Introduction
After Leviticus 25, where we hear about the certainty of the restoration of all things, the certainty that God’s plans will be fulfilled, this chapter follows with our responsibility as the people of God. Here we do not hear about God’s counsels, but about His ways in connection with man’s responsibility. This is not in conflict with His counsels, but another side of God’s truth.
Here we see what God will do if man is obedient and what He will do if man is disobedient. The blessings are made dependent on what man does. In Deuteronomy 28 we hear about the same things as here, but in more detail (Deu 28:1-68). There everything is said to a people who have their wilderness journey behind them, while here the people still have to go through the wilderness.
1 Prohibition to Make Idols
1 ‘You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a [sacred] pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God.
God first establishes His absolute exclusive right to the worship of His people. Their tribute may only go to Him and to nothing and no one else. He does not tolerate any object besides Him. He is not part of His creation. Each made object is less than Him and everything there is, is made by Him and therefore less than Him.
2 God’s Sabbaths and God’s Sanctuary
2 You shall keep My sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the LORD.
After the negative prohibition to make idols, follows the positive commandment to keep “My sabbaths” and to reverence “My sanctuary” (cf. Lev 19:30). This allows them to show that their heart goes out to Him instead of to the idols. It covers their entire lives. In keeping the sabbath commandment they show respect for the LORD in their social life; in revering the sanctuary they show that they want to live according to God’s will in their religious life.
3 - 13 Promise of Blessing
3 If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, 4 then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. 5 Indeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. You will thus eat your food to the full and live securely in your land. 6 I shall also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down with no one making [you] tremble. I shall also eliminate harmful beasts from the land, and no sword will pass through your land. 7 But you will chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword; 8 five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 9 So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you. 10 You will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the new. 11 Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. 12 I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. 13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that [you] would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
The blessings of the land are abundantly presented. The first blessing talked about is rains. The entire harvest depends on this (Deu 11:13-14). With obedience, rain is promised, always at the right time for the harvest. As a result, it will be a year-round harvest as it were (Amos 9:13).
They will be able to enjoy the fruit in peace, without having to be in fear of the threat of enemies or wild animals. If an enemy dares to attack them, they will chase him away with little effort (cf. Deu 32:30). The LORD will turn to them in favor. He will make them numerous and give them plenty of food.
Besides this material blessing there is also spiritual blessing. It is the privilege that He dwells among them, and will be their God, and that they will be His people. The material blessing is also proof that God dwells constantly in their midst. The people have blessing and rest where God has rest.
They will enjoy the full result of God’s deliverance out of Egypt in beneficent freedom. There will be no question of a posture bent under the slave yoke. God has broken their yoke and will make them “walk erect”, they walk with their heads held high. Thus the Christian may “stand” in the grace of God (Rom 5:2). Many times in the history of Israel their deliverance out of Egypt is referred back to by the LORD. The Christian must also be reminded time and again of his salvation from the power of sin. This will keep his gratitude alive and make him longing to continue to honor God in all things.
14 - 17 Consequences of Disobedience (1)
14 ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, 15 if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, [and] so break My covenant, 16 I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up. 17 I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.
In verses 14-40 it is about the consequences for the people if they are disobedient. Not listening to God’s commandments shows contempt for it. It is not about sins of ignorance or weakness. In that case, offerings can be made. But if the people consciously ignore God’s statutes and commandments, the blessing will diminish, and God will finally expel the people from the land. The people will be scattered among the nations. The Divine threats concern Israel’s future.
The scattering of the people is literally fulfilled. This could make it difficult to believe that the prophecies of Leviticus 23 and Leviticus 25 will be fulfilled for the people and the land. But God will do what He has determined. He Himself will cause conversion in the astray people. He will do a work of grace in the people so they will be in a condition that He can fulfill all His plans for the converted people.
That converted people will be a remnant, but that remnant is also “all Israel” (Rom 11:25-26a). God will bless them on the ground of His covenant with Jacob, Isaac and Abraham (verses 42,45).
The first announcement of the consequences of the disobedience of the people promise illness, hunger and defeats. The plagues result from this fearful fact that the LORD has set His face against them (verse 17). He will act with hostility against them (verses 24,28). If that is the case, any measure to avert God’s wrath will prove a worthless, futile effort. When obedient no diseases shall affect them (Exo 23:25; 15:26).
18 - 20 Consequences of Disobedience (2)
18 If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 I will also break down your pride of power; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.
If the discipline of God is not successful, and the people remain disobedient, the people will have to suffer even more terrible things. The fact that God speaks of following discipline indicates that He knows the heart of man, that it is incorrigible. God’s purpose with His discipline is to make His people change their ways, but the people act in a contrary way (Amos 4:6; cf. 2Chr 28:22).
In this second announcement God says that He will punish them seven times more if His first judgments are unsuccessful. Drought and infertility are promised. Facing an iron sky – no rain falls out – and a copper ground, which cannot be worked because of its hardness, they will be powerless. Every effort ends in nothing but consuming of power without any result in food. That will have to break down their pride of power.
