Now let me invite you to take your Bibles in hand one more time and turn this time to Leviticus, chapters 26 and 27, as we conclude our series examining the teaching of this Gospel-rich book right here in the heart of the Law of Moses. Let me summarize the teaching in four words. First in chapter 26, there is a promise of reward in verses 1 through 13. So that’s the first word – reward. Then there are threatened rebukes, verses 14 through 39. So reward. Rebuke. Then thirdly, there is a promise of restoration to all who repent, verses 40 through 46. Reward. Rebuke. Restoration. And then looking briefly at chapter 27, which functions as a kind of appendix to the book of Leviticus and the teaching that it contains on the subject of vows, we are going to take special notice of the principle of redemption. And so these four words sum up really the ways of God with sinners in ancient Israel and the ways of God with us still here today. They give us a kind of overview, actually, of the Christian life. Don’t they? Reward. Rebuke. Restoration. Redemption. Before we read portions of the text together, let’s bow our heads and ask for the help of the Lord. Let us all pray.
O Lord our God, open our eyes we pray. Open our hearts. Teach us, rebuke us, instruct us, and train us in righteousness that we may be equipped for every good work, for the glory of the name of Christ. Amen.
Leviticus 26 at verse 1. This is the Word of God:
“You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured 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.
If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will 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. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. 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 struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power, and 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 increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.
And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.”
Then we pick up the reading again at verse 40:
“‘But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, 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 rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai.”
Amen, and we praise God for His holy, inerrant Word.
Let’s think first of all about the promise of rewards. The promise of rewards. Leviticus 26 begins, as we saw, by reminding us actually of the ten commandments. In verse 1, there is a summary of the second commandment forbidding graven images. Verse 2, a summary of the fourth commandment about keeping the Sabbath particularly applied to the various Sabbaths that regulated Israel’s worship and maintaining the worship of the sanctuary. It is a reminder that the whole legal and ceremonial system given to Israel through Moses was founded upon the moral law, the unchanging core of God’s revealed will for His people in every age summarized in the ten commandments. And so we are not to read the blessings and the curses of Leviticus 26 like a state of the union address by the president, you know, touting the benefits to the country if he can deliver his agenda, announcing economic sanctions for countries with whom we have some conflict of interest. No, for all that the blessings and the curses here have a material and a political bent to them, for sure, at their heart they are much more than a mere announcement of political intentions. They rest on the moral law. The ten commandments, they reflect God’s commitment to the holiness of His people and to their fellowship with Him. The molten core of the blessings and the curses here is not material or social or economic or political, although they have components of each of those; the core is decidedly spiritual.
You’ll notice the blessings promised are held out to the people of God as rewards for faithfulness. So verse 3 begins, “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season,” and so on. These are conditional promises, conditional blessings. “If you obey, I will bless you in the following manner. First, I will bless you with plenty” – verses 3 through 5. “The rain will fall when you need it to in order to produce a great harvest year after year. Secondly, if you obey, I will bless you with peace,” verses 6 through 8. “I will give peace in the land and you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid.” They will be free from the predations of wild animals and from military conquests. They will overcome their enemies and be victorious in battle. Plenty. Peace. And finally, 9 through 13, “If you obey, I will bless you with my presence. I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you.” By the way, do notice the verb translated “turn to you” has the idea of turning the face toward them in favor and blessing. This is the smile of God, shining upon His people. And notice too the echo there of the language of the covenant that God made with our first father, Adam. “Be fruitful and multiply.” That’s the language of Genesis 1:28, isn’t it? Only here you see it comes not as a command to be performed in the original paradise of an unfallen creation. Here it comes as a promise to be enjoyed in consequence of God’s covenant love and blessing.
