“ ‘You shall make for yourselves no idols, and you shall not raise up a carved image or a pillar, and you shall not place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am Yahweh your God.
“ ‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am Yahweh.
“ ‘If you walk in my statutes and keep 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 continue until the vintage, and the vintage shall continue until the sowing time. You shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
“ ‘I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid. I will remove evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword 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 have respect for you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you. You shall eat old supplies long kept, and you shall move out the old because of the new. I will set my tent among you, and my soul won’t abhor you. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be my people. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you walk upright.
“ ‘But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments, and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it. I will set my face against you, and you will be struck before your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you; and you will flee when no one pursues you.
“ ‘If you in spite of these things will not listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like bronze. Your strength will be spent in vain; for your land won’t yield its increase, neither will the trees of the land yield their fruit.
“ ‘If you walk contrary to me, and won’t listen to me, then I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins. I will send the wild animals among you, which will rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number. Your roads will become desolate.
“ ‘If by these things you won’t be turned back to me, but will walk contrary to me, then I will also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins. I will bring a sword upon you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant. You will be gathered together within your cities, and I will send the pestilence among you. You will be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight. You shall eat, and not be satisfied.
“ ‘If you in spite of this won’t listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in wrath. I will also chastise you seven times for your sins. You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you. I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation. I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of your offerings. I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies that dwell in it will be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land. Even then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it didn’t have in your Sabbaths when you lived on it.
“ ‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword. They will fall when no one pursues. They will stumble over one another, as it were before the sword, when no one pursues. You will have no power to stand before your enemies. You will perish among the nations. The land of your enemies will eat you up. Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away with them.
“ ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me; and also that because they walked contrary to me, I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land. The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God. But I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am Yahweh.’ ”
These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws, which Yahweh made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 39, 41, 43, 45, 46 Or, stone having any imagery.
Or, stone having any imagery.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 43 Lev 26:1 Ye shall make you no idols nor…
Lev 26:1 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.
Ver. 1. Ye shall make you no idols.] {See Trapp on "Exo 20:4"} {See Trapp on "Exo 20:5"} God knew the people’s proneness to idolatry.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45 A standing image, or, pillar, to wit, to worship…
A standing image, or, pillar, to wit, to worship it, or bow down to it, as it follows. Otherwise this was not simply prohibited, being practised by holy men both before and after this law. Compare Exo 23:24; Deu 16:22. So Exo 20:4. They are forbidden to make images, not simply or for any use, but for worship.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 14, 40 Here is, I. The inculcating of those precepts of…
Here is, I. The inculcating of those precepts of the law which were of the greatest consequence, and by which were of the greatest consequence, and by which especially their obedience would be tried, Lev 26:1, Lev 26:2. They are the abstract of the second and fourth commandments, which, as they are by much the largest in the decalogue, so they are most frequently insisted on in other parts of the law. As, when a master has given many things in charge to his servant, he concludes with the repetition of those things which were of the greatest importance, and which the servant was most in danger of neglecting, bidding him, whatever he did, be sure to remember those, so here God by Moses, after many precepts, closes all with a special charge to observe these two great commandments. 1. "Be sure you never worship images, nor ever make any sort of images or pictures for a religious use," Lev 26:1. No sin was more provoking to God than this, and yet there was none that they were more addicted to, and which afterwards proved of more pernicious consequence to them. Next to God's being, unity, and universal influence, it is necessary that we know and believe that he is an infinite Spirit; and therefore to represent him by an image in the making of it, to confine him to an image in the consecrating of it, and to worship him by an image in bowing down to it, changes his truth into a lie and his glory into shame, as much as any thing. 2. "Be sure you keep up a great veneration for sabbaths and religious assemblies," Lev 26:2. As nothing tends more to corrupt religion than the use of images in devotion, so nothing contributes more to the support of it than keeping the sabbaths and reverencing the sanctuary. These make up very much of the instrumental part of religion, by which the essentials of it are kept up. Therefore we find in the prophets that, next to the sin of idolatry, there is no sin for which the Jews are more frequently reproved and threatened than the profanation of the sabbath day.
II. Great encouragements given them to live in constant obedience to all God's commandments, largely and strongly assuring them that if they did so they should be a happy people, and should be blessed with all the good things they could desire. Human governments enforce their laws with penalties to be inflicted for the breach of them; but God will be known as the rewarder of those that seek and serve him. Let us take a view of these great and precious promises, which, though they relate chiefly to the life which now is, and to the public national concerns of that people, were typical of the spiritual blessings entailed by the covenant of grace upon all believers through Christ. 1. Plenty and abundance of the fruits of the earth. They should have seasonable rain, neither too little nor too much, but what was requisite for their land, which was watered with the dew of heaven (Deu 11:10, Deu 11:11), that it might yield its increase, Lev 26:4. The dependence which the fruitfulness of the earth beneath has upon the influences of heaven above is a sensible intimation to us that every good and perfect gift must be expected from above, from the Father of lights. It is promised that the earth should produce its fruits in such great abundance that they would be kept in full employment, during both the harvest and the vintage, to gather it in, Lev 26:5. Before they had reaped their corn and threshed it, the vintage would be ready; and, before they had finished their vintage, it would be high time to begin their sowing. Long harvests are often with us the consequences of bad weather, but with them they should be the effects of a great increase. This signified the abundance of grace which should be poured out in gospel times, when the ploughman should overtake the reaper (Amo 9:13), and a great harvest of souls should be gathered in to Christ. The plenty should be so great that they should bring forth the old to be given away to the poor because of the new, to make room for it in their barns, which yet they would not pull down to build greater, as that rich fool (Luk 12:18), for God gave them this abundance to be laid out, not be hoarded up from one year to another. He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him, Pro 11:26. That promise (Mal 3:10), I will pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it, explains this, Lev 26:10. And that which crowns this blessing of plenty is (Lev 26:5), You shall eat your bread to the full, which intimates that they should have, not only abundance, but content and satisfaction in it. They should have enough, and should know when they had enough. Thus the meek shall eat and be satisfied, Psa 22:26. 2. Peace under the divine protection; "You shall dwell in your land safely (Lev 26:5); both really save, and safe in your own apprehensions; you shall lie down to rest in the power and promise of God, and not only none shall hurt you, but none shall so much as make you afraid," Lev 26:6. See Psa 4:8. They should not be infested with wild beasts, these should be rid out of the land, or, as it is promised (Job 5:23), should be at peace with them. Nor should they be terrified with the alarms of war: Neither shall the sword go through your land. This holy security is promised to all the faithful, Psa 91:1, etc. Those must needs dwell in safety that dwell in God, Job 9:18, Job 9:19. 3. Victory and success in their wars abroad, while they had peace and tranquility at home, Lev 26:7, Lev 26:8. They are assured that the hand of God should so signally appear with them in their conquests that no disproportion of numbers should make against them: Five of you shall have courage to attack, and strength to chase and defeat, a hundred, as Jonathan did (Sa1 14:12), experiencing the truth of his own maxim (Lev 26:6), that it is all one with the Lord to save by many or by few. 4. The increase of their people: I will make you fruitful and multiply you, Lev 26:9. Thus the promise made to Abraham must be fulfilled, that his seed should be as the dust of the earth; and much more numerous they would have been if they had by their sin cut themselves short. It is promised to the gospel church that it shall be fruitful, Joh 15:16. 5. The favour of God, which is the fountain of all good: I will have respect unto you, Lev 26:9. If the eye of our faith be unto God, the eye of his favour will be unto us. More is implied than is expressed in that promise, My soul shall not abhor you (Lev 26:11), as there is in that threatening, My soul shall have no pleasure in him, Heb 10:38. Though there was that among them which might justly have alienated him from them, yet, if they would closely adhere to his institutions, he would not abhor them. 6. Tokens of his presence in and by his ordinances: I will set my tabernacle among you, Lev 26:11. It was their honour and advantage that God's tabernacle was lately erected among them; but here he lets them know that the continuance and establishment of it depended upon their good behaviour. The tabernacle that was now set should be settled if they would be obedient, else not. Note, The way to have God's ordinances fixed among us, as a nail in a sure place, is to cleave closely to the institution of them. It is added (Lev 26:12), "I will walk among you, with delight and satisfaction, as a man in his garden; I will keep up communion with you as a man walking with his friend." This seems to be alluded to, Rev 2:1, where Christ is said to walk in the midst of the golden candlesticks. 7. The grace of the covenant, as the fountain and foundation, the sweetness and security, of all these blessings: I will establish my covenant with you, Lev 26:9. Let them perform their part of the covenant, and God would not fail to perform his. All covenant-blessings are summed up in the covenant-relation (Lev 26:12): I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and they are all grounded upon their redemption: I am your God, because I brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, Lev 26:13. Having purchased them, he would own them, and never cast them off till they cast him off. He broke their yoke, and made them go upright, that is, their deliverance out of Egypt put them in a state both of ease and honour, that, being delivered out of the hands of their enemies, they might serve God without fear, each walking in his uprightness. When Israel rejected Christ, and was therefore rejected by him, their back is said to be bowed down always under the burden of their guilt, which was heavier than that of their bondage in Egypt, Rom 11:10.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–45 Ye shall have no idols, or graven image,.... Some…
Ye shall have no idols, or graven image,.... Some of the Jewish writers, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, think this law against idolatry is mentioned on account of the Israelite sold to a stranger, spoken of in the latter part of the preceding chapter, lest he should be drawn into idolatry; See Gill on Lev 25:48; but this is rather mentioned as being a principal law, respecting the honour and glory of God, and the foundation of all religion and godliness, and the breach of it a capital crime, and which led on to other sins, and exposed to the displeasure and resentment of God, and brought on all the calamities after mentioned in this chapter. "Idols" here signify "things of nought", as an idol is nothing in the world, Co1 8:4; and a "graven image", any likeness of man or beast cut out of wood, or stone; and may include any molten image of gold, silver, or brass, and then engraven with a tool, as the golden calf was, Exo 32:4,
neither rear you up a standing image; or pillar (g); an heap of rude stones, set up pillar, not bearing the likeness of any creature; otherwise graven and molten images were standing ones, but these were statues without any figure; such as the Arabians used to worship; the god Mars, worshipped in Arabia Petraea, was no other than a black stone four square, unformed, four feet high, and two broad, and was placed on a basis of gold (h):
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neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto; any "figured stone", as the Targum and Aben Ezra interpret it, which had figures and representations of creatures cut in it, in order to bow down unto and worship: the word has the signification of covering, as they cover a floor with a pavement of stones:
for I am the Lord your God; who is the alone object of religious worship and adoration.
(g) Sept. "titulos", V. L. "titulum", Samar. Ar. "pillar", Ainsworth. (h) "Suidas in voce" Vid. Arnob. adv. Gentes, l. 6. p. 232.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 20, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 46 A general enforcement of the preceding laws, by promises…
A general enforcement of the preceding laws, by promises of reward, and threats of punishment: Wherein is,
I. A repetition of some principal commandments, ver. 1, 2.
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II. A promise of all good to the obedient, ver. 3-13.
III. A threatening of terrible judgments to the disobedient, ver. 14- 39.
IV. A promise of mercy to the penitent, ver. 40-46.
An image - Or pillar, that is, to worship it, or bow down to it, as it follows. Otherwise this was not simply prohibited, being practiced by holy men, both before and after this law.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 11, 15, 16, 22, 26, 29, 34, 38, 44, 46 Idolatry forbidden, 1.
