Let us inquire
I. WHAT THE PRONENESS OF HUMAN NATURE TO IDOLATRY SUGGESTS.
It shows both the dignity and depravity of man; that
(a) He is endowed with religious instincts. Capable of worship, of exercising faith, hope, love, reverence, fear, etc.
(b) He is conscious of amenability to some supreme power. Seeks to propitiate, secure favour, and aid.
(c) He is apprehensive of a future state of existence. Ideas vague, indefinite, absurd, yet the outcome of inward presentiment, etc.
(d) He is unable by light of nature to discover God. His knowledge is so faded, light so dim. How low the soul must have fallen to substitute nothings for the Eternal One! Heathenism has never of itself emerged into the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, as seen in the voice that has spoken from heaven, and has been recorded by holy men moved by the Holy Ghost.
II. WHAT INDULGENCE IN IDOLATRY ENTAILS.
(a) Degradation. Worship of heathen deities demoralising In their temples, at their services, the rites observed are grovelling, and, in some instances, demoniacal.
(b) Superstition. Devotees are duped by priests, enslaved by torturing ritualism, subject and victims of absurd delusions.
(c) Misery. Fear the ruling passion, not love. Nothing ennobling, inspiring, quickening, comforting. Idol worship mucks the longings of the human soul, cannot appease its hunger, satisfy its thirst.
III. HOW IDOLATRY MAY BE ABOLISHED.
Darkness can only be dispersed by the letting in of light. The folly of idolatry must be shown, its helplessness, misery, sin by the spread of the written revelation of heaven, the preaching of the glorious Gospel. Israel, by its worship of Jehovah, was a living protest against all idolatry; and the Christian Church is commissioned to proclaim the gospel among all nations, that the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ. No person, place, or thing must come between our souls and God, or have the faith, hope, love, trust that are due only to Him. We are guilty of idolatry if we regard anything as a representative of, or substitute for Him. What we supremely love and live for is our God. Christ is God, we ought, therefore, to live to HimF. W. B.
Lev. 26:3; Lev. 26:14.Theme: THE EQUITY OF GODS WAYS If ye walk in my statues then, etc. (Lev. 26:3). But if ye will not I will, etc. (Lev. 26:14).
Natural religion teaches us that the government of the author of nature is retributive Revealed religion teaches analogous truth in other realms of the divine procedure. Penal consequences of wrong doing act as warnings against sin, and awaken regret for transgression Retribution is
I. UNIVERSAL. Everywhere, and in all time, the transgression of Gods laws entails, in some way penalty.
II. REMEDIAL.
Intended to prevent defiance of heaven, usurpation of divine sovereignty. Pain has a merciful ministry. The peace and satisfaction virtue and obedience bring are a proof that God is holy and on the side of goodness. Israel was shown not only that God demanded worship and loyalty on account of what He is in Himself, but because of what they would secure for all who lived in harmony with His revealed will. Hence the positive commands in connection with the Levitical ritual were supplemented by persuasives to a holy life. Inducements were held oat to win obedience, threatenings pronounced to deter from transgression. Thus the people were taught that Jehovah was not arbitrary and despotic, but merciful as well as just, unconditionally excluding none from the blessing of the covenant made to their fathers.
Not only was the sovereignty of God revealed to Israel, but the prerogative of choice in man, by which he is distinguished from all inanimate things and irrational creatures. In the gospel these truths are republished with additional clearness and power. Christ invites to supreme blessedness; those who remain unblest are those who will not come unto Him that they may have life, who destroy themselves, reap what they sow. Thus the ways of God are just and right, and will so be acknowledged at last before an assembled universe.F.W.B.
Lev. 26:8.Theme: VALOUR AND VICTORY THROUGH GODLINESS.
Five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
[See addenda to chapter, Valour].
I. Religion begets a DAUNTLESS ARDOUR.
A fervent enthusiasm is awakened, which defies obstacles, perils, foes.
Proved by the heroes of faith (Hebrews 11); by the sufferings of Huguenots Puritans, and Covenanters; by the records of martyrdom.
II. Religion imparts an INTREPID CONFIDENCE.
They who have God on their side, see armies of horses and chariots fighting with them (2Ki. 6:17.); so as to realize that they that be with us are more than they that be against us. And John Wesleys strong boast becomes their motto: The best of all is, God is for us.
III. Religion animates with STRONG CONSOLATION.
Foes may be many, and life may be beset with devices of evil; yet this is the stay of the believer, No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper (Isa. 54:17).
IV. Religion ensures a GLORIOUS VICTORY.
Adversaries, however numerous, shall flee. Peace shall be realized, not by complicity with the world, nor compromise with enemies, but by their vanquishment. We are more than conquerors through Him that loveth us: and even now our pon shout is this, Thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ; while beyond death this shall be our record: They overcome by the blood of the Lamb.
Lev. 26:10.Theme: EMMANUEL AMID HIS PEOPLE.
I will set my tabernacle among you.
I. AMID THE NATION ON ZION rested the SHEKINAH.
In Salem is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion (Psa. 76:2).
II. INCARNATE ON EARTH dwelt the Lord Jesus.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (Joh. 1:14).
III. ENSHRINED IN LOWLY HEARTS abides the Holy Spirit.
He shall abide with you for ever (Joh. 14:17).
IV. ETERNALLY AMID THE GLORIFIED is manifested the glad presence of God.
I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying. Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God (Rev. 21:3).
Lev. 26:13.Theme: EMANCIPATED AND ELEVATED.
I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright
I. FREED FROM OLD ENSLAVEMENTS: such is the initial act of redeeming grace, Being made free from sin, Christ hath made us free, The Lords free men.
II. DELIVERANCE THE PREPARATION FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The yoke broken is not the end; it sets the life free that it may go upright; in rectitude of conduct. in elevation of desire and aim; in uplifted longings and affections; in righteousness and holiness of spirit.
III. DIVINE SOURCE OF MANS BEDEMPTION.
Old things have passed away; behold all things are become new: and all things are of God. He is the emancipator from old sins, He our sufficiency for an upright walk.
I am the Lord your God, which brought yon forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen: and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright. (See 1Co. 1:30) But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, etc.
Lev. 26:17.Theme: THE COWARDICE OF GUILT.
Ye shall flee when none pursue you.
I. GOODNESS DESPISES SUCH SERVILITY.
A righteous soul scorns cringing, and counts fear a degradation of soul and a dishonour to his avowed faith in God. It is weak and unmanly.
There is, says Montaigne, but one thing of which I am afraid, and that is fear.
And most truly.
To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength
Gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe.Richard H, iii 2.
II. GODLINESS RECTIFIES SUCH COWARDICE.
By showing what resources the soul has in God, and by embracing the promises, which assure him of all grace and strength equal to his day. Who is he that shall harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?
Froude says, Courage is, on all hands, considered as an essential of high character.
The righteous are bold as a lion. In Gods favour the soul dwells confident.
III. GUILT RENDERS SOULS CRAVEN.
Fear is the black spectre ever before the ungodly.
Cowards die many times before their deaths.Julius Csar, ii. 2.
Sinners flee from purity, salvation, Heaven; driven by their lusts, their folly, and their guilt to sin, to danger and to doom.
Lev. 26:17.Theme: PRIDE CRUSHED.
I will break the pride of your power.
I. Carnal pride BASES ITSELF ON FALSE TRUSTS.
The power of these Hebrews, what was it? They beguiled and deluded themselves by imagining themselves strong and secure.
So sinners rest elate on satisfaction with their health, their possessions, their self esteem.
II. Carnal pride OFFENDS AGAINST ALL DIVINE TEACHINGS.
Every dealing of Jehovah with this people taught that they were nought in themselves; all they were God had made them.
Pride is despicable in those who owe everything to Divine pity and grace. It is specially offensive to Him who has wrought all our works in us; for what have we that we have not received?
III. Carnal pride LEADS TO MOST RASH IMPIETY.
It led Israel to disregard Divine warnings, to indulge their own wayward inclinations, to disbelieve God and substitute idols after their own vain conceits; and thus to sever themselves from Gods covenant of protection and peace.
Pride still rejects Christ; grieves the Holy Spirit; and goeth before destruction.
IV. Carnal pride ASSUREDLY MUST BE CONTEMNED.
God will put it to shame. I will break the pride of your power.
By sicknesslaying us even with the dust.
By lossesdesolating us of all our boasted gains.
By terrorsfilling the soul with horror and forebodings.
By deathstripping us of earths frivolous glory, and brings us face to face with the realities of righteousness and judgment.
[See Addenda to chapter, Pride crushed].
Lev. 26:23-24.Theme: OBSTINACY PUNISHED.
I. THE CHARACTER DESCRIBED.
One who persists obstinately in evil courses: will not be reformed. This may apply to
1. A nation;
2. An individual.
Such obstinacy may be the effect of
(1). A proud confidence in human wisdom and resources
(2). A rooted love of sin.
It betrays
(1). Great blindness of mind.
(2). Great hardness of heart.
II. THE DIVINE PROCEDURE in relation thereto.
1. Opposition. I will walk contrary, etc. Nature and Providence armed against the rebellious.
2. Punishment: which will be,
(1) Severe;
(2) Proportionate;
(3) Increasing.J. Comper Gray.
Compare also Outline on Lev. 26:27-28 below.
Lev. 26:27-28.Theme: GODS DETERMINATION TO PUNISH SINNERS.
And if ye will not for all this hearken unto Me, but walk contrary unto Me, then will I walk contrary unto you also in fury.
I. AN AFFECTING SUPPOSITION STATED.
The Lord here supposes that His people may commit three grevious sins:
The sin of disobedience. If ye will not hearken unto Me. Hence observe
(a) That the Lord in His word speaks to us (Heb. 8:12).
(b) That whatever the Lord says in His Word it is our bounden duty to hear (Heb. 3:7; 1Th. 5:20; Jas. 1:19).
(c) That we are too apt to turn a deaf ear to Him (Exo. 5:2; Psa. 12:4).
2. The sin of incorrigibleness. If for all this ye will not hearken. Note here
(a) That afflictions sometimes have the nature of punishments (Jer. 13:21).
(b) That punishment is the natural and necessary consequence of transgression.
(c) That in the punishment which God inflicts He seeks our reformation (2Ch. 18:22).
(d) That our depravity in too many cases frustrates His designs (Zep. 3:2).
3. The sin of perverseness. If ye walk contrary to Me. Observe again
(a) That the Lords pleasure is, we should walk with Him (Mic. 6:8).
(b) That we walk with the Lord when we walk in His way (2Ki. 20:3; Ecc. 12:13).
(c) That walking otherwise than He has commanded is to show a perverse and untoward heart.
II. AN AWFUL CONSEQUENCE DECLARED.
I will walk contrary also to you in fury. Thus we see that
1. Conformable to our character will be our end.
If God should deal thus with us
(a) We shall lose the blessing which He imparts to His obedient followers (Lev. 26:4-12).
(b) Our expectations will issue in disappointment and vexation (Hos. 8:7); and
(c) Like chaff before the wind we shall speedily be carried to destruction (Psa. 1:4-5).
2. Enforcement of these considerations; We see
(a) That a religion consisting of mere notions will never save a man.
(b) That men are not at liberty, as some suppose, to live as they please.
(c) That God takes notice of the ways of all.
(d) That if He displays His anger we should be anxious to find out the cause; and
(e) That if anyone perish he will have no one to blame for it but himself (Isa. 3:11).Wm. Sleigh.
Lev. 26:34.Theme: SABBATH BARRENNESS.
Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths.
God had required that Sabbatical years should be observed, during which the land should rest; no tillage or harvest work being done. Owners of the soil would disregard this enactment, thinking they would benefit by making the land yield its produce through these Sabbath years. For this sin against Gods ordinance, the people would forfeit occupancy of the land, and pine in exile. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths.
1. SABBATH ABUSE.
This abuse consisted in turning Gods sabbath into a time of selfish gain.
1 The interval of rest is not only genial but essential.
2. To invade that interval by exacting toils is to violate a benignant ordinance and to outrage Gods right of control.
3. All infringement of Sabbatic rest is both folly and a profanation; for greed defeats itself in this undue exaction of return, whether from man or soil.
4. The Sabbath repose was designed to give leisure for sacred interests and the service of God. Mans spiritual life needs the pause.
5. The intrusion of selfish and covetous schemes into the holy period is the assertion of self-will to the rejection of Gods will; the enthronement of self in the supremacy claimed by God; thus serving the creature more than the Creator.
II. SABBATH DESOLATION.
God was refute such impious greed, such selfish effrontery. In the experience of these Israelites He cast off from the soil those who robbed it of the Sabbatic rest, and He gave full requital to the land in the years of depopulation.
1. Desolate Sabbaths are still requited upon transgressors.
Men neglect the holy day, in scorn of Heavens blest law; and do their own work and think their own thoughts through its sacred hours. As a fact in human experience now, God requites this wrong upon sinners in a restless life, A weary heart, a troubled conscience, a shadowed happiness.
2. Even Gods children suffer exile from sacred scenes and Sabbath privileges.
In days of health they trifled with their Sabbaths; spent them in indulgence rather than in earnest zeal and hallowed communion; even desecrating in part the sacred hours by selfish enjoyments or worldly concerns. This sin lies at the door of professedly Christian people to-day; Gods day is misused. There will come afflictionsthe exile time, when the soul will cry out for the living God, to appear before God; and in Sabbaths spent in pain and banishment, in restless discomfort of soul, God will requite the wrong.
3. Unblest Sabbaths have their explanation in this law of requital. The sanctuary services bring to the hearer, when he went with eager longing, no relief or help. But it is the requital for those Sabbaths of indifference and undevoutness in which the sanctuary services have been contemned and marred. Take heed how ye hear. Call the Sabbath a delight; the holy of the Lord, honourable.
Lev. 26:40-42.Theme: GODS PROMISES TO PENITENTS.
Though God foreknew and foretold that His people would bring upon themselves His heavy judgments, Ho yet assured them that, if even in their lowest misery they should return to Him with humiliation and contrition. He would restore them to His favour, and to the land from whence they had been expelled.
What consolation Nehemiah derived from these declarations (Neh. 1:5-9.)!
I. WHAT IS THAT REPENTANCE WHICH GOD REQUIRES?
That we acknowledge our guilt. Our fathers sins as well as our own are first grounds of national humiliation. Our own sins are the chief burden of personal contrition. But sin should be viewed in its true light, as walking contrary to God (Psa. 51:4).
2. That we justify God in His judgments. If we have dared to walk contrary to Him, is not He justified in walking contrary to us? Whatever inflictions He imposes we have reason to own it as less than our deserts (Ezr. 9:13), and that His judgments are just (Rev. 16:7).
3 That we be thankful for His dealings by which He has humbled our uncircumcised hearts.
Only real contrition can produce this. It realises mercy in judgment, and love in affliction.
II. THE CONNEXION BETWEEN OUR REPENTANCE AND GODS MERCY.
Repentance is void of merit. Even obedience is destitute of merit; when we have done all we could we are unprofitable servants. The acknowledgment of a debt is a very different thing from a discharge of that debt. A condemned criminal may be sorry for his offences, but that sorrow does not obliterate his crime, still less entitle him to rewards. Yet there is connection between repentance and pardon, and meekness in the exercise of mercy towards the penitent
1. On Gods part. For repentance glorifies God. [See Jos. 7:19].
2. On the part of the penitents. It incites to loathing of the sin, and to adoration of Divine grace.
So God insists on the condition, If they be humbled, then will I pardon For then God can do it consistently with His honour, and they will make a suitable improvement of the mercy vouchsafed them.
III. THE GROUND AND MEASURE OF THAT MERCY WHICH PENITENTS MAY EXPECT.
Gods covenant with their ancestors was the basis and warrant for His mercy to Israel (Lev. 26:42; Lev. 26:44-45).
His covenant with us in Christ is our hope and guarantee.
1. Be thankful that you are yet within reach of mercy.
2. Have especial respect unto the covenant of grace. It is to that God looks, and to that should we look also. It is the only basis in which mercy and redemption are now possible. C. Simeon, M.A.
Lev. 26:45.Theme: GAINS OF A GOOD ANCESTRY.
I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors.
I. THE VOWS AND PRAYERS OF A GOODLY PARENTAGE EXERCISE INFLUENCE UPON THE DIVINE PLANS.
That covenant is thrice referred to as determining Gods arrangements (Lev. 26:42; Lev. 26:44-45).
Note Jobs prayers for his children (Job. 1:5); comp, with Lev. 26:10, Made a hedge about Job and about his house.
II. OVER LONG INTERVALS THE INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL COVENANTS EXTEND.
This covenant with Abraham was made 1900 years B.C. (Gen. 15:13-14). It is now 1900 years A.D., yet the word stands, They are beloved for the fathers sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Rom. 11:28-29).
God is at work, though He seems to wait. In due season ye shall reap if ye faint not. Praying soul, anxious heart, clinging to the promises
Hope, and be undismayed;
God hears thy cries, and counts thy tears,
God shall lift up thy head.
III. HOW GRAND THE LINK BETWEEN A PARENTS PIETY AND THE CHILDRENS DESTINY!
1. Live and pray for your descendants.
2. Value the sacred benefits even though as yet unrealised, of a godly ancestry.
3. Rest in the unfailing pledge of God to reward piety and prayer. [See Addenda to Chapter, Ancestors.]
ILLUSTRATIVE ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 26
NATIONAL IRRELIGION
Men come to think that the guilt of sins committed in concert is distributed; and that, if there be a thousand men banded and banded together in wickedness, each shall have but one thousandth part of guilt. If a firm succeeds, the gain is distributed to each partner; but, if it fails, each one may be held for the whole loss. Whoever commits a sin will bear the sins, whether alone or with a thousand; whoever commits or connives at public sin will bear the blame. Public guilt always has private endorsement; and each man is liable for the whole note.H. W. Beecher.
Sail on, O Ship of State!
Humanity, with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
Longfellow.
To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.Burke.
Our heart, our hopes are all with thee,
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant oer our fears,
Are all with thee, are all with thee.
Longfellow.
VALOUR
It was said by a nobleman at the grave of
John Knox: Here lies one who never feared the face of men.
The brave man is not he who feels no fear,
For that were stupid and irrational;
But he whose noble soul its fear subdues,
And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.
Joanna Bailie.
PRIDE CRUSHED
Remember what thou wert before thy birthnothing; what thou wert for many years afterweakness; what in all thy lifea great sinner; what in all thy excellenciesa mere debtor to God, to thy parents, to the earth, and to all creatures. Upon these or the like meditations, if we dwell, we shall see nothing more reasonable than to be humble, and nothing more foolish than to be proud.Jeremy Taylor.
Pride thrust proud Nebuchadnezzar our of mens society, proud Saul out of his kingdom, proud Adam out of paradise, proud Hamaan out of court, and proud Lucifer out of heaven.Henry Smith.
ANCESTORS
My chastitys the jewel of our house,
Bequeathed down from my ancestors.
Shakespeare.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
D. CONCLUSION: PROMISES AND WARNINGS 26:146
1. THE NECESSITY OF RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS
TO GOD 26:1, 2
TEXT 26:1, 2
1
Ye shall make you no idols, neither shall ye rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither shall ye place any figured stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am Jehovah your God.
2
Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am Jehovah.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 26:1, 2
628.
Some commentators feel these two verses should be a part of chapter twenty-five. Why would they think this? Do you see any connection?
629.
Please consider carefully and separately the following words: (1) idols; (2) graven image; (3) pillar; (4) figured (or painted) stone. Define them in your own words.
630.
What are the two safeguards against idolatry according to verse two? Discuss.
PARAPHRASE 26:1, 2
You must have no idols: you must never worship carved images, obelisks, or shaped stones, for I am the Lord your God. You must obey My Sabbath laws of rest, and reverence My Tabernacle, for I am the Lord.
COMMENT 26:1, 2
Lev. 26:1-2 In the original Hebrew text these verses are a part of the previous chapter. The thought seems to be that the Israelites who sell themselves into slavery to a foreigner will be constantly exposed to the idolatry of the heathen, The enforcement of two important principles will be essential in overcoming their influence. Remember: (1) God will not accept a competitor. Idols in any form are an abomination to Him; (2) Remember the sabbath day, even if you cannot come to the sanctuary because you are required to work. You can yet pause amid your labor to remember your God (Cf. Lev. 19:3-4) and His day.
The word idols seems to be a generic word, then follows the specifics: (1) graven imagesome sculptured representation, not only to the imaginary gods of the pagan, but at times it was a foolish attempt to represent Jehovah. Cf. Exo. 20:19-20; Deu. 4:15-16. (2) Pillar or obeliskthis was a free-standing stone. No engraving or sculpturing is here referred to as relating to the pillar. At times such a stone became an altar to God, but more frequently a place of idolatry. (Cf. Mic. 5:13; 1Ki. 14:23; Hos. 3:4; Hos. 10:1; Gen. 28:18; Gen. 28:22; Gen. 31:13; Gen. 35:14; Exo. 23:24; Exo. 34:13.) (3) worshipping stones or figured stonesAuthorities in the time of our Lord understood this to mean beholding, or worshipping stonesi.e. stones set in the ground in places of worship upon which the worshippers prostrated themselves to perform their devotions. The stone was therefore a kind of signal, calling attention of the worshipper to itself, so that he may fall down upon it. With such stones, these authorities assure us, the Temple was paved, since they were perfectly lawful in the sanctuary, but must not be used in worship out of the Temple . . . (Ginsburg)
A real respect of the Creator and Deliverer on the seventh day would eliminate the above idolatrous practices. A personal sense of His power and concern destroys the appetite for idolatry.
FACT QUESTIONS 26:1, 2
634.
Show how these verses could relate to chapter 25.
635.
What two principles overcome idolatry?
636.
Describe and discuss the three types of idols mentioned here.
637.
Is there any parallel in these verses for our day? Discuss.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXVI.
(1) Ye shall make you no idols.The first two verses of this chapter are still a part of the previous section in the Hebrew original. By separating them from their proper position, and making them begin a new chapter, both the logical sequence and the import of these two verses are greatly obscured. As Lev 26:47-55 legislated for cases where Israelites are driven by extreme poverty to sell themselves to a heathen, and when they may be compelled to continue in this service to the year of jubile, and thus be obliged to witness idolatrous practices, the Lawgiver solemnly repeats the two fundamental precepts of Judaism, which they might be in danger of neglecting, viz., to abstain from idol-worship and to keep the Sabbath, which are two essential commandments of the Decalogue. The same two commandments, but in reverse order, are also joined together in Lev. 19:3-4.
Idols.For this expression see Lev. 19:4.
Nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image.Better, nor shall ye rear you up a graven image or pillar. Graven image is not only a plastic image of a heathen deity, but a visible or sensuous representation of the God of Israel (Exo. 20:19-20; Deu. 4:15-16).
A standing image.This expression, which only occurs once more in the text of the Authorised Version (Mic. 5:13), and four times in the Margin (1Ki. 14:23; Jer. 43:13; Hos. 3:4; Hos. 10:1), is the rendering of a Hebrew word (matzebah), which is usually and more correctly translated pillar or statue (Gen. 28:18; Gen. 28:22; Gen. 31:13, &c.). This was a plain and rude stone without any image engraved on it, and was not unfrequently erected to God himself. but in after-time more especially as a memorial to false deities. (Gen. 28:18; Gen. 28:22; Gen. 31:13; Gen. 35:14, with Exo. 23:24; Exo. 34:13, &c.)
