The Book Of LEVITICUS
Leviticus 27:34 "These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for
the children of Israel in mount Sinai."
CHAPTER 26:
Chapters 26 and 27 of Leviticus are the conclusion of the whole law of God that was begun in Exodus 20. In the tradition of the treaties between a king and his vassals of this time in the ANE, the format of this chapter is a series of “if/then” statements. God is making it clear to Moses and the children of Israel what the blessings will be for honoring God and obeying His law. (v.3-13) Conversely, the punishment, or chastening, for disobedience and dishonoring God is also clearly stated. (v.14-39) Lastly, there is forgiveness and blessing for those that truly repent, humble themselves, and seek God’s face. (v.40-46) Verses 1-2: Of all the laws of God, the two that are the most important to Him are that the children of Israel forsake all forms of idolatry (v.1) and that they honor the weekly sabbath days (v.2). (Exodus 20:3-4, 8, Leviticus 19:30, Deuteronomy 4:15, 5:8) All other laws are secondary to these. God is to have first place above all else in the daily lives of His chosen people. All other gods are false, and God’s righteous jealousy will not allow His honor and glory to be shared with another. That’s why verse 1 goes into detail regarding the various types of idolatrous objects that are common to the peoples of the pagan nation surrounding Israel at this time. Pillars, graven images, or any likenesses of any created thing (such as animals, vegetation, or celestial bodies) are forbidden by God. Likewise, the sabbath is a holy day, a day of rest. There is to be no labor aside from that which allows for the Israelites to worship God. It’s a day to wholly focus on Him and to rest from their week of toil and work. The importance of this day is emphasized by the death penalty for anyone caught disobeying this law. God is sovereign, and He is holy, and His law is not be taken lightly or easily dismissed. All that He is and all that He has done for the children of Israel shows why He is the Lord their God and why He should be honored with genuine awe, humility, and reverence at all times. God has reminded them of this numerous times throughout the giving of this law, and He repeats it again in both of these verses. Verses 3-13: God’s promises for the Israelites’ fidelity to Him are lavish: bountiful harvests (v.4-5, 10), peace and safety (v.5-6), victory in battles (v.7-8), and long life with many offspring (v.9). Notice that even though God promises peace and security in the promised land there’s still battles to be fought. Resting within God’s will and walking in obedience does not guarantee a life of comfort and ease for His chosen people. Instead, God promises that He will give them victory in their battles against any foe that rises against them after they have settled in the land. These promises to the Israelites are no less true and sure for us believers today. Obedience to the Lord and surrendering to His will and plan for our lives does not ensure a life of luxury and ease. Quite the contrary, in fact. But in addition to peace and calm in the midst of life’s storms, God promises us the strength, grace and courage to endure the trials and hardships that He allows into our lives. We are His children and the sheep of His pasture, and our Heavenly Father will never leave us nor forsake us! What a mighty thing to grasp and meditate upon! Obedience to the Lord will ensure His continued presence among His people. (v.11-13) (Deuteronomy 23:14, 2 Corinthians 6:16) This, too, is something truly incredible to consider! Yahweh, Jehovah, the Almighty God, the Lord and creator of the heavens and the earth, the One that heard the cry of Abraham’s seed and rained plagues upon Egypt and parted the Red Sea, has come down to dwell in His tabernacle in the midst of His chosen people! (Exodus 25:8, 29:45-46, Joshua 22:19, Psalm 76:2, Ezekiel 37:26, Revelation 21:3) God does not demand absolute fidelity, worship, obedience and honor without also guaranteeing much in return! What a glorious and unspeakable wonder to have the one, true God living and dwelling with His people! Verses 14-39: But just as bountiful as his blessings, the chastening and judgment for disobedience is equally severe and swift. Notice, too, that this list is longer than that of the previous passage. Verses 14-15: These list the conditions that will earn the Israelites God’s wrath and judgment: disobeying His commands, despising His statutes, and/or abhorring His judgments. Any or all of these will be considered a breach of His covenant with them, and the next several verses list in graphic detail the punishment. That word “abhor” is translated from the Hebrew word “gâ’al”, which means “to detest; to loathe; to vilely cast away”, according to Strong’s concordance. It’s more than just simple disobedience or a one-time infraction of some point of the law. To abhor something is to utterly and completely reject it, to violently turn away and run from it. Not only is this word used five times here in chapter 26 (v.11, 15, 30, 43, 44), but God also uses