Thursday Night Bible Study

Leviticus 26-Leviticus 27 (Click title for audio access)

"Covenant Conditions & Consequences"  •  12.15.11  •  Thursday Night Bible Study, Calvary Christian Fellowship

Intro.

- Coming to the end of Leviticus, all who have gone through each of the chapters now knows that a life lived in covenant with God is a matter of great consequence.

- The people had gone out from the bondage of Egypt to live in covenant with Almighty God, who is Holy, unique, separate from the World. Consequently, they were to reflect that.

- In these last two chapters of Leviticus, God having laid out the substance of the covenant, now lays out what would have been a standard set of covenant conditions.

- In the ancient near east, the final words of an agreement would dictate how the participants were to act. One side would act this way towards the group while the other side reciprocated.

- These two chapter before us work out in the following way:

I. Obedience (v.1-13)

II. Disobedience (v.14-39)

III. Confession (v.40-46)

IV. Dedication (Chapter 27)

Text

I. Obedience (v.1-13)

•  Leviticus 26:1,2 : "You shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord."  :  Idols, images, pillars and stones were common sights in Canaan. The word "idol" means "worthless thing."

- Their worship was to revolve around rest and the Tabernacle. Everything in your life revolves around that which you worship. For those who love God, nothing can be more valuable than Him.

- Notice that what happens next is contingent on the word "if." These are covenant conditions.

•  Leviticus 26:3-8 :  "If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; I will rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword will not go through your land. You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you." :  Canaanite worship was obsessed with pleasing the gods, in order to produce positive results. Rain, good harvests, protection, etc.

- If the Israelites would pattern themselves in the law of God, seeking to bring them to live that which God had commanded, then all these things would be theirs.

- They would have good rain seasons, good harvests, peace and protection for the land. If they needed to fight, God would make their minimal defenses yield maximum results.

- This is nothing short of divine. Only He can make such claims and only He can bring them to pass. This is a great illustration of Matthew 6:33. "Seek first the Kingdom and all will be added."

- There will be some who worship at the altar of pragmatism. God says, "Put me first and all things will be added unto you!" That's what He tells them. Don't go by the World's way.

•  Leviticus 26:9-13  :  "For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you. You shall eat the old harvest, and clear out the old because of the new. I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright."  :  These are great promises that the Lord delivers to His people. He would look upon them favorably. He would turn toward them and look toward them an intimate regard.

- He would multiply their nation, giving them the promise of a future and a perpetual inheritance in the land. In the land, the people of Israel would enjoy the benefits of God's covenant.

- He would dwell with them and they would walk in freedom with God. This is what God has done with you and I in Christ: He has broken the bands of slavery and caused us to walk upright.

- God would provide, protect and give His presence for those who obeyed.

II. Disobedience (v.14-39)

•  Leviticus 26:14-20  :  " But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit."  : Commandments, statutes and judgments all refer to the Lord's express word to the people in Exodus and Leviticus that they were to perfom before the Lord. That was always the intention.

- The consequences for breaking them would be severe and would in fact, be a total reversal.

- Instead of peace, there would be terror. Instead of being strengthened, they would waste away. Instead of victory, there'd be defeat, fleeing when nobody pursues, which is paranoia.

- Everything that obedience brought, disobedience would waste away. Every security would be gone. What is God's goal? That they continue in self-destruction? Not at all.

- Notice that phrase in verse 18: "After all this, if you do not obey me!" That is a phrase every carnal Christian needs to understand.

- When God allows you to eat the fruit of your rebellious actions, recognize that it's not about God hating on you. It's His mercy not to consume you! These are acts of discipline.

•  Leviticus 26:21-25 : "Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate. And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant; when you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy." : In that part of the world, wild animals roamed the countryside. God can either remove or commission!

  - God will punish them perfectly, ie. 7 times, the point being to reform them. He tells them that these things are meant to show them His loving kindness.

- In other words, the God of the earth could simply destroy any evidence that they ever lived. Their God gave them every chance to reform and return to Him.

•  Leviticus 26:26-30  :  " When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied. And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk contrary to you in fury;
and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you."  :  God would decimate His people because of their sins, allowing their choices to play out before them.

- Their deprived condition would even lead them to the depths of cannabalism, which eventually did take place historically. Some might ask, "How can anyone get so low?"

- That is the question that is asked by those who defy God and live in any way that they want.

- In the case of the Israelis, their history brought them to these very places.

•  Leviticus 26:31-39  :  "I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall rest—for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it. And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee; they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues. They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; also in their fathers’ iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away." : Notice that the Lord knows that they will not give the land it's Sabbaths, which happened when the Israelites were taken into Babylon for 70 years.

- There is no doubt that people who looked at the land during those times wondered at how it was possible that a land could be so decimated.