CHAPTER XXVI
Idolatry forbidden, 1.
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The Saobath to be sanctified, 2, 3.
Promises to obedience, of fruitful fields, plentiful harvests,
and vintage, 4, 5.
Of peace and security, 6.
Discomfiture of their enemies, 7-9.
Of abundance, 10.
Of the Divine presence, 11-13.
Threatenings against the disobedient, 14, 15.
Of terror and dismay, 16.
Their enemies shall prevail against them, 17, 18.
Of barrenness, 19, 20.
Of desolation by wild beasts, 21, 22.
And if not humbled and reformed, worse evils shall be inflicted
upon them, 23, 24.
Their enemies shall prevail, and they shall be wasted by the
pestilence, 25, 26.
If they should still continue refractory they shall be yet more
sorely punished, 27, 28.
The famine shall so increase that they shall be obliged to eat
their own children, 29.
Their carcasses shall be cast upon the carcasses of their idols,
30.
Their cities shall be wasted, and the sanctuary desolated, 31;
the land destroyed, 32,
themselves scattered among their enemies, and pursued with utter
confusion and distress, 33-39.
If under these judgments they confess their sin and return to
God, he will remember them in mercy, 40-43;
Visit them even in the land of their enemies, 44;
and remember his covenant with their fathers, 45.
The conclusion, stating these to be the judgments and laws which
the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in
Mount Sinai, 46.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXVI
Verse 1. Ye shall make you no idols] See Clarke on Ex 20:4, and See Clarke on Ge 28:18; "Ge 28:19", concerning consecrated stones. Not only idolatry in general is forbidden here, but also the superstitious use of innocent and lawful things. Probably the stones or pillars which were first set up, and anointed by holy men in commemoration of signal interpositions of God in their behalf, were afterward abused to idolatrous and superstitious purposes, and therefore prohibited. This we know was the case with the brazen serpent, 2Kg 18:4.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, 39, 41, 42, 44, 46 Lev 26:1-2. The substance of their religious laws are…
Lev 26:1-2. The substance of their religious laws are here recapitulated in two chief articles, on which all the rest very much depended; and God, by Moses, inculcates upon them, 1st, A careful abhorrence of all idolatrous worship, especially that of image-worship of every kind, which had often been forbidden before; and, 2d, An exact celebration of the sabbath, and all other religious festivals; and a punctual regard to God’s worship, according to the stated ordinances to be observed in the tabernacle service; and all this as a means to preserve them from the corruptions and superstitions of the rest of the world.
Ye shall make no idols — Hebrew, אלילם elilim, things of naught; the same word which occurs Lev 19:4. Nor graven image — פסל, phesel; which signifies any image hewn out of wood or stone. These images, being consecrated by certain ceremonies, were conceived to be shrines or mansions of some deity, and upon that account were worshipped by the Gentiles. A standing image — These were a kind of rude stones or pillars which the heathen erected to their gods, and to which they paid divine honours. Any image of stone — אבן משׁכית, Eben mashchith; stone of figure, device, or portraiture; or figured stone, or stone of picture, as we read in the margin; like those in use among the Egyptians, which were full of hieroglyphics, expressing some fancied perfections of their gods. Some, without any authority from the original, would render the words, a stone set up. The simply setting up pillars, or even images, was not prohibited; but only the setting them up to worship them.
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Reverence my sanctuary — By purging and preserving it from all uncleanness, by approaching to it, and managing all the services of it with reverence, and in such manner only as God hath appointed.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Idols - literally, “things of nought.” Hebrew אלילים 'ĕlı̂ylı̂m.…
Idols - literally, “things of nought.” Hebrew אלילים 'ĕlı̂ylı̂m. There appears to have been a play on the similarity in sound of this word to אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym (God). Compare 1Co 8:4.
Standing image - Either an upright statue, or a pillar, such as an obelisk or a Celtic menhir, set up for an idolatrous purpose (compare Exo 34:13 note). The public worship of Yahweh required, first, the exclusion of all visible symbols of deity as well as of all idolatrous objects, and next Lev 26:2, the keeping holy the times and the place appointed by the Law for His formal service. The word “sabbaths” must here include the whole of the set times. See Lev 23:3 note.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 16, 18, 19, 22, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 44, 45 To adore it. This explains the prohibition of making…
To adore it. This explains the prohibition of making graven things, &c. The Protestants translate as usual, "Ye shall make you no idols, nor graven image, neither rear ye up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land to bow down unto it." They seem terribly afraid of images, as if they were all idols. See Exodus xx. 4. (Haydock) --- Pillars. Hebrew mattseba, "statue, or monument." Such were erected by Jacob, Josue, and even by Moses himself, without any offence or danger of idolatry. (Genesis xxviii. 8; Josue iv. 4; Exodus xxiv. 4.) Apuleius (Flor.) makes mention, among other species of superstition, "of a stone anointed, and of an altar crowned with flowers." --- The stone, which is here condemned, is one set up "for adoration." (Onkelos) --- Hebrew, "a stone of sight," placed on some eminence, or on the high roads. Strabo, (xvii.) speaking of those which he had seen in Egypt along the roads, says, "they are lofty, polished, and almost like a sphere, some 12 feet in diameter. There are sometimes three, of different dimensions, one upon another. Some were to be seen upon Mount Libanus. They were objects of adoration." The Greeks raised heaps of stones on the high roads, in honour of Mercury. (Proverbs xxvi. 7.) (Calmet) --- We are not forbidden to place land-marks, &c.: but we must not adore them. (Du Hamel)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Conclusion.—Promises and Threats
PART FOURTH
Conclusion.—Promises and Threats
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Lev_26:1-46
1Ye shall make you no idols1 nor graven image,2 neither rear you up a standing image,3 neither shall ye set up any image of stone4 in your land, to bow down unto5it: for I am the Lord your God. 2Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
3, 4If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then will I give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5And 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. 6And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts 7[animals6] out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8And 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. 9For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. 10And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth [clear away7] the old because of the new. 11And I will set my tabernacle [dwelling-place8] among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. 12And I will walk among you, and will be your 13God, and ye shall be my people. 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 bands9 of your yoke, and made you go upright.
14But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 15and10 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: 16I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror,11 consumption, and the burning ague [wasting away, and the burning fever12] that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart [the soul to pine away13]: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17And 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. 18And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 20and your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land14 yield their fruits. 21And 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. 22I will also send wild beasts [animals6] among you, which shall rob you of your children [make you childless15], and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. 23And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of [omit the quarrel of16] my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send a pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the 26hand of the enemy. [;] And [omit 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. 27And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.30And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images,17 and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols,18 and my soul shall abhor you. 31And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries19 unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. 32And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 33And 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.
34Then 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. 35As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because [all the days of its desolation it shallrest that which20] it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. 36And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness21 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; 37and they shall fall when none pursueth. And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: 38and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity22 in your23 enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
40If 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 41unto me; 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 accept24 of the punishment of their iniquity: 42then 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.
43The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept24 of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
44And 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. 45But 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.
46These 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.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Lev_26:1. אֱלִילִם. See Textual Note3 on Lev_19:4.
Lev_26:1. פֶּסֶל from פָּסַל to carve, is used of an image of any material, but is here taken, as in Isa_44:15; Isa_44:17; Isa_45:20, of an image of wood.
Lev_26:1. מַצֵּבָה lit. anything set up. Hence used of a memorial stone, Gen_28:18-22; Gen_35:14; Isa_19:19; answering to the λίθαροι λιπαροί of the ancients. As these came to be used for idolatrous purposes the word obtained its secondary sense as in the text (Exo_23:24; 2Ki_3:2, etc.). The marg. of the A. V. follows the LXX. στύλην. The Vulg. has titulum.
Lev_26:1. מַשְׂכִּית does not elsewhere occur in connection with אֶבֶן, but its meaning by itself figure, imagery, is sufficiently well settled. The only question here is whether the phrase denotes an image of stone (A. V. so Keil), or a stone with images sculptured upon it (A. V. marg. Rosen.). The latter is probably the more correct view, but not sufficiently certain to warrant a change in the text. LXX. λίθον σκοπὸν apparently in the sense of a prophylactery, and of this the Vulg. lapidem insignem may be a translation. Targ. Onk., and Jon. and Syr. stone of adoration; Targ. Jerus. stone of error.
Lev_26:1. The construction of עַל here has somewhat perplexed the critics. Geddes contends that as it never elsewhere precedes the object of adoration, it must here signify at, by or upon. Keil explains it “on the ground that the worshipper of a stone image rises above it (for עַל in this sense, see Gen_18:2).” But this fact is, at the least, very doubtful; and the ordinary meaning of עַל as signifying motion towards, ἐπί, seems to be all that the connection requires.
Lev_26:6. חַיָּה. See Textual Note 1 on Lev_11:2.
Lev_26:10. תּוֹצִיאוּ is exactly rendered by the A. V., but the sense intended is better conveyed by the suggested emendation of Clark.
Lev_26:11. מִשְׁכָּנִי. See Textual Note 8 on Lev_15:31.
Lev_26:13. “מֹטֹת עֹל, lit. the poles of the yoke (comp. Eze_34:27), i.e., the poles which are laid upon the necks of beasts of burden (Jer_27:2) as a yoke.” Keil. For עֹל the Sam. and many MSS. have the fuller form עוֹל.
Lev_26:15. The conjunction is wanting in 6 MSS., the Sam., Vulg., and Syr.
Lev_26:16. For בֶּהָלָה = terror the Sam. reads בֶּחָלָה = sickness as a general term including the specifications that follow. The word is rendered in the A. V. of Jer_15:8 as here, and in Psa_78:33; Isa_65:23, trouble. It does not occur elsewhere. The idea is that of “mens’ hearts failing them for fear,” Luk_21:26.
Lev_26:16. שַׁחֶפֶת = wasting away is well expressed by the consumption of the A. V. in its etymological sense, but is in danger of being misunderstood of the specific disease of that name which is rare in Palestine and Syria. The LXX., however, has ψώραν. קַדַּחַת, LXX. πυρετός, according to all authorities should be burning fever. Fevers are the most common of all diseases in Syria and the neighboring countries. These words occur only in the parallel, Deu_28:22.
Lev_26:16. מְדִיבֹּת נֶפֶשׁ. The literal translation is more expressive than the paraphrase of the A. V.
Lev_26:20. For הארץ 21 MSS. and the LXX. read השדה.
Lev_26:22. שִׁכְּלָה אֶתְכֶם. The literal rendering is sufficient.
Lev_26:25. נֹקֶמֶת נְקַס־בְּרִית lit. “avenging the covenant vengeance.” As this cannot be expressed in English the נקַם is better left untranslated than rendered by quarrel, which it does not mean.
Lev_26:30. הַמָּנֵיכֶם. In most other places where the word occurs (2Ch_14:5 (4); Leviticus 34:4; Isa_17:8; Eze_6:4) the marg. of the A. V. has sun-images. Such was undoubtedly the original meaning of the word; but Gesenius (Thes.) shows that the word was applied to images of Baal and Astarte as the deities of the sun and moon. The word indicates “idols of the Canaanitish nature-worship.” Keil.
Lev_26:30. גִּלֵּלִים = something to be rolled about, a contemptuous expression for idols. The Heb. had three different words which are rendered idol in the A. V., and seven which are rendered image.