this word to describe the heathen nations that He is going to cast out of the promised land. (Leviticus 20:23) Elsewhere in scripture we are commanded to abhor sin and flee from evil. (Romans 12:9) God is warning the children of Israel that if they cast away His entire law and flee from His statutes and judgments, then He will bring upon them the opposite of what He described as blessings in verses 3-13. Verses 16-18: There will be physical diseases such as the Israelites’ have not yet known. (Deuteronomy 28:22, 1 Samuel 2:33) They will live in fear of their enemies who will invade their land and seize their crops. (v.16) (Psalm 106:41) Many of them will be slain in battle and others taken away captive because God will set His face against His people. (v.17) (Psalm 34:16) If this initial chastening does not cause them to turn back to God then His punishments will increase by a factor of seven. (v.18, 21, 24, 28) (1 Samuel 2:5) Verses 19-33: The phrase “…seven times more plagues…” (v.21, 24, 28) echoes God’s words to Moses and Pharaoh in Exodus. God cursed the Egyptians with ten plagues because of the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. He and his people abhorred God and His judgments and enslaved God’s chosen people. Therefore, God behaved towards them exactly as He is describing to Moses here in chapter 26. In other words, if the Israelites turn away from the Lord and behave as all the other heathen nations around them, God will judge them and chasten them accordingly. Their labor in the fields will be for naught. Their harvests will be lean or none at all. (v.20) (Psalm 127:1, Isaiah 17:10-11, 49:4, Jeremiah 12:13) Wild beasts will attack their children and their livestock. (v.22) (Exodus 23:29, Deuteronomy 32:24, Ezekiel 14:21) This will cause other nations and peoples to avoid their lands, thus making the roads in and out of their country empty and neglected. (Judges 5:6, 2 Chronicles 15:5, Zechariah 7:14) If, after each of these judgments the Israelites still refuse to humble themselves and repent, then even worse disease and greater war will fall upon them. (v.25) (Psalm 18:26, Jeremiah 2:30, Ezekiel 5:17, Amos 4:6) There will be another famine, to the point that bread and water will be severely rationed because of such limited supply. (v.26) (Psalm 105:16, Isaiah 3:1, Ezekiel 4:16-17, 5:16) God will allow them only enough to meet their most basic needs, but no more. The Israelites will long for the days when they had more than plenty, but their desire will go unfulfilled. (Micah 6:14, Haggai 1:6) But if, even after all that, the children of Israel stubbornly persist in their apostasy and rebellion, God will pour out His wrath upon them in even greater proportion. (v.27-28) The famine in the land will become so great that the Israelites will resort to cannibalism to survive. (v.29) (Deuteronomy 28:53, 2 Kings 6:28-29, Lamentations 4:10) God will ensure that those who practice idolatry will meet their expected end. Their corpses will be as lifeless as the idols that they worshiped. (v.30) (1 Kings 13:2, 2 Chronicles 34:3, Isaiah 27:9, Ezekiel 6:3, 13) The phrase “I will not smell the savour of your sweet odors” (v.31) refers to God’s rejection of Israel’s sacrifices and offerings. The daily rituals of honor and worship prescribed by the law of God are meaningless when one’s heart is hardened by unconfessed sin and open rebellion against God. (Isaiah 1:11) The final result of Israel’s disobedience and apostasy will be the destruction of her cities and her people being carried away captive by her enemies. (v.32-33) (Deuteronomy 4:27, 2 Kings 25:4, 10, Psalm 44:11, Jeremiah 9:11, 18:16, Ezekiel 12:15, 20:23, 22:15, Zechariah 7:14) Verses 34-39, 43: The land itself is also holy. When the disobedient Israelites are carried away into exile, the land will finally enjoy the rest that the rebellious people denied it. (v.34-35, 43) (Leviticus 25:2, 2 Chronicles 36:21) Those that are in exile will suffer continuous subjugation and dominion by their enemies and will live in constant fear of them (v.36-37) (Isaiah 30:17, Lamentations 1:3, 6, 4:19, Ezekiel 21:7, 12, 15) Many of them will die in captivity, and those that remain will, sadly, persist in the same sin and rebellion that was committed by their fathers and grandfathers. (v.38-39) (Exodus 34:7, Deuteronomy 4:26) Verses 40-46: But if they humble themselves and confess their sin and repent, then God will remember them and will remember His covenant with their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (v.40-42) (Numbers 5:7, 1 Kings 8:33-34, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Nehemiah 9:2, Luke 15:18, 1 John 1:9) Genuine repentance requires not only an acknowledgement and ownership of one’s sin, but also an acknowledgment of the punishment as well. (v.41) Judgment and chastening by God is never cruel, unjust or arbitrary. It is always designed with correction in mind and a desire on God’s part for reconciliation with His children. (This chastening, however, is not to be confused with God’s judgment against those who are not His own. That is a different kind of wrath