Neither shall ye set up any image of stone.The authorities during the second Temple interpreted the words here rendered images of stone to denote beholding, or worshipping stonesi.e., stones set in the ground in places of worship upon which the worshippers prostrated themselves to perform their devotions. The stone was therefore a kind of signal, calling the attention of the worshipper to itself, so that he may fall down upon it. With such stones, these authorities assure us, the Temple was paved, since they were perfectly lawful in the sanctuary, but must not be used in worship out of the Temple, or rather, out of the land, as these authorities understood the words in your land here to denote. Hence the Chaldee Version paraphrases it, and a painted stone ye shall not place in your land to prostrate yourselves upon it, but a pavement adorned with figures and pictures ye may put in the floor of your sanctuary, but not to bow down upon it, i.e., in an idolatrous manner. Hence, too, the ancient canon, in your own land (i.e., in all other lands) ye must not prostrate yourselves upon stones, but ye may prostrate yourselves upon the stones in the sanctuary.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
IDOLATRY, THE SABBATH, AND THE SANCTUARY, Lev 26:1-2.
1. Standing image The matstsebah was a pillar or statue of stone or wood. It was used in the worship of Baal. The tendency of the Hebrews toward idolatry may be inferred from the vast variety of terms used in their literature to signify idols. There are twenty-one Hebrew words rendered in English by idol or image. Four of these are found in this verse.
I am the Lord The word “I” is emphatic in the Hebrew. Jehovah could tolerate no rival, for he alone is self-existent, eternal, supreme. The pagan god of one nation could allow the existence of another cultus in another nation: Jesus Christ was not complimented when the Roman senate decreed him a statue in the Pantheon. He must dethrone all rivals, because he is “God over all, blessed forever.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Chapter 26 Final Recognition of His Authority, Blessings and Cursings.
The Book now virtually closes with the recognition that Israel were bound to Him, and only Him, by the covenant. Yahweh reaffirms His authority over them and then confirms the blessings and cursings attaching to the whole. If they walk with Him faithfully, blessing, but if they turn away there can only be disaster.
The Overlordship Of Yahweh To Be Honoured ( Lev 26:1-2 ).
Lev 26:1
“You shall make you no idols, neither shall you rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am Yahweh your God.
Firstly they must recognise that Yahweh, the invisible One, the One Who is there with them, is their God. Thus in lieu of this they were to make no idols (elilim – ‘nothings’ – compare Lev 19:4), nor were they to raise up a graven image (representations of deities as found in many sites in Canaan) or a pillar (pillars of stone indicated the presence of deities such as Baal and El) or any figure of stone (carved representations of a deity), for the purpose of bowing down to them. The whole paraphernalia of idolatrous worship was to be avoided. Compare Num 33:52.
Lev 26:2
“You shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am Yahweh.”
Rather are they to keep His sabbaths and reverence His Sanctuary (compare Lev 19:3; Lev 19:30), thus indicating their submission to the signs of His overlordship and presence. What we believe is indicated by the preferences we choose, and this is especially true of worship. If our worship becomes debased, so also will our view of God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Lev 26:1-46 The Law of Blessings and Curses – Num 26:1-46 discusses the law of blessings and curses. This passage is similar to Deuteronomy 28, in that they both list the blessings and the curses.
Note how this passage on divine judgment mentions that God will judge His people seven times for their sins (Lev 26:18; Lev 26:21; Lev 26:24; Lev 26:28). This seven-fold judgment is found throughout the Holy Scriptures.
Gen 4:15, “And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold . And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.”
Lev 4:6, “And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD , before the vail of the sanctuary.”
Deu 28:25, “The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them : and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.”
Psa 79:12, “And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.”
Dan 3:19, “Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated .”
Also, seven of Saul’s sons died for the sins of one man:
2Sa 21:6, “ Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us , and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them.”
In the New Testament, Jesus said that a man who backslides would have seven more demons enter him after being delivered from one demon.
Mat 12:45, “Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself , and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”
Peter sought an answer from Jesus for forgiveness, in the place of judgment. Peter suggested seven times:
Mat 18:21-22, “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times ? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”
God uses seven years to judge nations and kings of major sins:
Gen 41:30, “And there shall arise after them seven years of famine ; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;”
2Sa 24:13, “So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land ? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.”
King Nebuchadnezzar was judged for seven years:
Dan 4:16, “Let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him .”
God uses seven days to judge individuals of minor sins and uncleanness in the Scriptures.
Lev 12:2, “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days ; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.”
Lev 15:24, “And if any man lie with her at all, and her flowers be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days ; and all the bed whereon he lieth shall be unclean.”
God’s judgment on the earth in the book of Revelation comes in sevens:
Rev 15:8, “And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled .”
Therefore, the children of Israel always recognized divine judgment when it came in a period of seven years.
Lev 26:12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
Lev 26:12
Lev 26:26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
Lev 26:26
[31] Maureen Kennedy Salaman, interviewed by Benny Hinn, This is Your Day (Irving, Texas), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program. Refer to her book All Your Health Questions Answered Naturally (Mountain View, California: Bay to Bay Distribution, 1998)
Note the content of this chapter, which begins by saying that the children of Israel are to keep the Lord’s Sabbaths so that the land will yield its increase.
Lev 26:2-4, “Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.”
God will use His judgment to bring about the Sabbath rest for the land.
Lev 26:34-35, “Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.”
Lev 26:29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
Lev 26:29
Deu 28:53, “And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:”
This prophecy came to pass years later during the siege of Samaria when Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria came against Jehoram (Joram), king of Israel (853-841 B.C.).
2Ki 6:28-29, “And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.”
Lev 26:40-42 Scripture References – Note a New Testament passage on confessing sins:
1Jn 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Blessings Promised to the Obedient
v. 1. Ye shall make you no idols, v. 2. Ye shall keep My Sabbaths, v. 3. If ye walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, v. 4. then I will give you rain in due season, v. 5. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time. v. 6. And I will give peace in the land, v. 7. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword, v. 8. And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight, v. 9. For I will have respect unto you, v. 10. And ye shall eat old store, v. 11. And I will set My Tabernacle among you, v. 12. And I will walk among you, v. 13. I am the Lord, your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt that ye should not be their bondmen,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
PART V. CONCLUDING EXHORTATION.
EXPOSITION
THE first two verses of this chapter contain a prohibition of idolatry, and a command to observe the sabbath and to reverence God’s sanctuary; that is, they repeat in summary the substance of the Israelites, religious duty, negative and positive, as comprised in the first table of the Decalogue. They form, therefore, a prologue to the remainder of the chapter, which solemnly announces:
1. The blessings. which should result from obedience (Lev 26:3-13).
2. The curses which should follow disobedience (Lev 26:14-39).
3. The gracious treatment which would ensue on repentance (Lev 26:40-45).
Hitherto the Book of Leviticus has consisted of ceremonial and moral injunctions, with two historical passages interposed. In the present chapter it rises in its subject and its diction from legal precepts and a legal style to prediction and the style which became a prophet. We may trace in Joel (Joe 2:22-27) an intimate acquaintance on the part of the earliest prophet of Judah with this chapter. The first promise there, as here, is that of rain, and as here it is to be “in due season,“ so there it is “the former and the latter rain,” that is, the regular autumn and spring rains. “The land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit,” appears in the prophet as, “the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.” The following clause, “your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time,” as,” the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil;” the next clause, “ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely,” as, “I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith,” and” ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied;” the clause, “I will give peace in the laud, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid,” as “I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen,” and” my people shall never be ashamed;” and the clause, “I will rid evil creatures [not beasts] out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land,” as, “I will remove far off from you the northern,” and “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you.”
The blessings and the curses rise one above the other in regular gradation: on the one side, rain, abundance, peace, deliverance, victory, increase in numbers, communion with God; on the other side,
(1) horror, wasting, and the burning fever, hostile spoiling of the fields, defeat, and causeless flight;
(2) the heaven iron, and the earth brass, failure of crops and fruits in spite of labour spent upon them;
(3) wild beasts for the destruction of cattle, children, and men, desolation of the highways;
(4) the sword, pestilence, and famine;
(5) cannibalism, overthrow of their heathen idols and of God’s own house and worship, destruction of their cities, utter desolation of their lands, and their captivity among the heathen. And even yet the full measure of their misery is not accomplished, for while the land enjoys her sabbaths, the captives, if unrepentant, are to fall from one misery to another, till they pine away and are consumed. Each of these grades is described as being symbolically seven times worse, that is, incomparably worse, than that which has gone before. Because these plagues would come, and in fact did come, upon them as the immediate result of physical or moral causes that could be traced, they are none the less the effect of God’s wrath upon his apostate people.
Confession of sin, recognition of God’s providence in all that had happened to them, humility, and acquiescence in their punishment, would restore them to their forfeited covenant relation (verses 40-45). Then God would “not abhor them to destroy them utterly,” but would “remember the covenant of their fathers.” Thus it was that God brought them back after the Babylonish Captivity; and thus it is that, upon their repentance, he replaces in a state of salvation Churches and individuals that have fallen away from him. In this way punishments become a blessing, and men are able to “accept of them,” or rejoice in them, as the word might be rendered.
Lev 26:1
Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it. The word idols (elilim) means the “nothings” which the heathen substituted for the Lord God. The graven image (here meaning a carved wooden image), the standing image (meaning a sacred pillar), and the image of stone (that is, a sculptured stone idol), are the three forms of images under which adoration was paid, whether to the true God or to a false doily. The expression, to bow down unto (or towards) it, forbids worshipping before an image as well as worshipping an image.
Lev 26:2
Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. These words are repeated textually from Lev 19:30.
Lev 26:3
If ye walk in my statutes. The free will of man is recognized equally with God’s controlling power.
Lev 26:4-6
These verses appear to have been in the mind, not of Joel only, as already pointed out, but of Ezekiel (Eze 34:20-31). In Leviticus we find, Then I will give you rain in due season; in Ezekiel, “And I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.” In Leviticus, And the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit; in Ezekiel, “And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth her increase.” In Leviticus, Ye shall dwell in your land safely; in Ezekiel, “They shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.” In Leviticus, And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land; in Ezekiel, “And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land . And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.” The promise, Your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time, is similar to that in the prophet Amos, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed” (Amo 9:13).
Lev 26:8
And five of you shall chase an hundred. Cf. Jos 23:10, “One man of you shall chase a thousand.” For examples, see Jdg 3:31; Jdg 15:15; 1Sa 14:6-16; 2Sa 23:8.
Lev 26:10
Ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. The provisions of the past year would be so abundant that they would have to be removed to make place for the new stores.
Lev 26:11
And I will set my tabernacle among you. This was fulfilled, spiritually, as shown to St. John in his vision of the new Jerusalem: “I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Rev 21:3). And my soul shall not abhor you. The result of God’s abhorrence being his rejection of those whom he abhors (see Le Joh 20:23).
Lev 26:12
And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. These words are quoted by St. Paul as a ground of the holiness required of God’s people (2Co 6:16).
Lev 26:13
And I have broken the bands of your yoke. This expression, used also in the parallel passage of Ezekiel above referred to (Eze 34:27), and Jer 27:2 receives an illustration from the ancient method of harnessing oxen, still kept up in the East and South. The band means the straight piece of wood laid across the necks of the oxen, by which their heads are fastened together to keep them level with each other, and by which they are attached to the pole of the wagon. The single collars worn by horses in more northern countries have not the same oppressive effect.
Lev 26:14-17
Punishment in its first degree. Terror, consumption,that is, wastingand the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart:a proverbial expression for great distress (see 1Sa 2:33)and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it (see Jer 5:17, and Mic 6:15, “Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil”) and ye shall be slain before your enemies (as took place often in their after history, see Jdg 2:14; Jdg 3:8; Jdg 4:2); they that hate you shall reignthat is, ruleover you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
Lev 26:18-20
Punishment in its second degree. I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass; the result of no rain in a land scorched by the fiery Eastern sun. Your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the tress of the land yield their fruits. Cf. 1Ki 8:35; Hag 1:10, Hag 1:11.
Lev 26:21, Lev 26:22
Punishment in its third degree. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number. So in the case of the Assyrians transported to Palestine, “At the beginning of their dwelling there, they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them” (2Ki 17:25)and your high ways shall be desolate. Cf. Jdg 5:6, “In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through byways.”
Lev 26:23-26
Punishment in its fourth degree. I will bring a sword upon yon, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemythat is, ye shall go into captivity and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. Cf. Eze 5:12, “A third part of thee shall die with pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.” The famine that is to come upon them is described as making ten women bake bread in one oven,whereas in ordinary times one oven was only sufficient for one woman’s bakingand they shall deliver you your bread again by weight; that is, the quantity baked will have to be weighed out in rations, before any one is allowed to take it. See 2Ki 6:25; Isa 3:1; Jer 14:18; and as illustrative of the last point, Eze 4:16, “Behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment.”
Lev 26:27-33
Punishment in the fifth degree. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. We find that this threat was fulfilled in Samaria (2Ki 6:28), and in Jerusalem at the time both of the earlier siege by the Chaldaeans, and of the later siege by the Romans. And I will destroy your high places. By high places is meant the tops of hills or eminences chosen for worship, whether of Jehovah (see Jdg 6:26; 1Ki 3:2; 2Ki 12:3; 1Ch 21:26), or of false gods. The high places intended hero are the spots where the “sun-images” were erected (see 2Ch 14:5; Isa 17:8; Eze 6:4)and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idolsthat is, they should roll in the dust together. And I will make your cities wasteas Samaria and Jerusalemand bring your sanctuaries unto desolation,by the sanctuaries, which are to be desolated, is meant all the consecrated things: the holy of holies, the holy place, the court, the ark, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt sacrificeand I will not smell the savour of your sweet odoursso in Jer 6:20, “To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet” (cf. Isa 1:11-15). And I will bring the land into desolation (cf. Jer 9:11): and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it (cf. Eze 5:15). And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you. See Jer 9:16, “I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.”
Lev 26:34, Lev 26:35
The land had not participated in the sins of its inhabitants. The latter had thought that, by the neglect of the sabbatical years, they had enriched themselves by the fruits of those years which would otherwise have been wasted. The result was that they lost the land altogether for a period equal to that during which it ought to have kept sabbath, and the land “as long as she lay desolate kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years” (2Ch 36:21). From the entrance into the holy land until the Babylonish Captivity there elapsed eight hundred and sixty-three years, in which time there ought to have been kept one hundred and twenty-three sabbatical years. As only seventy are made up by the duration of the Captivity, it may be concluded that fifty-three sabbatical years were observed by the Israelites; but this conclusion is very doubtful. It is more likely that seventy, being a multiple of the sacred number seven, was regarded as sufficient to purge all previous neglects, whatever they might have been.
Lev 26:36-39
The final punishment.
Upon them that are left, that is, the surviving captives and exiles, I will send a faintness into their hearts,so Eze 21:7, “And every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water” and the sound of a shaken (or driven) leaf shall chase them; and they shall fall, and ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands. This is the concluding threat. It is conditional in its nature, and the condition having been fulfilled, we may say with reverence that it has been accomplished. Those of the ten tribes who did not find their way to Babylon, and so became absorbed in the body which returned to Jerusalem, have been eaten up by the land of their enemies, and have pined away in their enemies’ lands. Neither they nor their descendants are to be found in any part of the globe, however much investigation may employ itself in searching for them. They have been absorbed by the populations among which they were scattered.
Lev 26:40-45
God’s pardon will, even yet, as always, follow upon confession of sin and genuine repentance. They must recognize not only that they have sinned, but that their sufferings have been a punishment for those sins at God’s hand. This will work in them humble acquiescence in God’s doings, and then he will remember his covenant with Jacob, and also his covenant with Isaac, and also his covenant with Abraham, and for the sake of the covenant of their ancestors, he will not east them away, neither will he abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break his covenant with them. Whether Jewish repentance has been or ever will be so full as to obtain this blessing, cannot be decided now. Perhaps it may be the case that all the blessings promised by Moses and by future prophets to repentant and restored Israel are to find their accomplishment in the spiritual Israel, the children of Abraham who is “the father of all them that believe” (Rom 4:11), seeing that “God is able of stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Mat 3:9).
Lev 26:46
This is the closing paragraph of the Book of Leviticus; to which another chapter has been added, in the form of an appendix, on the subject of vows.
HOMILETICS
Lev 26:3-46
Promises and threatenings.
In this chapter the prophet looks forward, and declares how God would deal with his people; which should be according to the way in which they should act. In 2Ch 36:14-21, the chronicler looks back, and shows how God had dealt with them; which had been according to the way in which they had acted.
The promises and the threatenings are to the nation, not to individuals; and the prophetical assurance is that national obedience to God shall bring about national happiness and prosperity, and that disobedience shall cause the ruin of the nation. In spite of the rough, wild times of the Judges, and of the apostasy of Saul, the heart of the nation was on the whole loyal to Jehovah till the end of the days of Solomon. And till that time there was an upward growth in the flourishing estate of the peopletheir wealth, their power, their prosperity, their happiness. In the latter days of Solomon, outwardly glorious as they were, decay and corruption began. King and people were alike affected by the splendid despotism which one wielded and under which the other flourished in material prosperity. In that prosperity they forgot the source of it. The king himself pushed his tolerance for foreign habits into idolatry, “His wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel” (1Ki 11:4-9). Like prince, like people; a general relaxation of moral fiber and religious zeal ensued throughout the kingdom. Its culminating point had been reached, and now there followed the rapid descent and fall which resulted from disobedience. The first step to ruin was the great schism, from the effects of which neither the northern nor the southern kingdom ever recovered. Then followed the various apostasies and punishments. In the southern kingdom, “Rehoboam forsook the Law of the Lord, and all Israel with him. And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak King of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord” (2Ch 12:1, 2Ch 12:2). Jehoram “walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab (for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife): and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord. In his days the Edomites revolted. Moreover the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians, that were near the Ethiopians: and they came up into Judah, and brake into it” (2Ch 21:6-17). In the latter days of Joash, “they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass And it came to pass at the end of the year, that the host of Syria came up with a small company of men, and the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers” (2Ch 24:18-24). In the reign of Amaziah, Jerusalem was taken by Joash King of Israel, because “Amaziah sought after the gods of Edom” (2Ch 25:14-24). Ahaz “made molten images for Baalim Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the King of Syria and into the hand of the King of Israel” (2Ch 28:2-5). At the beginning of the reign of Manasseh, “the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the King of Assyria” (2Ch 33:10, 2Ch 33:11). And at last, these partial chastisements having failed to bring about reformation, came the Babylonish Captivity. “The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the King of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon” (2Ch 36:15-20). The transgressions of the northern kingdom were even greater than those of the southern kingdom, and their final punishment, therefore, fell upon them earlier. “For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, and walked in the statutes of the heathen for they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers Therefore the Lord was very angry, and removed them out of his sight” (2Ki 17:7-18). This occurred in the reign of Hoshea, and in the case of the ten tribes we find no symptoms of repentance under suffering. The two tribes produced a Daniel; and his prayer for the forgiveness of his people (Dan 9:2-19) illustrates the feelings of the better of his fellow-captives; and therefore, according to the promise of Le 26:40-42, God remembered his covenant with Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham, and raised up Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah to effect the restoration; while the ten tribes pined away in the land of their captivity. Thus Moses’ prediction was fulfilled.
God deals with other nations as with Israel; but we have not the inspired record of his dealings. While Greece cultivated intellectual wisdom, she flourished; when she turned to sophistry, she perished. While Rome spread order and law throughout the globe, she grew in strength; when she submitted to the sway of arbitrary despots, she fell. What is England’s mission in the world? To disseminate at once true religion and true liberty. As long as she does this, she will receive God’s blessing. As soon as she fails to fulfill the purpose of her existence as a nation, she will be withdrawn from the scene, and another instrument raised up in her stead.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR
Lev 26:1-46
Temporal rewards and punishments.
cf. Ecc 8:11; Isa 48:18; Mat 5:44, Mat 5:45; and 1Ti 4:8. There is in this chapter a distinct assertion of moral government exercised over Israel. If they obeyed God’s Law, he would grant them great temporal blessing; if they disobeyed, he would send them sore chastisement; but if after disobedience they became penitent, he would remember their fathers and his covenant with them, and receive their penitent seed into favour again. The whole question, consequently, of the “method of the Divine government” is hereby raised. And here let us remark
I. GOD‘S JUDGMENTS, WHETHER REWARDS OR PUNISHMENTS, WERE EXECUTED WITH BECOMING LEISURE AND DELIBERATION. It is along the lines of natural law, as distinguished from miracle, that he proposes to execute his decisions. If the people prove obedient, then they are to have
(1) bountiful harvests;
(2) national triumph and consequent peace;
(3) riddance of the beasts of the field, so far as they would injure their crops;
(4) great increase of the population; and
(5) the enjoyment of religious ordinances.
On the other hand, if the people prove disobedient, they are to have
(1) sickness;
(2) scarcity;
(3) defeat;
(4) devastation by wild beasts;
(5) famine in its most fearful forms; and
(6) a sabbatic desolation in the Lord’s land.
Now, it is to the leisurely and deliberate element in the rewards and the punishments that we direct attention. If God chose to execute his sentences speedily, if obedience got its reward immediately, if disobedience got its punishment without one moment’s delay,then men would have no room for question, and no room for moral education and decision. Such a childish regulation would doubtless prevent a large amount of evil in the world, but it would keep men children always. It is a pitiable stage of education when the child insists on seeing its reward before it obeys, and requires the immediate “slap” to prevent disobedience. If men are to be trained morally, they must be asked to take upon credit God’s promises and threatenings, and decide in the interval before he is pleased to act.
This leaves room for a large amount of evil. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecc 8:11). Men may say, because God does not show quickly his hand, that he may possibly not show it at all. Hence they sin and say, “The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it” (Psa 94:7). The Lord’s delay is interpreted as Divine indifference. This is one of the evils due to man’s sinful heart exercising its freedom under a truly paternal government. Instead of God’s goodness in the delay leading men to repentance, it is allowed to foster a hope that he will resign the reins of government altogether and sit indifferently by, while men do as they please. An instance of this tendency to misinterpretation is afforded by Professor Tyndall, in his ‘Fragments of Science,’ where he has the audacity to deduce from Mat 5:45, “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust,” as the doctrine of the Master himself, that “the distribution of natural phenomena is not affected by moral or religious causes;” whereas the context shows that the whole arrangement is prompted by love towards his enemies, that they may be induced to become his friends. Men get easily warped in their interpretations, and miss the point, or want to miss it.
On the other hand, God’s delay in making good his promises and threatenings affords an opportunity for humiliation and faith. When men believe he will be as good and as severe as he says, then they humble themselves under his mighty hand, and supplicate his forgiveness. When also, as his forgiven ones, they try to the best of their ability to obey him, then the delay of the promised blessing enables them to cultivate the “patience of hope,” and thus to complete their character. If, therefore, there are drawbacks through man’s sin on the one side, there are vast advantages to human character on the other attending this arrangement.
