Leviticus 26: The Conclusion of the Law

"If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. . . .But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments. . .I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache." Leviticus 26:3, 14, 16b.

This morning we reach what I'm referring to the conclusion of the law, that is, the final chapters in the book of Leviticus. Chapter 27 is more of an appendix to the book, clearing up some final laws. However, in chapter 26, we see the Lord's final words to his people concerning the law. They are quite interesting, and perhaps not what we would expect.

Even from reading the verses posted above (which you should have done), you may be getting a taste of what I am talking about. The quotation above starts out great, with the Lord promising to bless his people if they respond to him with obedience. This is what we would expect, is it not? The Lord promises here to give his people great success in the land, that is, if they obey the covenant which he just laid out for them in the preceding 25 chapters. All is well; the Israelites simply have to obey the law, and they would receive the blessing of the Lord.

However, the text doesn't stop there. As we continue reading, we find that there's another side of the coin as well: the Lord's wrath. If the people obeyed the covenant, great blessings would come to them, but that's a big "if." Thus, God shows them what would happen if they disobeyed the covenant. Ultimately, it would mean cursings for them, but let us take a step deeper than that and realize what the text is actually pointing to. First, we find God promising the lack of material blessings towards his people if they disobey this covenant, but God continues to say that if they continue down the evil path, the Lord would discipline them for their sins seven times over (17, 21). However, if the Israelites still don't turn from their sins after this, God promises to "walk contrary" to them, just as the Israelites have chosen to "walk contrary" to the Lord (23). However, if the Israelites still didn't turn from their sins after the Lord turned from them, the Lord promises that their enemies would overtake them and that they would become exiles, living in a land that was not theirs (27-39).

Hhhhmmm. This biblical pattern sounds familiar, does it not? The Israelites turn from God, God punishes them, but they don't listen, so they are ultimately led into exile? Yup, you got it: that's the entire pattern of the Old Testament. Don't worry, if you didn't connect those dots. we're going to spend the next several months walking through it, but here's the point: the Israelites were warned. God was not some wrathful ball of fury slaying all of his people and needlessly sending them into exile just to teach them a lesson. Rather, he was (and is) a merciful God who warned his children what would happen to them if they did not obey his covenant. Yet, his children still disobeyed him, and thus God, in his own righteousness, had to punish them. However, let us not miss the point, that God is a gracious and merciful God, even in the Old Testament, as he even allows his children to repent at any time in which they desire, promising that he would return to them if they did (see verses 40-46).

In response to this devotional today, consider: how many times have you broken the Lord's commands although he has warned you otherwise? Look, my dear brother, the Lord has saved us by sending his very own son to die on our behalf, yet so often, we throw this gift in the trash and disobey that which he calls us to do. Just like the Israelites, we so often take advantage of the things of God and grieve the Holy Spirit rather than use what God has given to us for his glory. Child of God! Let us not break the covenant of our Lord, but obey all of his statutes and his ways, lest we end up like the Israelites in exile.