Worship in the Wilderness #26: Blessings and...

 

Read: Leviticus 26...

Background: God had spoken through Moses to the people of Israel and given them instructions on how they were to come and worship Him.  He had provided details on how to bring offerings, keep themselves holy and clean, and live lives to glorify Him and support one another.  He had also told the priests what their part was in this process and charged them to help the people worship.  Finally, He had given them all sorts of special days, months and years to constantly remind themselves of Who He is and who they were: His holy people. Now we come to the concluding challenges and "what if we do, and what if we don't...?"

Key Verses: 1 “You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. 2 You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then I will give you...

14 “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you:...

Thoughts: God made things very clear: If they walked in obedience, He would give them rain, abundant harvests, security, peace, victory, full storehouses, freedom, and most of all: His continual presence and blessing.  But if they chose to abhor and ignore Him, He would allow fear, famine, disease, defeat, wild beasts, invasions, starvation, and eventually, exile.  The chapter actually progresses from good to bad to ugly.  But it does not end on that note: there is always hope if they repent and confess.  He promises:

44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 45 But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, 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.”