II. GOD‘S JUDGMENTS, EVEN WHEN EXECUTED, HAVE NOT THE AIR OF FINALITY ABOUT THEM. Notwithstanding the special pleading of Warburton and his followers about the temporal character of the Divine judgments among the Jews, and their consequent ignorance about a future life, it is evident on the face of the judgments that they are not final. Little children perishing and eaten in the sieges (Mat 5:29) could not be regarded surely as a final judgment. Children suffering for their parents’ sins could not be regarded as a final judgment. In truth, God’s judgments among the Jews, like his judgments still, were imperfect, and designedly so. “For observe,” says the Hey. Charles Wolfe, “if we found every man in this life received just what he deserved, and every evil work always brought swift punishment along with it, what should we naturally conclude? There is no future punishment in store. I see nothing wanting; every man has already received the due reward of his works; everything is already complete, and, therefore, there is nothing to be done in the next world. Or if, on the other hand, there were no punishment visited upon sin at all in this world, we might be inclined to say, Tush, God hath forgotten; he never interferes amongst us; we have no proof of his hatred of sin, or of his determination to punish it; he is gone away far from us, and has left us to follow our own wills and imaginations. So that if sentences were either perfectly executed on earth, or not executed at all, we might have some reason for saying that there was a chance of none in a future world. But now it is imperfectly executed; just so much done as to say, ‘You are watched; my eye is upon you; I neither slumber nor sleep; and my vengeance slumbereth not.’ And yet, at the same time, there is so little done, that a man has to look into eternity for the accomplishment.”
III. GOD‘S PROMISE TO THE PENITENT IMPLIES THAT THEY ARE NOT PARDONED SIMPLY ON THE GROUND OF THEIR PENITENCE. The Lord contemplates the Jewish defection as practically certain. At the same time, he holds out the hope of the penitent people being restored to favour (Mat 5:40-46). But it is surely significant that penitence is expressly shown not to be the ground of acceptance. Doubtless it is the condition; but were it the sole ground of acceptance, as it is confidently asserted to be, it is not easy to see why in such a case as that now before us God would speak about remembering their fathers, and throwing the radiance, so to speak, of their obedience round about their children (Mat 5:42, Mat 5:45). It is evident the penitents, even after they have been punished, cannot stand alone. And in truth, when the whole matter of acceptance is analyzed, it is seen to rest upon a covenant of sacrifice. The sacrifices of the covenant; as we have already seen, point unmistakably to a suffering Substitute, the glory of whose merits must encircle all accepted ones. In a word, we are led straight to Jesus, the Lamb of God, by whose blood we are redeemed and received into covenant relations. “Accepted in the Beloved,” we are careful to “abstain from the very appearance of evil,” and in the exercise of new obedience we find a triumphant power bestowed. When we hearken to his commandments our peace flows like a river, and our righteousness becomes resistless like the waves of the sea (Isa 48:18). We find that “godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (1Ti 4:8).R.M.E.
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD
Lev 26:1-13
The blessedness of the righteous.
In the words before us we have
I. THE QUALITIES OF THE RIGHTEOUS DESCRIBED. These are:
1. That they worship the true God.
(1) They make no idols. Graven images. Pillars to memorialize advantages supposed to be derived from false gods. Witness the votive offerings of the papists. They might not superstitiously worship such stones of memorial as Jacob set up to memorialize the blessings of Jehovah. The images of stone or “stones of picture” would probably be statues. Note: men make their idols.
(2) They respect Jehovah. He is the Maker of all things. He is himself uncreate. He is the Covenant Friend of the righteous.
2. That they worship him truly.
(1) By keeping his sabbaths. Memorials of his works of creation and redemption. .Pledges of the rest of heaven.
(2) These are: weeklymonthlyyearlyseptennialin the jubilee.
(3) By reverencing his sanctuary. The place of his presence, of his altar, of the congregation of his people.
3. They serve him obediently.
(1) Walking in his statutes. This implies the study of his Word.
(2) To keep his commandments also implies prayer for Divine grace.
II. THEIR BLESSEDNESS ASSURED. They have the promise of:
1. Plenty.
(1) The elements were to be propitious to them. Seasonable rains. These are very important. They are here mentioned as representing all benign elemental influenceslight, heat, electricity,all which are essential.
(2) The result then is abundance (Lev 26:5). Before they could have reaped and threshed out their corn, the vintage should be ready, and before they could have pressed out their wine, it would be time again to sow.
(3) This was to prefigure the abundance of grace which should mark the times of the gospel (see Amo 9:1-15 :18).
2. Security.
(1) From the hostility of the elements. No plague should invade them.
(2) From the hostility of men. No warrior should invade them.
No robber should trouble them.
(3) From the hostility of animals. Where population is reduced by wars and famines, beasts of prey prowl.
(4) How the faithfulness of God has been verified in the history of his people!
3. Victory.
(1) God puts the dread of them into their enemies. They fly before them. Witness the flight of the Syrians in the days of Elisha (2Ki 7:1-20.).
(2) He puts courage into their hearts. Witness the exploits of Gideon, of Samson, of Jonathan and his armour-bearer (1Sa 14:6, 1Sa 14:12).
4. Multiplication.
(1) This is a blessing of the covenant. It is a real strength to a nation. It is a real strength to a Church.
(2) But outside the covenant mere numbers may prove a formidable evil.
5. Divine favour.
(1) “I will have respect unto you.” Contrast with this Heb 10:38.
(2) The token of the favour of God is his presence.
(a) His tabernacle was amongst them in the wilderness. What miracles of mercy were shown to them then!
(b) How glorious were the days of Solomon when the Shechinah entered the temple.
(c) His tabernacle was set among his people in the presence of Jesus (Joh 1:14). But they did not know the blessedness of their day
(d) How blessed is the mystical incarnation of Christ in the believer! (Joh 6:56; 2Co 6:16-18; 2Co 7:1).
(e) The glory of the tabernacle will culminate in the new heavens and earth (see Rev 21:3).
All this blessedness was pledged in the emancipation from the bondage of Egypt (Heb 10:13). More fully in the redemption of the gospel typified thereby.J.A.M.
Lev 26:14-39
Prophetic maledictions.
The promises of God are prophecies of good; so are his threatening prophecies of evil. Prophecy, therefore, gives no countenance to fatalism, since it is made to depend upon conditions. God may, therefore, repent him of evils threatened, viz. when sinners repent of the sin that provoked him. So long as the Hebrews were faithful to their God, they found him faithful in mercy; when they rebelled, they found him no less faithful in judgment. What a commentary upon the verses before us is the history of the Israelites! Let us review
I. THE JUDGMENTS DENOUNCED AGAINST THEM IN THEIR LAND. For their rebellion:
1. They were to be visited with plagues.
(1) The plague of terror. This is the natural plague of a guilty conscience. The apprehension of formidable judgments.
(2) Of consumption. This term expresses all chronic diseases.
(3) Of burning ague. This describes those diseases which are more acute.
(4) All these plagues are to “consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart.”
2. They were to suffer from invasion.
(1) The sword of the enemy was to consume them. How fearfully they suffered under the judges, under the kings, and afterwards!
(2) The exactions of the tyrant were to distress them. When the invaders mastered them, how grievously were they oppressed!
3. They were to encounter the anger of their God.
(1) The plague and the sword of the enemy could not otherwise have visited them.
(2) But in the source itself there is the most formidable terror. “I will set nay face against you.”
4. Their obstinacy was to bring upon them aggravated evils.
(1) The land was to become unfruitful. For the heaven was to be like iron, which might reflect the glare of heat, but could distil no rain or dew.
(2) Wild beasts were to come among them. When the people become diminished by war and pestilence and famine, wild animals multiply and become formidable (see Num 21:6; 2Ki 17:25; 2Ki 2:24; Eze 5:17).
(3) It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Rather let us seek his mercy.
II. THOSE DENOUNCED AGAINST THEM IN THE LANDS OF THEIR CAPTIVITY.
1. They were to be scattered amongst the heathen (Lev 26:33).
(1) Thus ten of the tribes were carried away by the Assyrians.
(2) The two remaining tribes were afterwards removed by the Babylonians.
(3) Some of these returned under Ezra and Nehemiah, and were ultimately carried away by the Romans.
2. The sword was to/follow them there.
(1) The sword of war.
(2) The sword of persecution. So they suffered from pagans, from papists, from Mohammedans.
3. They were to suffer astonishment (verses 36-39).
(1) Faintness of heart, suspicion of danger where it existed not, susceptibility to panic.
(2) Pining in terror.
(3) Perishing through the rapacity of their enemies.
4. Their sufferings were to be protracted.
(1) The land was to enjoy her sabbaths, Houbigant observes how literally this was fulfilled in the seventy years of the Babylonish Captivity. “From Saul to the Babylonish Captivity are numbered about four hundred and ninety years, during which period there were seventy sabbaths of years; for seven, multiplied by seventy, make four hundred and ninety. 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 law relative to the sabbaths of the land.”
(2) The longer term of “seven times” thrice repeated (verses 21, 24, 28) is also notable. These are the “times of the Gentiles,” during which Jerusalem is to be trodden down of them (Luk 21:24).
5. Meanwhile their land was to lie desolate (verses 31-35).
(1) Such has been its history, under the Romans, under the Saracens, under the Crusaders, under the Turks.
(2) Who but God could have foreseen all this? How unreasonable is unbelief!J.A.M.
Lev 26:40-46
Hope for Israel.
The curses of this chapter have proved prophetic. So, may we infer, will the blessings prove. We may therefore hope to see the conversion of the Hebrews to Christ, their restoration to their ancient inheritance, and the sun of prosperity shining brightly upon them.
I. THEY WILL CONFESS THEIR SIN.
1. Their personal iniquity.
(1) They will have many things to confess, as all sinners have. They will “humble their uncircumcised heart” (see Jer 9:26; Rom 2:29).
(2) In particular they will confess their capital sin in rejecting Christ. This crime filled up the measure of their fathers.
2. The iniquity of their fathers.
(1) This was the same as their own. They will acknowledge themselves, not in pride, but in penitence, to be the children of their fathers.
(2) Instead of attempting to extenuate their sin because of the example of their fathers, they will repent for the sin of their fathers as well as for their own. This is in accordance with the principle of the visitation of the iniquities of the fathers upon the children.
3. The justice of God in their punishment.
(1) They acknowledge that they walked contrary to God (see Ezr 9:1-15; Neh 1:4; Neh 9:1, Neh 9:2, Neh 9:29; Dan 9:3, Dan 9:4).
(2) That he has therefore walked contrary to them. Afflictions do not spring out of the dust.
II. THEN GOD WILL REMEMBER HIS COVENANT. Therefore:
1. He will not destroy them utterly.
(1) His providence will be over them. What else could have preserved them now for nineteen centuries amidst untoward circumstances? They are, notwithstanding their sufferings, as numerous today as they were in the zenith of their prosperity in the days of Solomon.
(2) The remnant of them shall be saved.
(3) How tender is the compassion of God! (Hos 11:8, Hos 11:9).
2. He will reinstate them in their land.
(1) He will remember his land. For in the covenant they are promised the land “forever.”
(2) Remembering the land also implies that it will recover its ancient fruitfulness (see promises, Lev 26:4, Lev 26:5, Lev 26:10).
(3) In that condition it will be the appropriate type and pledge of the heavenly country (see Isa 62:4).
3. He will make them a blessing in the earth.
(1) They will grow into a multitude.
(2) They will rejoice in spiritual blessings.
(3) The miracles of the Exodus from Egypt will be repeated.
(4) The heathen will be startled into thoughtfulness (Lev 26:45).
(5) The heathen will once more learn the way of salvation from the lips of Hebrews.
4. In all this they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
(1) This is distinctly stated (verse 42; comp. Rom 11:28).
(2) The patriarchs of the covenant are referred to in the order of ascent, viz. Jacob, Isaac, Abraham. Note: when the Jews in humility confess themselves the children of their more recent sinful fathers, God will acknowledge them as the children of their earlier faithful ancestors.
(3) It is an encouragement to faith that the memory of Divine mercy is far-reachingeverlasting.J.A.M.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Lev 26:1
Idolatry: our danger and our security.
Knowing, as we do, how widespread was the idolatry of the age and how terribly tempted were the children of Israel to fall under its fascination, we do not wonder either at the repetition or the fullness of this commandment. God made it quite clear to his people, and impressed the truth on their minds with strong emphasis, that they must not permit any visible image to come between themselves and him. He would sanction “no idol, nor graven image, nor pillar, nor figured stone” (marginal reading). Respecting idolatry we may do well to consider
I. ITS NATURAL HISTORY. Men do not descend at once into the blind and blank idolatry with which we are familiar.
1. The first step downwards is when men take some object or construct some image which shall remind them of Deity, or stand for God, or be a sign and token of his presence, so that when they see that they shall think of him. This was the case with the “golden calf” which Aaron made. The people presented their offerings to it in connection with a “feast to the Lord” (Exo 32:5). It is too great a mental labour to realize God’s presence by pure thought and meditation; men crave a visible object which shall remind them of the Supreme.
2. The next stepdeep into the thick darknessis to identify the Deity with the object which is the chosen sign of his presence; and the constant, inevitable accompaniment of this act is to multiply the number of divinities; for, as the visible images are many, the gods become many also to the popular imagination. However antecedently unlikely it may seem to us that men would commit such great folly as this, universal history compels us to believe that they have done so. Beginning with the demand for “a sign,” men have “bowed down unto” and worshipped the image, the pillar, the figured stone.
3. Then follows mental, moral, spiritual degradation. The worshippers of idols have attributed to their gods their own infirmities and sins, and then their worship has reacted on their own character, and they have sunk to the lowest depths of abjectness of mind, vileness of spirit, grossness of life.
II. ITS ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS. We must not identify idolatry with those more shameless forms of it which historians and travelers have made known to us. These are its last and worst developments. But the idolatrous element is found where there is
(1) a false association of God with an object with which he has nothing to do, as (in the case referred to) where the Israelites associated Jehovah in their thoughts with an image with which he had no connection whatever; or
(2) a false trust in an object with which God is more or less connected. That was an idolatrous act on the part of the Israelites when they made sure of victory because the ark of God was in the camp (1Sa 4:3-11). God had connected himself with the ark in an especial manner; but the Jews were trusting in it rather than in him, and they leant on a broken reed.
III. ITS APPEAL TO OURSELVES. Our danger is not from the grosser forms of idolatry, nor is it in the former of the two essential elements of it; it is in the latter of these. We are liable to trust idolatrously in that with which God is connected, but which has no virtue at all in itself. We are invited, and sometimes find ourselves tempted:
1. To imagine that a priest can bless us, independently of the truth which he teaches or the spiritual help which he renders us.
2. To suppose that we are nearer to God in sacred places, irrespective of the consideration whether we realize his presence and draw nigh to his Spirit.
3. To seek sanctity, or even salvation, in sacraments apart from the reverent thought and consecrated feeling which they should suggest or excite. This is an idolatrous delusion.
IV. THE PATH OF SAFETY. This is:
1. The avoidance of temptation. We must shun those Churches and services which would seduce us from spiritual purity.
2. The acceptance of the One Divine Mediator we have in Christ our Saviour. There is “one man we can adore without idolatrythe man Christ Jesus.”
3. The use of our faculties for the worship of the Invisible. We can worship him who is a Spirit “in spirit and in truth.” We can realize the presence of the infinite God; we can love him whom we have not seen (1Pe 1:8); we can walk the whole path of life conscious of a Divine Companion whose hand we cannot grasp, but who “leads us all our journey through.” By a living faith, “our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1Jn 1:3).C.
Lev 26:3-13
Incentives to obedience.
Religion has the first claim upon us as the supreme obligation of the soul. We are hound to worship and honour God because we owe far more to him than to all other beings in the universe. The first and all-sufficient reason why we should “worship and bow down” before him, is in the fact that “he is our God”that One from whom we come, in whom we live, from whom cometh down every good gift. But God condescends to urge us to obedience by presenting incentives to our minds. He wishes us to consider that he has made it infinitely remunerative for us to do so; that, by so doing, we become recipients of the largest blessings he can confer and we can receive. There is so much of contrast as well as comparison between the blessings of the old and the new dispensations, that we must divide our subject into two parts.
I. THE INCENTIVES WHICH GOD HELD OUT TO HIS ANCIENT PEOPLE. These were importantly spiritual, but prominently temporal. If they did but “walk in his statutes, and keep his commandments, and do them” (Lev 26:3), they might reckon on
(1) fertility in the field (Lev 26:4, Lev 26:5, Lev 26:10);
(2) sense of security from without and disturbance from within (safety and peace, Lev 26:5, Lev 26:6);
(3) victory in war (Lev 26:7, Lev 26:8);
(4) national growth (Lev 26:9);
(5) God’s presence with them (Lev 26:11, Lev 26:12);
(6) his pleasure in them (Lev 26:11); and
(7) his guarantee of their liberty and self-respect (Lev 26:13).
II. THE PROMISES WHICH HE HAS MADE TO US. These are partly temporal, but principally spiritual. They include:
1. Sufficiency of worldly substance. God does not now say, “Serve me, and you shall be strong, wealthy, long-lived,” but he does say, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things” (food, clothing, etc.) “shall be added unto you” (Mat 6:33). “Godliness has promise of the life that now is” (1Ti 4:8). Those who are his children in Christ Jesus may reckon upon all needful support from his bountiful hand.
2. Consciousness of spiritual integrity. As God made his people to be delivered from the yoke and to “go upright” (Lev 26:13), so he makes those who have returned to him, and who have escaped from the yoke of sin, to “walk in uprightness of heart.” Instead of shrinking in fear, bowing down with a depressing sense of wrong-doing, we have a happy consciousness of integrity of soul. We say with the psalmist, “As for me,” etc. (Psa 41:12).
3. Sense of reconciliation with God. God promises peace and a sense of safety (Lev 26:5, Lev 26:6) to those who seek his favour in Christ Jesus. Being justified by faith in him, we have peace with God; and we know that, whatever may be our circumstances, we are secure behind the shield of his almighty love.
4. Victory in the battle of life. If it be not wholly true that “our life is but a battle and a march,” yet it is true that there is so much of spiritual struggle in it, from its beginning to its close, that we all understand only too well what is meant by “the battle of life.” There are many foes with which to wrestle (Eph 6:12), and we need the invigorating power which only the Spirit of the Strong One can impart. If we are his, he will help us in the strife. “Our enemies will fall before us” (Lev 26:7; see 2Co 2:14 and Rom 8:37).
5. His presence with us and his pleasure in us. “God will set his tabernacle among us;” he “will walk among us” (Lev 26:11, Lev 26:12). He will be “with us always,” and his sustaining presence will uphold us in the darkest hour, in the most trying scene. “His soul will not abhor us” (Lev 26:11); he will take Divine pleasure in us; we shall be his children, his guests, his friends, his heirs.
6. An everlasting heritage in him. He will be our God (Lev 26:12). The sacred page does not speak of any duration; but that which is adumbrated in the Old Testament is revealed in the New. Jesus Christ has brought life and immortality out into the light, and we know that “him that overcometh will the Son of man make a pillar in the temple of his God, and he shall go no more out,” etc. (Rev 3:12), and that “to him that overcometh will he grant to sit with him on his throne,” etc. (Rev 3:21). The present and the future, the best of the one and the whole of the other, are the heritage of those who “know the will of God and do it.” Surely it is the choice of the wise to “make haste and delay not to keep his commandments.”C.
Lev 26:23, Lev 26:24
Our God and ourselves.
The text suggests the question, How far does God’s treatment of us depend on our attitude towards him? And the answer must be somewhat complex.
I. IN LARGE MEASURE, GOD‘S TREATMENT OF US IS QUITE IRRESPECTIVE OF OUR CONDUCT TOWARD HIM. He has done much for us from the promptings of his own generous and beneficent nature. As the sun gives light because it is light, regardless of the objects on which it shines, so our God, who is a Sun (Psa 84:11), is sending forth beams of truth, love, beauty, happiness, because in him is all fullness, and from that abundance there must flow blessing and bounty on every hand (see Psa 103:10, Psa 103:11; Mat 5:45).
II. IN LARGE MEASURE, GOD‘S TREATMENT OF US DEPENDS ON OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD HIM.
1. Right feeling on our part is reciprocated with kind feeling on his. If we love him, he will love us and come to us (Joh 14:23).
2. Rebellious conduct on our part brings down adverse action on his part. If we” will walk contrary to him, he will walk contrary to us, and punish us for our sins.” The greater part of this chapter (Lev 26:14-39) is a terrible admonition that, if we provoke God by our willful disobedience, we must expect to find his hand against us in all the paths of life, our growing iniquity meeting with his multiplying wrath and darkening retribution.
3. Repentant action on our part is met by returning favour on his (Jer 3:22; Joe 2:12-14; Isa 44:22; Isa 55:7). Let the prodigal son arise to return, and, “while yet a great way off,” the heavenly Father will run to meet and to welcome him (Luk 15:1-32).
III. GOD‘S GOODNESS TO US WILL SEEM TO US TO VARY ACCORDING TO THE RECTITUDE OF OUR SOULS TOWARD HIM. As men seem to us to be just or unjust, kind or unkind, according to the position we occupy toward them, so also does the Father of spirits. “All the paths of the Lord are” (and are seen to be) “mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies” (Psa 25:10). But the ways of the Lord will seem “contrary” to the rebellious. With the merciful man God shows himself merciful; with the froward he shows himself froward (Psa 18:26). The guilty will exclaim against the inequality of God’s dealings (Eze 33:17). He will seem unjust because they are unholy, because their spirit is false and wrong (Mat 20:15). Those who fear God and love his Son their Saviour, join in the psalm of the Church on earth, “The Lord is righteous in all his ways, his tender mercies are over all his works” (Psa 145:1-21); they anticipate the strain of the Church in heaven, “Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints” (Rev 15:3).C.
Lev 26:14-39
Divine retribution.
The Divine Legislator of Israel knew well that he must contemplate disobedience as well as obedience to his laws. When he had intimated the fullness of the reward he would bestow on the faithful, he was compelled to pass on to “But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do,” etc. It is sad to think that it did not need Divine prescience to foretell this issue. Human disobedience is too constantly occurring a factor in human history to require that: it may always be safely assumed. We have now to deal with God’s treatment of it; and we see
I. THAT GOD PUNISHES IT WITH VARIOUS EVILS. (Lev 26:14-18.) God always says to us, “If ye will not do my commandments, I will set my face against you.” To the Israelites he threatened specifically:
(1) bodily sickness;
(2) unprofitable labour;
(3) defeat in battle;
(4) subjection to a hated rule;
(5) ignominious terror and flight.
