February 12, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Leviticus? Here’s today’s reading:
Leviticus 26 (NIV)
Reward for Obedience
1“ ‘Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God.
2“ ‘Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord.……Continue Reading
Verses 1-14: Obedience leads to peace. This is not because obedience somehow earns us credit before God, but rather, because God knows what is best for us and has given us His Word to ensure we know His Will. He is our Creator, our Maker…we are His design. He made us…He knows what is best for us. When we trust our God and humble ourselves before His commands, knowing that He has shown great love to us through Jesus Christ, and that He is for our good…we will find peace…indeed, a peace that passes all understanding.
Verse 19: “and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.”
Pride. That which is in me that opposed God and declares “I will be my own god, because I know what is best for me.” We know that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6). It is pride that leads to all kinds of sin, because it is pride that causes us to reject God’s commands for us, on the basis that we do not trust Him…we do not believe that He is for our good…and ultimately, because our sinful natures are opposed to God.
But God.
In verse 19, God says that He will “break the pride of your power”. The he talks about making the heavens like iron (no rain) and the earth like bronze (hard, unable to be tilled and planted). I know I am most susceptible to the sin of pride when I believe that I am responsible for the goodness in my life…that somehow, my own power has made me successful. That is pride. In 1 Corinthians 4:7, Paul asks “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” Now, he isn’t talking about worldly possessions here, so the proof text is a bit out of context…but the meta-narrative is true…what do we have that God did not provide? Nothing…starting with our very life itself. And yet so often, I do not acknowledge God, do not stop to thank God, and at my worst, do not obey God. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8)
But God.
“But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.”
God takes the initiative, because He knows we won’t. God makes a way for us, because He knows we can’t. And in making that Way…He sets all things in order. We are instantly delivered from the Penalty of sin – Jesus became sin for us, that we might become His righteousness. Walking forward from justification, alive by God’s Spirit in our lives, we learn to trust and obey God in our lives, we are more and more delivered from the Power of sin over us…we are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness…we are not our own, we were bought with a price…a price we could never pay. And ultimately, when God calls us home…delivered from the Presence of sin, forevermore.
Continued in Acts this morning Chapters 5-7.
Levitacus 26
Leviticus chapters 25-27
Leviticus 26, Mark 1-10
Leviticus 26
Leviticus 26
Leviticus 26 God makes it clear if they follow his ways they will be rewarded but if they go against him and let pride get in the way they will pay for those sins. It’s the way God wants for us if we live by the spirit and let God be in control of our lives he will show us the way to eternal glory.
God completes the laws with the blessings and consequences His people can expect if they choose to ignore them. It is clear that God sets an order to all things and makes a clear way for us to follow and then it is our responsibility to do so and like any good Father He is clear with the punishments if we do not obey.
Well God doesn’t pull any punches as He lays out what He will do in response to the people’s obedience or disobedience. It is amazing how big they are on both extremes! When we consider Israel’s history, how could they not have reflected on a passage like this and realized that is why we are facing what we are facing and then turn back to God to receive His blessing? It is also important to realize in God’s harsh response, it is not like He is personally offended by disobedience, but He is upfront about what His response has to be because He cannot condone anything else but obedience. He also knows the pride of the human heart and He needs to ramp up the discipline to get our attention and get us in line. And although God’s grace towards us in Christ moderates this in the nature of God’s response to us (we also are not a national people), it does not change the essence of God’s distaste for disobedience and His hatred of it and continued willingness to discipline us for it. It is the only way for a loving God to respond to something so destructive to us. The main question is whether we will see sin in the same way that He does and thereby flee from it?
So many clear and sound thinkings from all of you. I enjoy reading your comments. We have such a loving Heavenly Father. Where would we be without Him? Thank God for His mercy toward us.
”‘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.“
Leviticus 26:3-5
I couldn’t help but think of my garden, and what a utopia it would be to know that God would make it “work” for every season; to produce fruit and grain without fail. God does tell us not to worry about what we will eat, wear, etc. He provides!