21 - 22 Consequences of Disobedience (3)
21 ‘If then, you act with hostility against Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins. 22 I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that your roads lie deserted.
If also the discipline that follows the ignoring of the second warning has no effect, and the people continue to disobey (cf. Jer 6:29), a third warning follows, pointing out what awaits them. If smaller judgments have no effect, God will send larger judgments. He will increase the plague on them, and will punish them seven times harder (cf. Dan 3:19). He will let loose the beasts of the field against them (Eze 14:21), which will eat children and cattle. For fear no one will dare to come out on the street.
Man is created to rule over the animals. By their conduct, because they have turned their backs on God, they have set themselves below the animals. Those animals will now reign over them. God uses the animals to exercise His discipline over His people.
23 - 26 Consequences of Disobedience (4)
23 ‘And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility against Me, 24 then I will act with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins. 25 I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands. 26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts, so that you will eat and not be satisfied.
If the people continue to resist, the fourth announcement follows what awaits them in seven times heavier form. The enemy will come and kill them with the sword. He who thinks he is safe from the sword in a city, will be struck with the plague and thus driven into the hands of the enemy.
The scarcity of food will be great; no one will be able to be satisfied. Ten families will have to deal with the ration for one family. Hunger will become more and more gnawing, leading people to resort to the horror of cannibalism, mentioned in the next section.
27 - 39 Consequences of Disobedience (5)
27 ‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, 28 then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins. 29 Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat. 30 I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you. 31 I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas. 32 I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it. 33 You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste. 34 ‘Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 All the days of [its] desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it. 36 As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall. 37 They will therefore stumble over each other as if [running] from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have [no strength] to stand up before your enemies. 38 But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. 39 So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers they will rot away with them.
If the people continue to resist after all the previous disciplinary measures, the fifth announcement of disciplinary measures is also the final blow to the resistance. The people will be driven out of the land and scattered over the earth. Before that time, they will fall into cannibalism and that in its most horrible form: their own children are eaten (2Kgs 6:28-29). Egoism is so great that all natural love has disappeared. Children are not only sacrificed to idols, but here they are sacrificed purely for the sake of survival.
The LORD shall cast their corpses on the corpses of their idols, and disgust them. He Himself will destroy their cities. When the people have finally been driven out of it, the land will have rest and will be retributed for its sabbatical years which the people have withheld during their stay in it (2Chr 36:21).
The cities where the people have felt at ease and at home will be made a mess by the LORD. There will no longer be a place where they will have rest and feel at home. Nothing will remain of their sanctuaries, which as religious places have given them a sense of security and by which they have assumed themselves to be God’s people. Nothing of their religion is acceptable to God: “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon [festivals] and your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing [them]” (Isa 1:13-14).
The land as a whole shall be destroyed by the LORD in a way that even their enemies shall be appalled. The people will be driven out and will be destroyed on foreign ground outside the land.
There will be no force to hold against the enemy. They will see enemies where there are none and flee as a result of their imagination (verse 17). He who rejects the fear of God will even be afraid of the sound of a driven leaf (verse 36; Pro 28:1a).
Just as it was with Israel, so it will be with the professing Christianity. If those who were once in connection with God are judged by Him because of their total hardening, this will surprise even all those who have never been in connection with Him (cf. Jer 19:8).
40 - 42 Confession and Covenant
40 ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me— 41 I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.
If they confess, God will remember His covenant. The confession is accompanied by repentance and humiliation. However persistently the people have despised all the discipline of God, there remains a possibility of conversion. They will also do so when the need has risen to heaven. Their confession is an acknowledgment of God’s righteousness in dealing with them. They will acknowledge that God has done with them according to what they deserved. Nehemiah appealed to these verses in his prayer to the LORD (Neh 1:8-9; cf. 1Kgs 8:46-53).
Repentance means that they consider themselves guilty and understand that they have acted against God. They condemn themselves and humiliate themselves before God. Their uncircumcised heart (cf. Jer 9:26), that is to say their actions in their own will and rebellion, comes to self-judgment. Circumcision speaks of judgment on the flesh. This is what God seeks (Rom 2:29).
43 - 45 God Remembers for Good
43 For the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My statutes. 44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. 45 But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.’”
God remembers for good. If they have the right mind, a mind that is worked by the LORD in them, and therefore also acceptable to Him, He will remember His covenant, and on that basis, He will bless them. He remains faithful to His covenant, not because of His people, but because of Himself and on the basis of the work His Son accomplished on the cross.
46 Closing
46 These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the LORD established between Himself and the sons of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.
This verse closes the book of Leviticus. Moses is the mediator given by God. Through his service the people receive God’s revelations, while they camp at Mount Sinai. The following chapter is a kind of appendix, but an important one.