And at the heart of all of the blessings that are promised is verse 11 – “I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you, and I will walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people.” It’s a picture of Eden restored, isn’t it? A land of abundance instead of thorns and thistles; security and peace. And God Himself walking in their midst, just like He did in Eden as He walked in the garden in the cool of the day. These are the rewards of believing obedience and they rest, notice carefully in verse 13, on the redeeming grace of God who saved His people. Verse 13, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.” God had saved them and it was saving grace that was to motivate and empower their new obedience. And what’s wonderful about this passage is that it tells us as they obeyed, God’s grace enabling them to obey, as they obeyed, God would further lavish His gracious blessings upon them so that the rewards they would enjoy would themselves also be gifts of extravagant grace, well beyond the merits of any obedience they ever could have rendered. Both the obedience and the reward for that obedience would all be grace piled on top of grace. Israel could claim no credit for any of it. That was to be the pattern of God’s dealing with His children.
And it remains actually His pattern as He deals with us even today. Salvation now, just as it was then, salvation is entirely and completely by God’s sovereign, gracious intervention. If you are a Christian at all this morning, it is not because you worked for it. You are a child of God because while you were helpless and lost, He erupted into your life in the power of the Holy Spirit and set you free from slavery to sin and death and hell by the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. He has broken the yoke, as it were, of our Egyptian slavery and made us walk erect as He puts it here in verse 13. No longer bowed low under the crushing weight of condemnation and sin. We can lift up our heads, free indeed in Jesus Christ. It’s wonderful.
And now in light of that wonderful deliverance and enabled by the very same grace, now we are to keep His commandments. And when we do, the Lord still promises to bless us. Now I’m sure you’re not like this at all, but I am tired and I am lazy and my flesh doesn’t like to pray. And sometimes I’d rather do almost anything than read the Bible. I prefer not to serve others, but to indulge myself. I don’t want to smash the idols of greed and power and money that creep unseen back into my heart almost every single day. I want to hold grudges and gossip about others and promote my own reputation, even at the expense of the people I am called to love. That’s my wicked heart. I’m sure you don’t have a heart that’s wicked like that at all, but I do. And so my urgent, my urgent question is, “How am I going to crucify my flesh and press toward godliness and faithful obedience, despite all of these motives and reasons of my wicked heart, all the temptations to go another way? How am I going to do it?”
Well, I can remember Matthew 6:33 where Jesus told us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to us also. Material necessities – not health, wealth and prosperity mind you – but material necessities are promised to those who seek first His kingdom. I don’t need to run after the accumulation of things. I need to put Jesus first and He’ll give me what I need – plenty. And I can remember Philippians 4:6, that I am to be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, I am to make my requests known to God. And the peace of God, that passes all understanding, will guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. And so I don’t have to live every day in the grip of paralyzing anxiety about tomorrow. If only I will obey my Lord and cry out to Him in everything with a thankful heart, trusting Him, He has said, “I will give you peace. Plenty and peace.” And I can remind myself of John 14:21 – “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” I am not alone. And if only I will work at growing obedience in the details of every day, Jesus promises, Jesus Himself will draw near and nearer still to me and give me His presence. And one day, when the new creation dawns at the end of the age, the plenty and peace and presence that I will have enjoyed in measure here will seem preliminary and meager compared with the glory that will be revealed in me when at last I enter into the joy of my Lord, face to face with the exalted Christ, plenty and peace, and the divine presence forevermore and without measure or limit or end.
The promise of rewards, do you see, is a gift of God to help us fight the empty allure of the world’s lying temptations. All the shiny trinkets and pleasures of ease and plenty that the world proposes can hold no luster for a Christian who clings to the promises of God. Plenty and peace and presence, rightly understood as those promises come to us in Jesus Christ. That’s the first thing I want you to see here. The promise of reward is a great motive for obedience. Turn aside from the counterfeit promises of a lying world. Take God at His Word and see how He keeps His promises to you. Plenty and peace and provision. The promise of reward.