Lev_26:31. More than 50 MSS., the Sam. and the Syr., have the sing. The plural refers to “the holy things of the worship of Jehovah, the tabernacle and temple, with their altars, and the rest of their holy furniture, as in Ps. 68:36; Psa_74:6,” Keil; and not to the sanctuaries of false gods (Rosen and others).
Lev_26:35. Here also it is better to keep to the literal rendering of the Heb. כָּל־יְמֵ חָשַּׁמָּה תִּשְׁבֹּת אֵת אֲשֶׁר וגק. The land should rest not merely because, but it should actually rest the time which it had not rested.
Lev_26:36. מֹרֶךְ ἅπ. λεγ LXX. δειλία, Vulg. pavor. It “signifies that inward anguish, fear, and despair, which rend the heart and destroy the life.” Keil. Comp. Deu_28:65.
Lev_26:39. עָוֹן is either iniquity (as here twice and in the next verse twice), or the punishment of iniquity (as in Lev_26:41). The phrase “perish in one’s iniquity” is however sufficiently common, and there is no occasion to change the translation here. The אִתָּם = with them at the close of the verse refers to the iniquities.
Lev_26:39. For your ־כֶם more than 80 MSS. read their ־הֶם, so also the Sam., LXX., Sym., Theod., Vulg. and Syr. as the text in Lev_26:41.
Lev_26:41; Lev_26:43. יִרְצוּ. The same word as is used in Lev_26:34; Lev_26:43, the land shall enjoy her sabbaths. The literal rendering is perhaps too bold for our version; but the meaning is really this. “The land being desolate shall have the blessing of rest, and they having repented shall have the blessing of chastisement. So the LXX. and Syriac.” Clark. Comp. Isa_40:2. נִרְצָת עֲונָתּ.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Lange here again insists that Lev_26:1-2 are properly the close of the foregoing section. It was already too late to adopt his division when his work appeared; but independently of this the connection with the present chap. is preferred. The verses reiterate the most fundamental requirements of the law, and thus form an appropriate introduction to these concluding promises and threats.
The whole precepts and prohibitions of the Book of Leviticus have now been given, and here the people are incited to their faithful observance by promises of blessings on their obedience and curses upon their disobedience. This arrangement is both natural in itself, and is in accordance with the analogy of the warnings and promises (Exo_23:20-33) at the close of the “Book of the Covenant,” (Exo_20:22 to Exo_23:19) and in the parting exhortations of Moses (Deuteronomy 29, 30). The passage in Exodus, however, relates to the conquest of the land, while here the subsequent history of the nation is had in view. The chapter contains: first, promises upon their obedience (3–13); it then describes the consequences of disobedience (14–39), which are put hypothetically, but evidently contemplated as likely to occur; and finally, looks forward to the restoration of the covenant on the repentance of the people (40–44), which is also put hypothetically, but is evidently prophetic. Lev_26:46 forms the conclusion of this whole series of legislation.
Objection has been made to the Mosaic origin of this chap. by rationalistic critics on account of its prophetic character. Certainly it is prophetic, and if this be objected to any portion of Scripture, the objector must be met on other than merely exegetical grounds, but here the rationalistic argument may be fully met in a different way. It is impossible to conceive that the author of the remarkable legislation contained in this book, possessed of as intimate knowledge as he must have been of the people under his charge, should not have foreseen that they would fail to maintain the standard of holiness here required, and that consequently God, whose holiness and majesty it has been his object to set forth, would visit them for their transgressions. It is but a step beyond this to look forward to the effect of chastisement and humiliation in producing repentance, and when this had been effected, his knowledge of the mercy and loving-kindness of God assured him of the restoration of the people to His favor. See this point admirably treated by Keil in a note on p. 468.
Lange: “The germ of this whole setting forth of blessing and curse already lies in the decalogue itself (Exo_20:5; Exo_20:12), but especially as a conditional promise of blessing in the section Exo_23:23-33. It is appropriate to the purpose of Leviticus that this germ now comes here to its development, that by the side of the promise of blessing on the keeping of the covenant comes out very explicitly the threatening of curse on the breach of the covenant; for the contrast of blessing and curse goes forth from the religious behaviour or misbehaviour towards the law of God as a whole, as all particular commands are summed up therein…… It must not be overlooked that the subject is here always Israel in its totality, the nation as a whole. The date of this section is thereby shown to be very ancient; for it would have been otherwise from the days of Messianic prophecy. Then the contrast comes forward very strongly: the apostate Israel, and the Israel reforming itself; also the contrast: the Israel of the mass, and the Israel of the poor, of the humble, of the purified remnant. For this reason it would be a false inference to consider the conditional prediction of our section as apodictical, or indeed to suppose that the curse would fall upon every individual of the nation of Israel. The apostasy of Israel has often been treated as if the flower of its elect had fallen under the curse, although history declares that the Gentile church was grafted upon the stock of the Jewish, and Paul can designate the unbelieving portion of the Jews as “some,” notwithstanding its numerical majority, in contrast to the dynamical majority whose central point is Christ Himself. The national curse has then been fulfilled only in a conditional degree in contrast to the dynamical blessing overmastering all curse; but nevertheless in a degree which has shown in fearful majesty the reality of the threatening of the curse. It is a vain attempt when one seeks to intimate, like Knobel, that our prophecy looks back upon that which has already occurred in isolated particulars; at all events, this creates no prejudice against its Mosaic origin, for its fulfilment has been progressing even to the present day, and is not yet fully accomplished. Yet even at the present day the emphasis falls upon the fearful realization of the curse upon the nation; upon individuals, however, as such, only in proportion as they transmit the fanatical or unbelieving spirit of the community.
“Our section, moreover, is characterized as a prophetic word in that it brings into view in grand outlines a future which it cannot and will not describe with verbal definiteness. Yet a progress consonant to nature is to be observed in the gradations of the curse, which one might enjoy as a physiological picture of development.
“If we suppose that one may speak of the Divine government or word blamelessly if the section before us is invested with a less mysterious aspect, we overlook the fact that the course of things immanent in life remains the same although the prophetic character of the word be set aside; that the chapters of calamity remain the same although one seek to erase the superscription from the punishment and from the judgment. Strange that one should think the world will thereupon cheer up when he traces back the dark destiny of a people to a gloomy fate, instead of to the justice of the living God. It is the very nobility of apostate Israel that its Jehovah is, and has been, jealous with such burning jealousy over its fall; and it would even seem worthy of contempt if it were considered as the football of a gloomy destiny—its sorrows without reason, without proportion, and without purpose. Certainly also the continuing motive for the rejection of Israel itself is its ill-will-against Jehovah, or indeed against the Gentiles, in return for which it must acknowledge in its history its well deserved visitation……
“That the bearing of God towards Israel was an impartial bearing, which could only be obscured through the idea of a national God, is proved even by our section with its threatenings in presence of the development of the history of Israel itself: they have been brought out of Egypt, and Canaan must become their land; but when they apostatize, they must lose Canaan and must be scattered among the heathen (Keil, p. 169 [Trans. p. 468]). Not only the impartiality indeed, but the jealousy of Jehovah must be made manifest in this. The idea or key of the whole history and destiny of Israel is: vengeance of the covenant. The people could fall so low because they stood so high, because they were the first-fruits, the first-born son, the favorite of God (Jeshurun). But for this reason especially the promise of their restoration is bound up with the prophecy of their curse (Isa., Jer., Ezek., Hos., etc., Romans 11). Knobel gives prominence to the peculiarly elevated language of this section; it cannot be explained by the ordinary mechanicism of ‘Elohistic and Jehovistic documents.’ ”
This chapter forms a part of the same Divine communication with the preceding one.
Lev_26:1-2. These verses include substantially the first table of the decalogue, and by this short summary the whole duty of the Israelites toward God is called to mind and made the basis of the following promises and warnings. On Lev_26:1 see the Textual Notes. Lev_26:2 is a repetition verbatim of Lev_19:30. Here, at least, it must be understood to include the whole of the “appointed seasons” as well as the weekly Sabbaths.
A. The Blessing. Lev_26:3-13
With Lev_26:3 a new Parashah of the law begins, extending to the close of Leviticus. The parallel proper lesson from the prophets is Jer_16:19 to Jer_17:14. “The subject here is not the isolated good conduct of individuals, but the keeping of the Covenant of the people as a whole and its general tendency to blessing; the contrast to which, the breach of the Covenant, is moulded into the tendency to curse.” Lange.
Lev_26:4. Lange: “Rain in its season appears here as the first gift of Jehovah. When He gives the rain from heaven, the earth gives its produce and the fruit-trees give their fruit; there is formed a chain of gifts whose beginning lies in the mysterious hand of God. “The allusion here is to the showers which fall at the two rainy seasons, and upon which the fruitfulness of Palestine depends, viz., the early and latter rain (Deu_11:14). The former of these occurs after the autumnal equinox, at the time of the winter-sowing of wheat and barley, in the latter half of October or beginning of November. It generally falls in heavy showers in Nov. and Dec., and then after that only at long intervals, and not so heavily. The latter, or so-called latter rain, falls in March before the beginning of the harvest of the winter crops, at the time of the sowing of the summer seed, and lasts only a few days, in some years only a few hours (see Robinson, Pal. ii., pp. 97 sqq.).” Keil. [Also Robinson, Phys. Geog, of the H. L., p. 263.] “In consequence of these rains the land should yield so rich an increase that your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time (for the next year). [Lev_26:5. Comp. Amo_9:13.]
“Lev_26:6-8. The second yet higher gift of blessing is peace in the land, and that in relation to wild beasts” [חיָה רָעָה, an evil animal, for a beast of prey, as in Gen_37:20. Keil] “as well as to war; therefore they shall lie down as a herd which no beast of prey and no robber shall affright. Yet more: neither shall the sword go through your land, because they should drive back triumphantly from their borders the enemies who should make any attack. The aggressor should fall by the sword upon the border.” On the language in Lev_26:6 comp. Job_11:19; Psa_147:14; Eze_34:25-28. Lev_26:8 is “a proverbial mode of expression for superiority in warlike prowess.” Comp. Deu_32:30; Jos_23:10; Isa_30:17.
Lev_26:9-10. Lange: “The third blessing is fruitfulness: increase upon increase of the people, and the strengthening of the Covenant under the special support of Jehovah.” The multiplication of the people was a part of the covenant promise (Gen_17:4-6), and its fulfillment established the covenant (ib. 7); not merely preserved it, but became the means by which it should be extended ever farther and farther. In view of this increase the promise of Lev_26:10 becomes more emphatic: so far from a dearth being caused by the multitude, the new store should be reached before the old could be consumed. This constitutes the fourth particular of the blessing.
Lev_26:11-13. Lange: “The fifth blessing is the highest: the flower of their religion and religiousness. Jehovah will establish His dwelling (His living habitation) among them.—And I will walk among you, etc.—This promise touches typically even upon the height of the Christological incarnation. Joh_1:14.” [As this whole chapter has in view their residence in Canaan, so this promise in particular does not refer to God’s leading His people in their wanderings, but to His continual manifestation of Himself in their midst in their settled home.—F. G.] “For these promises, spiritually and dynamically understood, Jehovah, the personal God of Israel, makes Himself security; and He has given them their deliverance from Egypt as a proof and pledge. They shall not become the slaves of men through distress, but shall stand upright as the servants of God.” That is, the yoke of bondage which bowed down their heads as beasts of burden had been broken, and God had made them in consequence walk upright.
