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 judgment 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 the
believer in Christ finds that he has total forgiveness of all his
sins. 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.
- What does the Lord promise Israel if they keep the Law?
- What does the Lord warn Israel if they don't keep the Law?
- What were the basic rules for dedication to the Lord?
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