Secondly, verses 14 through 39, the longer section that deals with the divine rebuke for disobedience. Now it is important to notice that at no point in Israel’s history did they ever actually enter into the fullness of the blessings outlined in the first half of this chapter. In fact, they were continually falling into idolatry and disobedience and rebellion against the Lord. And so if you cast your eye over the second half of this chapter, you are almost reading an account of Israel’s history as it unfolded from the point at which Leviticus was given to them and on. Look at verse 14. “If you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you.” And then follows a series of judgements. First, he will send panic, verse 16, and oppression from foreign invaders, verses 17 and 18. Next in 18 and 19, their crops will fail. Wild beasts will come, verse 22. Then pestilence, 25. Famine, verse 26. Then God will do in judgment what they ought to have done themselves in repentance. He will destroy their idols, verse 30.
Now that sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it? Idolatry was their problem. God destroys their idols – problem solved! That sounds like a good thing. But actually it’s a particularly acute and painful judgment. Think about it. When you live for your idols instead of for Jesus Christ, and then God shatters your idols, what do you have left? You have nothing at all. Isn’t that chilling? That’s what’s happening here. When you live for your idols instead of Jesus Christ and then God shatters your idols, you have nothing left, and that’s what God says He will do to Israel.
And then in 31 to 33, enemy invaders will destroy their cities, take them captive. Foreigners will settle their land. Verses 34 and 35, the Sabbaths that we talked about last Lord’s Day – the seven yearly Sabbatical year, the half century Year of Jubilee – the Sabbaths that the people neglected will all be given to the land, as it were, in a single lump sum. While the people were taken away into exile, the land would enjoy at last its rest. Those who remain, 36 and 37, will become fearful and fainthearted, powerless to withstand enemies. And the exiles will rot away and perish in a strange land, 38 and 39. That’s virtually a survey of the unfolding drama of subsequent Israelite history, isn’t it? This is how it all actually played out in the end. They never observed the Jubilee law. They were always falling into idolatry. They trampled the Sabbath underfoot. They were never dedicated to the Lord as they ought to be, and so they faced oppressors and invaders and famine and eventually exile in Babylon. God did exactly what He said He would do, which He always does. He always does. We said a few moments ago the heart of the blessings that God gives His people when they obey Him is His presence.
Well similarly, in the mirror of that here, the heart of the judgements that God will inflict upon His people has to do with the absence of God’s presence, or at least the presence of His frown. So verse 24, “I also will walk contrary to you and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sin.” Verse 29, “I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sin.” Verse 30, “My soul will abhor you.” This is not a kind of abstract, karmic principle, “What goes around comes around. You reap what you sow. This is just the sort of law of nature. They get what they deserve.” No, this is personal. The people of God have disobeyed their Lord who saved them. They have trampled His Law underfoot, disregarded His holiness, ignored His overtures of mercy and love. And so He Himself will turn His face from them and pour out His holy judgment upon them.
Now we are going to see in a moment there is, nevertheless, still the possibility of pardon. None of these curses need fall on any of the people of God if only they would repent. But God wanted them, He wants us to know too, that merely belonging to Israel – being circumcised, attending worship at the sanctuary once in a while – was not enough to immunize them against the rebuke of heaven should they slide back into the habits of idolatry and sin. And we need to be crystal clear that the same principle continues to apply. Your membership in the covenant community, the church, your baptism, your attendance from time to time at public worship, none of that gives you immunity against the divine prosecution of your unrepentant covenant-breaking. If you don’t think that God uses the rebukes of His providence in this life today, let me remind you of some examples from the New Testament.
Think of church members who were not so very different from us like Ananias and Sapphira who lied to the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 5 and were struck dead under the discipline of God. Or think of the Corinthians who, because of their casual abuse of the Lord’s Supper, Paul says, “Some of you are sick and some of you have died.” Do not imagine that it is ever safe to presume upon the kindness and goodness of God. He is a consuming fire. And so if the promise of reward ought to motivate obedience, so also should the warning of present judgment and discipline.
And while you are thinking about that, do notice that is the nature and character of these rebukes. They are disciplinary, aren’t they? You can see that in the conditional clauses that are scattered through this whole section. Verse 14, “If you will not listen to me.” Verse 18, “And if in spite of this, this previous judgment, you will not listen to me.” Verse 21, “Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me.” And verse 23, “And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me.” Verse 27, “And if in spite of those judgments you will not listen to me but walk contrary to me.” What is the purpose of all this ever mounting calamity that befell Israel? These are not final judgments, are they? What are they? They are the disciplinary rebukes of a Father who is trying to get through to them and wake them up. If only they would turn back! That’s what God is aiming at in each trial that He sent.