B. The Curse. Lev_26:14-33
Lev_26:14-15. Lange: “The breach of the Covenant. He begins with the external contempt of the ordinances of the covenant, and goes on to the internal scorn and rejection of the covenant law, a transgression therefore of the commands in their totality.” This is carefully to be borne in mind in regard to these warnings. These “judgments are threatened, not for single breaches of the law, but for contempt of all the laws, amounting to inward contempt of the Divine commandments and a breach of the covenant (Lev_26:14-15)—for presumptuous and obstinate rebellion, therefore, against God and His commandments.” Keil. Single sins, or sins of individuals, are not the subject, but the general apostasy of the nation.
Lev_26:16-17, contain what Lange describes as “the punishment in the first grade;” it is the warning of visitation upon apostasy alone before it has become complicated with the added guilt of obdurate persistency. Three punishments are mentioned which are to be sent together, and not singly as they were offered to the choice of David after his sin in numbering the people (2Sa_24:12-14)—disease, famine and defeat. It is easy to see how all these might (and historically did) come upon Israel as a natural consequence of their neglect of the Divine law; but they were none the less judgments of Him who had commanded that law and ordained that nature itself should protect it. Lange justly says: “One must not overlook the spirit of the Divine action; it is called visitation (Lev_26:16), and henceforth this is the principal thought and purpose which pervades all the punishments. It is also of a deeper meaning here that Jehovah will set His face against them; for their enemies are His instruments, and they will be smitten.” Comp. Eze_33:27-29.
Lev_26:18-20. According to Lange, “the punishment in the second grade,” or the first of the more severe measures to be visited upon obdurate disobedience. Here, and in each of the three remaining stages (Lev_26:18; Lev_26:21; Lev_26:24; Lev_26:28), the expression seven times is used. It is at once the number of perfection, indicating the full strength of the visitation, and also the sabbatical number, reminding the people of the broken covenant. Comp. Gen_4:15; Gen_4:24; Psa_79:12; Pro_24:16; Luk_17:4. “There are five degrees in the ever seven times more severe punishment. God punishes so, that He always in wrath remembers mercy, and gives time for repentance. But no punishment is so great that a greater cannot follow it.” Von Gerlach.
Lev_26:21-22. Lange: “The punishment in the third grade. The godlessness becomes aggressive; they walk inimically towards Jehovah, the apostasy advances to bolder idolatry and contempt of God. But meanwhile, Jehovah yet stands still, and only sends against them the forerunners of His vengeance: ravaging beasts—a symptom of falling into decay: robbers of children, calamities among live stock, depopulation, desolated highways. The beasts may here be understood not merely literally.” Comp. Jdg_5:6; Isa_33:8; Eze_5:17; Eze_14:15. “חָלַךְ קֶרִי עִם (to go to a meeting with a person, i.e., to meet a person in a hostile manner, to fight against him) only occurs here in Lev_26:21; Lev_26:23, and is strengthened in Lev_26:24; Lev_26:27-28; Lev_26:40-41, into חָלַךְ בְּקֶרִי עִם, to engage in a hostile encounter with a person.” Keil.
Lev_26:23-26. Lange: “The punishment in the fourth grade. Now Jehovah also becomes aggressive and acts inimically towards them, as if He would destroy them. Now the breach of the covenant is decided, and the sword comes over them as the avenger of the covenant. Picturesque delineation of the three dark riders, Revelation 6, only that here the plague goes before the famine.” The idea of the text is clearly that by the inroads of the enemy Israel would be shut up in their cities, and while besieged there, would be visited with pestilence and famine. Such calamities were repeatedly experienced, 2Ki_6:24-29, etc. Comp. Isa_3:1; Jer_14:18; Eze_4:16; Eze_5:12, and especially the story of the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans. To break the staff of bread is a frequent proverbial expression for the infliction of extreme scarcity. One oven should suffice for the bread of families ordinarily baked in ten, and in its scarcity it should be dealt out by weight.
Lev_26:27-33. Lange: “The punishment in the fifth grade. Now Jehovah moves against them verily in fury, and the last catastrophes follow: despair even to madness; the eating of their own children (Knobel, Keil, and the Jewish history) [comp. Deu_28:53; 2Ki_6:28-29; Jer_14:12; Lam_2:20; Lam_4:10; Eze_5:10. Also Jos. Bel. Jud. v. 10, 3.—F. G.]; overthrow of their idolatrous cultus, in the sarcastic conception that the dead bodies of men fall down on the mock dead bodies of their idols, carcases upon carcases” [comp. 2Ki_23:16; Eze_6:4. The high places refer to places of idolatrous worship as in use among the Canaanites and most other nations, and which must have been already sufficiently familiar to Moses and his people.—F. G.]; “overthrow of even the real historical sanctuary; repudiation of the sacrificial cultus, Lev_26:31” [comp. 2Ki_25:9; Psa_74:6-7]; “desolation of the land, so that even the enemies settling therein recognize the dismal footprints of punitive justice, deportations of the people (one after another, comp. the Jewish history from Alexander to Hadrian).” Comp. Jer_9:16-22; Jer_18:16; Jer_19:8; Ezekiel 5. Also Deu_4:27-28; Deu_28:37; Deu_28:64-68.
Effects of these Visitations. Lev_26:34-39
Lev_26:34-35, express the restorative effect accomplished by the punishment itself. The land must needs enjoy its Sabbaths while it lay desolate. In regard to the kingdom of Judah, 2Ch_36:21 expressly fixes the length of the Babylonish captivity with reference to the number of unobserved Sabbatical years. These constituted the Sabbaths of the land, the weekly Sabbath of one day being too brief for effect upon the soil. Lev_26:36-39 describe in fearful terms the effect of the Divine visitation upon the remnant who should escape immediate destruction. On the language of Lev_26:38 comp. Num_13:32; Eze_36:13.
C. The Restoration of the Covenant. Lev_26:40-45
Lange: “The first thing is the acknowledgment and confession of guilt. But the repentance would be thorough only in case the misdeeds of the fathers were acknowledged along with their own misdeeds, see Psalms 51. The view that Jehovah has interposed, contending against them because they contended against Him, is the second thing, Lev_26:41.—(Repeated declaration in regard to the cause of the punishments.) The humiliation under the judgment of their having an uncircumcised heart, i.e., of their being heathen in a spiritual sense, is the third. Yes, they come now to bless the punishments of their misdeeds, to rejoice over them, since God has visited them in this manner (יִרְצוּ). Keil accepts the translation of the LXX. εὐδοκήσουσιν τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν, “they will take pleasure, rejoice in their misdeeds, i.e., in the consequences and results of them.” We hold with Luther to the idea of עָוֹן (see Gesen.) as sufficient punishment; the paradox itself O felix culpa could not be translated: they have pleasure in their misdeeds. But to salute the cross is a proof in action of a deeper religiousness, which here already germinates.” [See, however, Textual Note 24.—F. G.]
“Lev_26:41. In a religious sense the divine pardon is the cause, in a moral sense the consequence of the repentance of the people; the remembrance of the Covenant with Jacob and Isaac and Abraham, i.e. an ever-deepening, inward remembrance of the old love, appears to awake in Jehovah, for it does awake in the consciousness of the people. The holy land itself, which cannot be forgotten and is kindly, receives now a peculiarly affecting form. The land whose mourning is changed to feasts, and the people whose penitence is changed to feasts, accord so affectingly with Jehovah, that, so to speak, He reveals Himself again as justifying: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet for all that—their pardon is approaching: viz. the restoration, and that truly entirely according to the analogy of the restoration from the land of Egypt. That this promise is effective for the nation of Israel, but is not to be understood of the spiritual Israel as such, needs no argument. At the close again, אֲנִי יְהֹוָה.” [The promise of mercy upon Israel when they should repent and turn to the Lord, was certainly a promise to the covenant people, and was repeatedly fulfilled in their history, especially in the restoration from the captivity of Babylon. But the promise (Jer_31:31-34) was that in the days to come God would make a new covenant with His people of a more spiritual character, and in the Ep. to the Heb (Lev_8:10-12; Lev_10:15-18) we are told that this has been accomplished in the Christian Church springing from the bosom of the Jewish. The continued faithfulness of God to His people according to the promises of this section, must therefore be now looked for after a Christian and spiritual, rather than a Jewish and temporal fashion.—F. G.]
“And thus it is conformable to the truth of a personal God that He should attach the utmost importance to afflicting the personal life of His people, and then reanimating it again. If it is said; What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? so is it likewise said: What shall it harm a man, if he shall lose the whole world, and his soul thereby be delivered? Would a philosophy in opposition to this, which has sunk the personal life in impersonal things, be a higher wisdom?
“It is to be understood that the principles of this Divine government over Israel apply, according to their modifications, to His government over every nation.”
At the beginning of this chapter Lange says: “It cannot be concluded from Lev_26:46 that Leviticus should properly end with this section; Lev_26:46 much rather looks back to Lev_26:3, and makes it clear that the subject here is the Covenant bond between Jehovah and the people of Israel.” Lev_26:46 undoubtedly looks back immediately to Lev_25:1, the beginning of the Divine communication of which this is the end; but as it also forms the close of Leviticus 26, so we cannot but regard this chapter itself as closing the Book of Leviticus proper. The analogy of this with other portions of the law has already been pointed out, and the reasons for regarding Leviticus 27 as an appendix will be mentioned in the treatment of that chapter.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
I. The warnings and promises of this chapter show it was foreseen that much of the Mosaic legislation was likely to be neglected by the people. Nevertheless God gave it. The same is true of much of Christian duty, both in regard to definite observances as baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and still more in regard to the standard of Christian life and character. But because man does not come up to its requirements, the law is not thereby foiled of its purpose; its requirements were not lowered to the level of human weakness and sinfulness, but rather designed to set forth so much of the Divine holiness and purity as would be instrumental in raising man to a higher level. “It was not like the legislation of ordinary states, intended primarily to meet the exigencies of existing facts and to keep offenders in order. Its purpose was to help and instruct the best of the people, not merely to chastise the worst. Other legislators have taken their starting points from human facts: Moses took his from the character and purpose of God.” Clark. And in this, to the thoughtful man, is a really powerful evidence of the Divine authorship of the legislation.
II. In Lev_26:39-40, the iniquity of their fathers is made a part of the sin for which the people were to suffer, and on the confession of which they were to be forgiven. As this is God’s revealed word, so does all history show that it is in accordance with His government of nature that in nations, as in individuals, the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children; but all this is nevertheless under the law that the sincere repentance of the children shall avert from them the punishment of their forefathers’ sins as well as of their own.
III. Illustrative of Lev_26:41 is 2Co_7:10 and Heb_12:11. The punishments of God leading to repentance, however grievous they may seem, are yet truly occasions of rejoicing in view of their higher object.
IV. In Lev_26:46 the covenant legislation of Mt. Sinai is expressly said to have been given by the hand of Moses. This fact is sufficiently patent throughout the whole story of the legislation; but its emphatic mention here has a double use: first, in showing that this book claims a contemporary origin; and second, in bringing out the fact of the necessity of a mediator between man and God. If Moses was only a human mediator, especially strengthened and authorized for this purpose; yet he points forward typically to the one true Mediator from whom alone man may know the will of God, and through whom alone be may draw near to His inapproachable majesty.
