Archive for month: November, 2021

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Leviticus 26:14-26.  Let’s go!

Leviticus 26:14-22 (NIV)
14  “‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands,
15  and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant,
16  then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.
17  I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.
18  “‘If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.
19  I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.
20  Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit.
21  “‘If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve.
22  I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.

On verses 14-22:  After describing in verses 1-13 the blessings that would come if the Israelites obeyed God, God describes in verses 14-26 the problems that would come if the Israelites refused to obey God.  As we look at some right now, keep in mind the mentality of the ancient Israelites, who believed that God was the ultimate cause of everything both good and bad.  In their minds, God was the bringer of both sickness and healing, death and life, misfortune and fortune.  In the New Testament, we get a more defined picture of who God is: that everything good comes from God, whereas anything that is not good (such as disease and misfortune) is not something God actively creates and sends but is a natural outflow of living in a world broken by sin.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Leviticus 26:1-13.  Let’s go!

Leviticus 26:1-2 (NIV)
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.

On verses 1-2:  While verses 3-13 will show us all the blessings that the Lord promised to give the Israelites if they would only obey Him, verses 1-2 teach us an important, counterbalancing truth: we are to obey God and worship Him only – and not any idol – not simply because of what God will do for us in return, but because of who God is.  That is why after both verses 1 and 2, God follows up His commands with a statement about who He is: “I am the Lord yur God” (v1), “I am the Lord” (v2).  Regardless of what God does for us, the fact that God is God, the King over everything, is reason enough to worship and obey Him. 

Leviticus 26:3-13 (NIV)
3  “‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands,
4  I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit.
5  Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Leviticus 25:35-55.  Let’s go!

Leviticus 25:35-38 (NIV)
35  “‘If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you.
36  Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you.
37  You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit.
38  I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

On verses 35-38:   Just as God showed undeserved kindness to the Israelites, God expected the Israelites to show undeserved kindness to one another.  Likewise, just as God has shown undeserved kindness to us, may we show undeserved kindness to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Leviticus 25:39-55 (NIV)
39  “‘If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave.
40  He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.
41  Then he and his children are to be released, and he will go back to his own clan and to the property of his forefathers.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Leviticus 25:23-34.  Let’s go!

Leviticus 25:23 (NIV)
23  “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.

On verse 23:  Verses 23-28 describe a system where the Israelites could get back their land even after they sold it, either by buying it back themselves or, at the latest, receiving it back in the Year of Jubilee (For more on the Year of Jubilee, see my GAME sharing from yesterday On Leviticus 25:8-22.)  Why create such a system?  Why allow people to get back their land even after they had sold it?  There were several reasons: One reason was to keep the land from being owned by only a few to the detriment of everyone else.  It would help ensure that no one would be poor permanently, it gave those who struggled a second chance, and it helped regulate the disparity between the rich and the poor.  Another reason was to remind the Israelites that ultimately the entire land that they occupied ultimately belongs to God.  That is why verse 23 says, “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.”

Of course when Israel would no longer be self-governed but would come under foreign rule, this system of redeeming land would go away as well.  However, the concept of God being the ultimate owner of the land would never go away.  In Luke 20:9-19 Jesus tells a parable about a landowner who rents his land to some tenants.  But when the tenants refuse to pay rent, the landowner finally sends his son, whom the tenants they kill.  When Jesus tells this famous parable, his Jewish audience would have thought back to verses like Leviticus 25:23 where it says that God is the ultimate landowner.  His audience would realize that by calling himself the landowner’s son, Jesus was describing himself as the Son of God.