Leviticus 26
Exhortation to Obedience
26:1 “ ‘You must not make for yourselves idols, so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before it, for I am the Lord your God.
God is invisible. He has no image, yet he is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. If He had an image, man would worship the image rather than the person. Israel was to make no idols of Jehovah.
26:2 You must keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
Missing a Sabbath was a capital offense.
The Benefits of Obedience
26:3 “ ‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments, 26:4 I will give you your rains in their time so that the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. 26:5 Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes, and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so you will eat your bread until you are satisfied, and you will live securely in your land. 26:6 I will grant peace in the land so that you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you. I will remove harmful animals from the land, and no sword of war will pass through your land. 26:7 You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword. 26:8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 26:9 I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain my covenant with you. 26:10 You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new.
If Israel was obedient to the conditional Mosaic Covenant, they would be blessed in many ways. First, they would receive abundant rainfall for their crops. Second, there would be peace in their land. Third, there would be no threat from the animal population. Fourth, their land would not become a battleground for war. Fifth, the enemies of Israel would be too afraid to attack Israel. Sixth, Israel would experience a population explosion. Seventh, Israel would possess a large storehouse of produce.
26:11 “ ‘I will put my tabernacle in your midst and I will not abhor you. 26:12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people. 26:13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright.
If Israel would be obedient toward the conditional Mosaic Covenant, God would live among His people, directly inside of the Tabernacle. Also, He would walk among Israel. Third, He would become the God of Israel. Fourth, Jehovah reminded the Israelites that He redeemed them from slavery and caused them to become a mighty nation.
The Consequences of Disobedience
26:14 “ ‘If, however, you do not obey me and keep all these commandments—26:15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep all my commandments and you break my covenant—26:16 I for my part will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it. 26:17 I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.
If Israel was disobedient to the Mosaic Covenant, God would punish Israel in many different ways. First, Israel would live in horror. Second, they would be plagued with disease. Third, Israel would plant the seeds but their enemies would eat their crops. Fourth, the enemies of Israel would defeat them in battles. Fifth, those who hated Israel would rule over them. Sixth, Israel would flee from the enemy, even when they were not being chased.
26:18 “ ‘If, in spite of all these things, you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins.
Since Israel was the chosen nation of God, He expected more of them. Their punishment would be seven times greater than that of other nations.
26:19 I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze.
God promised that He would break the pride of Israel.
26:20 Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land will not produce their fruit.
Israel’s strength would be fatigued and useless. Their land would not produce. Their trees would not produce fruit.
26:21 “ ‘If you walk in hostility against me and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction seven times according to your sins. 26:22 I will send the wild animals against you and they will bereave you of your children, annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population so that your roads will become deserted.
Wild animals would control the roads, kill the children, and depopulate the trade routes.
26:23 “ ‘If in spite of these things you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me, 26:24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you seven times on account of your sins. 26:25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. Although you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands. 26:26 When I break off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, and you will eat and not be satisfied.
God would send disease, war, and famine upon Israel.
26:27 “ ‘If in spite of this you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me, 26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.
The disease, war, and famine would cause Israel to go into cannibalism. This happened twice in Israel's history. The first fulfillment was during the siege of Jerusalem during the Babylonian Captivity. The second fulfillment was after Israel rejected her Messiah and His apostles. During the Temple destruction of 70 A.D., Jewish parents once again ate their own children.
26:30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. I will abhor you.
Israel would brazenly worship demonic idols sexually on the top of mountains and hills so that Jehovah could see everything that they were doing. God would destroy these high places of sexual pagan worship.
26:31 I will lay your cities waste and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas.
Assyria and Babylon would wipe out all of the cities of Israel. When this happens, there would be no sweet incense burning in the Temple.
26:32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled.
During the Babylon Captivity, the land of Israel would be desolate. All of the Jews would be transported to the Babylonian canals. The enemies of Israel would be appalled at the destruction of this once thriving and mighty nation.
26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.
Israel would be scattered among all of the nations of the world. This was fulfilled partially during the Babylonian Captivity. It was fulfilled completely after the temple destruction of 70 A.D. After Jesus was crucified and the apostles were martyred, the Jews were scattered all over the world.
26:34 “ ‘Then the land will make up for its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths.
Israel would ignore the seven year sabbatical rest of the land for 490 years.
26:35 All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.
Jehovah would allow Babylon to capture and enslave the Jews for 70 years.
26:36 “ ‘As for the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer.
Those who remained in the land of Israel would live in daily fear.
26:37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand for you before your enemies.
Those few who remained in Israel would stumble, even when they were not being attacked.
26:38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.
Many of the Jews would die in slavery in the lands of Assyria and Babylon.
Restoration through Confession and Repentance
26:39 “ ‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ iniquities which are with them.
Disobedience would cause the population of Israel to decrease.
26:40 However, when they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, by which they also walked in hostility against me 26:41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for their iniquity, 26:42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
When Israel confesses her sin, God will remember the Abrahamic Covenant.
26:43 The land will be abandoned by them in order that it may make up for its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them, and they will make up for their iniquity because they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred my statutes.
After 70 years of captivity, God will restore Israel back into her land.
26:44 In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God.
God would not destroy the Jews completely, because of the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant.
26:45 I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’ ”
Jehovah keeps His promises, even though Israel does not.
Summary Colophon
26:46 These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through Moses.
God expected Israel to keep her promises.