If we sin we must expect to suffer in mind, body, or estate. Guilt and misery are necessarily conjoined. Sin deserves to suffer: there needs no further explanation of suffering than that God’s holy and righteous Law has been transgressed. Yet, while the Divine Lawgiver visits sin with retribution because it is right that it should receive this mark of his holy disapproval, it is also true
II. THAT GOD‘S PUNISHMENT IS MEANT TO BE REMEDIAL. “If ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me” (Lev 26:18). Then it is clear that these providential visitations would be meant to lead to a better spirit, to a disposition to hearken and to obey. God, when he punishes, not only does an act of righteous retribution, which his position as Supreme Judge demands of him, but he also does that which he desires shall lead to penitence and restoration. He smites us in one member that he may heal us altogether. lie takes away a little that he may give very largely, lie sends passing pain that he may give enduring joy. God’s retributions are his” corrections,” his paternal chastisements, his strong but kind admonitions. By them he lays his hand upon us and says to us, in tones we cannot fail to understand, “Repent and return, and be restored.” But we learn from these verses
III. THAT MAN TOO OFTEN REFUSES TO HEED THE DIVINE CORRECTION. “If ye will not yet for all this hearken” (Lev 26:18); “if ye will not hearken unto me” (Lev 26:21); “if ye will not be reformed by me by these things” (Lev 26:23). Often men do listen and learn and obey when God comes to them in sickness or in sorrow; but only too often they do not. They continue in or revert to their evil course, they fall again into crime, into vice, into unconcern, into indecision.
IV. THAT GOD LAYS A HEAVIER HAND ON PERSISTENT AND OBDURATE IMPENITENCE. He gave to his people fair and full warning of what they were to expect at his hand. They knew that obduracy on their part would entail gathering and growing evils, leading on and down to uttermost destruction. There would come the enmity of the elements, with consequent disaster in the field (Lev 26:19, Lev 26:20); desolation and bereavement (Lev 26:22); pestilence and famine (Lev 26:25, Lev 26:26); revolting and unnatural cruelties wrought among themselves (Lev 26:28, Lev 26:29); exile and dispersion (Lev 26:33); terror of soul (Lev 26:36, Lev 26:37); national destruction and impending extinction (Lev 26:38, Lev 26:39). These solemn and fearful threatenings are, no doubt, directed against Israel, the specially instructed people. As God “exalted that land unto heaven” in privilege and opportunity, so he “brought it down to hell” in condemnation and doom. But when we remember with what retribution God visited the sins of the antediluvian world, of the cities of the plain, the Canaanites, the great cities of Babylon and Nineveh, and when we recall the sufferings and humiliations he has brought down on lands and cities in more modern times, we may conclude that those nations which will not learn when God speaks to them in wrath and in “his high displeasure” may look forward to a time of gathering disaster and final ruin.
God’s retributive dealings with nations have their counterpart in his action toward individual lives. Men who sin and suffer, and who will not learn by the things they suffer, may take to heart the truth that God’s manifested wrath will reach them here or will overtake them hereafter; they may well wish that it may arrive soon rather than late, for as time passes and as sin indurates and blinds the soul, there is the less likelihood that the sacred lesson will be learnt before death shuts the book of opportunity, and eternity opens that other book of judgment and award.C.
Lev 26:40-45
Sorrow unto salvation.
The chastisements of God, like the gospel of Jesus Christ, are either a savour of life unto life or of death unto death; they either make or mar; they may sanctify and save or they may leave the soul more bound in the bonds of sin than ever. It is only godly sorrowsorrow regarded in a true light and treated in the way that God intendedthat works repentance unto salvation; otherwise it works death (2Co 7:10). The right use of affliction is indicated in the text; there must be
I. A SENSE OF ILL DESERT. The uncircumcised heart must be humbled (Lev 26:41). God seeks by his chastisements to break our pride, our haughtiness of heart, our sinful self-complacency. Until this is done nothing is done. When the soul is at ease in its iniquity, it is in a very “far country,” a long way from God, truth, salvation. When trouble touches and pierces our complacency, filling the soul with a sense of its rebelliousness, as soon as the heart says, “I have sinned,” a large part of the work of the correcting hand is wrought. Then necessarily and readily follows
II. THE LANGUAGE. OF CONFESSION. Directly the heart feels the lip speaks. Too often men use the language of penitence when the feeling is entirely absent. But he that searcheth the hearts makes due distinction between the words which are true and those which are false. There is nothing gained with God by adopting the language which we ought to be disposed to use, but which does not express our actual condition; everything unreal is offensive in his sight. But there is much gained by the simple, natural, heartfelt utterance of penitential feeling. “If they shall confess their iniquity,” etc. (Lev 26:40-42). “With the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom 10:10). The spirit thus taught of God through his servant, sorrow, has now
III. THE SUBJECT WILL. It “accepts of the punishment of its iniquity” (Lev 26:41). It says, “Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more: that which I see not teach thou me,” etc. (Job 34:31, Job 34:32). It is “in subjection unto the Father of spirits” (Heb 12:9). It submits to his guidance and surrenders itself to his will. And then comes
IV. DIVINE RESTORATION. God “remembers his covenant” (Lev 26:42, Lev 26:45). As he remembered the covenant he made with the ancestors of the children of Israel, and “did not abhor them” (Lev 26:44), but withdrew his anger from them, so he remembers his promise with us, sealed with a Saviour’s blood, to pardon our sins and to restore our souls to his Divine favour. Yet there are
V. LINGERING CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. With penitent Israel, toward whom God was extending his mercy, “the land also was to be left of them, and was to enjoy her sabbaths, while she lay desolate without them” (Lev 26:43). With us, when penitent and restored, when taken back into the family and kingdom of God, there are lingering consequences of sin which even Divine mercy does not, cannot removeconsequences in:
(1) miserable memories which will visit the mind;
(2) enfeebled faculty that must work in a lesser sphere with smaller influence;
(3) diminished reputation among men;
(4) abiding results in those who have been injured, and who are beyond the reach of our restoration, etc. While facing this solemn facta fact which makes sin seem to us the stern, sad, hurtful thing it iswe may nevertheless find a glad relief in recalling
VI. THE BLESSED HOPE OF THE HOLY. There is a country where the penal consequences of sin will be so removed from sight and sense that to our consciousness they will exist no more. Sin and sorrow shall never cross the stream that “divides that heavenly land from ours;” they must always remain on this side of it. What will remain to us there is a remembrance that will enhance our joya recollection of sin that has been forgiven, and of sorrow that has been endured, both the one and the other magnifying the mercy of our crowned and exalted King.C.
HOMILIES BY S.R. ALDRIDGE
Lev 26:3-8
Obedience and prosperity.
The connection between godly conduct and material good may not seem to us so close or so clearly discernible as that which is promised in these verses. Still, the heart of the promise remains, and instances have never been wanting to prove that “godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” The prophecy of Amos (Amo 9:13)evidently founded on this passage of the Lawrefers to gospel times, and reminds us that the declarations of the text are capable of a spiritual application which invests them with deeper meaning and grander results.
I. THE PROPRIETY OF OBEDIENCE.
1. Man is unfit to guide his own way. “It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” He is a creature swayed by passion, short-sighted, fallible in judgment. Nor can the united wisdom of the multitude secure the framing of a code free from prejudice and error. We may consult the instructions of Scripture as our unfailing chart; we may listen to its precepts as the helmsman does to the commands of the captain, assured that from his loftier position he can better determine the course the vessel ought to take.
2. The Almighty possesses irresistible claims upon our obedience. He is our Creator and Governor, Father and Benefactor. tie has bestowed upon us all our earthly and our spiritual benefits, and in particular spared not his only Son for our sakes. Supremely wise and holy, we cannot without manifest incongruity refuse to follow his counsel and rule of life. We are rebels if we neglect his injunctions. To pick and choose which we will conform to is to assume presumptuous functions.
3. The statutes are such as to commend themselves upon maturest reflection. Any precept plainly contrary to reason or morality no will has power to enforce. But the hexaplar verdict of the psalmist will be pronounced by all who study the laws of God, “The statutes of the Lord are right,” etc. (Psa 19:7-9). The teachings of Jesus Christ are a master-piece of skill, goodness, and purity. If universally adhered to, the world would become an Eden.
II. THE REWARD OF OBEDIENCE.
1. Blessings are promised to the obedient. Plenty. The ground shall be fertile, the fruit gathered in harvest shall more than suffice to carry the husbandman on to the next ingathering. The gospel does at any rate teach Christian stoicism, making a man contented with his lot, and he who has sufficient for his wants cannot complain. But in the spiritual region we may have a never-ceasing flow of gifts. For God is bountiful, and loves to grant richest graces unto his people. If only we are prepared to receive, the floodgates of his bounty will be opened. Peace. They shall dwell at home in safety, none causing terror. Strife amongst God’s own people shall be unknown, the inestimable blessing of tranquility shall diffuse its sweetness over the land. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.” Calm of conscience is the peculiar privilege of the believer in Christ. Bodily suffering cannot destroy this peace. The testimony of a well-known minister on his death-bed recently was, “Within I have deep peace, though around is constant searching pain.” Victory, if foes attempt to molest. The Christian life is a warfare, and this is quite consistent with the enjoyment of peace. It is an external sphere of conflict, the enemy is determined and active, “but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The obedient soldiers are likeliest to come off conquerors when the general is skilled in strategy. And as Havelock’s men, by their observance of moral rules, were ever prepared for duty, so are those who conform to the precepts of Christ certain of success in the struggle against sin. The association is much more intimate between obedience and spiritual triumph than that which is here promised in the Law.
2. These blessings are eminently desirable. It speaks a wise and gracious God to have made it so greatly men’s interest to keep his laws. In any case we are bound to do what seems right, yet, if this conduct were not coincident with advantage, life would be a melancholy scene. Peace, plenty, and victory are just what the heart desiderates and men strive to attain. God will not offer what men contemn. lit is true that the degraded may at first fail to appreciate the joys of prosperity and tranquility, yet education is possible, and even brief reasoning must convince of the value of these inducements.
3. The list is comprehensive. There is material prosperity and moral good, and in the following verses religious satisfaction is promisedGod dwelling in the midst of his people. Nothing that can add to man’s real happiness is absent from the catalogue of pleasures to be participated in by the obedient.
III. GENERAL REFLECTIONS.
1. There is nothing wrong in allowing ourselves to be influenced by the promise of rewards. Man is compelled to anticipate; prudence is a virtue. All depends upon the character of the rewards. If they minister to base, ignoble lusts, then to be moved thereby is indicative of an evil state of mind. But if the blessings are legitimate and elevating, in accordance with principles implanted by our Maker, then the hope of obtaining them is a strong incitement to be cherished rather than checked. To impel men to a holy life by preaching the bliss and glory of heaven is surely allowable and to be commended.
2. The worth of these rewards will be enhanced by a consideration of the misery of their oppositeswant, turmoil, and defeat. Such is the lot of those who follow their own devices, blindly hurrying to ruin. The prodigal imagined that he must see the world anti leave his father’s home in order to be happy, but he soon discovered his dire mistake.
3. History proves God’s faithfulness to his word. As long as the Israelites kept the Law, their condition was one of security, development, and honour. Every age has testified to the fulfillment of Divine declarations, forcing from the skeptical an acknowledgment of “a power that makes for righteousness.” Seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all other things have been added. On the other hand, it has been found hard to kick against the pricks. What Carlyle terms the “eternities” war against the evil-doer. As predictions have been fulfilled in the past, so we are confident that all the promises of God shall ultimately be realized in the experience of his faithful servants.S.R.A.
Lev 26:11
God dwelling amongst men.
All possible methods were employed to attach the Israelites to the Law. Solemnity of its promulgation, judgment executed on transgressors, enticing promises and terrifying threats. Chief among inducements to obedience was the promise of the text.
I. SETTING UP A TABERNACLE IMPLIES.
1. Settled residences in the midst of the people. This was more than an occasional appearance on the mountain-top or in the wilderness. A tent is, at least for a season, a fixed abode. The Almighty would never be far distant from his lieges as he had seemed to be in preceding years.
2. Friendly, familiar intercourse with the people. He condescended to their manner of life, inhabiting a home as they did, passing as it were from one to the other. This is expressed in Lev 26:12, “I will walk among you.” Naught of pollution was suffered for the reason given in Deu 23:14, “The Lord thy God walketh in the midst of the camp.” A special revelation of God is intimated, that he would be known, not as omnipresent in space, but as peculiarly present, interchanging visits with his people.
3. The assurance of Divine blessing. Guidance, assistance, forgiveness,all are herein included. God would be always near to be entreated. At the tabernacle sacrifices could be offered to purge away defilement. “The heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore” (Eze 37:28), God’s presence is superior to any of his works; if we have him, we have all good things guaranteed.
II. THE PEOPLE OF GOD MAY WELL WONDER THAT HE SHOULD DELIGHT IN THEM AND NOT VIEW THEM WITH ABHORRENCE. To abide with man would be impossible if disgust were continually uppermost in the mind of God.
1. Consider man’s sinfulness. How repugnant to the pure and holy One of Israel is every thought of iniquity, much less its overt commission! How often must he be shocked at the sights and sounds that gratify sinful creatures? Peter, awakened to a sense of his unworthiness, cried out, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
2. Consider man’s imperfections, his ignorance and frailty, his dullness of perception, his insensibility to refined and elevated tastes and emotions. If one nurtured in good society revolts at the idea of close communion with those inferior in the social scale, whoso manner of life and habits of thinking are so different, how great must be the disparity between heaven and earth! what a descent must God feel it to be to consort with creatures of such petty selfish alms and. uncultured ways! Only real pitying love, a desire to benefit and raise these miserable objects, a vision of what it was possible for them to become by such fellowship with the Most High, could have invested men with sufficient interest in the eyes of God to permit him to dwell amongst them. If the people strive to fulfill the behests of the Law, much of their degradation will vanish, and be succeeded by integrity and righteousness, which shall gradually beautify their character and customs. “My soul shall not abhor you,” if you honour my precepts by strict fidelity.
III. THE PROMISE VERIFIED.
1. In the local habitation of God at Shiloh and Jerusalem. There God placed his Name and exhibited his power and favour.
2. In his personal manifestation in Christ Jesus. “In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” “The Word dwelt among us.” Then was answered the question, “Will God in very deed dwell with man upon the earth?” Christ sojourned like ourselves in a house of clay, mingling with men and women in their daily tasks, sat at the same table with publicans and sinners.
3. In the presence of God spiritually in the heart of the individual believer, in the Church of Christ as a whole, making it the temple of God, and in the various assemblies, small or great, of the saints. “Where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them.” The grandest fulfillment will be when the Lord God Almighty shall himself constitute the temple in which they shall offer their worship and service. “He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among (spread his tabernacle over) them.” No more hungering nor thirsting, no death, sorrow, nor crying, when God shall thus absolutely completely draw near to his people.S.R.A.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Lev 26:1, Lev 26:2
Command to maintain the public worship of Jehovah.
I. PURITY OF WORSHIP. No idols or images.
1. Spirituality of religion.
2. Dependence of man on revelation. The deistic position of natural religion untenable.
3. The worship of God should be the free and grateful remembrance of past benefits received, therefore the leading elements of it should be faith and praise, not, as in heathenism and corrupt Christian systems such as the Roman Catholic, the slavish subjection of man to the fear of Divine wrath and the mediation of priests.
II. CONSECRATION BOTH OF DAY AND PLACE. Sabbath and sanctuary.
1. As necessary on account of the weakness of our nature. We cannot keep the mind above the world unless we are separated at times altogether from it.
2. The rallying point of fellowship. In the communion of saints there is special spiritual help.
3. As maintaining the holy order of human life, giving distinction and eminence to the highest things, predicting the future rest, revealing the dependence of the bodily life on the life of the soul, and of the happiness of earthly toil on the blessing of God.
4. The Christian sabbath as based on the resurrection of Christ has a new form of obligation and a larger sphere of holy suggestion. It is not so much commanded as vitally connected with the whole strength of Christian motive.R.
Lev 26:3-39
Promises and threatenings.
Lev 26:12, “And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.”
I. The true law of human life.
1. Religion the upholding support of individual, social, national well-being. Natural laws subservient to higher ends. Ascending scale in the universe, the physical the basis of the psychical, the psychical of the moral, the moral of the spiritual.
2. The covenant relationship of God and man the only true form in which the ideas of religion can be realized and maintained. Personality of God, freedom of man. Interchange of confidence. Living communion. Support of prayer, which should embrace all wants and possibilities.
3. Illustration of the connection between providence and religion in the history both of individuals and nations. Importance of insisting on the truths contained in this chapter as against secularism and fanaticism and mysticism. Religion is objective as well as subjective. Tremendous fact that, notwithstanding both the promises and threatenings, Israel failed to keep the Law. Illustration of human fall and dependence on Divine grace.
II. Divine government.
1. Righteous.
2. Merciful.
3. Revealed in connection with a system of truth and actual promises appealing to faith.
4. Embracing those who know not God, as well as his people.R.
Lev 26:21
Threatenings.
I. Actually fulfilled in history of the Jews, especially at siege of Jerusalem, A.D. 70.
II. Illustrating the moral nature of man as connected with a moral government.
III. Taken in order of announcement after the promises, reminding us that God willeth not the death of a sinner. The brightness of the love on the background of righteousness.R.
Lev 26:40-46
The gracious invitation to repentance.
The covenant may be restored. Even in the midst of the declarations of Divine sovereignty and government, long-suffering mercy meets “the earliest and faintest breathings of a broken and penitent spirit.”
I. Confirm by history (see Judges and Kings). The restoration from Babylon. All consummated in Messiah.
II. The free grace of God is the foundation of hope; “I am the Lord their God;” “I will remember;” “for all that I will not cast them away” “of faith, that it might be by grace.”
III. The forgiveness of God dependent on the fulfillment of declared conditions. “If they shall confess;” “if their uncircumcised heart be humbled.”
1. Spirituality of religion maintained from the beginning.
2. The purpose and. end of all Divine chastisements to produce an acceptable state of heart.
3. The true penitence was the true circumcision, in other words, it was a renewal of the covenant, therefore included faith and acceptance of the Divine revelation and ordinances, Repentance and faith are one in the higher light of the gospel, for they are both “toward” the covenant in Christ Jesus.R.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Lev 26:1. Ye shall make you no idols, &c. For the word rendered idols, see on ch. Lev 19:4. For the word rendered standing image, see Exo 34:13. The words rendered, image of stone, are, in the Hebrew, eben mashkit, a stone of fixing; i.e. a stone fixed, or set up. Some suppose, with the margin of our English Bibles, that the words signify a pictured stone, like those in use among the Egyptians, which were full of hieroglyphics, expressing some perfections of their gods: but it is most probable the sacred writer means, by forbidding pillars, and fixed stones, to forbid the superstitious use of those obelisks and pillars, which, in the ruder times of idolatry, were erected to the honour of the sun, moon, and stars; and which were of different forms, sometimes pyramidical, sometimes plain square stones, well known among the Greeks by the name : and it is probable that this practice was derived from an imitation of the true worshippers; see Gen 28:18. Jablonski has traced the origin of these pillars in the very curious and learned Prolegomena, cap. 2: sect. 33 prefixed to his Pantheon, to which we refer. We may just observe, that the sacred writer being about to give solemn promises and denunciations to his people, by way of enforcing all the foregoing precepts, prefaces them by a recapitulation of the two laws which peculiarly distinguished the Israelites: the abhorrence of idolatry, and the observation of the sabbath; each alike calculated to preserve and enforce the worship of the true God.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
PART FOURTH
Conclusion.Promises and Threats
Lev 26:1-46
1Ye shall make you no idols1 nor graven image,2 neither rear you up a standing image,3 neither shall ye set up any image of stone4 in your land, to bow down unto5it: for I am the Lord your God. 2Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
3, 4If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then will I give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. 6And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts 7[animals6] out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. 10And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth [clear away7] the old because of the new. 11And I will set my tabernacle [dwelling-place8] among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. 12And I will walk among you, and will be your 13God, and ye shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen: and I have broken the bands9 of your yoke, and made you go upright.
14But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 15and10 if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: 16I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror,11 consumption, and the burning ague [wasting away, and the burning fever12] that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart [the soul to pine away13]: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. 18And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 20and your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land14 yield their fruits. 21And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 22I will also send wild beasts [animals6] among you, which shall rob you of your children [make you childless15], and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. 23And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of [omit the quarrel of16] my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send a pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the 26hand of the enemy. [;] And [omit And] when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. 27And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.30And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images,17 and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols,18 and my soul shall abhor you. 31And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries19 unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. 32And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 33And 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.
34Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. 35As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because [all the days of its desolation it shallrest that which20] it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. 36And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness21 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; 37and they shall fall when none pursueth. And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: 38and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity22 in your23 enemies lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
40If 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 41unto me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept24 of the punishment of their iniquity: 42then 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.
43The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept24 of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
44And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. 45But 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.
46These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Lev 26:1. . See Textual Note3 on Lev 19:4.
Lev 26:1. from to carve, is used of an image of any material, but is here taken, as in Isa 44:15; Isa 44:17; Isa 45:20, of an image of wood.
Lev 26:1. lit. anything set up. Hence used of a memorial stone, Gen 28:18-22; Gen 35:14; Isa 19:19; answering to the of the ancients. As these came to be used for idolatrous purposes the word obtained its secondary sense as in the text (Exo 23:24; 2Ki 3:2, etc.). The marg. of the A. V. follows the LXX. . The Vulg. has titulum.
Lev 26:1. does not elsewhere occur in connection with , but its meaning by itself figure, imagery, is sufficiently well settled. The only question here is whether the phrase denotes an image of stone (A. V. so Keil), or a stone with images sculptured upon it (A. V. marg. Rosen.). The latter is probably the more correct view, but not sufficiently certain to warrant a change in the text. LXX. apparently in the sense of a prophylactery, and of this the Vulg. lapidem insignem may be a translation. Targ. Onk., and Jon. and Syr. stone of adoration; Targ. Jerus. stone of error.
Lev 26:1. The construction of here has somewhat perplexed the critics. Geddes contends that as it never elsewhere precedes the object of adoration, it must here signify at, by or upon. Keil explains it on the ground that the worshipper of a stone image rises above it (for in this sense, see Gen 18:2). But this fact is, at the least, very doubtful; and the ordinary meaning of as signifying motion towards, , seems to be all that the connection requires.
Lev 26:6. . See Textual Note 1 on Lev 11:2.
Lev 26:10. is exactly rendered by the A. V., but the sense intended is better conveyed by the suggested emendation of Clark.
Lev 26:11. . See Textual Note 8 on Lev 15:31.
Lev 26:13. , lit. the poles of the yoke (comp. Eze 34:27), i.e., the poles which are laid upon the necks of beasts of burden (Jer 27:2) as a yoke. Keil. For the Sam. and many MSS. have the fuller form .
Lev 26:15. The conjunction is wanting in 6 MSS., the Sam., Vulg., and Syr.
Lev 26:16. For = terror the Sam. reads = sickness as a general term including the specifications that follow. The word is rendered in the A. V. of Jer 15:8 as here, and in Psa 78:33; Isa 65:23, trouble. It does not occur elsewhere. The idea is that of mens hearts failing them for fear, Luk 21:26.
Lev 26:16. = wasting away is well expressed by the consumption of the A. V. in its etymological sense, but is in danger of being misunderstood of the specific disease of that name which is rare in Palestine and Syria. The LXX., however, has . , LXX. , according to all authorities should be burning fever. Fevers are the most common of all diseases in Syria and the neighboring countries. These words occur only in the parallel, Deu 28:22.
Lev 26:16. . The literal translation is more expressive than the paraphrase of the A. V.
Lev 26:20. For 21 MSS. and the LXX. read .
Lev 26:22. . The literal rendering is sufficient.