V. Although it is abundantly evident from the warnings of this chapter that man is unable so to keep God’s commandments as to claim any reward as of merit; yet it is also clear from its promises, and especially from these as contrasted with the warnings, that He does look with favor upon and will bless and reward the honest effort to do His will. These things are spoken of Israel as a nation, and are true of all nations in all time; but nations are made up of individuals, and the principles of the Divine bearing towards man are as true of the component elements as of the mass in its totality.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Lange: “The great contrast of blessing and of curse which lies in the law—which the law strengthens. The law speaks not only of curse, as many imagine; it speaks also of blessing. For it is one thing to be occupied with the works of the law and to seek righteousness through the law and by means of works (according to Gal_3:10 sqq.), and another thing to stand under the law in the true fear of God, and to strive after its righteousness until one comes to the righteousness which is of faith (according to Romans 7). The law of Jehovah ever stands under the protection of the Lawgiver. It is the rule of His power; it is the spirit of the world’s history; it is the voice of conscience (Romans 2), and the disposition of the heart. The blessings of fidelity to the law: the piety of a people, the fruitfulness of the land, peace, victory, etc., etc. (Lev_26:1 sqq.). The fearful gradations of the curse. Particular blessings. Particular curses. The final promise of the restoration of Israel out of the state of the curse. Jehovah will remember His covenant for all those who reform themselves.”
“There is a marvellous and grand display of the greatness of God in the fact, that He holds out before the people, whom He has just delivered from the hands of the heathen and gathered round Himself, the prospect of being scattered again among the heathen, and that, even before the land is taken by the Israelites, He predicts its return to desolation. These words could only be spoken by One who has the future really before His mind, who sees through the whole depth of sin, and who can destroy His own work, and yet attain His end. But so much the more adorable and marvellous is the grace, which nevertheless begins its work among such sinners, and is certain of victory notwithstanding all retarding and opposing influences.” Auberlen.
God promises in Lev_26:11-12, that He will set His tabernacle and will walk among His people—a typical promise, fulfilled in Christ who tabernacled in us (Joh_1:14), and through whom we become Temples of God the Holy Ghost (1Co_3:16-17; 1Co_6:19), and God will “tabernacle for ever” with us (Rev_7:15; Rev_21:3). Wordsworth.
Origen deduces from this chapter a commentary on 2Ti_2:5 : “If a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully.” Our efforts to obtain God’s blessing, our hope of avoiding His wrath, must be in the way of His commandment. We can only please Him by seeking to do His will, and He has made it known to us.
There is ever a due relation between the temporal and the spiritual, and these promises show that the rewards held out before the Israelites were of a spiritual as well as a temporal character; so it is to be remembered that along with the more spiritual rewards of the Christian religion, it has the “promise of the life that now is,” as well as of that which is to come. Calvin.
Footnotes:
[1]Lev_26:1. אֱלִילִם. See Textual Note3 on Lev_19:4.
[2]Lev_26:1. פֶּסֶל from פָּסַל to carve, is used of an image of any material, but is here taken, as in Isa_44:15; Isa_44:17; Isa_45:20, of an image of wood.
[3]Lev_26:1. מַצֵּבָה lit. anything set up. Hence used of a memorial stone, Gen_28:18-22; Gen_35:14; Isa_19:19; answering to the λίθαροι λιπαροί of the ancients. As these came to be used for idolatrous purposes the word obtained its secondary sense as in the text (Exo_23:24; 2Ki_3:2, etc.). The marg. of the A. V. follows the LXX. στύλην. The Vulg. has titulum.
[4]Lev_26:1. מַשְׂכִּית does not elsewhere occur in connection with אֶבֶן, but its meaning by itself figure, imagery, is sufficiently well settled. The only question here is whether the phrase denotes an image of stone (A. V. so Keil), or a stone with images sculptured upon it (A. V. marg. Rosen.). The latter is probably the more correct view, but not sufficiently certain to warrant a change in the text. LXX. λίθον σκοπὸν apparently in the sense of a prophylactery, and of this the Vulg. lapidem insignem may be a translation. Targ. Onk., and Jon. and Syr. stone of adoration; Targ. Jerus. stone of error.
[5]Lev_26:1. The construction of עַל here has somewhat perplexed the critics. Geddes contends that as it never elsewhere precedes the object of adoration, it must here signify at, by or upon. Keil explains it “on the ground that the worshipper of a stone image rises above it (for עַל in this sense, see Gen_18:2).” But this fact is, at the least, very doubtful; and the ordinary meaning of עַל as signifying motion towards, ἐπί, seems to be all that the connection requires.
[6]Lev_26:6. חַיָּה. See Textual Note 1 on Lev_11:2.
[7]Lev_26:10. תּוֹצִיאוּ is exactly rendered by the A. V., but the sense intended is better conveyed by the suggested emendation of Clark.
[8]Lev_26:11. מִשְׁכָּנִי. See Textual Note 8 on Lev_15:31.
[9]Lev_26:13. “מֹטֹת עֹל, lit. the poles of the yoke (comp. Eze_34:27), i.e., the poles which are laid upon the necks of beasts of burden (Jer_27:2) as a yoke.” Keil. For עֹל the Sam. and many MSS. have the fuller form עוֹל.
[10]Lev_26:15. The conjunction is wanting in 6 MSS., the Sam., Vulg., and Syr.
[11]Lev_26:16. For בֶּהָלָה = terror the Sam. reads בֶּחָלָה = sickness as a general term including the specifications that follow. The word is rendered in the A. V. of Jer_15:8 as here, and in Psa_78:33; Isa_65:23, trouble. It does not occur elsewhere. The idea is that of “mens’ hearts failing them for fear,” Luk_21:26.
[12]Lev_26:16. שַׁחֶפֶת = wasting away is well expressed by the consumption of the A. V. in its etymological sense, but is in danger of being misunderstood of the specific disease of that name which is rare in Palestine and Syria. The LXX., however, has ψώραν. קַדַּחַת, LXX. πυρετός, according to all authorities should be burning fever. Fevers are the most common of all diseases in Syria and the neighboring countries. These words occur only in the parallel, Deu_28:22.
[13]Lev_26:16. מְדִיבֹּת נֶפֶשׁ. The literal translation is more expressive than the paraphrase of the A. V.
[14]Lev_26:20. For הארץ 21 MSS. and the LXX. read השדה.
[15]Lev_26:22. שִׁכְּלָה אֶתְכֶם. The literal rendering is sufficient.
[16]Lev_26:25. נֹקֶמֶת נְקַס־בְּרִית lit. “avenging the covenant vengeance.” As this cannot be expressed in English the נקַם is better left untranslated than rendered by quarrel, which it does not mean.
[17]Lev_26:30. הַמָּנֵיכֶם. In most other places where the word occurs (2Ch_14:5 (4); Leviticus 34:4; Isa_17:8; Eze_6:4) the marg. of the A. V. has sun-images. Such was undoubtedly the original meaning of the word; but Gesenius (Thes.) shows that the word was applied to images of Baal and Astarte as the deities of the sun and moon. The word indicates “idols of the Canaanitish nature-worship.” Keil.
[18]Lev_26:30. גִּלֵּלִים = something to be rolled about, a contemptuous expression for idols. The Heb. had three different words which are rendered idol in the A. V., and seven which are rendered image.
[19]Lev_26:31. More than 50 MSS., the Sam. and the Syr., have the sing. The plural refers to “the holy things of the worship of Jehovah, the tabernacle and temple, with their altars, and the rest of their holy furniture, as in Ps. 68:36; Psa_74:6,” Keil; and not to the sanctuaries of false gods (Rosen and others).
[20]Lev_26:35. Here also it is better to keep to the literal rendering of the Heb. כָּל־יְמֵ חָשַּׁמָּה תִּשְׁבֹּת אֵת אֲשֶׁר וגק. The land should rest not merely because, but it should actually rest the time which it had not rested.
[21]Lev_26:36. מֹרֶךְ ἅπ. λεγ LXX. δειλία, Vulg. pavor. It “signifies that inward anguish, fear, and despair, which rend the heart and destroy the life.” Keil. Comp. Deu_28:65.
[22]Lev_26:39. עָוֹן is either iniquity (as here twice and in the next verse twice), or the punishment of iniquity (as in Lev_26:41). The phrase “perish in one’s iniquity” is however sufficiently common, and there is no occasion to change the translation here. The אִתָּם = with them at the close of the verse refers to the iniquities.
[23]Lev_26:39. For your ־כֶם more than 80 MSS. read their ־הֶם, so also the Sam., LXX., Sym., Theod., Vulg. and Syr. as the text in Lev_26:41.
[24]Lev_26:41; Lev_26:43. יִרְצוּ. The same word as is used in Lev_26:34; Lev_26:43, the land shall enjoy her sabbaths. The literal rendering is perhaps too bold for our version; but the meaning is really this. “The land being desolate shall have the blessing of rest, and they having repented shall have the blessing of chastisement. So the LXX. and Syriac.” Clark. Comp. Isa_40:2. נִרְצָת עֲונָתּ.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 22, 26, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 38, 40, 46 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary--Very…
Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary--Very frequently, in this Book of the Law, the Sabbath and the sanctuary are mentioned as antidotes to idolatry.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46 IDOLATRY, THE SABBATH, AND THE SANCTUARY, Lev_26:1-2.
IDOLATRY, THE SABBATH, AND THE SANCTUARY, Lev_26:1-2.
1. Standing image — The matstsebah was a pillar or statue of stone or wood. It was used in the worship of Baal. The tendency of the Hebrews toward idolatry may be inferred from the vast variety of terms used in their literature to signify idols. There are twenty-one Hebrew words rendered in English by idol or image. Four of these are found in this verse.
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I am the Lord — The word “I” is emphatic in the Hebrew. Jehovah could tolerate no rival, for he alone is self-existent, eternal, supreme. The pagan god of one nation could allow the existence of another cultus in another nation: Jesus Christ was not complimented when the Roman senate decreed him a statue in the Pantheon. He must dethrone all rivals, because he is “God over all, blessed forever.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 39, 40, 41, 43, 46 1. a pillar] maẓẓçbâh, an upright stone, frequently mentioned…
1. a pillar] maẓẓçbâh, an upright stone, frequently mentioned in connexion with local worship. See for illustrations of those discovered at Gezer, Driver’s Schweich Lectures, p. 63.
any figured stone] i.e. with some idolatrous representation carved on it.
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1, 2. These two vv. contain only repetitions of the precepts already given (Lev_19:3-4; Lev_19:30); in fact, the direction to observe the sabbath appears here for the third time. The redactor of H attached great importance to these vv., and accordingly closed his legislation with them. Their position, however, at the commencement of this ch. is unsuitable and may be owing to accident. Still their importance, as corresponding to the first four Commandments, may account for their insertion.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 (1) Ye shall make you no idols.—The first two…
XXVI.
(1) Ye shall make you no idols.—The first two verses of this chapter are still a part of the previous section in the Hebrew original. By separating them from their proper position, and making them begin a new chapter, both the logical sequence and the import of these two verses are greatly obscured. As Lev 26:47-55 legislated for cases where Israelites are driven by extreme poverty to sell themselves to a heathen, and when they may be compelled to continue in this service to the year of jubile, and thus be obliged to witness idolatrous practices, the Lawgiver solemnly repeats the two fundamental precepts of Judaism, which they might be in danger of neglecting, viz., to abstain from idol-worship and to keep the Sabbath, which are two essential commandments of the Decalogue. The same two commandments, but in reverse order, are also joined together in Lev_19:3-4.
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Idols.—For this expression see Lev_19:4.
Nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image.—Better, nor shall ye rear you up a graven image or pillar. Graven image is not only a plastic image of a heathen deity, but a visible or sensuous representation of the God of Israel (Exo_20:19-20; Deu_4:15-16).