Now let’s be clear, not all suffering is discipline. Sometimes we suffer because we have been faithful and the world is opposing us. Sometimes we suffer because we are bearing fruit. And Jesus says in John 15, “Every branch that abides in me and bears much fruit, the Father will prune that it might bear more fruit.” So sometimes you might be suffering because of persecution or divine pruning to strengthen faith and cause you still to grow. Not all trial, not every suffering is discipline as a divine rebuke. That’s all true. But, let’s also acknowledge that sometimes suffering is discipline, it is the divine rebuke. God has been pleading with you in the holy Scriptures to turn back from that wicked, rebellious relationship with that non-Christian girl or that non-Christian boy. He has been pleading with you to surrender the idol of work on the altar of which you have been sacrificing the welfare of your family, not to mention the welfare of your own walk with God. He’s been pleading with you to come clean about your abuse of alcohol and get the help you so desperately need. You have been lying to yourself, telling yourself, “You know, it’s all under control,” but it’s every night and you can’t stop and you can’t relax without it and you feel anxious and frustrated if you can’t have it. And He’s been pleading with you to repent and to turn back to Him, but you’ve pushed your fingers deeper into your ears and you’ve run still further into your sin. Is that you? You’re not listening as God has called you and pleaded with you in His holy Word, as His Word is proclaimed to you. And so He has turned to the harder discipline of some painful providence, humbling us, breaking us – sickness, sorrow, loss, pain, plans that fail, the promotion that you don’t get, the ambitions you are not allowed to achieve. Humbling us. Breaking us.
And understand, friends, when God does that, it is still a Father’s love that you experience. Because you have refused to hear Him call you back in the preaching of His Word, you have left Him no option but to try to get through to you by another means. But dear friends, are you listening? Is God disciplining you? Rebuking you? Calling you back? Is that what’s going on in your life right now? If it is, do not resent Him for the hard, heavy hand of providence that afflicts you. Do you realize that as hard as your suffering might be, the worst judgment He could give you is actually not to lay you low. The worst judgment He could give you is to leave you quite alone and give you over to your sin. Isn’t that the pattern of judgment we see in Romans 1:18 and following where you hear the refrain over and over again as God describes the wickedness of human depravity – “and God gave them up.” He gave them over and He gave them up. He just handed people over to the wickedness of their own hearts. Much worse than the living God fighting against our sinful appetites would be for God to step back and allow us simply to indulge them. So if God is still disciplining you, sore and hard as it may be, there is hope for you yet.
But please face the sober possibility that if you persist in your rebellion against Him, one day God may well give you up to your sin and you won’t even notice. You will cheerfully give yourself over more and more to all the wicked desires and ambitions of your heart. And then when you thought life could get no sweeter, your soul will be demanded from you and you will have to stand before the judgment of God to give an account. And there will be no more pleas from Him then to turn back. No more rebukes to discipline and correct you. No longer any opportunity for repentance. All that will remain on that day will be the just judgment of unending divine holiness. Is God disciplining you? Is He? By some hard providence in your life? Is there known, unrepentant sin hidden still in the secret holds of your heart? Let me plead with you one more time, fully aware this might be the last time. “Christ making His appeal through us: Be reconciled to God.” Turn back. Turn back. “Why will you die, O house of Israel? Repent and confess your sin.” Own it. It’s time to own it and cry out for mercy.
Which brings me to the third thing I want you to see. Reward. Rebuke. Restoration. Look at verses 40 through 46. “If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.” This is good news! Such good news! It’s Leviticus’ version of 1 John chapter 1 verses 8 and 9. Do you remember 1 John 1:8-9? “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Are there any sweeter words written anywhere in any language? If we confess, He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Forgive us. Forgive you and me. The God who rebukes, restores. The God who disciples, forgives. Confess. He’ll cleanse you. Repent. He’ll wash you clean!