Lev 26:25. lit. avenging the covenant vengeance. As this cannot be expressed in English the is better left untranslated than rendered by quarrel, which it does not mean.
Lev 26:30. . In most other places where the word occurs (2Ch 14:5 (4); Leviticus 34:4; Isa 17:8; Eze 6:4) the marg. of the A. V. has sun-images. Such was undoubtedly the original meaning of the word; but Gesenius (Thes.) shows that the word was applied to images of Baal and Astarte as the deities of the sun and moon. The word indicates idols of the Canaanitish nature-worship. Keil.
Lev 26:30. = something to be rolled about, a contemptuous expression for idols. The Heb. had three different words which are rendered idol in the A. V., and seven which are rendered image.
Lev 26:31. More than 50 MSS., the Sam. and the Syr., have the sing. The plural refers to the holy things of the worship of Jehovah, the tabernacle and temple, with their altars, and the rest of their holy furniture, as in Ps. 68:36; Psa 74:6, Keil; and not to the sanctuaries of false gods (Rosen and others).
Lev 26:35. Here also it is better to keep to the literal rendering of the Heb. . The land should rest not merely because, but it should actually rest the time which it had not rested.
Lev 26:36. . LXX. , Vulg. pavor. It signifies that inward anguish, fear, and despair, which rend the heart and destroy the life. Keil. Comp. Deu 28:65.
Lev 26:39. is either iniquity (as here twice and in the next verse twice), or the punishment of iniquity (as in Lev 26:41). The phrase perish in ones iniquity is however sufficiently common, and there is no occasion to change the translation here. The = with them at the close of the verse refers to the iniquities.
Lev 26:39. For your more than 80 MSS. read their , so also the Sam., LXX., Sym., Theod., Vulg. and Syr. as the text in Lev 26:41.
Lev 26:41; Lev 26:43. . The same word as is used in Lev 26:34; Lev 26:43, the land shall enjoy her sabbaths. The literal rendering is perhaps too bold for our version; but the meaning is really this. The land being desolate shall have the blessing of rest, and they having repented shall have the blessing of chastisement. So the LXX. and Syriac. Clark. Comp. Isa 40:2. .
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Lange here again insists that Lev 26:1-2 are properly the close of the foregoing section. It was already too late to adopt his division when his work appeared; but independently of this the connection with the present chap. is preferred. The verses reiterate the most fundamental requirements of the law, and thus form an appropriate introduction to these concluding promises and threats.
The whole precepts and prohibitions of the Book of Leviticus have now been given, and here the people are incited to their faithful observance by promises of blessings on their obedience and curses upon their disobedience. This arrangement is both natural in itself, and is in accordance with the analogy of the warnings and promises (Exo 23:20-33) at the close of the Book of the Covenant, (Exo 20:22 to Exo 23:19) and in the parting exhortations of Moses (Deuteronomy 29, 30). The passage in Exodus, however, relates to the conquest of the land, while here the subsequent history of the nation is had in view. The chapter contains: first, promises upon their obedience (313); it then describes the consequences of disobedience (1439), which are put hypothetically, but evidently contemplated as likely to occur; and finally, looks forward to the restoration of the covenant on the repentance of the people (4044), which is also put hypothetically, but is evidently prophetic. Lev 26:46 forms the conclusion of this whole series of legislation.
Objection has been made to the Mosaic origin of this chap. by rationalistic critics on account of its prophetic character. Certainly it is prophetic, and if this be objected to any portion of Scripture, the objector must be met on other than merely exegetical grounds, but here the rationalistic argument may be fully met in a different way. It is impossible to conceive that the author of the remarkable legislation contained in this book, possessed of as intimate knowledge as he must have been of the people under his charge, should not have foreseen that they would fail to maintain the standard of holiness here required, and that consequently God, whose holiness and majesty it has been his object to set forth, would visit them for their transgressions. It is but a step beyond this to look forward to the effect of chastisement and humiliation in producing repentance, and when this had been effected, his knowledge of the mercy and loving-kindness of God assured him of the restoration of the people to His favor. See this point admirably treated by Keil in a note on p. 468.
Lange: The germ of this whole setting forth of blessing and curse already lies in the decalogue itself (Exo 20:5; Exo 20:12), but especially as a conditional promise of blessing in the section Exo 23:23-33. It is appropriate to the purpose of Leviticus that this germ now comes here to its development, that by the side of the promise of blessing on the keeping of the covenant comes out very explicitly the threatening of curse on the breach of the covenant; for the contrast of blessing and curse goes forth from the religious behaviour or misbehaviour towards the law of God as a whole, as all particular commands are summed up therein It must not be overlooked that the subject is here always Israel in its totality, the nation as a whole. The date of this section is thereby shown to be very ancient; for it would have been otherwise from the days of Messianic prophecy. Then the contrast comes forward very strongly: the apostate Israel, and the Israel reforming itself; also the contrast: the Israel of the mass, and the Israel of the poor, of the humble, of the purified remnant. For this reason it would be a false inference to consider the conditional prediction of our section as apodictical, or indeed to suppose that the curse would fall upon every individual of the nation of Israel. The apostasy of Israel has often been treated as if the flower of its elect had fallen under the curse, although history declares that the Gentile church was grafted upon the stock of the Jewish, and Paul can designate the unbelieving portion of the Jews as some, notwithstanding its numerical majority, in contrast to the dynamical majority whose central point is Christ Himself. The national curse has then been fulfilled only in a conditional degree in contrast to the dynamical blessing overmastering all curse; but nevertheless in a degree which has shown in fearful majesty the reality of the threatening of the curse. It is a vain attempt when one seeks to intimate, like Knobel, that our prophecy looks back upon that which has already occurred in isolated particulars; at all events, this creates no prejudice against its Mosaic origin, for its fulfilment has been progressing even to the present day, and is not yet fully accomplished. Yet even at the present day the emphasis falls upon the fearful realization of the curse upon the nation; upon individuals, however, as such, only in proportion as they transmit the fanatical or unbelieving spirit of the community.
Our section, moreover, is characterized as a prophetic word in that it brings into view in grand outlines a future which it cannot and will not describe with verbal definiteness. Yet a progress consonant to nature is to be observed in the gradations of the curse, which one might enjoy as a physiological picture of development.
If we suppose that one may speak of the Divine government or word blamelessly if the section before us is invested with a less mysterious aspect, we overlook the fact that the course of things immanent in life remains the same although the prophetic character of the word be set aside; that the chapters of calamity remain the same although one seek to erase the superscription from the punishment and from the judgment. Strange that one should think the world will thereupon cheer up when he traces back the dark destiny of a people to a gloomy fate, instead of to the justice of the living God. It is the very nobility of apostate Israel that its Jehovah is, and has been, jealous with such burning jealousy over its fall; and it would even seem worthy of contempt if it were considered as the football of a gloomy destinyits sorrows without reason, without proportion, and without purpose. Certainly also the continuing motive for the rejection of Israel itself is its ill-will-against Jehovah, or indeed against the Gentiles, in return for which it must acknowledge in its history its well deserved visitation
That the bearing of God towards Israel was an impartial bearing, which could only be obscured through the idea of a national God, is proved even by our section with its threatenings in presence of the development of the history of Israel itself: they have been brought out of Egypt, and Canaan must become their land; but when they apostatize, they must lose Canaan and must be scattered among the heathen (Keil, p. 169 [Trans. p. 468]). Not only the impartiality indeed, but the jealousy of Jehovah must be made manifest in this. The idea or key of the whole history and destiny of Israel is: vengeance of the covenant. The people could fall so low because they stood so high, because they were the first-fruits, the first-born son, the favorite of God (Jeshurun). But for this reason especially the promise of their restoration is bound up with the prophecy of their curse (Isa., Jer., Ezek., Hos., etc., Romans 11). Knobel gives prominence to the peculiarly elevated language of this section; it cannot be explained by the ordinary mechanicism of Elohistic and Jehovistic documents.
This chapter forms a part of the same Divine communication with the preceding one.
Lev 26:1-2. These verses include substantially the first table of the decalogue, and by this short summary the whole duty of the Israelites toward God is called to mind and made the basis of the following promises and warnings. On Lev 26:1 see the Textual Notes. Lev 26:2 is a repetition verbatim of Lev 19:30. Here, at least, it must be understood to include the whole of the appointed seasons as well as the weekly Sabbaths.
A. The Blessing. Lev 26:3-13
With Lev 26:3 a new Parashah of the law begins, extending to the close of Leviticus. The parallel proper lesson from the prophets is Jer 16:19 to Jer 17:14. The subject here is not the isolated good conduct of individuals, but the keeping of the Covenant of the people as a whole and its general tendency to blessing; the contrast to which, the breach of the Covenant, is moulded into the tendency to curse. Lange.
Lev 26:4. Lange: Rain in its season appears here as the first gift of Jehovah. When He gives the rain from heaven, the earth gives its produce and the fruit-trees give their fruit; there is formed a chain of gifts whose beginning lies in the mysterious hand of God. The allusion here is to the showers which fall at the two rainy seasons, and upon which the fruitfulness of Palestine depends, viz., the early and latter rain (Deu 11:14). The former of these occurs after the autumnal equinox, at the time of the winter-sowing of wheat and barley, in the latter half of October or beginning of November. It generally falls in heavy showers in Nov. and Dec., and then after that only at long intervals, and not so heavily. The latter, or so-called latter rain, falls in March before the beginning of the harvest of the winter crops, at the time of the sowing of the summer seed, and lasts only a few days, in some years only a few hours (see Robinson, Pal. ii., pp. 97 sqq.). Keil. [Also Robinson, Phys. Geog, of the H. L., p. 263.] In consequence of these rains the land should yield so rich an increase that your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time (for the next year). [Lev 26:5. Comp. Amo 9:13.]
Lev 26:6-8. The second yet higher gift of blessing is peace in the land, and that in relation to wild beasts [ , an evil animal, for a beast of prey, as in Gen 37:20. Keil] as well as to war; therefore they shall lie down as a herd which no beast of prey and no robber shall affright. Yet more: neither shall the sword go through your land, because they should drive back triumphantly from their borders the enemies who should make any attack. The aggressor should fall by the sword upon the border. On the language in Lev 26:6 comp. Job 11:19; Psa 147:14; Eze 34:25-28. Lev 26:8 is a proverbial mode of expression for superiority in warlike prowess. Comp. Deu 32:30; Jos 23:10; Isa 30:17.
Lev 26:9-10. Lange: The third blessing is fruitfulness: increase upon increase of the people, and the strengthening of the Covenant under the special support of Jehovah. The multiplication of the people was a part of the covenant promise (Gen 17:4-6), and its fulfillment established the covenant (ib. 7); not merely preserved it, but became the means by which it should be extended ever farther and farther. In view of this increase the promise of Lev 26:10 becomes more emphatic: so far from a dearth being caused by the multitude, the new store should be reached before the old could be consumed. This constitutes the fourth particular of the blessing.
Lev 26:11-13. Lange: The fifth blessing is the highest: the flower of their religion and religiousness. Jehovah will establish His dwelling (His living habitation) among them.And I will walk among you, etc.This promise touches typically even upon the height of the Christological incarnation. Joh 1:14. [As this whole chapter has in view their residence in Canaan, so this promise in particular does not refer to Gods leading His people in their wanderings, but to His continual manifestation of Himself in their midst in their settled home.F. G.] For these promises, spiritually and dynamically understood, Jehovah, the personal God of Israel, makes Himself security; and He has given them their deliverance from Egypt as a proof and pledge. They shall not become the slaves of men through distress, but shall stand upright as the servants of God. That is, the yoke of bondage which bowed down their heads as beasts of burden had been broken, and God had made them in consequence walk upright.
B. The Curse. Lev 26:14-33
Lev 26:14-15. Lange: The breach of the Covenant. He begins with the external contempt of the ordinances of the covenant, and goes on to the internal scorn and rejection of the covenant law, a transgression therefore of the commands in their totality. This is carefully to be borne in mind in regard to these warnings. These judgments are threatened, not for single breaches of the law, but for contempt of all the laws, amounting to inward contempt of the Divine commandments and a breach of the covenant (Lev 26:14-15)for presumptuous and obstinate rebellion, therefore, against God and His commandments. Keil. Single sins, or sins of individuals, are not the subject, but the general apostasy of the nation.
Lev 26:16-17, contain what Lange describes as the punishment in the first grade; it is the warning of visitation upon apostasy alone before it has become complicated with the added guilt of obdurate persistency. Three punishments are mentioned which are to be sent together, and not singly as they were offered to the choice of David after his sin in numbering the people (2Sa 24:12-14)disease, famine and defeat. It is easy to see how all these might (and historically did) come upon Israel as a natural consequence of their neglect of the Divine law; but they were none the less judgments of Him who had commanded that law and ordained that nature itself should protect it. Lange justly says: One must not overlook the spirit of the Divine action; it is called visitation (Lev 26:16), and henceforth this is the principal thought and purpose which pervades all the punishments. It is also of a deeper meaning here that Jehovah will set His face against them; for their enemies are His instruments, and they will be smitten. Comp. Eze 33:27-29.
Lev 26:18-20. According to Lange, the punishment in the second grade, or the first of the more severe measures to be visited upon obdurate disobedience. Here, and in each of the three remaining stages (Lev 26:18; Lev 26:21; Lev 26:24; Lev 26:28), the expression seven times is used. It is at once the number of perfection, indicating the full strength of the visitation, and also the sabbatical number, reminding the people of the broken covenant. Comp. Gen 4:15; Gen 4:24; Psa 79:12; Pro 24:16; Luk 17:4. There are five degrees in the ever seven times more severe punishment. God punishes so, that He always in wrath remembers mercy, and gives time for repentance. But no punishment is so great that a greater cannot follow it. Von Gerlach.
Lev 26:21-22. Lange: The punishment in the third grade. The godlessness becomes aggressive; they walk inimically towards Jehovah, the apostasy advances to bolder idolatry and contempt of God. But meanwhile, Jehovah yet stands still, and only sends against them the forerunners of His vengeance: ravaging beastsa symptom of falling into decay: robbers of children, calamities among live stock, depopulation, desolated highways. The beasts may here be understood not merely literally. Comp. Jdg 5:6; Isa 33:8; Eze 5:17; Eze 14:15. (to go to a meeting with a person, i.e., to meet a person in a hostile manner, to fight against him) only occurs here in Lev 26:21; Lev 26:23, and is strengthened in Lev 26:24; Lev 26:27-28; Lev 26:40-41, into , to engage in a hostile encounter with a person. Keil.
Lev 26:23-26. Lange: The punishment in the fourth grade. Now Jehovah also becomes aggressive and acts inimically towards them, as if He would destroy them. Now the breach of the covenant is decided, and the sword comes over them as the avenger of the covenant. Picturesque delineation of the three dark riders, Revelation 6, only that here the plague goes before the famine. The idea of the text is clearly that by the inroads of the enemy Israel would be shut up in their cities, and while besieged there, would be visited with pestilence and famine. Such calamities were repeatedly experienced, 2Ki 6:24-29, etc. Comp. Isa 3:1; Jer 14:18; Eze 4:16; Eze 5:12, and especially the story of the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans. To break the staff of bread is a frequent proverbial expression for the infliction of extreme scarcity. One oven should suffice for the bread of families ordinarily baked in ten, and in its scarcity it should be dealt out by weight.
Lev 26:27-33. Lange: The punishment in the fifth grade. Now Jehovah moves against them verily in fury, and the last catastrophes follow: despair even to madness; the eating of their own children (Knobel, Keil, and the Jewish history) [comp. Deu 28:53; 2Ki 6:28-29; Jer 14:12; Lam 2:20; Lam 4:10; Eze 5:10. Also Jos. Bel. Jud. v. 10, 3.F. G.]; overthrow of their idolatrous cultus, in the sarcastic conception that the dead bodies of men fall down on the mock dead bodies of their idols, carcases upon carcases [comp. 2Ki 23:16; Eze 6:4. The high places refer to places of idolatrous worship as in use among the Canaanites and most other nations, and which must have been already sufficiently familiar to Moses and his people.F. G.]; overthrow of even the real historical sanctuary; repudiation of the sacrificial cultus, Lev 26:31 [comp. 2Ki 25:9; Psa 74:6-7]; desolation of the land, so that even the enemies settling therein recognize the dismal footprints of punitive justice, deportations of the people (one after another, comp. the Jewish history from Alexander to Hadrian). Comp. Jer 9:16-22; Jer 18:16; Jer 19:8; Ezekiel 5. Also Deu 4:27-28; Deu 28:37; Deu 28:64-68.
Effects of these Visitations. Lev 26:34-39
Lev 26:34-35, express the restorative effect accomplished by the punishment itself. The land must needs enjoy its Sabbaths while it lay desolate. In regard to the kingdom of Judah, 2Ch 36:21 expressly fixes the length of the Babylonish captivity with reference to the number of unobserved Sabbatical years. These constituted the Sabbaths of the land, the weekly Sabbath of one day being too brief for effect upon the soil. Lev 26:36-39 describe in fearful terms the effect of the Divine visitation upon the remnant who should escape immediate destruction. On the language of Lev 26:38 comp. Num 13:32; Eze 36:13.
C. The Restoration of the Covenant. Lev 26:40-45
Lange: The first thing is the acknowledgment and confession of guilt. But the repentance would be thorough only in case the misdeeds of the fathers were acknowledged along with their own misdeeds, see Psalms 51. The view that Jehovah has interposed, contending against them because they contended against Him, is the second thing, Lev 26:41.(Repeated declaration in regard to the cause of the punishments.) The humiliation under the judgment of their having an uncircumcised heart, i.e., of their being heathen in a spiritual sense, is the third. Yes, they come now to bless the punishments of their misdeeds, to rejoice over them, since God has visited them in this manner (). Keil accepts the translation of the LXX. , they will take pleasure, rejoice in their misdeeds, i.e., in the consequences and results of them. We hold with Luther to the idea of (see Gesen.) as sufficient punishment; the paradox itself O felix culpa could not be translated: they have pleasure in their misdeeds. But to salute the cross is a proof in action of a deeper religiousness, which here already germinates. [See, however, Textual Note 24.F. G.]
Lev 26:41. In a religious sense the divine pardon is the cause, in a moral sense the consequence of the repentance of the people; the remembrance of the Covenant with Jacob and Isaac and Abraham, i.e. an ever-deepening, inward remembrance of the old love, appears to awake in Jehovah, for it does awake in the consciousness of the people. The holy land itself, which cannot be forgotten and is kindly, receives now a peculiarly affecting form. The land whose mourning is changed to feasts, and the people whose penitence is changed to feasts, accord so affectingly with Jehovah, that, so to speak, He reveals Himself again as justifying: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet for all thattheir pardon is approaching: viz. the restoration, and that truly entirely according to the analogy of the restoration from the land of Egypt. That this promise is effective for the nation of Israel, but is not to be understood of the spiritual Israel as such, needs no argument. At the close again, . [The promise of mercy upon Israel when they should repent and turn to the Lord, was certainly a promise to the covenant people, and was repeatedly fulfilled in their history, especially in the restoration from the captivity of Babylon. But the promise (Jer 31:31-34) was that in the days to come God would make a new covenant with His people of a more spiritual character, and in the Ep. to the Heb (Lev 8:10-12; Lev 10:15-18) we are told that this has been accomplished in the Christian Church springing from the bosom of the Jewish. The continued faithfulness of God to His people according to the promises of this section, must therefore be now looked for after a Christian and spiritual, rather than a Jewish and temporal fashion.F. G.]
And thus it is conformable to the truth of a personal God that He should attach the utmost importance to afflicting the personal life of His people, and then reanimating it again. If it is said; What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? so is it likewise said: What shall it harm a man, if he shall lose the whole world, and his soul thereby be delivered? Would a philosophy in opposition to this, which has sunk the personal life in impersonal things, be a higher wisdom?
It is to be understood that the principles of this Divine government over Israel apply, according to their modifications, to His government over every nation.
At the beginning of this chapter Lange says: It cannot be concluded from Lev 26:46 that Leviticus should properly end with this section; Lev 26:46 much rather looks back to Lev 26:3, and makes it clear that the subject here is the Covenant bond between Jehovah and the people of Israel. Lev 26:46 undoubtedly looks back immediately to Lev 25:1, the beginning of the Divine communication of which this is the end; but as it also forms the close of Leviticus 26, so we cannot but regard this chapter itself as closing the Book of Leviticus proper. The analogy of this with other portions of the law has already been pointed out, and the reasons for regarding Leviticus 27 as an appendix will be mentioned in the treatment of that chapter.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
I. The warnings and promises of this chapter show it was foreseen that much of the Mosaic legislation was likely to be neglected by the people. Nevertheless God gave it. The same is true of much of Christian duty, both in regard to definite observances as baptism and the Lords Supper, and still more in regard to the standard of Christian life and character. But because man does not come up to its requirements, the law is not thereby foiled of its purpose; its requirements were not lowered to the level of human weakness and sinfulness, but rather designed to set forth so much of the Divine holiness and purity as would be instrumental in raising man to a higher level. It was not like the legislation of ordinary states, intended primarily to meet the exigencies of existing facts and to keep offenders in order. Its purpose was to help and instruct the best of the people, not merely to chastise the worst. Other legislators have taken their starting points from human facts: Moses took his from the character and purpose of God. Clark. And in this, to the thoughtful man, is a really powerful evidence of the Divine authorship of the legislation.
II. In Lev 26:39-40, the iniquity of their fathers is made a part of the sin for which the people were to suffer, and on the confession of which they were to be forgiven. As this is Gods revealed word, so does all history show that it is in accordance with His government of nature that in nations, as in individuals, the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children; but all this is nevertheless under the law that the sincere repentance of the children shall avert from them the punishment of their forefathers sins as well as of their own.
III. Illustrative of Lev 26:41 is 2Co 7:10 and Heb 12:11. The punishments of God leading to repentance, however grievous they may seem, are yet truly occasions of rejoicing in view of their higher object.
IV. In Lev 26:46 the covenant legislation of Mt. Sinai is expressly said to have been given by the hand of Moses. This fact is sufficiently patent throughout the whole story of the legislation; but its emphatic mention here has a double use: first, in showing that this book claims a contemporary origin; and second, in bringing out the fact of the necessity of a mediator between man and God. If Moses was only a human mediator, especially strengthened and authorized for this purpose; yet he points forward typically to the one true Mediator from whom alone man may know the will of God, and through whom alone be may draw near to His inapproachable majesty.
V. Although it is abundantly evident from the warnings of this chapter that man is unable so to keep Gods commandments as to claim any reward as of merit; yet it is also clear from its promises, and especially from these as contrasted with the warnings, that He does look with favor upon and will bless and reward the honest effort to do His will. These things are spoken of Israel as a nation, and are true of all nations in all time; but nations are made up of individuals, and the principles of the Divine bearing towards man are as true of the component elements as of the mass in its totality.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Lange: The great contrast of blessing and of curse which lies in the lawwhich the law strengthens. The law speaks not only of curse, as many imagine; it speaks also of blessing. For it is one thing to be occupied with the works of the law and to seek righteousness through the law and by means of works (according to Gal 3:10 sqq.), and another thing to stand under the law in the true fear of God, and to strive after its righteousness until one comes to the righteousness which is of faith (according to Romans 7). The law of Jehovah ever stands under the protection of the Lawgiver. It is the rule of His power; it is the spirit of the worlds history; it is the voice of conscience (Romans 2), and the disposition of the heart. The blessings of fidelity to the law: the piety of a people, the fruitfulness of the land, peace, victory, etc., etc. (Lev 26:1 sqq.). The fearful gradations of the curse. Particular blessings. Particular curses. The final promise of the restoration of Israel out of the state of the curse. Jehovah will remember His covenant for all those who reform themselves.