A standing image.—This expression, which only occurs once more in the text of the Authorised Version (Mic_5:13), and four times in the Margin (1Ki_14:23; Jer_43:13; Hos_3:4; Hos_10:1), is the rendering of a Hebrew word (matzebah), which is usually and more correctly translated “pillar” or “statue” (Gen_28:18; Gen_28:22; Gen_31:13, &c.). This was a plain and rude stone without any image engraved on it, and was not unfrequently erected to God himself. but in after-time more especially as a memorial to false deities. (Gen_28:18; Gen_28:22; Gen_31:13; Gen_35:14, with Exo_23:24; Exo_34:13, &c.)
Neither shall ye set up any image of stone.—The authorities during the second Temple interpreted the words here rendered “images of stone” to denote beholding, or worshipping stones—i.e., stones set in the ground in places of worship upon which the worshippers prostrated themselves to perform their devotions. The stone was therefore a kind of signal, calling the attention of the worshipper to itself, so that he may fall down upon it. With such stones, these authorities assure us, the Temple was paved, since they were perfectly lawful in the sanctuary, but must not be used in worship out of the Temple, or rather, out of the land, as these authorities understood the words “in your land” here to denote. Hence the Chaldee Version paraphrases it, “and a painted stone ye shall not place in your land to prostrate yourselves upon it, but a pavement adorned with figures and pictures ye may put in the floor of your sanctuary, but not to bow down upon it,” i.e., in an idolatrous manner. Hence, too, the ancient canon, “in your own land” (i.e., in all other lands) “ye must not prostrate yourselves upon stones, but ye may prostrate yourselves upon the stones in the sanctuary.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Leviticus 26
Leviticus 26
This chapter requires little in the way of note or exposition. It contains a most solemn and affecting record of the blessings of obedience. on the one hand, and the terrible consequences of disobedience, on the other. Had Israel walked in obedience, they would have been invincible. "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. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 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. For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you and ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor yon. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondsmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright." (Ver. 6-13)
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The presence of God should ever have been their shield and buckler. No weapon formed against them could prosper. But, then, the divine presence was only to be enjoyed by an obedient people. Jehovah could not sanction by His presence disobedience or wickedness. The uncircumcised nations around might depend upon their prowess and their military resources. Israel had only the arm of Jehovah to depend upon, and that arm could never be stretched forth to shield unholiness or disobedience. Their strength was to walk with God in a spirit of dependence and obedience. So long as they walked thus, there was a wall of fire round about them, to protect them from every enemy and every evil.
But, alas! Israel failed altogether. Notwithstanding the solemn and appalling picture placed before their eyes, in verses 14-33 of this chapter, they forsook the Lord and served other gods, and thus brought upon themselves the sore judgements threatened in this section, the bare record of which is sufficient to make the ears tingle. Under the heavy weight of these judgements they are suffering at this very hour. Scattered and peeled, wasted and outcast, they are the monuments of Jehovah’s inflexible truth and justice. They read aloud, to all the nations of the earth, a most impressive lesson on the subject of the moral government of God - a lesson which it would be profitable for these nations to study deeply, yea, and a lesson which it would be salutary for our own hearts to ponder likewise.
We are very prone to confound two things which are clearly distinguished in the word, namely, God’s government and God’s grace. The evils which result from this confusion are various. It is sure to lead to an enfeebled sense of the dignity and solemnity of government, and of the purity, fullness, and elevation of grace. It is quite true that God in government reserves to Himself the sovereign right to act in patience, long-suffering, and mercy; but the exercise of these attributes, in connection with His throne of government, must never be confounded with the unconditional actings of pure and absolute grace.
The chapter before us is a record of divine government, and yet, in it we find such clauses as the following: "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, 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: 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. 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 judgements, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. 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. 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." (Ver. 40-45)
Here we find God in government, meeting, in long-suffering mercy, the very earliest and faintest breathings of a broken and penitent spirit. The history of the judges and of the kings presents many instances of the exercise of this blessed attribute of the divine government. Again and again, the soul of Jehovah was grieved for Israel, (Judges 10: 16,) and He sent them one deliverer after another, until at length there remained no hope, and the righteous claims of His throne demanded their expulsion from that land which they were wholly incompetent to keep.
All this is government. But, by and by, Israel will be brought into possession of the land of Canaan on the ground of unqualified and unchangeable grace - grace exercised in divine righteousness through the blood of the cross. It will not be by works of law; nor yet by the institutions of an evanescent economy, but by that grace which "reigns through righteousness, by Jesus Christ our Lord." Wherefore, they Shall never again be driven forth from their possession. No enemy shall ever molest them. They shall enjoy undisturbed repose behind the shield of Jehovah’s favour. Their tenure of the land will be according to the eternal stability of divine grace, and the efficacy of the blood of the everlasting covenant. "They shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation."
May the Spirit of God lead us into more enlarged apprehensions of divine truth, and endow us with a greater capacity to try the things that differ, and rightly to divide the word of truth.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 21, 23, 27, 34, 36, 40, 46 THE first two verses of this chapter contain a…
THE first two verses of this chapter contain a prohibition of idolatry, and a command to observe the sabbath and to reverence God"s sanctuary; that is, they repeat in summary the substance of the Israelites, religious duty, negative and positive, as comprised in the first table of the Decalogue. They form, therefore, a prologue to the remainder of the chapter, which solemnly announces:
1. The blessings. which should result from obedience (verses 3-13).
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2. The curses which should follow disobedience (verses 14-39).
3. The gracious treatment which would ensue on repentance (verses 40-45).
Hitherto the Book of Leviticus has consisted of ceremonial and moral injunctions, with two historical passages interposed. In the present chapter it rises in its subject and its diction from legal precepts and a legal style to prediction and the style which became a prophet. We may trace in Joel (Joe_2:22-27) an intimate acquaintance on the part of the earliest prophet of Judah with this chapter. The first promise there, as here, is that of rain, and as here it is to be "in due season," so there it is "the former and the latter rain," that is, the regular autumn and spring rains. "The land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, appears in the prophet as, "the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength." The following clause, "your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time, as," the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil;" the next clause, "ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely, as, "I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith," and" ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied;" the clause, "I will give peace in the laud, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid, as "I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen," and" my people shall never be ashamed;" and the clause, I will rid evil creatures not beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land," as, "I will remove far off from you the northern," and "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you.
The blessings and the curses rise one above the other in regular gradation: on the one side, rain, abundance, peace, deliverance, victory, increase in numbers, communion with God; on the other side,
(1) horror, wasting, and the burning fever, hostile spoiling of the fields, defeat, and causeless flight;
(2) the heaven iron, and the earth brass, failure of crops and fruits in spite of labour spent upon them;
(3) wild beasts for the destruction of cattle, children, and men, desolation of the highways;
(4) the sword, pestilence, and famine;
(5) cannibalism, overthrow of their heathen idols and of God"s own house and worship, destruction of their cities, utter desolation of their lands, and their captivity among the heathen. And even yet the full measure of their misery is not accomplished, for while the land enjoys her sabbaths, the captives, if unrepentant, are to fall from one misery to another, till they pine away and are consumed. Each of these grades is described as being symbolically seven times worse, that is, incomparably worse, than that which has gone before. Because these plagues would come, and in fact did come, upon them as the immediate result of physical or moral causes that could be traced, they are none the less the effect of God"s wrath upon his apostate people.
Confession of sin, recognition of God"s providence in all that had happened to them, humility, and acquiescence in their punishment, would restore them to their forfeited covenant relation (verses 40-45). Then God would not abhor them to destroy them utterly, but would "remember the covenant of their fathers. Thus it was that God brought them back after the Babylonish Captivity; and thus it is that, upon their repentance, he replaces in a state of salvation Churches and individuals that have fallen away from him. In this way punishments become a blessing, and men are able to "accept of them, or rejoice in them, as the word might be rendered.
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. The word idols (elilim) means the "nothings" which the heathen substituted for the Lord God. The graven image (here meaning a carved wooden image), the standing image (meaning a sacred pillar), and the image of stone (that is, a sculptured stone idol), are the three forms of images under which adoration was paid, whether to the true God or to a false doily. The expression, to bow down unto (or towards) it, forbids worshipping before an image as well as worshipping an image.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Chapter 26Temporal rewards and punishments.
Cf. Ecc_8:11 Isa_48:18 Mat_5:44, Mat_5:45; and 1Ti_4:8. There is in this chapter a distinct assertion of moral government exercised over Israel. If they obeyed God"s Law, he would grant them great temporal blessing; if they disobeyed, he would send them sore chastisement; but if after disobedience they became penitent, he would remember their fathers and his covenant with them, and receive their penitent seed into favour again. The whole question, consequently, of the "method of the Divine government" is hereby raised. And here let us remark
I GOD"S JUDGMENTS, WHETHER REWARDS OR PUNISHMENTS, WERE EXECUTED WITH BECOMING LEISURE AND DELIBERATION. It is along the lines of natural law, as distinguished from miracle, that he proposes to execute his decisions. If the people prove obedient, then they are to have
(1) bountiful harvests;
(2) national triumph and consequent peace;
(3) riddance of the beasts of the field, so far as they would injure their crops;
(4) great increase of the population; and
(5) the enjoyment of religious ordinances.
(a) sickness;
(b) scarcity;
(c) defeat;
(d) devastation by wild beasts;
(e) famine in its most fearful forms; and
(f) a sabbatic desolation in the Lord"s land.
On the other hand, if the people prove disobedient, they are to have Now, it is to the leisurely and deliberate element in the rewards and the punishments that we direct attention. If God chose to execute his sentences speedily, if obedience got its reward immediately, if disobedience got its punishment without one moment"s delay, then men would have no room for question, and no room for moral education and decision. Such a childish regulation would doubtless prevent a large amount of evil in the world, but it would keep men children always. It is a pitiable stage of education when the child insists on seeing its reward before it obeys, and requires the immediate "slap" to prevent disobedience. If men are to be trained morally, they must be asked to take upon credit God"s promises and threatenings, and decide in the interval before he is pleased to act.
This leaves room for a large amount of evil. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil". (Ecc_8:11) Men may say, because God does not show quickly his hand, that he may possibly not show it at all. Hence they sin and say, "The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it". (Psa_94:7) The Lord"s delay is interpreted as Divine indifference. This is one of the evils due to man"s sinful heart exercising its freedom under a truly paternal government. Instead of God"s goodness in the delay leading men to repentance, it is allowed to foster a hope that he will resign the reins of government altogether and sit indifferently by, while men do as they please. An instance of this tendency to misinterpretation is afforded by Professor Tyndall, in his "Fragments of Science," where he has the audacity to deduce from Mat_5:45, "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust," as the doctrine of the Master himself, that "the distribution of natural phenomena is not affected by moral or religious causes;" whereas the context shows that the whole arrangement is prompted by love towards his enemies, that they may be induced to become his friends. Men get easily warped in their interpretations, and miss the point, or want to miss it.
On the other hand, God"s delay in making good his promises and threatenings affords an opportunity for humiliation and faith. When men believe he will be as good and as severe as he says, then they humble themselves under his mighty hand, and supplicate his forgiveness. When also, as his forgiven ones, they try to the best of their ability to obey him, then the delay of the promised blessing enables them to cultivate the "patience of hope," and thus to complete their character. If, therefore, there are drawbacks through man"s sin on the one side, there are vast advantages to human character on the other attending this arrangement.
