Daily Scripture Reading Leviticus 26:21-39
Patrick grew up going to church on a regular basis. He learned all the Bible stories and the rules by which Christians are to live. But on his 28th birthday, he rejected it all. He decided he was done with God. He wasn’t going to follow God’s rules.
The Ten Commandments became a to-do list. He lied to close business deals, cheated on his wife, and put himself before God. He pursued wealth, cars, houses, vacations, and women. He mocked those who still practiced any sort of religion. He proclaimed that religion was a crutch for weak people.
One day his wife left him and took the kids with her. Business partners sued him. He started feeling fatigued, and then was diagnosed with a serious illness. Patrick went outside, looked up at the sky, and yelled, “If You are real, then strike me down. I reject You and every command You ever gave.”
Many people throughout history have intentionally rejected God. In fact, humans naturally do not want to acknowledge the existence of God because we don’t want to obey Him. We want to live by our own rules. Yahweh warned the Israelites that rejecting Him would result in severe consequences. Some of those consequences happened in Old Testament times. This is a warning to us that punishment awaits us if we also reject Him.
The 26th chapter of Leviticus opens with a command to reject all forms of idolatry. Then verses 3-13 detail the blessings for obedience. Submission to Yahweh would result in abundant harvests, peace, and military victories. On the other hand, verses 14-20 explain that disobedience would be punished with terror, disease, failed crops, and military defeat.
Lev. 26:21 ¶ ‘If then, you walk in hostility against Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins.
Look at the word “hostility”. The warning in this and the following verses is not in regard to accidental disobedience. This is about intentional and willful disregard of Yahweh’s guidelines for life.
Notice also the word “unwilling”. The Israelites who were at Mount Sinai had a choice. They could choose to obey or disobey God’s commands. Those who chose to disobey would be afflicted with plague.
Lev. 26:22 And I will send out among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and cut down your cattle and reduce your number so that your roads lie desolate.
Lev. 26:23 ¶ ‘And if by these things you do not accept My discipline, but walk in hostility against Me,
Lev. 26:24 then I will walk in hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins.
Lev. 26:25 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 given over into enemy hands.
Take note of the word “sword”. Yahweh threatened to bring defeat upon them if they did not obey. This happened between 800 BC and 500 BC when the Assyrians and then the Babylonians conquered the Israelites.
Lev. 26:26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread by rationed weight so that you will eat and not become full.
Lev. 26:27 ¶ ‘Yet, if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but walk in hostility against Me,
Lev. 26:28 then I will walk in wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will discipline you seven times for your sins.
Lev. 26:29 Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.
Lamentations 4:10 informs us that women boiled their own children because the siege of Jerusalem was causing a famine.
Lev. 26:30 I then will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and give your corpses to lie on the corpses of your idols, for My soul shall loathe you.
Lev. 26:31 And I will give your cities over as a waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas.
Lev. 26:32 And I will make the land desolate, so that your enemies who inhabit it will themselves feel desolate because of it.
Lev. 26:33 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.
The warnings in verses 30-33 were fulfilled when the Babylonians conquered Judah and carried the Jews to Babylon as exiles. When they were carried away, the land became desolate.
Lev. 26:34 ¶ ‘Then the land will make up for its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, and you will be in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and make up for its sabbaths.
Lev. 26:35 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.
During the exile, the land was desolate and allowed to rest (see 2 Chronicles 36:20-21).
Lev. 26:36 As for those of you who may remain, I will also bring weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will pursue them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall.
Lev. 26:37 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.
Lev. 26:38 But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you.
Lev. 26:39 So those of you who may remain will rot away in their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also in the iniquities of their fathers they will rot away with them.
Very early in human history, Yahweh observed that “the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5). Paul wrote in Romans 1 that the existence of God is evident to everyone, but many people suppress that truth.
Just as the Israelites suffered consequences if they chose to be hostile to Yahweh, so too any human will suffer punishment if they choose to reject God and His commands. Everyone will be recompensed for every deed done in the body whether good or bad (see 2 Corinthians 5:10). The 20th chapter of Revelation tells us about the final judgment. All the dead will stand before the throne of God and be judged for all their deeds. Anyone whose name is not written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire. Rejecting God has consequences.
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”