that will be meted out to the unbelievers in the last days, as spelled out in the book of Revelation.) It is because of that covenant with Abraham that God will not utterly destroy His chosen people. (v.44) (Exodus 2:24, 6:5, Psalm 106:45, Ezekiel 16:60) God always keeps His promises. Because of who He is – holy, perfect and just – He cannot go back on His word. (Deuteronomy 4:31, 2 Kings 13:23, Jeremiah 30:11, Romans 11:1) Something else to note from verse 41: God refers to those future generations that have gone stray as “uncircumcised”. (Acts 7:51, Romans 2:29) This is one indication of how badly those future sons and daughters will have fallen away from their obedience to God and His law. As we can see from all those cross references, God’s warning to Moses here on Mount Sinai came to pass after the children of Israel settled in the promised land. This chapter is, sadly, more of a prophecy than a warning, but these last seven verses are a comfort and hope, especially verses 44-45. “…I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them…for I am the Lord their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt…that I might be their God: I am the Lord.” There is a time of redemption and reconciliation that is coming for the children of Israel. These two verses reiterate God’s promise to Abraham, but they also speak of a future that is still to come. Only after the rapture of the church and the seven years of tribulation, when Christ has returned to earth to set up His millennial kingdom, will God’s chosen people reign over all the earth with Jesus as their king as God intended from the very beginning. CHAPTER 27: The concluding chapter to the book of Leviticus is God’s instruction to Moses regarding vows, dedications and tithing. It may seem odd at first that this passage is the final one rather than chapter 26. It would have made more sense for this one to be the penultimate passage and have God’s warning to His people about future apostasy be the one that closes this book. But if we consider that the central theme of Leviticus is the right and proper worship of God then the matters of vows and tithing are the logical conclusion. Tithing is part of worshiping God because it acknowledges His sovereignty and providence over our lives. It is only by God’s hand that we have anything in this life, even life itself. Our every breath is only by God’s mercy. Therefore, if we refuse to give back to God His portion of the material blessings He bestows upon us, we are not only disobeying His command, but we are also demonstrating irreverence and selfish pride. For the children of Israel at this time, God instituted the system of tithes and offerings for two reasons: 1) to reinforce the principle that I explained above, and 2) to provide for the physical needs of the priests as well as the daily maintenance and upkeep of the tabernacle. Tithing for us today in the age of grace is for the same purposes. It not only demonstrates our reverence and worship of God but also pays the salary of our pastor as well as the daily maintenance and upkeep of the church building and property. Verses 1-8: Vows in the time of the OT, under the Levitical law, could be offered up in one of three ways: 1) the giving of the best of one’s livestock as a burnt offering; 2) the giving of one’s own son or daughter in full time service to God, i.e. Hannah offering up her firstborn son, Samuel, to Eli the high priest (1 Samuel 1:26-28); or 3) the giving of oneself in full time service to God. (Leviticus 7:16, Numbers 6:2, 30:2, Deuteronomy 23:21, Judges 11:30-31, 39) Full time service to God in the OT era typically meant serving the high priest in the tabernacle by doing various tasks not already assigned specifically to the high priest or his sons. A vow to God should never be done rashly or impulsively. (As an example, see the story of Jephthah in Judges 11.) But, in these first 13 verses, God is making provision in His law for the redemption of those who have made a vow of service to God. In other words, he/she may be freed from his/her vow according to the instructions in this chapter. “People who were dedicated by vow to the Lord’s service could be redeemed through a sum of money established by God or the priest. Hannah promised Samuel to the Lord, but if she had wanted to keep the child, God would have allowed her to take him back through monetary redemption.” (The Holman Illustrated Bible Commentary) It’s important to note here that God is not placing more value on the men than the women because of their gender. The monetary amounts listed in these verses refer to the value of the type of work or service that is being done in the tabernacle. The note in my study Bible explains it this way, “One of the chief occupations of the sanctuary was the slaughtering and offering of animals, and, in the wilderness, of disassembling and transporting the tabernacle. Thus it is easy to see that the service involving heavy manual work made the value of the service of men in the prime of their life much more costly to replace once they had been vowed to this work.” This is what is meant in verse 8 