II GOD"S JUDGMENTS, EVEN WHEN EXECUTED, HAVE NOT THE AIR OF FINALITY ABOUT THEM. Notwithstanding the special pleading of Warburton and his followers about the temporal character of the Divine judgments among the Jews, and their consequent ignorance about a future life, it is evident on the face of the judgments that they are not final. Little children perishing and eaten in the sieges (verse 29) could not be regarded surely as a final judgment. Children suffering for their parents" sins could not be regarded as a final judgment. In truth, God"s judgments among the Jews, like his judgments still, were imperfect, and designedly so. "For observe," says the Hey. Charles Wolfe, "if we found every man in this life received just what he deserved, and every evil work always brought swift punishment along with it, what should we naturally conclude? There is no future punishment in store. I see nothing wanting; every man has already received the due reward of his works; everything is already complete, and, therefore, there is nothing to be done in the next world. Or if, on the other hand, there were no punishment visited upon sin at all in this world, we might be inclined to say, Tush, God hath forgotten; he never interferes amongst us; we have no proof of his hatred of sin, or of his determination to punish it; he is gone away far from us, and has left us to follow our own wills and imaginations. So that if sentences were either perfectly executed on earth, or not executed at all, we might have some reason for saying that there was a chance of none in a future world. But now it is imperfectly executed; just so much done as to say, "You are watched; my eye is upon you; I neither slumber nor sleep; and my vengeance slumbereth not." And yet, at the same time, there is so little done, that a man has to look into eternity for the accomplishment.
III GOD"S PROMISE TO THE PENITENT IMPLIES THAT THEY ARE NOT PARDONED SIMPLY ON THE GROUND OF THEIR PENITENCE. The Lord contemplates the Jewish defection as practically certain. At the same time, he holds out the hope of the penitent people being restored to favour (verses 40-46). But it is surely significant that penitence is expressly shown not to be the ground of acceptance. Doubtless it is the condition; but were it the sole ground of acceptance, as it is confidently asserted to be, it is not easy to see why in such a case as that now before us God would speak about remembering their fathers, and throwing the radiance, so to speak, of their obedience round about their children (verses 42, 45). It is evident the penitents, even after they have been punished, cannot stand alone. And in truth, when the whole matter of acceptance is analyzed, it is seen to rest upon a covenant of sacrifice. The sacrifices of the covenant; as we have already seen, point unmistakably to a suffering Substitute, the glory of whose merits must encircle all accepted ones. In a word, we are led straight to Jesus, the Lamb of God, by whose blood we are redeemed and received into covenant relations. "Accepted in the Beloved," we are careful to "abstain from the very appearance of evil," and in the exercise of new obedience we find a triumphant power bestowed. When we hearken to his commandments our peace flows like a river, and our righteousness becomes resistless like the waves of the sea. (Isa_48:18) We find that "godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come". R.M.E. (1Ti_4:8)
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD Vers. 1-13. The blessedness of the righteous.
In the words before us we have
I THE QUALITIES OF THE RIGHTEOUS DESCRIBED. These are:
1. That they worship the true God.
(1) They make no idols. Graven images. Pillars to memorialize advantages supposed to be derived from false gods. Witness the votive offerings of the papists. They might not superstitiously worship such stones of memorial as Jacob set up to memorialize the blessings of Jehovah. (see Gen_28:18; and comp. 2Ki_18:4) The images of stone or "stones of picture" (see margin) would probably be statues. Note: men make their idols.
(2) They respect Jehovah. He is the Maker of all things. He is himself uncreate. He is the Covenant Friend of the righteous.
2. That they worship him truly.
(1) By keeping his sabbaths. Memorials of his works of creation and redemption. .Pledges of the rest of heaven.
(2) These are: weekly monthly yearly septennial in the jubilee.
(3) By reverencing his sanctuary. The place of his presence, of his altar, of the congregation of his people.
3. They serve him obediently.
(1) Walking in his statutes. This implies the study of his Word.
(2) To keep his commandments also implies prayer for Divine grace.
II THEIR BLESSEDNESS ASSURED. They have the promise of:
1. Plenty.
(1) The elements were to be propitious to them. Seasonable rains. These are very important. They are here mentioned as representing all benign elemental influences light, heat, electricity, all which are essential.
(2) The result then is abundance (verse 5). Before they could have reaped and threshed out their corn, the vintage should be ready, and before they could have pressed out their wine, it would be time again to sow.
(3) This was to prefigure the abundance of grace which should mark the times of the gospel. (see Amo_9:1-8)
2. Security.
(1) From the hostility of the elements. No plague should invade them.
(2) From the hostility of men. No warrior should invade them. No robber should trouble them.
(3) From the hostility of animals. Where population is reduced by wars and famines, beasts of prey prowl.
(4) How the faithfulness of God has been verified in the history of his people!
3. Victory.
(1) God puts the dread of them into their enemies. They fly before them. Witness the flight of the Syrians in the days of Elisha. (2Ki 7)
(2) He puts courage into their hearts. Witness the exploits of Gideon, of Samson, of Jonathan and his armour-bearer. (1Sa_14:6, 1Sa_14:12)
4. Multiplication.
(1) This is a blessing of the covenant. It is a real strength to a nation. It is a real strength to a Church.
(2) But outside the covenant mere numbers may prove a formidable evil.
5. Divine favour.
(1) "I will have respect unto you." Contrast with this Heb_10:38.
(2) The token of the favour of God is his presence.
(a) His tabernacle was amongst them in the wilderness. What miracles of mercy were shown to them then!
(b) How glorious were the days of Solomon when the Shechinah entered the temple.
(c) His tabernacle was set among his people in the presence of Jesus. (Joh_1:14) But they did not know the blessedness of their day
(d) How blessed is the mystical incarnation of Christ in the believer! (Joh_6:56 2Co_6:16-18 2Co_7:1)
(e) The glory of the tabernacle will culminate in the new heavens and earth. (see Rev_21:3)
All this blessedness was pledged in the emancipation from the bondage of Egypt (verse 13). More fully in the redemption of the gospel typified thereby. J.A.M.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Ver. 1. Idolatry: our danger and our security.
Knowing, as we do, how widespread was the idolatry of the age and how terribly tempted were the children of Israel to fall under its fascination, we do not wonder either at the repetition or the fullness of this commandment. God made it quite clear to his people, and impressed the truth on their minds with strong emphasis, that they must not permit any visible image to come between themselves and him. He would sanction "no idol, nor graven image, nor pillar, nor figured stone" (marginal reading). Respecting idolatry we may do well to consider
I ITS NATURAL HISTORY. Men do not descend at once into the blind and blank idolatry with which we are familiar.
1. The first step downwards is when men take some object or construct some image which shall remind them of Deity, or stand for God, or be a sign and token of his presence, so that when they see that they shall think of him. This was the case with the "golden calf" which Aaron made. The people presented their offerings to it in connection with a "feast to the Lord". (Exo_32:5) It is too great a mental labour to realize God"s presence by pure thought and meditation; men crave a visible object which shall remind them of the Supreme.
2. The next step deep into the thick darkness is to identify the Deity with the object which is the chosen sign of his presence; and the constant, inevitable accompaniment of this act is to multiply the number of divinities; for, as the visible images are many, the gods become many also to the popular imagination. However antecedently unlikely it may seem to us that men would commit such great folly as this, universal history compels us to believe that they have done so. Beginning with the demand for "a sign," men have "bowed down unto" and worshipped the image, the pillar, the figured stone.
3. Then follows mental, moral, spiritual degradation. The worshippers of idols have attributed to their gods their own infirmities and sins, and then their worship has reacted on their own character, and they have sunk to the lowest depths of abjectness of mind, vileness of spirit, grossness of life.
II ITS ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS. We must not identify idolatry with those more shameless forms of it which historians and travelers have made known to us. These are its last and worst developments. But the idolatrous element is found where there is
(1) a false association of God with an object with which he has nothing to do, as (in the case referred to) where the Israelites associated Jehovah in their thoughts with an image with which he had no connection whatever; or
(2) a false trust in an object with which God is more or less connected. That was an idolatrous act on the part of the Israelites when they made sure of victory because the ark of God was in the comp. (1Sa_4:3-11) God had connected himself with the ark in an especial manner; but the Jews were trusting in it rather than in him, and they leant on a broken reed.
III ITS APPEAL TO OURSELVES. Our danger is not from the grosser forms of idolatry, nor is it in the former of the two essential elements of it; it is in the latter of these. We are liable to trust idolatrously in that with which God is connected, but which has no virtue at all in itself. We are invited, and sometimes find ourselves tempted:
1. To imagine that a priest can bless us, independently of the truth which he teaches or the spiritual help which he renders us.
2. To suppose that we are nearer to God in sacred places, irrespective of the consideration whether we realize his presence and draw nigh to his Spirit.
3. To seek sanctity, or even salvation, in sacraments apart from the reverent thought and consecrated feeling which they should suggest or excite. This is an idolatrous delusion.
IV THE PATH OF SAFETY. This is:
1. The avoidance of temptation. We must shun those Churches and services which would seduce us from spiritual purity.
2. The acceptance of the One Divine Mediator we have in Christ our Saviour. There is "one man we can adore without idolatry the man Christ Jesus.
3. The use of our faculties for the worship of the Invisible. We can worship him who is a Spirit "in spirit and in truth." We can realize the presence of the infinite God; we can love him whom we have not seen; (1Pe_1:8) we can walk the whole path of life conscious of a Divine Companion whose hand we cannot grasp, but who "leads us all our journey through." By a living faith, "our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ". C. (1Jn_1:3)
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD Vers. 1, 2. Command to maintain the public worship of Jehovah.
I PURITY OF WORSHIP. No idols or images.
1. Spirituality of religion.
2. Dependence of man on revelation. The deistic position of natural religion untenable.
3. The worship of God should be the free and grateful remembrance of past benefits received, therefore the leading elements of it should be faith and praise, not, as in heathenism and corrupt Christian systems such as the Roman Catholic, the slavish subjection of man to the fear of Divine wrath and the mediation of priests.
II CONSECRATION BOTH OF DAY AND PLACE. Sabbath and sanctuary.
1. As necessary on account of the weakness of our nature. We cannot keep the mind above the world unless we are separated at times altogether from it.
2. The rallying point of fellowship. In the communion of saints there is special spiritual help.
3. As maintaining the holy order of human life, giving distinction and eminence to the highest things, predicting the future rest, revealing the dependence of the bodily life on the life of the soul, and of the happiness of earthly toil on the blessing of God.
4. The Christian sabbath as based on the resurrection of Christ has a new form of obligation and a larger sphere of holy suggestion. It is not so much commanded as vitally connected with the whole strength of Christian motive. R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 8, 14, 27 Ye shall keep My Sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary.
Lev_26:2
Ye shall keep My Sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary.
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Of the stated times of Gods worship, particularly the Lords Day
I. What were the reasons upon which God might be supposed, under the law, to have instituted more solemn and set times of worship.
1. As to the reasonableness of the institution in general, it was highly agreeable to the natural light of mankind upon these following accounts.
(1) All external worship is designed to give us impressions of greater reverence for the Divine Majesty. Now, such is the temper of human nature, that men have much less regard for those things that are common than for those which have some peculiar mark of distinction set upon them.
(2) It being one of the first principles of natural religion that God is to be publicly worshipped, order requires that there should be some determinate and public times set apart for His worship and piety, that such times should be vacations from the common affairs of human life.