- For the person hearing this, I am sure that they never believed that any of it would come to pass. Who would forsake the covenant and live in disobedience? God knows better!

III. Confession (v.40-46)

•  Leviticus 26:40-46  :  "But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me, and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land. The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; they will accept their guilt, because they despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. But for their sake I will remember the covenant of 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.’ These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses." : God works over time to be heard. He wants them to obey. He wants them to reform if they disobey and if they confess, God will be gracious to them.

- The word "confess" means to point the finger at themselves, to accept responsibility.

- God always leaves the door open for His people to return. He wants His people to be with them. God is the first one to call for repentance and to bring restoration.

- In spite of everything, God will remember the land and His promises to their ancestors.\

IV. Dedication (Chapter 27)

•  Leviticus 27:1-8  :  "Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When a man consecrates by a vow certain persons to the Lord, according to your valuation, if your valuation is of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. If it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels; and if from five years old up to twenty years old, then your valuation for a male shall be twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels; and if from a month old up to five years old, then your valuation for a male shall be five shekels of silver, and for a female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver; and if from sixty years old and above, if it is a male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels. But if he is too poor to pay your valuation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall set a value for him; according to the ability of him who vowed, the priest shall value him."  : Chapter 27 is all about what one does when they want to surrender themselves totally to the Lord and the price for getting out of that commitment. He begins with people.

- People could dedicate or be dedicated to the Lord. We immediately think of Hannah, who dedicated Samuel when he was weaned. Others had taken this vow themselves.

- The priest would assess a value to them, in case the person wanted to get out of the bargain.

- For those who were male, there was a greater cost, especially in a society built around agriculture. At the same time, people could be given or dedicated to the Lord from a month up.

•  Leviticus 27:9-15  :  "If it is an animal that men may bring as an offering to the Lord, all that anyone gives to the Lord shall be holy. He shall not substitute it or exchange it, good for bad or bad for good; and if he at all exchanges animal for animal, then both it and the one exchanged for it shall be holy. If it is an unclean animal which they do not offer as a sacrifice to the Lord, then he shall present the animal before the priest; and the priest shall set a value for it, whether it is good or bad; as you, the priest, value it, so it shall be. But if he wants at all to redeem it, then he must add one-fifth to your valuation. And when a man dedicates his house to be holy to the Lord, then the priest shall set a value for it, whether it is good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand. If he who dedicated it wants to redeem his house, then he must add one-fifth of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall be his."  :  Animals and homes could also be dedicated with the understanding that a 20% overage was charged if they took it back.

- It's interesting that God has to even say this, but how true is it? How many have wanted to bring something to the Lord, but then brought something less valuable to Him in exchange?

- The point that God is making is simple: Be careful what you vow! Be sure that you want to give that and that you will give that in full.

•  Leviticus 27:16-25 : "If a man dedicates to the Lord part of a field of his possession, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it. A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. If he dedicates his field from the Year of Jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand. But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall reckon to him the money due according to the years that remain till the Year of Jubilee, and it shall be deducted from your valuation. And if he who dedicates the field ever wishes to redeem it, then he must add one-fifth of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall belong to him. But if he does not want to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed anymore; but the field, when it is released in the Jubilee, shall be holy to the Lord, as a devoted field; it shall be the possession of the priest. And if a man dedicates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not the field of his possession, then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your valuation, up to the Year of Jubilee, and he shall give your valuation on that day as a holy offering to the Lord. In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to the one who owned the land as a possession. And all your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs to the shekel."  :  The field had to be valued by what it produced and according to the the relation to the year of jubilee, which would bring it back to the person.

•  Leviticus 27:26-34  :  "But the firstborn of the animals, which should be the Lord’s firstborn, no man shall dedicate; whether it is an ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall redeem it according to your valuation, and shall add one-fifth to it; or if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation. Nevertheless no devoted offering that a man may devote to the Lord of all that he has, both man and beast, or the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted offering is most holy to the Lord. No person under the ban, who may become doomed to destruction among men, shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death. And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord. If a man wants at all to redeem any of his tithes, he shall add one-fifth to it. And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. He shall not inquire whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; and if he exchanges it at all, then both it and the one exchanged for it shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.' These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai."  :  Finally, God tells the people that they cannot offer Him something already belongs to Him! Firstborn, devoted offerings, the tithe, meaning a tenth, were all His.

- You'll note also that a person who was sentenced to death was not allowed redemption.

Conclusion

- Today, you and I are not under the Mosaic law. A New and better covenant has replaced it. That covenant is not based on our performance but on Christ's.

- That being said, let every person understand something simple: Obedience to God leads to a life that is much better than a life of disobedience.

- To those who are obedient, fully commit yourself afresh, running headlong toward God. To those who are disobedient, fully confess, point the finger at yourself, and watch God work again.

- His standard has not changed and our desire to be Holy should not change either.