Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 26-27.

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As I was reading this passage, I had trouble connecting with it until I got to where God warned the Israelites what would happen to them if they abhorred His rules when He said, “Those who hate you shall rule over you.”  This led me to think about the quotes I keep hearing from politicians which imply that they hate the people over whom they govern.  Which led me to think about the things God promised to those who do as He commands, and His promises to those who reject His commands.  He promises that those who walk according to His statutes will have a surplus of food and will live in peace.  While those who will not listen to His commands will suffer disease, famine, and be overrun by their enemies.  Then I look at history and at civilizations which thrive, and civilizations which fall.  When I look at those which thrive, often I see a civilization where the people strive to do God’s will.  Then I look at those which fall, and I see a civilization where people abandoned doing God’s will.  And if I look a little closer at the thriving civilizations, I see people with flaws, people who strive to do God’s will, but have shortcomings and places where they fall short.  If the people look at where they fail to do God’s will and seek to correct their actions, the civilization continues to thrive.  Unfortunately, sometimes people look at the ways in which their forebearers fell short of doing God’s will and blame God for those failings.  Then instead of trying to do what their forebearers got right AND correct where they failed to do God’s will, they reject the idea of being obedient to God.  Since their forebearers were striving to do God’s will, they conclude that their shortcomings were also God’s will and therefore it was their attempt to do God’s will which led them to do wrong.

I wrote all of that, and there are flaws with it because it is difficult to apply the commands God gave for the establishment of the ancient nation of Israel to today.  In fact, the most important part of this is where, after the people have fallen so far from God that He has left them to rot in their enemies lands because of their iniquities, God says that if the people confess their iniquity, humble themselves, and turn back to Him, He will remember His covenant with Jacob.  So, while all of this is directed at the people of ancient Israel, it applies to us today.  If we turn from God, He will bring hardship on us to discipline us, to show us our sins, to try to guide us back to Him.  Those hardships will get worse until we turn back to Him and correct our ways.  Confess your sins to God, humble yourself, and turn back to Him, and He will bless you.

Lord, I confess that I have sinned against you, that I have not disciplined myself to work at doing your will, that I have failed to love you with all of my heart, and all of my mind, and all of my will, and all of my strength.  Pour your Spirit upon me and strengthen my resolve to do better at serving you.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 26-27.

Today’s passage begins with God repeating His command to worship only Him and not worship idols, images, or objects.  Immediately following this He repeats His command to keep the Sabbath.  These two repeated commands precede what I see as the core of this chapter.   First, God tells the people of Israel, and us, that if they follow His decrees and are careful to obey His commands, He will grant them peace and make them fruitful.  On the other hand, if they, or we, reject His decrees and refuse to follow His commands, He will bring suffering upon us.  How the passage tells us what God will do to those who reject His instruction tells us a lot about why God has given us the commands He has given us.  God says “I will break your stubborn pride.”  Then a little later He says, “If you do not accept my correction,…”  Reading between the lines indicates that God gives us the commands and instructions which He gives us because they are in our best interests.  The good things which God promises to do for us if we obey His commands are the natural consequences of following such a course of action.  The initial punishments which God threatens us with if we fail to follow His commands are designed to turn us from our negative actions before it is too late to avoid the negative consequences of those actions.  If we do God’s will, good things will come to us, because that is the way God made the world to work.  If we reject God’s will, and refuse to follow His instructions, bad things will happen to us, because that is also the result of the way in which the world is designed.  Just as a good parent will punish a child who does things which might cause the child permanent harm before those actions result in permanent harm, so does God punish us, hoping that we will turn from our evil ways before we suffer permanent harm.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 26-27.

God told the Israelites that if they followed His decrees and obeyed His commands they would not face drought and their crop yield would be plentiful.  Further, wild animals would not be a threat and hostile forces would flee from them.  Then God goes on to tell them that if they failed to do that and rejected His decrees, they would face illness and disease, debt, and be dominated by their enemies.  If they failed to turn back to God after experiencing these woes, the illnesses would become plagues. wild animals would attack and their children and animals, and crops would fail.  Finally, if even after that they failed to turn to the Lord, He would bring devastation upon them and turn their land into a wasteland.  Now while this prophecy was part of God’s covenant with the children of Israel, I believe it also represents a truth about how the world works.  If a society behaves justly and its members treat each other well, that society will prosper, and the land in which it lives will be beautiful and healthy.  On the other hand, if a society is decadent and its members treat each other as things to be used, it will suffer economically and its land will be polluted and ugly.  A society which is just and righteous will be peaceful and prosperous.  The more just and righteous the society, the more peaceful and prosperous it will be.  On the other hand, societies which are unjust and unrighteous suffer with disease, poverty, and violence.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 26-27.

I like how in this passage the consequences of a people obeying God are simple and straightforward: we will have enough to eat, we will have no reason to fear anything, and we will be successful (as followers of Christ our definition of successful is different from that of others).  On the other hand, the passage tells us that the consequences for a people of disobeying God are progressive.   First, it tells us that we will have to work harder to supply our needs.  Then, if we continue to refuse to obey God, we will suffer natural disasters and tragedies.  If that does not turn the people back to God, we will suffer plagues, shortages, and defeat at the hands of our enemies.  Finally, if we still refuse to turn to God, we will suffer famine, destruction, conquest, and exile.  But even when we reach this last stage, God will remember us, and if we confess our sins and turn to Him, He will welcome us back and start us on the path to prosperity once more.  So, let us turn from our sins now and beg the Lord to make us able to live righteously.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 26-27.

There is a saying which is usually brought up as a false belief (and accurately so) which says that might makes right.  Even so, there are a remarkable number of people who believe that because they have the power to do something it is right for them to do so.  This passage tells us that the opposite is true: might does not make right, but right does make might.  That is, if we do the right thing we will have the power to continue doing the right thing.  When we do right, when we do God’s will, no force will be sufficient to stand against us.  Further, we will have a surplus of the resources necessary to do God’s will.  On the other hand, as we fail to do God’s will we fail at everything we attempt to even the weakest opposition and will find ourselves with barely enough resources to keep ourselves alive.  This passage tells us that as we refuse to follow God’s guidelines, He will progressively visit troubles and disasters upon us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 26-27.

We can learn a lot about what it means to be faithful to God’s commands by seeing how the blessings for being obedient correspond to the curses for disobedience.  If we faithfully obey God, the land will be productive and produce more than enough food to feed us.  If we break God’s commands, the land will become ever more unproductive and famine will come upon us.  If we faithfully obey God, we will live in peace, even the wildlife will leave us in peace.  If we refuse to be faithful, we will beset by wild beasts and then by foreign enemies.  As we are faithful to God, the environment around us will become more and more hospitable to us.  As we rebel against Him, the opposite will happen.  At any time, if we confess our sins, turn to God, and make amends for our wrongdoing, God will reverse the trend of destruction which He began visiting upon us for our sin.  It is never too late for people to turn to God.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 26-27.

God promised the people of Israel blessings if they obeyed His commands and the punishments they would suffer if they failed to obey.  Some people read these blessings and conclude that godliness leads to wealth.  There is some truth to this, but it misunderstands what this passage promises.  First, God’s promise here is for the people of Israel, not everyone.  More importantly, these promises are for an entire people, not for individuals.  I believe that any large group of people who faithfully follow God’s commands will experience blessings similar to those recorded here, and any such group which violates God’s commands will suffer the punishment.  I believe that God built this into the world when He created it.  Having said all of that, I believe that choosing to obey God brings joy and choosing to rebel against God will bring pain.