Now face the logic of Leviticus 26 with me for a moment, would you? God promises to enable obedience by His grace and then to reward your grace-fueled obedience as if you had earned it with blessing far beyond the actual merit of anything you ever could do for Him. He promises blessing. He threatens rebuke. “Stray from My covenant and I will discipline you. I will do what it takes to bring you back. But if you come back, I’m standing with arms open wide, ready to welcome you and shower My love on you. I am longing that you would return!” Now why in the world would you stay in your rebellion and waywardness, stay in your backslidden condition? Come back! There is no logic in refusing His offer of mercy knowing that you face only a promise of judgment. Reward. Rebuke. Restoration.
Finally, redemption. If you look at chapter 27, you might find yourself rather scratching your head. A curious appendix after the crescendo of chapter 26 and the blessings and curses and promise of forgiveness. It’s a list of vows that an Israelite may elect to make in order to consecrate property or an animal or a person to the Lord’s service, along with the price they might pay in order to redeem something or someone that had been vowed and by them back from being entirely given to God in sacrifice or service. It’s not really clear why chapter 27 is placed here at the end of the book, although maybe it helps illustrate the idea that the dedication that chapter 26 is calling for is meant to illustrate the kind of commitment to the Lord that chapter 26 is teaching, expressed in the making of a voluntary vow or commitment to God.
But whatever the reason for chapter 27, I just want to highlight as we close the principle of redemption at its very heart. Not everything vowed to God was suitable for His service, and not everyone dedicated to God could serve Him in the sanctuary like a Levite or a priest. And so provision was made for an Israelite after making such a vow to pay a redemption price to the sanctuary and buy the dedicated thing back, releasing it from the obligations of the vow. And actually, that illustrates, I think beautifully, the central message of the whole book of Leviticus. Redemption is really the principle at the heart of the book of Leviticus, actually at the heart of the whole Bible. God redeems His people from slavery in Egypt by the blood of the Passover lamb. The sacrificial system in the first sixteen chapters of Leviticus taught us that an Israelite may be redeemed from the consequences of their sin by the price of a sacrificial substitute. And here we learn a dedicated person or thing may be redeemed by a payment of a price. The heart of the Bible storyline focuses on the redemption of God’s people by the payment of a price – a story that reaches its climax, of course, in the redemption price paid in the blood of Jesus Christ. First Peter 1:18, “You were ransomed from your futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,” like the ransom price paid in Leviticus 27. “You were ransomed with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” The cross is the great redemption price. The blood of Christ sets us free indeed.
Recently, The New York Times reported on a fifty-seven year old man by the name of Tim Freed who, over the course of nearly eighteen years, injected himself with more than 650 carefully calibrated escalating doses of venom to build his immunity to sixteen deadly snake species. He allowed the snakes, more than one at a time, sometimes two, to sink their fangs into him about 200 times. And the result is that Mr. Freed’s blood, scientists say, is filled with antibodies that are capable of neutralizing the venom of multiple snack species, a step toward creating a universal antivenom. But we already have a universal antivenom for the deadly, satanic snakebite of sin. Don’t we? In the blood of Jesus Christ. The devil sank his fangs into Him, and at the cost of His life, He secured full atonement, pardon, for everyone, everyone, for anyone, for you if you would just turn and cry out for mercy. Because He dies under the curses of the covenant that we have broken, if we would but repent, all the pardon we need would be ours. What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Maybe God has allowed you for a time to enjoy the pleasures of your sin, but aren’t you beginning to discover that all those pleasures are turning to ash in your mouth? They are empty, hollow things. You need Jesus. Today is the day. Time to come back to Him.
Let’s pray together.
Our God and Father, we bow before You. We tremble at the prospect of our own stubborn, wayward hearts, facing Your rebuke and judgment. You love us so profoundly and perfectly that You are prepared to leverage trials of many kinds not to leave us in our sin but to call us back. O God, for those whom You are currently disciplining, please help them to hear Your call and to repent, for Jesus’ sake, amen.