February
16th Leviticus 26 Blessings for Obedience
1: Ye shall make you no idols nor
graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any
image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.
2: Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. 3: If
ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; 4: Then I will
give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the
trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5: And your threshing shall reach unto
the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat
your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. 6: And I will give peace
in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will
rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
7: And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the
sword. 8: And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall
put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the
sword. 9: For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply
you, and establish my covenant with you. 10: And ye shall eat old store, and
bring forth the old because of the new. 11: And I will set my tabernacle among
you: and my soul shall not abhor you. 12: And I will walk among you, and will
be your God, and ye shall be my people. 13: I am the LORD your God, which
brought you forth out of the land
of Egypt, that ye should
not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go
upright.
Punishment for Disobedience
14: But if ye will not hearken unto
me, and will not do all these commandments; 15: And if ye shall despise my
statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my
commandments, but that ye break my covenant: 16: I also will do this unto you;
I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that
shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in
vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17: And I will set my face against you,
and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over
you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. 18: And if ye will not yet for
all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your
sins. 19: And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven
as iron, and your earth as brass: 20: And your strength shall be spent in vain:
for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land
yield their fruits. 21: And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken
unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
22: I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your
children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your
highways shall be desolate. 23: And if ye will not be reformed by me by these
things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24: Then will I also walk contrary unto
you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25: And I will bring a
sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are
gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and
ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26: And when I have broken
the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they
shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be
satisfied. 27: And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk
contrary unto me; 28: Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I,
even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29: And ye shall eat the
flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 30: And I
will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases
upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. 31: And I will
make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will
not smell the savour of your sweet odours. 32: And I will bring the land into
desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 33:
And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you:
and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 34: Then shall the land
enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies'
land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. 35: As long as it
lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye
dwelt upon it. 36: And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a
faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a
shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and
they shall fall when none pursueth. 37: And they shall fall one upon another,
as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to
stand before your enemies. 38: And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the
land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39: And they that are left of you shall
pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities
of their fathers shall they pine away with them. 40: If they shall confess
their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which
they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
41: And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into
the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they
then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: 42: Then will I remember my
covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with
Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. 43: The land also shall
be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without
them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even
because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my
statutes. 44: And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies,
I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly,
and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God. 45: But I will
for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth
out of the land
of Egypt in the sight of
the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD. 46: These are the
statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the
children of Israel
in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
Leviticus
27 F. Dedication and devotion Rules
for Dedication
1: And the LORD spake unto Moses,
saying, 2: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a
man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation.
3: And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto
sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after
the shekel of the sanctuary. 4: And if it be a female, then thy estimation
shall be thirty shekels. 5: And if it be from five years old even unto twenty
years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the
female ten shekels. 6: And if it be from a month old even unto five years old,
then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the
female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver. 7: And if it be from
sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be
fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 8: But if he be poorer than
thy estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest
shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value
him. 9: And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the LORD, all
that any man giveth of such unto the LORD shall be holy. 10: He shall not alter
it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at
all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy. 11:
And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the
LORD, then he shall present the beast before the priest: 12: And the priest
shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou valuest it, who art the
priest, so shall it be. 13: But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add
a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation. 14: And when a man shall sanctify his
house to be holy unto the LORD, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it
be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand. 15: And if he
that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of
the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his. 16: And if a man
shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then thy
estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed
shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17: If he sanctify his field from
the year of jubile, according to thy estimation it shall stand. 18: But if he
sanctify his field after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon unto him the
money according to the years that remain, even unto the year of the jubile, and
it shall be abated from thy estimation. 19: And if he that sanctified the field
will in any wise redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of
thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him. 20: And if he will not
redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be
redeemed any more. 21: But the field, when it goeth out in the jubile, shall be
holy unto the LORD, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the
priest's. 22: And if a man sanctify unto the LORD a field which he hath bought,
which is not of the fields of his possession; 23: Then the priest shall reckon
unto him the worth of thy estimation, even unto the year of the jubile: and he
shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto the LORD. 24: In
the year of the jubile the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought,
even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong. 25: And all thy
estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs
shall be the shekel. 26: Only the firstling of the beasts, which should be the
LORD's firstling, no man shall sanctify it; whether it be ox, or sheep: it is
the LORD's. 27: And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall redeem it
according to thine estimation, and shall add a fifth part of it thereto: or if
it be not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to thy estimation. 28:
Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the LORD of all
that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall
be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto the LORD. 29: None
devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be
put to death. 30: 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 unto the LORD. 31:
And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the
fifth part thereof. 32: And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock,
even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the
LORD. 33: He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he
change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof
shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed. 34: These are the commandments, which
the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.