There is a marvellous and grand display of the greatness of God in the fact, that He holds out before the people, whom He has just delivered from the hands of the heathen and gathered round Himself, the prospect of being scattered again among the heathen, and that, even before the land is taken by the Israelites, He predicts its return to desolation. These words could only be spoken by One who has the future really before His mind, who sees through the whole depth of sin, and who can destroy His own work, and yet attain His end. But so much the more adorable and marvellous is the grace, which nevertheless begins its work among such sinners, and is certain of victory notwithstanding all retarding and opposing influences. Auberlen.
God promises in Lev 26:11-12, that He will set His tabernacle and will walk among His peoplea typical promise, fulfilled in Christ who tabernacled in us (Joh 1:14), and through whom we become Temples of God the Holy Ghost (1Co 3:16-17; 1Co 6:19), and God will tabernacle for ever with us (Rev 7:15; Rev 21:3). Wordsworth.
Origen deduces from this chapter a commentary on 2Ti 2:5 : If a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. Our efforts to obtain Gods blessing, our hope of avoiding His wrath, must be in the way of His commandment. We can only please Him by seeking to do His will, and He has made it known to us.
There is ever a due relation between the temporal and the spiritual, and these promises show that the rewards held out before the Israelites were of a spiritual as well as a temporal character; so it is to be remembered that along with the more spiritual rewards of the Christian religion, it has the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. Calvin.
Footnotes:
[1]Lev 26:1. . See Textual Note3 on Lev 19:4.
[2]Lev 26:1. from to carve, is used of an image of any material, but is here taken, as in Isa 44:15; Isa 44:17; Isa 45:20, of an image of wood.
[3]Lev 26:1. lit. anything set up. Hence used of a memorial stone, Gen 28:18-22; Gen 35:14; Isa 19:19; answering to the of the ancients. As these came to be used for idolatrous purposes the word obtained its secondary sense as in the text (Exo 23:24; 2Ki 3:2, etc.). The marg. of the A. V. follows the LXX. . The Vulg. has titulum.
[4]Lev 26:1. does not elsewhere occur in connection with , but its meaning by itself figure, imagery, is sufficiently well settled. The only question here is whether the phrase denotes an image of stone (A. V. so Keil), or a stone with images sculptured upon it (A. V. marg. Rosen.). The latter is probably the more correct view, but not sufficiently certain to warrant a change in the text. LXX. apparently in the sense of a prophylactery, and of this the Vulg. lapidem insignem may be a translation. Targ. Onk., and Jon. and Syr. stone of adoration; Targ. Jerus. stone of error.
[5]Lev 26:1. The construction of here has somewhat perplexed the critics. Geddes contends that as it never elsewhere precedes the object of adoration, it must here signify at, by or upon. Keil explains it on the ground that the worshipper of a stone image rises above it (for in this sense, see Gen 18:2). But this fact is, at the least, very doubtful; and the ordinary meaning of as signifying motion towards, , seems to be all that the connection requires.
[6]Lev 26:6. . See Textual Note 1 on Lev 11:2.
[7]Lev 26:10. is exactly rendered by the A. V., but the sense intended is better conveyed by the suggested emendation of Clark.
[8]Lev 26:11. . See Textual Note 8 on Lev 15:31.
[9]Lev 26:13. , lit. the poles of the yoke (comp. Eze 34:27), i.e., the poles which are laid upon the necks of beasts of burden (Jer 27:2) as a yoke. Keil. For the Sam. and many MSS. have the fuller form .
[10]Lev 26:15. The conjunction is wanting in 6 MSS., the Sam., Vulg., and Syr.
[11]Lev 26:16. For = terror the Sam. reads = sickness as a general term including the specifications that follow. The word is rendered in the A. V. of Jer 15:8 as here, and in Psa 78:33; Isa 65:23, trouble. It does not occur elsewhere. The idea is that of mens hearts failing them for fear, Luk 21:26.
[12]Lev 26:16. = wasting away is well expressed by the consumption of the A. V. in its etymological sense, but is in danger of being misunderstood of the specific disease of that name which is rare in Palestine and Syria. The LXX., however, has . , LXX. , according to all authorities should be burning fever. Fevers are the most common of all diseases in Syria and the neighboring countries. These words occur only in the parallel, Deu 28:22.
[13]Lev 26:16. . The literal translation is more expressive than the paraphrase of the A. V.
[14]Lev 26:20. For 21 MSS. and the LXX. read .
[15]Lev 26:22. . The literal rendering is sufficient.
[16]Lev 26:25. lit. avenging the covenant vengeance. As this cannot be expressed in English the is better left untranslated than rendered by quarrel, which it does not mean.
[17]Lev 26:30. . In most other places where the word occurs (2Ch 14:5 (4); Leviticus 34:4; Isa 17:8; Eze 6:4) the marg. of the A. V. has sun-images. Such was undoubtedly the original meaning of the word; but Gesenius (Thes.) shows that the word was applied to images of Baal and Astarte as the deities of the sun and moon. The word indicates idols of the Canaanitish nature-worship. Keil.
[18]Lev 26:30. = something to be rolled about, a contemptuous expression for idols. The Heb. had three different words which are rendered idol in the A. V., and seven which are rendered image.
[19]Lev 26:31. More than 50 MSS., the Sam. and the Syr., have the sing. The plural refers to the holy things of the worship of Jehovah, the tabernacle and temple, with their altars, and the rest of their holy furniture, as in Ps. 68:36; Psa 74:6, Keil; and not to the sanctuaries of false gods (Rosen and others).
[20]Lev 26:35. Here also it is better to keep to the literal rendering of the Heb. . The land should rest not merely because, but it should actually rest the time which it had not rested.
[21]Lev 26:36. . LXX. , Vulg. pavor. It signifies that inward anguish, fear, and despair, which rend the heart and destroy the life. Keil. Comp. Deu 28:65.
[22]Lev 26:39. is either iniquity (as here twice and in the next verse twice), or the punishment of iniquity (as in Lev 26:41). The phrase perish in ones iniquity is however sufficiently common, and there is no occasion to change the translation here. The = with them at the close of the verse refers to the iniquities.
[23]Lev 26:39. For your more than 80 MSS. read their , so also the Sam., LXX., Sym., Theod., Vulg. and Syr. as the text in Lev 26:41.
[24]Lev 26:41; Lev 26:43. . The same word as is used in Lev 26:34; Lev 26:43, the land shall enjoy her sabbaths. The literal rendering is perhaps too bold for our version; but the meaning is really this. The land being desolate shall have the blessing of rest, and they having repented shall have the blessing of chastisement. So the LXX. and Syriac. Clark. Comp. Isa 40:2. .
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This chapter seems to form a brief summary of the arguments, by which the laws contained in the foregoing chapters are enforced; in that it points out the blessings to obedience, and the curses which will follow upon disobedience. The conclusion of it is very remarkable, in that it ends with gracious promises, even to the most rebellious, when their heart is turned to seek the LORD.
Lev 26:1
I would request the Reader, in the very entrance upon this chapter, to remark, as he goes on through the perusal of it, how very striking the process of divine grace, both in mercies and in threatened judgments is carried on. I have often read the chapter on this account with peculiar pleasure. May the HOLY GHOST make it profitable also, for the same reason, to the Reader! It begins with that truth which we so often meet with in the Old Testament scriptures, the LORD’S jealousy for his honor! How precious is it to the true believer in CHRIST, to discover that by grace he is kept from idolatry, and from that horrible state of nature, to which but for grace, he would be equally exposed; and which the Apostle ascribes to the polite, and (as the world would call them) the learned inhabitants of Rome. See Rom 1:22-25 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
XI
THE PROMISES AND THREATENINGS OF THE COVENANT
Lev 26
1. What is the lesson?
Ans. Lev 26:1-46 .
2. What is the theme?
Ans. The promises and threatenings of the covenant?
3. What is the relation of this chapter to the entire covenant covenant?
Ans. It is its proper conclusion.
4. Why then, another chapter?
Ans. To show how vows not commanded in the covenant should be regulated if voluntarily made.
5. But as tithes are commanded in the covenant, why introduce a section on that in connection with voluntary vows?
Ans. The section on tithes is introduced in that connection merely to regulate the voluntary feature of tithes, namely, how certain tithes may be redeemed at the option of the tithe giver, so that the insertion of the tithe matter just here does not vary from the voluntary feature of the chapter.
6. Show how his chapter of Leviticus becomes a remarkable apologetic.
Ans.
(1) All the rest of the Old Testament and all the New Testament continue the notable prophecies in this chapter concerning the Jews as a people and their land, thus establishing the structural unity of the entire Bible. The later development of the line of prophetic thought in this chapter, in later books of the Bible, demonstrates the early writing of the book of Leviticus and the necessity of its having been a part of the Sinaitic covenant.
(2) History for more than 3,000 years has verified the promises of this chapter and still continues the verification.
7. Elaborate several points of this.
Ans.
(1) The prophecies themselves are too remarkable to have been the subject of guessing by human foresight, or when fulfilled at any time, to be accounted for by mere coincidence.
(2) What is here said about the Jews, and its remarkable development or fulfilment in every succeeding stage of their history, would apply to no other nation in the history of the world, and this is equally true with reference to the destiny of the land which they occupied under the terms of the covenant. Nothing like this can be derived from the history of any other nation or land. It is egregious folly to try to get rid of the supernatural element in these prophecies by trying to date the writings of this book in the times of the exile, or even in Christian times, since these prophecies are not actually and evidently fulfilled at the present time and provide for a reach to the end of time. Nothing like this can be found in the books of any other religion. For example, suppose, for argument’s sake, we assume that the book of Leviticus was written in the time of the exile, or later, then how can the prophecies of Jeremiah alone be accounted for, touching the seventy years of bondage to Babylon, in order that the land might rest for the part demanded in the 490 years of antecedent history?
8. What was the express condition of all these promises and threatenings?
Ans. Obedience, or keeping the covenant on the part of the people, insured the fulfilment of all the promises, while disobedience, or breach of the covenant on their part, was followed invariably and exactly by the vengeance threatened. This, in every stage of their national life, is there fully verified by history, or there is no such thing as history.
9. Analyze and summarize the promises.
Ans. (1) Regular seasons and abundant harvests are promised to obedience; (2) internal peace; (3) safety from destructive beasts and pests, which are accustomed to destroy the flocks and herds and crops, and under certain conditions, man himself; (4) Absolute defense from external enemies, and supernatural victory over them on the field of battle; (5) Marvelous increase of population; (6) And most important, God’s tabernacle would be fixed among them and his abiding presence as covenant God, ever bestowing spiritual blessings, fully assured.
10. State some remarkable features of these promises and their spiritual application.
Ans. (1) It was promised that the threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage unto the sowing time, and that they should eat old stores long kept, and then have a surplus to remove in order to make place for the new harvest. The spiritual application of these remarkable promises may be found in the prophecy of Amo 9:13 , which says, “Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them.” If you wish to see the spiritual significance of this prophecy of Amos, then study Spurgeon’s great sermon on revivals, which takes for its text Amo 9:13 . The thought is that an obedient church living in connection and close with God, will live in a state of continuous revival. There will be no interval between sowing and reaping. Planting new seed and reaping harvest from seed already planted, will go hand in hand every Sunday. Like a tree whose foliage never dies and which continually bears buds, blooms, and fruit in every stage of development, and fruits fully ripe at any time.
(2) One of these promises is that five shall chase a hundred and a hundred shall chase ten thousand. The history of the Jewish people teems with illustrations of these remarkable promises. Gideon and his band of three hundred, with trumpets, lamps, and pitchers, discomfiting and putting to utter rout an army; Jonathan and his armor bearer coming by night on a great army and through a God-given panic sent among the enemy, put them to flight; the first book of the Maccabees shows many instances of like nature, under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus. We will compare these incidents with the saying, “One with God is a majority.”
11. Analyze and summarize the threatenings.
Ans.
(1) In general, they are the reverse of the promises; disease succeeds health; crops either fail or are eaten by the enemy; flocks and herds are destroyed by wild beasts or become the spoil of the adversary; God’s face is against them, and the enemy triumphs over them; instead of five of them chasing one hundred, they become panic-stricken and flee when none pursueth, and when in captivity the fall of a leaf shall strike them with sudden terror.
(2) These threatenings contemplate frequent or continuous breaches of the covenant, to be followed by four ascending series of vengeance ever increasing the extent and intensity of the punishment. These series alone as to the ascending grades of vengeance on those who continue incorrigible, are worthy of profoundest study. They are all characterized by the number seven, the sacred number of perfection, each series will have its seven strokes, the last culminating in a climax of unspeakable disaster. By turning to your Bibles you will find this first series in Lev 26:18-20 ; the second series in Lev 26:21-22 , and this last is the climax, which will fill up the measure of both the iniquity and the punishment of the Jewish nation.
12. What follows this most remarkable denunciation of long continued tribulation upon the Jewish people?
Ans. There is a glorious promise of their penitence brought about by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, followed by their restoration and salvation as a nation. The promises of this ultimate salvation of the Jewish people, as set forth in Lev 26:40-45 of this chapter, place their redemption entirely with God’s grace and his own remembrance of the covenant which they have so often broken. If we want to understand just how this most remarkable future event this side of the judgment seat of Christ will occur, we have only to study the following passages of Scripture: Isa 66:8 , which foretells the unique event of a nation born in a day; Ezekiel 36-37, which, by a vivid illustration based on the imagery of the resurrection of the dead, show the power which brings about the marvelous event; then Zec 12:9 ; Zec 13:1 . The New Testament passages are equally marvelous and confirmatory, for example, our Lord’s great prophecy shows when this tribulation of the Jews shall end, Luk 21:24 , and in Paul’s still more remarkable discussion Rom 11:25-36 . The last verse of chapter 46 shows that this is a proper conclusion to the Sinaitic covenant.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Lev 26:1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up [any] image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I [am] the LORD your God.
Ver. 1. Ye shall make you no idols. ] See Trapp on “ Exo 20:4 “ See Trapp on “ Exo 20:5 “ God knew the people’s proneness to idolatry.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Leviticus Chapter 26
CHAPTER 13.
THE COVENANT WITH MOSES, AND THAT WITH THE FATHERS
Lev 26:1-13
Chapters 26 and 27 wind up the book as an appendix: the first on the obligations which bound all the people of Israel; the second on the vows of the individual.
Chap. 26 opens with the prohibition of image worship, and with the reverence due to the sabbath and the sanctuary of Jehovah, the pillars of the law; the very evils to which man was most prone (vers. 1, 2). This is followed by His blessings on their obedience (vers. 3-13).
” 1 Ye shall make yourselves no idols, nor rear yourselves carved image or statue, nor shall ye set up a figured stone in your land, to bow down unto it; for I [am] Jehovah your God. 2 Ye shall observe my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I [am] Jehovah. 3 If ye walk in my statutes and observe 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; 5 and your treading out (or, threshing) shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing-time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land securely. 6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make [you] afraid: and 1 will put away the evil beasts out of the land; and the sword shall not go through your land. 7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword; 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. 9 And I will turn my face toward you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. 10 And ye shall eat old store and clear off the old because of the new. 11 And I will set my habitation among you; and my soul shall not abhor you; 12 and I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. 13 I [am] Jehovah your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you walk upright” (vers. 1-13).
The sons of Israel of all men had the least excuse for idolatry. Those who heard His voice out of the midst of fire, and besought a mediator lest they should perish, saw no similitude, and heard Him denounce the heathen device of representing Him by any likeness of the creature in heaven above, or on earth beneath, or in the waters that sink below it. He could not be true God if He tolerated bowing down to another god. Real service must be His exclusively; yet Aaron’s deplorable weakness here betrayed itself at the beginning of their history, and Solomon’s even worse in its zenith. There too lay the continual warfare of His true prophets with the false who misled kings and priests and people, till there was no remedy; and He who loved them had to say, “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it. And it shall be no [more], until he come whose right it is; and I will give it [him]” (Eze 21:27 ).
But there was another thing hateful in His eyes, where they set up no strange god. Nor is anyone more explicit in denouncing their profane irreverence and shameless hypocrisy than Malachi, the last of the post-captivity prophets. We know from his contemporary Nehemiah how His sabbaths were then profaned, and His sanctuary set at nought The sabbath had a special place in the decalogue as flowing simply from divine authority, prescriptive and not in the same sense moral as the other nine commandments. It was instituted as a sign of creation and a pledge of God’s rest; and God imposed it in His law for Israel, the measure of man’s responsibility, as a sign to them as His people. A new day, the first day of the week, is the day of Christ’s resurrection, the Lord’s day for the Christian, as the day of the new creation in Him, and of sovereign grace to us who now believe for heavenly glory as His body and bride. The sabbath is in no way abrogated or changed or spiritualised, but must be fulfilled in all its own blessedness for man on earth, and for Israel God’s firstborn among all nations, when idols vanish for ever, and the sanctuary of Jehovah shall never be profaned more.
The conditional blessings are for Israel obedient to their God, Jehovah, and earthly, however rich; they are not those characteristic of the Christian, whatever special pleaders argue. If Israel walk in His statutes submissively, rain is assured in due season, the earth will yield its produce, and trees their fruit; the threshing reaches to the vintage, and it to the sowing time. Bread to the full should be theirs, instead of selling it for their other wants, and safety within their dwellings. Nay more, neither evil beasts, nor hostile sword should alarm. it I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall terrify.” “And ye shall chase your foes, and they shall fall before you by the sword,” five chasing a hundred, and a hundred putting ten thousand to flight. ”And I will turn my face toward you, and make you fruitful and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.” The old store will abound beyond their eating and need clearing away because of the new. And, better still, “I will set my habitation among you, and my soul shall not abhor you; and I will walk among you and be your God, and ye shall be my people.” As He began, so would He continue: “I [am] Jehovah your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen, and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you walk upright.”
CHAPTER 14
THE PENALTIES OF THE VIOLATED COVENANT
Lev 26:14-26
Then Jehovah pronounces the inevitable consequences of Israel’s disobedience.
” 14 But if ye hearken not unto me, and do not all these commandments, 15 and if ye shall despise my statutes, and if your soul shall abhor mine ordinances, so that ye do not all my commandments, that ye break my covenant, I also will do this unto you: 16 I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and fever, which shall cause the eyes to fail, and the soul to waste away; and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 And I will set my face against you, that ye may be routed before your enemies: they that hate you shall have dominion over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
” 18 And if for this ye hearken not unto me, I will punish you sevenfold more for your sins, and I will break the arrogance of your power, 19 and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as bronze; 20 and your strength shall be spent in vain; and your land shall not yield its produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
” 21 And if ye walk contrary to me, and will not hearken unto me, I will bring sevenfold more plagues upon you, according to your sins. 22 And I will send the beasts of the field among you, that they may rob you of your children, and cut off your cattle, and make you few in number; and your streets shall be desolate.
” 23 And if ye will not be disciplined by me through these, but walk contrary to me, 24 then will I also walk contrary to you, and will smite you, even I, sevenfold for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword upon you that avengeth with the vengeance of the covenant, and ye shall be gathered into your cities, and I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 When I break the staff of your breed, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and shall deliver you the bread again by weight; and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied” (vers. 14-26).
Israel’s promises end in misery; and Jehovah judges his disobedience as it deserves, and with increasing severity at his ever growing rebelliousness. He appoints over the people, when their soul abhorred His righteous ordinances, “terror, consumption and fever,” not only the dread of a guilty conscience, but disease in its wasting chronic form and in its raging acuteness; and sends their enemies to devour their harvests and rout their armies, yea to domineer over them even to their fleeing when unpursued. If this suffice not to humble them before Him, He will punish sevenfold more, to break their arrogance. He will make their heaven as iron and their earth as bronze, refusing all heat and moisture, and vegetation, so that their toil should be vain. And if this be not enough to recall them, sevenfold more plagues should fall on them, and the very beasts of the field should rob them of their children and cut off their cattle, to reduce them indefinitely and desolate their very streets. And if this failed to discipline their refractory spirit, He would walk as contrary to them in displeasure as they to Him in self-will. He must smite them Himself personally sevenfold for their sins, and bring a sword on them to execute the vengeance of the covenant. And as they gathered into their cities out of the goodly land, Me would send the pestilence on them, and they should be delivered into the hand of the enemy. Their efforts at union for strength should only and surely bring on them death and degradation as a people. Scarcity of bread should do its withering work in their prostrate condition. How could it be otherwise under the condition of law between the righteous Jehovah, and His people more guilty than the nations which knew not God?
The law as such knows no grace; its function must be to condemn every breach. Grace and truth came through our Lord Jesus; undoubtedly God’s grace, but through Him, the one Mediator of God and men, Who gave Himself a ransom for all, the testimony in its own time. This we Gentiles know now as the consequence of Israel’s unbelief to the uttermost after the fullest and most patient waiting on them; and no remedy when their Messiah came in gracious humiliation and divine power, any more than under the law and the prophets. The apostles too testified in the Holy Spirit and like power in men of like passions. But all has been vain, that mercy might flow to the Gentiles who have sinned worse than Israel under far superior privileges, till they too are cut off; and sovereign mercy shall once more shine on Israel, and for ever.
CHAPTER 15.
STERNER WOES ON THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND
Lev 26:27-39
It might have been thought hard to find strokes heavier than those Jehovah inflicted on His people according to the earlier half of our chapter. But as Israel hardened their necks and persevered in their iniquities, here we have His yet more awful dealings with their stubborn rebelliousness. He is gracious beyond measure; but we know Him that said, To me [belongs] vengeance: I will recompense, saith the Lord [Jehovah]; and again, The Lord [Jehovah] will judge His people. Fearful [is it] to fall into a living God’s hands (Heb 10:30 , Heb 10:31 ). If He punished the vile abominations of the doomed nations who had intruded into His land, much more strictly does Be chasten His people. “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amo 3:2 ).
” 27 And if for all this ye hearken not 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 sevenfold for your sins. 29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-pillars, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you. 31 And I will lay waste your cities, and desolate your sanctuaries, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. 32 And I will bring the land into desolation, that your enemies who dwell therein may be astonished at it. 33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and will draw out the sword after you; and your land shall be desolation, and your cities waste. 34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths all the days of her desolation, when ye [are] in your enemies’ land; then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths. 35 All the days of the desolation it shall rest; in which it rested not in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. 36 And as to those that remain of you, I will send faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies, and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them, and they shall flee as one fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth; 37 and they shall stumble one over another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth; and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And ye shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And they that remain of you shall waste away through their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also through the iniquities of their fathers shall they waste away with them” (vers. 27-39).