when it says, “…according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him.” Verses 9-13, 27: Any animal that is brought to the priest for an offering unto the Lord is holy. It now belongs to God and cannot be taken back or exchanged. (v.9) If the owner decides to offer up a better or more fitting animal instead, then both animals will belong to God. (v.10) Unclean animals or livestock that is less than perfect (i.e. blemishes, spots, or physical deformities) may also be dedicated to the Lord for His use by the priest in some other capacity other than a burnt offering or blood sacrifice. (v.11) The priest will estimate the value of the animal and pay the owner accordingly. (v.12) However, if the owner later changes his mind and wishes to buy back the animal, he must give the priest a full refund plus twenty percent. (v.13, 27) (Leviticus 6:5, 22:14) Verses 14-24: The same rule for the unclean or imperfect animal that is sold to the priest for service to God applies to one’s house if one wishes to sanctify his home for use by the priests. (v.14-15) Land can also be dedicated to God, but there are a few exceptions and conditions when estimating the value of the property because of the law of the Year of Jubilee. (Leviticus 25) The additional fee of twenty percent applies here too if the original owner wishes to buy back his field from the priest. (v.19) Verse 25: “…the shekel of the sanctuary…”, which is twenty gerahs, is the standard by which all monetary values shall be estimated. (Exodus 30:13, Numbers 3:47, 18:16, Ezekiel 45:12) Verse 26: The firstborn of livestock cannot be sanctified, meaning “set apart”, for the Lord’s service because he/she already belongs to God. (Exodus 13:2, 12, 22:30) Verses 28-29: These two verses draw a distinction between that which is “devoted to the Lord” and that which is “sanctified for the Lord’s use”. The earlier verses described people and animals that are sanctified, or “set apart”, for service to God. But something or someone that is devoted to the Lord means that that person, animal, or thing permanently belongs to God alone and cannot ever be redeemed. This is one of the exceptions to the sanctification and redeeming of a man’s field regarding the Year of Jubilee. (v.21) That word “devoted” is often used in the OT to refer to people or things that are under God’s judgment and condemnation. (Numbers 18:14, 21:2, Joshua 6:17) Both of these verses clearly stipulate that a man may devote something of his to God, but once that is done the transaction is final. This rule reinforces the solemnity and severity of these types of vows and thus prevents any rash or impulsive actions on the part of the Israelites. This is why the sin of Achan was so great and why God executed not only him but his entire family. He took that which belonged to God, which was “devoted” to the Lord, as decreed by Joshua before the battle of Jericho. (See the cross reference for Joshua 6:17 in the previous paragraph.) Achan’s family knew of his transgression and helped him hide the stolen property. Therefore God punished him and all his house for their sin. (Joshua 7:11, 13) That is how serious God views this law, and why verse 29 states that the devoted person or animal “…shall surely be put to death.” To devote something or someone unto the Lord, in this context, means to turn that person or possession over to God for judgment because of some great sin or transgression. That’s why the transaction is final and that person or thing cannot be redeemed, for God’s judgment and wrath are permanent. Verses 30-33: A man’s tithes of his crops can also be redeemed under this law. (Genesis 28:22, Numbers 18:21, 24, 2 Chronicles 31:5-6, 12, Nehemiah 13:12, Malachi 3:8) The phrase in verse 32 “…whatsoever passeth under the rod…” refers to the practice of numbering sheep or goats by causing them to pass through single file in a narrow lane over which the shepherd will hold out his staff or rod. The narrowing of the herd into the prescribed channel is random, and every tenth animal that passes under the rod belongs to God. If the shepherd tries to switch that particular sheep or goat, or tries to arrange the line so that only the unclean or less than perfect animals fall in the tenth spot, then both the perfect animal and that which the shepherd tried to substitute for it belong to God and cannot be redeemed. (v.33) Verse 34: This chapter is the conclusion of the whole law of God as given to Moses on Mount Sinai in the first year of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. (Leviticus 26:46, Deuteronomy 4:5, Malachi 4:4) The law of the Lord is pure, perfect and a light unto the path of those that study it, meditate upon it, learn from it and obey it. (Psalm 1:1-2, 19:7-11, 37:31, 119:1, 72) Only by doing all of that can our hearts then be in a right state of humility and reverence to properly worship God. That is His desire, and that communion and fellowship is the reason for which He created us in the first place. Leviticus 26:11-12 “And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.”
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