In Chapter 26 the LORD spells out
the blessings on Israel
for Obedience and the punishment for Disobedience. The Mosaic Law was a
covenant of law and God promised to bless them if they kept the Law and cursed
them if they broke it. When Israel
broke the Mosaic Law judgement followed but there was always an opportunity for
Israel
to come and offer a sin offering. If Israel kept short accounts with the
Lord and offered animals for their sins then the judgments of God could be
avoided. How different christians are in their relationship with the Lord. When
a person hears and believes the Gospel and trusts God to bless them completely
on the basis of grace then no sin is ever held against them. And god never
brings up questions regarding their sin ever again. They are completely
forgiven. Israel’s
sins were only covered and their was a continual remembrance of their sin but
of the believer in the new covenant Christ says your sins and inequities l will
remember no more. So the believer is not punished for his sins. He is in a
state in which he is ‘just as if I’d - never sinned’ – he is justified. But
let’s look at the covenant Israel
was in. Immediately we see that the covenant was two sided. God had a part and Israel had a
part. God said ‘IF’ you live according to my laws and keep the commandment
‘THEN’ I will give you rain, the land will bear fruit, the fruit trees will
have fruit, there will be so much harvest that the threshing time will last
until it time to gather grapes, The gathering of grapes will last so long that
when you have finished it will be time to sow your grain. You will eat your
bread until you are completely full, you will live in safety from any enemy,
The Lord will give peace in the land and you will sleep with undisturbed
nights, there will be no evil beasts in the land, no army will pass through the
land, you will chase your enemies and you will destroy they in battle, five men
will chase a hundred and a hundred will put a thousand to flight, I the Lord
will respect you and make you fruitful and multiply you and establish my
covenant with you. You will have so much that you will never finish eating your
stored food. I will set my tabernacle in the middle of you and I will not find
you abhorrent, I will live among you and l will be your God and you will be my
people. If that were all that the Lord had to say then that would have been
wonderful but God does not end there. He says… IF you will not listen and obey
me THEN…you will be terrorised, you will be consumed and a burning will burn
your eyes and you will have sorrow of heart. You will sow but your enemies will
eat it. I will be against you and your enemies will kill you, those that hate
you will reign over you. You will be afraid of your own shadow. If you refuse
to hear me then I will punish you seven times harder than anyone else. The Lord
said he would make the heaven like iron (He will not hear their prayers) the
earth will be like brass (it will be barren, dry and burnt) All your strength
will be spent for no return. The fields will not bear crops, the trees will
have no fruit, there will be wild beasts among you that will eat your children,
your population will be cut down. The enemy will wage war against you. Ten
women will share an oven, you will not have enough to eat. If you still will
not hear me then l will cause you to eat your children for famine. Even your
enemies will be astonished by your destruction. I will scatter you among the
heathen. Those that are left behind will be skittish. But if you confess your
sins l will remember the covenant. This is both wonderful in its blessings and
fearful in its warnings. It is not the covenant that Christians are in. Next
the Lord gives the regulations regarding the dedications. A man from 20 -60
must pay 50 shekels of silver and a woman 30. A 5-20 year old boy was 20 and
for a girl 10. 60 years and above male – 15 and a woman 10. However if a man
was poor then the priest would estimate the value appropriate. When animals
were valued by the priest no exchange of animals was allowed. And the rules of
valuation go on and on. In all of these valuations we see that the Lord placed
an appropriate value on the offerings made to the Lord.
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