The furnace of wrath waxes hotter against guilty Israel, and as Jehovah says, “I, even I, will chastise you sevenfold for your sins.” The flesh of their own sons and daughters should be their food, and the high places and sun-pillars which they had honoured should be cut down, their own carcases heaped upon those of their idols, and His soul abhorring them. He would proceed to devastate their cities and sanctuaries to the astonishment of their enemies dwelling therein (27-32)
Their land too should not escape; and as they had despised His sabbaths in days and years and jubilees, there should be a judicial sabbath: for it should be desolate while Israel should be in the enemies’ land. The land that flows with milk and honey should lie desolate and have rest, against the rest which it had not when the tribes dwelt there (32-35). Instead of the courage He once gave them against all odds, they would fall into abject terror. “I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee as one fleeth from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. And they shall stumble one upon another, as it were before the sword, when none pursueth” (36, 37). There too should they perish among the nations and the enemies’ land eat them up. Those left of them in their enemies’ lands shall pine away in their own iniquities, and in the iniquities of their fathers with them (38, 39).
Thus brought down to the lowest misery and degradation, the goodness of God leads them to repentance. What a lesson to all the nations! Yet this they never learn, till Israel shows the way, forgiven of grace, when they cannot forgive themselves before Jehovah and His anointed! But we must not anticipate what is to follow. How awful when a people boasting of Jehovah’s name sell themselves really to His enemy, and become slaves of demons which supplant His will and worship; and their religion so-called becomes their worst sin and their most destructive snare. Thus it was in Israel, as it now is in Christendom. The end for both (as far at least as “this generation” goes for the Jew) will be at the consummation of the age in judgment, which the Lord Jesus will surely execute. But the greatest reviler of revelation cannot charge the God of Israel with partiality to His people when inconsistent or unworthy. Demons, instead of chastising, humoured their devotees for their own bad and mischievously vile ends. So it is in all religions, save the faith in God through Christ.
CHAPTER 16.
ISRAEL, REPENT, AND JEHOVAH REMEMBERS HIS COVENANT WITH THEIR FATHERS
Lev 26:40-46
Here however we have the turning-point of grace. There is no restoration for Babylon, and especially none for the Babylon of the N.T. which among her many lies dares to call herself “the eternal city,” but is really doomed to the everlasting judgment of God, as we read in Rev 14:16 , Rev 14:17 and 18 to the joy of all in heaven who in view of her smoke going up unto the ages of ages say, Hallelujah (Rev 19:1-5 )! Reunion of Christendom or not, this is God’s destiny for her of the seven hills. “Come out of her, My people,” says the voice from above, “that ye have not fellowship with her sins, and that ye do not receive of her plagues.” But there is sure restoration for Israel, and a history in the future of their land more glorious than David’s or Solomon’s, or than any nation’s that ever existed on the earth. The time hastens and is at hand. Israel will repent, and believe in Jehovah’s Messiah, their crucified King of glory.
” 40 And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, through their unfaithfulness wherein they were unfaithful to me, and also that they have walked contrary to me, 41 so [that] I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies. If then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity, 42 I will 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. 43 For the land shall be left by them, and shall enjoy its sabbaths, when it is in desolation without them; and they shall accept the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because, they despised my judgments, and their soul despised my statutes. 44 And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not despise them, and will not abhor them, to make an end of them utterly, and to break my covenant with them, for I [am] Jehovah their God. 45 But I will remember toward them the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, that I might be their God: I [am] Jehovah.
46 These [are] the statutes and ordinances and laws which Jehovah made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses” (vers. 40-46).
Does anyone object that this blessed change is sometimes made conditional on Israel’s repentance? The answer is that there is no real force in the objection, because Jehovah has promised unconditionally that He will so work in their hearts when the due moment comes as only known to Him. And this is remarkably confirmed even in this chapter of arraignment and denunciation and furious wrath against them for their wickedness. Yet here there is no condition but an express prediction, “And they shall confess their iniquity” etc. God may exceed in goodness and mercy; never does He come short; and He here declares that so it is to be. Undoubtedly He makes good the condition in their souls where such a condition is laid down in His word.
In fact such a prediction as this unconditional one entirely agrees with the covenant with their fathers; for such was its character in distinct contrast with the covenant of law whereof Moses was mediator. And observe the deliberate iteration of His assurance to Israel, beginning with the “worm” Jacob yet redeemed and called by name, His servant and chosen, next with Isaac, and then with Abraham His friend. Why all this care but to give the most stable confidence to those just awakened to feel and own their ages of rebellious and even apostate iniquity? The covenant with the fathers as here joins in one common boon the entire people of spared Israel and the land. In this future kingdom of power it will not be what characterises Christianity and the church, the extinction of Jewish and Gentile differences in Christ as now. The blessing to come in that day will be of Israel as the head, and of the nations in willing subordination, because Israel is the special people of Jehovah Messiah for the earth. We are of heavenly grace, wherein fleshly difference is of no account.
It is well for Christians to learn that Christianity, precious as it is, is not all; and that, when God’s present work is accomplished, God has other ways in which He is to be glorified in Christ. There will be another and a good age to succeed this present evil age, before the eternal state, the complete form of the new heavens and new earth, wherein righteousness is to dwell.
It is the millennium which begins when this age closes and continues till the dissolution of all things, preparatory to the absolutely perfect state of heaven and earth, when there is no change, but all is fixed for the righteous, as well as for the unrighteous. In the millennial age there will be perfect blessedness for those in the heavens who reign with Christ; but the earth, though governed righteously, and delivered from the power of evil, and full of divine fruits, will be tried by Satan’s temptation at the end, and bring the final judgment. of God on the wicked from first to last.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Ye refers to any Israelites sold to heathen masters, who hence were in danger of being tempted to idolatry, while in this servitude.
idols = non-entities. Heb, ‘elilim = clay or terra cotta “gods”. Compare 1Co 8:4. Occurs only once more in Pentateuch, Lev 19:4.
graven image. Hebrew. pesel, an idol of wood or stone.
standing image. Hebrew. Mazzebah, a sacred pillar. In Genitive always “pillar”. Compare Lev 26:30.
image of stone. Hebrew. maskith, a sculptured or painted stone. Compare Lev 26:30.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 26
Chapter twenty-six again God establishes the fact that they are to worship Him.
They are not to have idols, or graven images, or standing images, set up any image in the land to bow down to it: for I am the Lord your God. Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. [Now God says,] If you will walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them ( Lev 26:1-3 );
Walk, keep, do. Some of the commandments of God involve our walk, some of them command our actions, and some of them are just sort of negatives, the things that we are to keep and to keep from. So God is now laying out, “If you will now do this, if you will obey, if you’ll walk, if you’ll keep, this is what I’m gonna do.” God lays out the conditions of blessings. “I want to bless you. These are the rules and laws that I have given, the laws of prosperity, and if you will keep them, this is what’s gonna happen to you.”
I will give you rain in due season, the land shall yield her increase, the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall reach to the vintage, the vintage shall reach to the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. [“So I’m gonna just bless you and prosper you in the land, you’re gonna have plenty of food, plenty of crops, the seed will last clear over till the sowing time, and you’ll eat bread till you’re full, not only that”,] I will give peace in the land, an ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: [Not only that] I will rid the evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. [So, “I will give you peace in the land, lying down, not being afraid, the sword not passing through the land.”] And ye shall chase your enemies, [I’ll give you power,] and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight ( Lev 26:4-8 ):
Remember the story of Gideon? Three hundred fellows surrounded the Midianites, a hundred and thirty-two thousand of them? “And your enemies shall fall before you by the sword”.
For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. [That verse refers to your children, you’re gonna have beautiful families, grandchildren. You’ll be fruitful and multiply, and again the promise of plenty.] Ye shall eat the old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. [In other words, your crops will last over and you’ll still be eating from last year’s crops when you’ve already harvested this year’s.] And I will set my tabernacle among you: [So God’s presence is promised.] my soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people ( Lev 26:9-12 ).
What a beautiful national privilege is offered now to these people. The blessings of God abundantly, peace in the land, power for the people. The posterity being blessed, and beyond all this, God’s presence dwelling there in the midst of the people, God walking with him, and dwelling with him. What more could any people desire or want? The only condition is that, “Now that you have My statutes, walk in them. Now that you have My commandments, just keep them, and you’ll have all of this.”
Now these things that God is promising, the prosperity, the peace, the power, these are the things for which men are seeking today. But Jesus pointed out the folly of seeking these things. He said, “After all of these things do the heathen seek. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you”( Mat 6:33 ). That’s what God is saying here. “If you will just follow Me, if you’ll just obey Me, if you’ll just look to Me, then I’ll do this for you.”
But you see we’ve got things so reversed in our minds, and in our concepts, that we are so busy seeking these things, we don’t have time to seek God. “Well Lord, I’d really like to seek You, but I don’t know how I’m gonna pay for this new television unless I take this Sunday job.” You know all of these things I’m seeking after that take me away from time with God, whereas if I would just give God the first of my heart, the firstfruits of my life, and just worship Him, and follow Him, and obey him, He would do all these things for me. You say, “Well how?” I don’t know anymore than I don’t know how gravitation works. I know it works, I don’t know how. I know that electricity works, I don’t know how. “Oh, but I don’t want to put my trust in anything that I don’t understand.” How many of you ladies are you gonna drive home tonight? Do you understand the internal combustion engine? “Well, that’s different.” It always is; isn’t it?
Now God said,
I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of Egypt, [Why did I bring you out? I brought you out and this is why,”] that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and I have made you stand up straight ( Lev 26:13 ).
Boy, under the bondage. I mean, these guys were bent over with loads that you can’t believe. You know after years of carrying these heavy loads you get to where you just walk humped over because they would carry hundreds of pounds upon their backs. You just get to where you just walk stooped over. But God said, “Look I set you free from that so you can stand up straight, because I’m your Lord, and I brought you out that you would no longer be their bondmen, you would no longer be their servants. I want you now to be My servants. As servants of God you can stand up straight.” Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you. My yoke is easy, My burden is light”( Mat 11:29-30 ). There are people who would try to make you think that the burden of the Lord is a heavy onerous thing to bear.
During the days of Jeremiah these prophets or so-called prophets were going around saying, “Oh the burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord.” Like it was some heavy thing. So God said to Jeremiah, He said, “Jeremiah there’s a phrase I’ve heard so often I’m so sick of it, I never want to hear it again. Jeremiah if you use this phrase I’m gonna refuse to talk to you from now on. It’s that rotten phrase, ‘The burden of the Lord’. I’m sick of it. Don’t use it; just delete that from your vocabularies. These guys all going around saying, ‘The burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord’. Jesus said, “My burden is easy, My burden is light.”
“Oh brother, I’m praying that I’ll just be able to hold on under this heavy load that God’s laid on me.” Who laid it on you? Hey, if your load is so heavy you can’t carry it; I have to assume that you’ve taken on yourself something that God never put on you, brother. If you find it so hard that you can hardly make it, then that isn’t the Lord’s yoke. His yoke is easy. If it’s so heavy you’re really struggling under it, that isn’t His burden. His burden is light. But we often take upon ourselves things that God really wasn’t putting on us. Why do we take them on? Oh, because I would like the glory of man. So when they’re taking pledges, “Oh I’ll be glad to, brother. Everybody see me? I’ll be glad to.” So before men I make commitments. That’s sad because then it gets so heavy. “Oh serving of the Lord is such a heavy burden.” No, no. Serving my flesh is a heavy burden, but serving the Lord is glorious. His yoke is easy His burden is light.
Now if you find yourself straining on the burden, then dump it. It’s not His anyhow. Find the Lord’s burden. Serving the Lord’s exciting, glorious, pleasurable thing. “I delight to do Thy will O God” ( Psa 40:8 ). That is the way it should always be.
Now the Lord said in verse fourteen,
But if you will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; And if you shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhors my judgments, so that you will not do all of my commandments, but break my covenant: Then this is what I’m gonna do for you ( Lev 26:14-16 );
So the conditions, “Keep the commandments, I’m gonna bless you. Break the commandments, I’m gonna break you.”
for I will appoint over you terror, consumption, the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: you will sow your seed in vain, your enemies shall eat it ( Lev 26:16 ).
You remember when Samuel, or when Gideon was threshing the wheat? He was doing it in a cave to hide it from the Midianites because the Midianites would stand back and let these guys harvest their fields, bring it all in, thresh it, and then the Midianites would move in and take it away from them. That wasn’t so dumb, I guess, as far as the Midianites were concerned, but it’s awfully hard when you’re doing the work.
I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: and they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none is pursuing you. And if for all of this you will not hearken, [if you’re still stubborn, resistant, you won’t listen,] then I’ll punish you seven times more for your sins. I’ll break the pride of your power; [Now He promised them earlier that He’d give them power; now He’s gonna break the pride of their power.] and I will make your heaven as iron, your earth as brass: [He was gonna cause the land to bring forth abundantly, but now He’s gonna make the earth as hard as brass.] And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land will not yield her increase, and neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. And if you continue to walk contrary to me after this, and you will not hearken unto me, then I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. And I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; And if you’re still not reformed by me in these things, and you still are walking contrary to me; then I will also walk contrary to you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. I’ll 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 the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies. And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. [“You’re gonna experience actually constant hunger.”] And if for all of this you will still not hearken, but walk contrary; Then I will walk contrary to you also in fury; and I will chastise you seven times for your sins. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and daughters. And I will destroy your high places, cut down your images, cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I’ll not smell the savour of your sweet odours. [“I’ll not accept your sacrifices anymore.”] And I will bring the land into desolation: by your enemies. 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 ( Lev 26:17-33 ).
Now what is the story of the Bible in the Old Testament as we read the historic part? The story is just the fulfillment of what God said. As long as they sought the Lord, God prospered them and God blessed them, and they were strong and they dwelt in peace and they had plenty. But when they forsook the Lord, then God forsook them. All of these things that God said would happen, did happen to them, even their eating their own children during a time of the siege of Samaria by Benhadad. All of these things took place until finally, as God said, they were dispersed into all the nations of the world. So that God literally fulfilled those things that He said He would do to them. He did. Their land lay desolate for centuries, the cities desolate for centuries.
Now it is interesting to go through the land of Israel also because you’ll see interesting looking mountains, which aren’t really mountains, they’re hills, which aren’t really hills. They are tells, and they are the ruins of the city, and its hundreds of tells all over the land. Sometime when I take one of these seven years off, I’d like to get a shovel and just go digging in some of those tells. Because of all the cities that have been just ruined, and they’re just lying there, and they’re covered now with dirt and just totally desolate just like God said.
And then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths, [It surely has done that.] and as long as it lies desolate it will rest; because you did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt upon it. And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the land of your enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf will chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from the sword; and they shall fall when none is pursuing. [It’ll give them a fear in their hearts. Wherever they go they’ll be fearful people because of the persecutions that will arise.] And they shall fall one upon another. And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away, [And so forth, but then God declares,] If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass they have trespassed against me, that also they have walked contrary to me; And that I also have walked contrary to them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and then they accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham and I will remember; and I will remember the land. And the land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, and lie desolate: But then yet for all of that [verse forty-four] when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away from their enemies, neither will I abhor them, nor destroy them utterly to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God ( Lev 26:34-44 ).
In other words, “I will preserve them as an ethnic group,” which God has done. He kept His promise. He kept His word. No other nation; no other nation has had that same fate. Every other nation who has been without a homeland has disappeared as an ethnic group. Not the Jew; he has remained a Jew to the present day. God kept His word.
Now these are the statutes and the judgments and the laws, which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses ( Lev 26:46 ).
So God gave them the laws, and then He gave them the conditions. “If you keep them, I’m gonna bless you; break them, and these are the things that are gonna happen.” So the things that happen are just things that God said would happen. And you can’t really blame God, because they did happen because God said they would. If you would’ve only listened to God; you would’ve known it.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
In these brief repetitions of laws two gracious promises and solemn warnings were set forth. The laws reiterated were fundamental. There must be no idolatry. There must be perpetual observance of the Sabbath and a constant reverence in the sanctuary. The great promises show how conditions of well-being are ever entirely dependent on obedience to the government of God.
In like manner the warnings show that disobedience will always be followed with calamity.
It is most instructive in the giving of the law, to observe how the declension and wandering of the people was evidently known to the King, and that notwithstanding this fact, these promises of final restoration were made. Thus, while human responsibility is most solemnly enforced, it is done in such a way as to create the conviction that the love of God will prove itself finally victorious over all human failure.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Results of Obedience and Disobedience
Lev 26:1-20
There is a vast contrast between the ideal life of the first thirteen verses of this chapter and the remainder; just the distinction which God ever makes between a life of obedience and faith, and one of disobedience and disbelief. In our inner life we also may have that blessed rain of spiritual grace; the fruit-fullness and the peace, the safety and the victory, the old store reaching to the new, the breaking of our bars and the snapping of our yoke.
If these privileges are not yours, think back on your past to ascertain whether you are walking in all Gods commandments, or are in anything walking contrary to them. Confess your sins and return, and dare to believe that He will bring you again, if penitent and believing, into the old glad position. But if ye will not, Lev 26:14; Lev 26:18; Lev 26:21; Lev 26:23; Lev 26:27, heavy penalties must befall. God loves us too well to allow us to drift, unwarned and unrestrained, to perdition.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Lev 26:10
There is in these words a promise as to the fulness of the Divine gifts which has a far wider range and nobler application than to the harvests and granaries of old Palestine.
We may take the text in that aspect:
I. As containing God’s pledge that these outward gifts shall come in unbroken continuity. It may be good that we should have to trust Him even when the storehouse is empty; it may be good for us to know something of want; but that discipline comes seldom, and is never carried very far. God’s machinery for distribution is perfect, and its very perfection, with the constancy of the resulting blessings, robs Him of His praise and hinders our gratitude. By assiduity He loses admiration.
II. May we not apply the same thought of the unbroken continuity of God’s gifts to the higher region of our spiritual experience? His supplies of wisdom, love, joy, peace, power, to our souls, are always enough and more than enough for our wants.
He means that there should be no parentheses of famine in our Christian life. The source is full to overflowing, and there are no limits to the supply. The only limit is our capacity, which, again, is largely determined by our desire.
III. We may also see in this text the prescription of a duty as well as the announcement of a promise. There is direction given here as to our manner of receiving God’s gifts, as well as large assurance as to His manner of bestowing them. All through our lives wisdom and faith say, “Bring forth the old because of the new.” Accept cheerfully the law of constant change under which God has set us. Welcome the new, treasure the old, and in both see the purpose of that loving Father who, Himself unchanged, changeth all things, “fulfils Himself in many ways lest one good custom should corrupt the world.”
A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 11.
References: Lev 26:13.-Parker, vol. iii., p. 139. Lev 26:25.-Ibid., p. 140. Lev 26:36.-Ibid. Lev 27:32.-Ibid., p. 141.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
5. The Blessing, the Curse and Israels History
CHAPTER 26
1. Obedience and the blessings (Lev 26:1-13)
2. Disobedience and the curse (Lev 26:14-39)
3. The restoration (Lev 26:40-46)
This great chapter is very fitting for the close of this book. We have no types here, but direct utterances of Jehovah. Israels history and their future restoration is here predicted. He reminds them that He brought them out of the land of Egypt; they are His people. Therefore He wants obedience. If this is yielded blessings would be the results. These promised blessings consisted in abundance of rain, great fruitfulness of their land, peace in the land, deliverance from wild beasts and the sword, victory over their enemies. They would multiply and His covenant would be established with them; more than that: I will walk among you, and will be your God and ye shall be My people. What blessings Jehovah held out to them! They never possessed them in fulness. Some day Israel and Israels land will enter into these blessings. Then Moses last word will be true: Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places (Deu 33:29).
But how dreadful the threatened judgments on account of a broken covenant! judgment after judgment is announced, one greater than the other, every blessing is changed into a curse and the culminating threat is expulsion from the God-given land and dispersion, worldwide, among the nations. The nation called to blessing is threatened with the most awful judgments and disasters. And all these have become historical facts. Jewish history of many weary centuries records the constant fulfillment of these solemn declarations. We have therefore in this chapter, in the predicted curses and the literal fulfillment, a most valuable and powerful evidence of inspiration. The Jew and his history, the land and its desolation, is Gods standing witness for the Gentiles that the Bible is the Word of God.
The fundamental importance and instructiveness of this prophecy is evident from the fact that all later predictions concerning the fortunes of Israel are but its more detailed exposition and application to successive historical conditions. Still more evident is its profound significance when we recall to mind the fact, disputed by none, that not only is it an epitome of all later prophecy of Holy Scripture concerning Israel, but, no less truly, an epitome of Israels history. So strictly true is this that we may accurately describe the history of that nation, from the days of Moses until now, as but the translation of this chapter from the language of prediction into that of history. (S.H. Kellogg, Leviticus)
To this another fact must be added. It is predicted in this chapter that the people passing through judgment devastated by the sword, famine and pestilence, would continue to exist in their enemies land. Israels preservation throughout the long period of these executed judgments is a miracle. It cannot be explained in any other way. And the land itself bears witness to all this. It used to be one of the richest of all lands. But ever since the people Israel are driven out of the land and no longer possess it, desolation has come upon it. How remarkable this is!
We point to the people of Israel as a perennial historical miracle. The continued existence of this nation up to the present day, the preservation of its national peculiarities throughout thousands of years, in spite of all dispersion and oppression, remains so unparalleled a phenomenon, that without the special providential preparation of God, and His constant interference and protection, it would be impossible for us to explain it. For where else is there a people over which such judgments have passed and yet not ended in destruction? (Professor Christlieb)
Some have speculated on the statement that, they should have the judgments upon them seven times. However, these seven times cannot mean the exact duration of Israels dispersion. The seven times, however, foreshadow the time of Jacobs trouble, the last seven years of the times of the Gentiles, during which their judgments will be the severest.
This important chapter closes with a promise of restoration. Confession of sin, acknowledgment of their guilt, humiliation and deep sorrow for their iniquity opens the way to this restoration. It will at once be seen that this connects again with the day of atonement. It is the year of jubilee. Then Jehovah remembers His covenant and remembers the land (verse 42). To this future repentance of the remnant of Israel and their regathering, the restoration of the land to the people and the people to the land, the entire prophetic Word bears witness.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Leviticus 26 should be read in connection with Deuteronomy 28, 29, the Palestinian Covenant.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Ye shall: Lev 19:4, Exo 20:4, Exo 20:5, Exo 20:23, Exo 23:24, Exo 34:17, Deu 4:16-19, Deu 5:8, Deu 5:9, Deu 16:21, Deu 16:22, Deu 27:15, Psa 97:7, Psa 115:4-8, Isa 2:20, Isa 44:9-20, Isa 48:5-8, Jer 10:3-8, Act 17:29, Rom 2:22, Rom 2:23, 1Co 10:19, 1Co 10:20, Rev 13:14, Rev 13:15, Rev 22:15
standing image: or, pillar
image of stone: or, figured stone, Heb. a stone of picture
Reciprocal: Lev 7:33 – that offereth Deu 4:40 – keep Deu 5:6 – I am the Deu 7:5 – images Deu 30:1 – the blessing Jos 8:34 – blessings Jdg 18:30 – set up 1Ki 14:23 – images 2Ki 17:10 – they set 2Ki 17:12 – whereof Isa 44:8 – have declared Hos 10:1 – images
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE GREAT PROPHECY
This chapter opens with injunctions (Lev 26:1-2), which practically cover the first table of the law, and then follow promises of blessing in the case of obedience (Lev 26:3-13); warnings of judgment in case of disobedience (Lev 26:14-39); and a prophecy of ultimate repentance and restoration to divine favor in the latter days.
THE PROMISED BLESSINGS (Lev 26:3-13)
These blessings include fruitful seasons (Lev 26:3-5); internal security (Lev 26:6-8); multiplication of numbers and the increased harvest needed to support them (Lev 26:9-10); and the abiding presence of God with them (Lev 26:11-12). All these promises are based on and grow out of their original redemption from Egypt and Gods covenant with them at that time (Lev 26:13).
WARNINGS OF JUDGMENT (Lev 26:14-39)
The judgments are first spoken of in general terms, and include physical disease, bereavement, famine, conquest and dispersion (Lev 26:14-17).
Then there follow four series of warnings, each conditioned on the supposition that they did not repent as the result of the preceding experiences. Each series is prefaced by the formula I will punish you seven times more for your sins (Lev 26:18; Lev 26:21; Lev 26:24; Lev 26:28). The thought is that each new display of impenitence on Israels part shall be marked by increasing severity. Notice that the rains will be withheld (Lev 26:19-20); wild beasts will destroy their children and cattle (Lev 26:22); war, pestilence and famine shall follow (Lev 26:25-26); and all these calamities will come upon them with increasing terror so that they shall eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and their city shall become waste and their land desolate to that extent that their enemies shall be astonished at it. Moreover, they will be scattered among the Gentile peoples (Lev 26:29-33).
The importance of this prophecy is that all the later prophecies concerning the judgments upon Israel are a kind of application of it to the later conditions. It is also an epitome of Israels history from the death of Joshua, say, until the present time.
This chapter is of great importance as proof of the Bibles divine origin. We have here an evidence of foreknowledge, and therefore, of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which cannot be gainsaid.
REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION (Lev 26:40-46)
The word If at the beginning of Lev 26:40 is in the RV And. It thus becomes a positive statement of God that Israel shall confess her iniquity and be humbled before Him; and that in consequence, the Lord will remember His covenant with Jacob (Lev 26:42).
These words had a partial fulfillment in the return from the Babylonian captivity, but this did not exhaust the prophecy. Israel again forgot Jehovah and committed her greatest sin in crucifying her Messiah. As the result her people are now scattered among the nations, and her land is desolate. Nevertheless, Gods covenant with her fathers is not forgotten. The promises to her were renewed after the return from Babylon with reference to events that shall take place in her history at the end of this age (Zec 12:8-14; Zec 13:1). See also Pauls epistle to the Romans (11:2, 25-29).
Observe that the promises for the future pertain to the land as well as the people of Israel (Lev 26:42). Compare Luk 21:24. The inference is clear that Israel shall not only be restored to God in repentance through faith in her Messiah, but she shall also be restored to Palestine, whose fruitfulness will be greater than ever.
QUESTION
1. Give a general outline of this chapter.
2. What blessings are promised on Israels obedience?
3. How does this chapter prove the divinity of the Bible?
4. How does Lev 26:40 become a positive statement?
5. Have you read Romans 11 ?
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Lev 26:1-2. The substance of their religious laws are here recapitulated in two chief articles, on which all the rest very much depended; and God, by Moses, inculcates upon them, 1st, A careful abhorrence of all idolatrous worship, especially that of image-worship of every kind, which had often been forbidden before; and, 2d, An exact celebration of the sabbath, and all other religious festivals; and a punctual regard to Gods worship, according to the stated ordinances to be observed in the tabernacle service; and all this as a means to preserve them from the corruptions and superstitions of the rest of the world.
Ye shall make no idols Hebrew, elilim, things of naught; the same word which occurs Lev 19:4. Nor graven image , phesel; which signifies any image hewn out of wood or stone. These images, being consecrated by certain ceremonies, were conceived to be shrines or mansions of some deity, and upon that account were worshipped by the Gentiles. A standing image These were a kind of rude stones or pillars which the heathen erected to their gods, and to which they paid divine honours. Any image of stone , Eben mashchith; stone of figure, device, or portraiture; or figured stone, or stone of picture, as we read in the margin; like those in use among the Egyptians, which were full of hieroglyphics, expressing some fancied perfections of their gods. Some, without any authority from the original, would render the words, a stone set up. The simply setting up pillars, or even images, was not prohibited; but only the setting them up to worship them.
Reverence my sanctuary By purging and preserving it from all uncleanness, by approaching to it, and managing all the services of it with reverence, and in such manner only as God hath appointed.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 26:1. Neither set up any image of stone, any large sightly stone. The druids were apt to bring or roll large stones from afar, as at Stone-henge, at Shap in Westmoreland; at Stanton Drew, near Bristol; and at Abury, Wilts. These were ancient temples, approached by serpentine walks, and seats of idolatry of Sabian origin.
Lev 26:8. Ten thousand, or a multitude shall be put to flight. This was done by Gideon; also by Jonathan and his armour bearer. Judges 7 :1 Samuel 14.
Lev 26:18. Seven times. This phrase, often used in the scriptures, signifies the visiting of the long accumulated load of guilt upon a hardened people.
Lev 26:22. Wild beasts shall rob you of your children. The LXX have omitted children, probably because they understood them to be included in the destruction of the people and the cattle. Though their commission be special here; yet there are physical causes for the irruptions of wild beasts. Cold drives the wolf from the northern region in quest of food, and thirst in the droughty summers attracts the lion to the river.
Lev 26:29. Eat the flesh of your sons. This calamity came upon them when Benhadad besieged Samaria, 2 Kings 6; when the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, Lam 4:10; and when the Romans also besieged it, as is most lamentably recorded by Josephus.
REFLECTIONS.
From a multitude of passages it evidently appears that the Hebrew covenant had its stipulated conditions; and that obedience was enforced by the sanctifying motives of rewards and punishments. So the Lord saith by Isaiah: If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured by the sword. The new covenant being in substance the same as the old, it is by like appeals that God still addresses the christian world.
The blessings of this covenant were the utmost riches of the harvest and vintage; protection from the sword, and from beasts of prey; increase of children, and the constant presence of the divine glory. The holy prophets have abundantly improved those temporal blessings, to adumbrate the more glorious blessings of the gospel. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy wine and milk, without money and without price. Isaiah 55. Matthew 22.
The punishments denounced against apostasy are of the most awful kind; but not more awful than were actually inflicted. Let sinners read and learn. Let them behold God rising to avenge the quarrel of his covenant; war, pestilence and famine, roll as angry tempests before the frowns of his countenance. Do the wicked hope to escape? Do they plead for a system of mercy nowhere known in the sacred writings? When, I would ask, did Israel forsake the Lord and go unpunished? When has he been wanting to reward the evil doer according to his work?
We have next a very striking and luminous prediction of the Babylonian captivity. How forcible is the language of retribution in these words: That the land may enjoy her sabbaths. But if Israel, it may be objected, were carried away to Babylon, would not the neighbouring nations enter and possess their lands? Here providence has guarded the credit of prophecy; for all the neighbouring nations were at the same time so diminished by the armies of Chaldea, as to be very few in number. Isa 40:6-8.
The promises of restoration, in case of humiliation for their sin, are not less remarkable than the menaces of chastisement. How good, how very good and gracious is the Lord, not to leave an afflicted people without an encouraging word of hope: and how valuable must that word be to an afflicted people. It is the Magna Charta of heaven, most willingly granted for our encouragement and support in the day of adversity. We should therefore rejoice more at Gods word than they that find great treasure.
If these are the high conditions of the covenant, the Lords ways with man; let us learn to abide in his precepts, and revere his words. Oh how infinitely better to avoid apostasy, than barely to escape hell by a repentance deferred; or peradventure to fall into the pit, and rise no more. Lord, keep us from falling, and let not the penitent be discouraged; for as is thy majesty, so is thy mercy.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Leviticus 26
This chapter requires little in the way of note or exposition. It contains a most solemn and affecting record of the blessings of obedience. on the one hand, and the terrible consequences of disobedience, on the other. Had Israel walked in obedience, they would have been invincible. “I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. and five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you and ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor yon. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondsmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.” (Ver. 6-13)
The presence of God should ever have been their shield and buckler. No weapon formed against them could prosper. But, then, the divine presence was only to be enjoyed by an obedient people. Jehovah could not sanction by His presence disobedience or wickedness. The uncircumcised nations around might depend upon their prowess and their military resources. Israel had only the arm of Jehovah to depend upon, and that arm could never be stretched forth to shield unholiness or disobedience. Their strength was to walk with God in a spirit of dependence and obedience. So long as they walked thus, there was a wall of fire round about them, to protect them from every enemy and every evil.
But, alas! Israel failed altogether. Notwithstanding the solemn and appalling picture placed before their eyes, in verses 14-33 of this chapter, they forsook the Lord and served other gods, and thus brought upon themselves the sore judgements threatened in this section, the bare record of which is sufficient to make the ears tingle. Under the heavy weight of these judgements they are suffering at this very hour. Scattered and peeled, wasted and outcast, they are the monuments of Jehovah’s inflexible truth and justice. They read aloud, to all the nations of the earth, a most impressive lesson on the subject of the moral government of God – a lesson which it would be profitable for these nations to study deeply, yea, and a lesson which it would be salutary for our own hearts to ponder likewise.
We are very prone to confound two things which are clearly distinguished in the word, namely, God’s government and God’s grace. The evils which result from this confusion are various. It is sure to lead to an enfeebled sense of the dignity and solemnity of government, and of the purity, fullness, and elevation of grace. It is quite true that God in government reserves to Himself the sovereign right to act in patience, long-suffering, and mercy; but the exercise of these attributes, in connection with His throne of government, must never be confounded with the unconditional actings of pure and absolute grace.
The chapter before us is a record of divine government, and yet, in it we find such clauses as the following: “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 unto me, and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: 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. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them; and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgements, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet, for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God. 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.” (Ver. 40-45)
Here we find God in government, meeting, in long-suffering mercy, the very earliest and faintest breathings of a broken and penitent spirit. The history of the judges and of the kings presents many instances of the exercise of this blessed attribute of the divine government. Again and again, the soul of Jehovah was grieved for Israel, (Judges 10: 16,) and He sent them one deliverer after another, until at length there remained no hope, and the righteous claims of His throne demanded their expulsion from that land which they were wholly incompetent to keep.
All this is government. But, by and by, Israel will be brought into possession of the land of Canaan on the ground of unqualified and unchangeable grace – grace exercised in divine righteousness through the blood of the cross. It will not be by works of law; nor yet by the institutions of an evanescent economy, but by that grace which “reigns through righteousness, by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Wherefore, they Shall never again be driven forth from their possession. No enemy shall ever molest them. They shall enjoy undisturbed repose behind the shield of Jehovah’s favour. Their tenure of the land will be according to the eternal stability of divine grace, and the efficacy of the blood of the everlasting covenant. “They shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.”
May the Spirit of God lead us into more enlarged apprehensions of divine truth, and endow us with a greater capacity to try the things that differ, and rightly to divide the word of truth.
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch
Lev 26:1 f. Idols forbidden (cf. Lev 19:4, Exo 20:4*). Images of both stone and metal are forbidden, as well as pillars (masseboth pp. 98f.).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
This chapter is more or less a summary of the moral lessons of the book of Leviticus, a chapter that presses home the seriousness of having to do with a God of absolute holiness and truth. It is divided into three sections, the first of which deals with
THE BLESSINGS OF OBEDIENCE (vv. 1-13)
Israel was given promise of marvelous blessing from God on condition of obedience to His law. Verse 1 therefore strongly insists on obedience to the first commandment, warning against idolatry in any of its forms. Verse 2 presses the keeping of God’s sabbaths, as has been repeated many times in this book, and showing due respect for God’s sanctuary, the place of His dwelling in Israel.
Obedience to God’s statutes and commandments would unfailingly result in the rain being given in its proper season, the land and the trees yielding healthy fruit, the harvest being abundant, occupying all the time before the vintage of their vineyards, and the vintage being so great as to continue till the time of sowing. Provision would then be fully sufficient for them, and they would also dwell safely in their land (vv. 3-5).
All would be at peace, with no fear of beasts or enemies (v. 6), and if enemies did come they would be easily defeated; five men would defeat 100, and one hundred men put 10,000 to flight (vv. 7-8). Something like this did take place in the book of Judges, when God used only 300 men led by Gideon, to completely rout the huge army of the Midianites (Jdg 7:19-22). God would look on them favorably, making them fruitful and multiplying the nation. After eating the old harvest they would clear out the remainder to make room for the new. Thus the blessing would be continual (vv. 9-10).
Best of all, if they obeyed God, God would dwell among them in His tabernacle; He would walk with them and be known as their God, they themselves being known as God’s people (vv. 11-12). For He reminds them again that He is the Lord their God who brought them out of the bondage of Egypt and lifted them up to walk in the dignity of true freedom. Such words ought to have had a vital effect on them.
THE SAD RESULTS OF DISOBEDIENCE (vv. 14-39)
This section occupies the largest part of the chapter because God knew that Israel would not obey Him, and they needed the plain warning that would actually become an accurate prophecy of their history. How can we possibly be so insensitive in reading plain warnings like this, that we foolishly ignore them? God means what He says, whether in promising blessing for obedience, or in warning of great suffering for disobedience. To simply believe God is the only safe attitude for anyone.
Verse 16 begins the details of their suffering for disobedience. God would appoint over them the terror of wasting disease and fever, which can rapidly bring down the strength of the strongest. They would sow their seed, but their enemies would eat the crop. Their enemies would defeat them in battle and rule over them with hateful oppression. Fearful, they would flee when only imagining being pursued (v. 17).
After all of the previous dreadful inflictions, if the hearts of the children of Israel remained stubborn, God would increase the punishment seven times more (v. 18). For He knows how to break the pride of man’s haughtiness. Instead of the beautiful blue heavens bringing promise of blessing, the heavens would be like iron in their strong resistance of Israel’s bad condition. The earth would be like bronze, hard and unyielding, so that it would not produce ( vv. 19-20).
If such inflictions did not melt their hearts into subjection, then they could expect another seven-fold increase in their troubles (v. 21). God would send wild beasts among them which would cause a terrible decimation of their children, their livestock and their adults too (v. 22). Their highways would be reduced to desolation, with none to pass through.
If these things would not change their attitude, and they still walked contrary to the Lord, then he would increase their affliction seven times more (vv. 23-24). He would send the sword of their enemies against them, and when they took cover in their cities they would be attacked by pestilence and become an easy prey to the cruelty of their enemies (v. 25). Their supply of bread would be cut off and family conditions so reduced that only one woman out of ten would have an oven that she would have to share with others (v.26). so that the little they had to eat would not satisfy them.
Verses 27 and 28 are a virtual repetition of verses 23 and 24. How wearying it must have been to God to find Israel consistently rebellious in the face of His many disciplinary dealings! But His chastisement would then bring the awful experience of their eating the flesh of their sons and daughters (v. 29)! Compare 2Ki 6:26-29. Instead of turning in repentant faith, praying to God, they would adopt the horrible alternative of murdering their children to satisfy their fleshly appetites!
This kind of thing would go along with the worship of idols in their high places. God would destroy those places, and in those very places some would suffer death, with their carcasses left on the lifeless forms of their broken idols (v. 30), as much as to say, Where is the help the idol was expected to give to its deluded victim?
Cities would be laid waste and place of worship destroyed, the land becoming so desolate that even their enemies would be astonished. The people of Israel would be scattered among the nations, not losing their identity, but being persecuted unmercifully where they went. All these things have actually taken place. For centuries the land laid desolate, though in 1948 the Jews regained possession of part of the land with a government of their own. Though conditions in the land are improved materially, yet they are still shaken by enemy opposition and peace is only a dim vision in the hopeful future.
During the seventy year captivity, when Nebuchadnezzar subdued those then in the land, the land was reduced to a desert, at God’s decree, resting and enjoying the sabbath years that Israel had ignored in their disobedience to God (vv. 34-35).
Fear of their enemies would be so great that the sound of a shaken leaf would cause them to flee, expecting injury or death when actually no one was pursuing them (v. 36). They would be no help to one another in their selfish anxiety to deliver themselves alone. In the lands in which they had sought shelter they would be virtually eaten up (v. 38). Their iniquity would bring more and more suffering in their enemies’ lands.
History confirms all these curses as coming on the Jewish nation. The holocaust in Germany during the 1940’s was but another link in the chain of Israel’s years of agony.
CONFESSION AND RECOVERY (vv. 40-45)
After speaking of the enormous guilt of Israel that would cause them such prolonged suffering, yet the Lord emphasizes that He will not give them up. His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will be completely fulfilled. Why have they not yet been fulfilled? The answer is simple: Israel has not yet turned to God in honest confession of their sin and the sin of their fathers. There is one glaring evidence of their guilt they have never faced, that is, their cruel rejection and crucifixion of their true Messiah, the Son of God.
But in a coming day the enormity of this guilt will cause them deepest repentance. They will confess this as their own iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers. They will confess how thoroughly contrary to God they have been, and that God has been right in being contrary to them (vv. 40-41). They will be humbled as never before, to accept the full responsibility of their guilt. This is implied in the prophecy of Zec 12:10-14, when they look upon Him whom they pierced and are broken down in genuine repentance and faith.
The result of Israel’s future national repentance will be marvelous, unlimited grace, in accordance with God’s unconditional promise to Jacob and to Abraham, which He will remember (v. 42). but verse 43 goes back to emphasize the ruin they had brought on their land, and therefore the greatness of the grace of God that will yet restore them. It is repeated that they will accept their guilt, making no excuses, but blaming only themselves for despising God’s judgments and abhorring His statutes.
Yet, though they cannot and will not plead any extenuating circumstances, God will not cast them away, for this would mean breaking His unconditional covenant with them (v. 44). But for their sakes He would remember the covenant of their ancestors whom, in wonderful grace, He has brought out of the land of Egypt that He might be publicly their God. How this magnifies the wonder of the grace of His heart! So He adds, I am the Lord (v. 45).
Verse 46 indicates that this 26th chapter properly concludes the consideration of the statutes, judgments and laws that God laid upon Israel. Therefore, chapter 27 must be considered an appendix, with a significance peculiar to itself.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
G. PROMISES AND WARNINGS ch. 26
"In the ancient Near East it was customary for legal treaties to conclude with passages containing blessings upon those who observed the enactments, and curses upon those who did not. The international treaties of the second millennium BC regularly included such sections as part of the text, with the list of curses greatly outnumbering the promises of blessing. In the Old Testament this general pattern occurs in Exo 23:25-33, Deu 28:1-68, and Jos 24:20. The maledictions of Mesopotamian legal texts or the curses in the treaties of the Arameans, Hittites and Assyrians were threats uttered in the names of the gods which had acted as witnesses to the covenants. That these threats could be implemented was part of the superstitious belief of people in the ancient Near East, and could have had some coincidental basis in fact. For the Israelites, however, there was no doubt that the God who wrought the mighty act of deliverance at the Red Sea will indeed carry out all that He has promised, whether for good or ill. Obedience to His commands is the certain way to obtain a consistent outpouring of blessing, whereas continued disobedience is a guarantee of future punishment." [Note: Harrison, pp. 230-31.]
The blessings and curses in Exodus 23 dealt with the conquest of Canaan, but the blessings and curses in this chapter deal with Israel settled in the land.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. Introduction to the final conditions of the covenant 26:1-2
Two fundamental commandments, one negative and one positive, introduce this section of blessings (Lev 26:1-2).
"In terms reminiscent of the inauguration of the covenant at Sinai (Exo 21:1-4), Yahweh speaks of His uniqueness and exclusivity (Lev 26:1), a fact that demanded unquestioning loyalty (Lev 26:2)." [Note: Merrill, p. 59.]
"The repetition of the term covenant in this chapter shows that the author intends it as a summary of the conditions for the covenant reestablished after the incident of the golden calf. Thus, as has been the form throughout God’s address to Israel on Mount Sinai, the statement of the conditions of the covenant is prefaced by a reminder of two central laws: the prohibition of idolatry (Lev 26:1) and the call to observe the Sabbath (Lev 26:2). It was through idolatry that Israel first broke the covenant at Sinai. By contrast the Sabbath was to be a sign of Israel’s covenant relationship with God." [Note: Sailhamer, p. 364.]
"All declension and decay may be said to be begun wherever we see these two ordinances despised-the sabbath and the sanctuary. They are the outward fence around the inward love commanded by Lev 26:1." [Note: Bonar, p. 473.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE PROMISES AND THREATS OF THE COVENANT
Lev 26:1-46
ONE would have expected that this chapter would have been the last in the book of Leviticus, for it forms a natural and fitting close to the whole law as hitherto recorded. But whatever may have been the reason of its present literary form, the fact remains that while this chapter is, in outward form, the conclusion of the Levitical law, another chapter follows it in the manner of an appendix.
Chapter 26 opens with these words (Lev 26:1-2): “Ye shall make you no idols, neither shall ye rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither shall ye place any figured stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God. Ye shall keep My sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord.”
These verses, as they stand in the English versions as a preface to this chapter, at first sight seem but distantly related to what follows; and the Chaldee paraphrast and others have therefore appended them to the preceding chapter. But with that they have even less evident connection. The thought of the editor of this part of the canon, however, seems to have been that the three commands which are here repeated might be regarded as presenting a compendious summary, in its fundamental principles, of the whole law, the promises and threatenings attached to which immediately follow. And the more we think upon these commands and what they involve, the more evident will appear the fitness of their selection from the whole law to introduce this chapter.
The commands which are here repeated are three: namely,
(1) a detailed prohibition of idolatry in the forms then chiefly prevalent;
(2) an injunction to observe Gods sabbaths; and
(3) to reverence His sanctuary.
Inasmuch as the various forms of idol worship, which are here forbidden, all involved the recognition of gods other than Jehovah, it is plain that Lev 26:1 is in effect inclusive of the first and second commandments of the decalogue. The injunction to keep Gods sabbaths, although in principle including all the sabbatic times previously appointed, evidently refers especially to the weekly sabbath of the fourth commandment; while the command to reverence the sanctuary of Jehovah covers in principle the ground of the third. And thus, in fact, these three injunctions essentially include the four commands of the decalogue which have to do with mans duty to God, and are thus fundamental to all other duties, both to God and man. Very appropriately, then, are these verses given here as a brief summary of the law to which the following promises and threatenings are annexed. And their suitableness to that which follows is the more clear when we remember that the weekly sabbath, in particular, is elsewhere {Exo 31:12-17} declared to be a sign of Gods covenant with Israel, to which these promises and threats belong; and that the presence of Jehovahs sanctuary also, which they are here charged to reverence, was a continual visible witness among them of the special presence of God in Israel in pursuance of that covenant.
After this pertinent summation of the most fundamental commands of the law, the remainder of the chapter contains, first (Lev 26:3-13), promises of blessing from God, in case they shall obey this law; secondly (Lev 26:14-39), threats of chastising judgment, in case they disobey: and, thirdly (Lev 26:40-45), a prediction of their final repentance, and promise of their gracious restoration thereupon to the favour of God, and the everlasting endurance of Gods covenant to preserve them in existence as a nation. The chapter then closes (Lev 26:46) with the declaration: “These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between Him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.”