(3) It being a further end of religious worship to advance the spiritual life and bring us nearer unto God, it is not only agreeable to piety, but to all the maxims of religious prudence, that the times appropriated to the more solemn worship of God should be distinguished by a cessation from the common business of life, that by this means, our minds being wholly taken off from earthly things, they may be more open to the heavenly impressions of grace and truth.
2. These are some of the natural reasons upon which we may account for Gods commanding His people to keep His Sabbath, that is, all the stated and solemn times of His public worship; but what I have here principally an eye to is the institution of the Sabbath, which the Jews were so forcibly enjoined to keep holy in the Fourth Commandment. Now, the two principal reasons of this institution seem to have been--
(1) That hereby they acknowledged God to be the Lord, the Creator and Governor of the world; and--
(2) That they acknowledged Him to be in a more eminent and peculiar manner their God by delivering them out of the hand of Egypt.
II. How far those reasons, in either respect, hold good under the Christian dispensation.
1. The general reasons I laid down for setting apart some solemn time for the worship of God certainly extend to us Christians, and to all the nations under heaven, as well as to the Jews. Indeed, when we consider that to everything under the sun there is a time, and that the natural order of things requires there should be so, it seems highly reasonable that some stated seasons should be appropriated to His service, to whom we owe all the moments of our time and the capacity of all other enjoyments. Jesus Christ did not come to destroy any one duty arising from the law of nature or the common principles of natural religion, but to give all such duties their utmost force.
2. The great difficulty to be considered is how far those reasons, upon which the Jewish Sabbath in particular was instituted, may be supposed to affect us Christians.
(1) It appears matter of moral obligation that there should be some day set apart more peculiarly devoted to the honour and worship of Almighty God.
(2) It appears no less reasonable that the returns of such a day should be so frequent as to keep up a constant sense of religion, and their duty to God, in the minds of men, without interfering with the necessary affairs of human life.
(3) It must be granted somewhat difficult to determine this matter exactly from any principle of natural reason, it not clearly discovering what proportion of our time we are to set apart for the more solemn worship of God, or why one day in seven, rather than six or eight, should be observed to this end.
III. How and in what manner the Lords day ought to be observed.
1. We are to consider the Lords Day is a time set apart for the more public worship and service of God, wherein we are to do Him honour and praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
2. We ought also on the Lords Day to employ ourselves constantly in the private exercises of religion.
3. As the Lords Day is a day of thanksgiving for the public or private mercies we have received from God, it is a proper exercise of it to perform acts of mercy and charity to others, and both with respect to their souls and bodies.
4. As the Lords Day is a day devoted to the service of God and religion, let us take care to sanctify it by religious conversation.
5. That we may better attend these duties, we must not only intermit our ordinary labours and employments, but take off our thoughts, as much as possible, from the business of them. (R. Fiddes, D. D.)
Of the stated places of Gods-worship, and in what manner our reverence towards them ought to be expressed
I. The reasons of appropriating places to the public worship of God are the same in general under the Christian as under the mosaic dispensation.
1. One end of Gods appointing the tabernacle, and afterwards the temple, was to possess the minds of the Jews with more devout affections in their religious addresses to Him. The place we are in naturally puts us in mind of the proper business and design of it.
2. It is a principle highly agreeable to the natural notions of mankind that God is in a special manner present in such places, not only as they are consecrated to Him, and He has thereby a special propriety in them, but also by reason of the united prayers which are therein put up to Him, and which are reasonably presumed to be of more efficacy than those of single persons to bring down the real and sensible effects of His presence with the blessings prayed for.
3. The common notions we bare of order and decency require that the place designed for Gods more immediate service should be appropriated to Him, and to Him only. Of order, that men may know where to repair on all occasions to worship God; and of decency, because it is contrary to all the rules of it, and, indeed, to the ordinary acceptation of holiness throughout the Scriptures, that what is common or unclean should be promiscuously used with things set apart for holy and religious uses.
II. Places so appropriated have a relative holiness in them, and ought therefore to be reverenced. This is the notion of holiness with respect to things, and persons, and times, as well as places designed for the service of God, in the Old Testament, that they were separated from common uses to His own. And if for this very reason they were accounted sacred then, what imaginable pretence can there be that the same reason should not render them, and all of them, sacred now? If it be pretended that the temple was accounted holy by reason of the legal sacrifices which were offered to God in it, we ask why the Christian sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving in our churches should not be a sufficient ground for reputing them holy also? If it be said that there were sensible effects of Gods presence in the temple upon which it had a peculiar relation of holiness to Him, we answer that God, as to the spiritual and gracious effects of His presence, and wherein He manifests it in the most beneficial and excellent manner, is present in our Christian temples. If it be said, further, that the temple was built by the special command of God, and upon that account a certain holiness was ascribed to it, whereas we have no such command for building any places purely for Gods worship now, it is answered again that the design of Davids building a temple, and Solomons going on with it, do not appear to have proceeded from any positive and direct command of God. God, it is true, gave particular directions about building the temple, but it does not therefore follow that the design of building it was not antecedently laid by these princes upon natural motives of piety and religion, the same motives upon which the patriarchs erected sanctuaries or separate places of worship to God before any positive institution to this end. Shall I now show that our Christian churches, which I have proved to be sanctuaries in a proper sense, ought therefore to be reverenced? This is a consequence which flows so naturally, or rather, indeed, necessarily, from what has been said, that I need not say much to illustrate it. I shall only observe that we are agreed in other cases to set a value on things or persons, not in consideration of their absolute and real worth, but of their relative use or character. An insect is considered in itself as a living creature more valuable than the brightest or richest jewel in the world; but we should think him very weak who would for that reason prefer a butterfly to a diamond, which, by common consent, serves him to so many more useful ends. For the same reason, with respect to the different characters of men, or any special relation they bear to God, to the prince, or to ourselves, we give them different and suitable testimonies of our esteem. Nay, when we truly honour or love any person, we naturally express a value for everything that nearly belongs to him or wherein he has a particular interest. Certainly, then, nothing can be more reasonable than that upon account of the special propriety God has in places set apart for His service, and for so many holy uses, we should express our reverence toward such places by all becoming testimonies of it.
III. Even natural reason discovers further to us how and in what particulars our reverence towards such places ought to be expressed.
1. We are to reverence Gods sanctuary by constantly repairing to it on all proper occasions.
2. We are to reverence Gods sanctuary by a serious, devout, and regular behaviour in it.
(1) By a serious and devout behaviour, I mean such decent postures of the body as most properly express the inward sentiments and attention of the mind.
(2) By a regular behaviour in the worship of God, I understand a due conformity to the rules and order of the public service, and particularly that we should kneel or stand up at the usual offices.
3. If we reverence Gods sanctuary as we ought, we shall be willing to contribute what may be thought necessary towards the proper ornaments of it or the greater solemnity of the public worship in it.
I shall now proceed to a conclusion, with a proper application or two from what has been said.
1. To those who offend against the first rule I laid down, concerning the reverence due to Gods sanctuary, by coming late to it, or perhaps after a considerable part of the service is performed. If you are conscious to yourselves of any such scandalous, especially if it have been a customary, irreverence, be careful not to give any further offence to God or man, for it is really so to both in the same kind--to God, because it is so insolent a method of presenting ourselves in His courts, in order to beg any blessing or the pardon of our sins before we have made a humble confession of them; to man, because the Church, which we are presumed by attending her service to be members of, has piously directed such a confession at the beginning of her service. Not to mention the other disorders occasioned by this irreverence, and how contrary it is to the rule prescribed us by holy David, of worshipping God in the beauty of holiness (Psa_29:2; Psa_96:9). And for the same reason--
2. If your consciences reproach you with any former unbecoming or irregular behaviour in the sanctuary of God, resolve hereafter to correct so great an indecency, or rather, indeed, so flaming an impiety.
3. What I shall say to those who have in any signal manner expressed their zeal for Gods house, by contributing to the beauty or solemnity of it, shall be by way of encouragement. And certainly men cannot propose to themselves to show their reverence for God by a more truly pious act--an act whereby they more immediately glorify Him, in letting their good works shine before men. This consideration cannot but, at the same time, fill the minds of those who are concerned in it with a sensible pleasure and satisfaction, and make their hearts even spring for joy. This was the effect which the preparations of David and the Israelites for building the temple had upon them (1Ch_29:8).
4. What I would observe, in the last place, is that persons who are subservient in this respect towards promoting the honour of God may piously hope that He will by some wise methods pour down His special blessings upon them as He did upon Obed-Edom and his household, because of the ark of the covenant of God (2Sa_6:11). (R. Fiddes, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 14, 30, 40 Leviticus 26,27
PART 3
CONCLUSION AND APPENDIX
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Leviticus 26,27
1. CONCLUSION: Promises and Threatenings: 26
2. APPENDIX: Concerning Vows: 27
THE PROMISES AND THREATS OF THE COVENANT
Lev_26:1-46
ONE would have expected that this chapter would have been the last in the book of Leviticus, for it forms a natural and fitting close to the whole law as hitherto recorded. But whatever may have been the reason of its present literary form, the fact remains that while this chapter is, in outward form, the conclusion of the Levitical law, another chapter follows it in the manner of an appendix.
Chapter 26 opens with these words (Lev_26:1-2): "Ye shall make you no idols, neither shall ye rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither shall ye place any figured stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God. Ye shall keep My sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord."
These verses, as they stand in the English versions as a preface to this chapter, at first sight seem but distantly related to what follows; and the Chaldee paraphrast and others have therefore appended them to the preceding chapter. But with that they have even less evident connection. The thought of the editor of this part of the canon, however, seems to have been that the three commands which are here repeated might be regarded as presenting a compendious summary, in its fundamental principles, of the whole law, the promises and threatenings attached to which immediately follow. And the more we think upon these commands and what they involve, the more evident will appear the fitness of their selection from the whole law to introduce this chapter.
The commands which are here repeated are three: namely,
(1) a detailed prohibition of idolatry in the forms then chiefly prevalent;
(2) an injunction to observe Gods sabbaths; and
(3) to reverence His sanctuary.
Inasmuch as the various forms of idol worship, which are here forbidden, all involved the recognition of gods other than Jehovah, it is plain that Lev_26:1 is in effect inclusive of the first and second commandments of the decalogue. The injunction to keep Gods sabbaths, although in principle including all the sabbatic times previously appointed, evidently refers especially to the weekly sabbath of the fourth commandment; while the command to reverence the sanctuary of Jehovah covers in principle the ground of the third. And thus, in fact, these three injunctions essentially include the four commands of the decalogue which have to do with mans duty to God, and are thus fundamental to all other duties, both to God and man. Very appropriately, then, are these verses given here as a brief summary of the law to which the following promises and threatenings are annexed. And their suitableness to that which follows is the more clear when we remember that the weekly sabbath, in particular, is elsewhere {Exo_31:12-17} declared to be a sign of Gods covenant with Israel, to which these promises and threats belong; and that the presence of Jehovahs sanctuary also, which they are here charged to reverence, was a continual visible witness among them of the special presence of God in Israel in pursuance of that covenant.
After this pertinent summation of the most fundamental commands of the law, the remainder of the chapter contains, first (Lev_26:3-13), promises of blessing from God, in case they shall obey this law; secondly (Lev_26:14-39), threats of chastising judgment, in case they disobey: and, thirdly (Lev_26:40-45), a prediction of their final repentance, and promise of their gracious restoration thereupon to the favour of God, and the everlasting endurance of Gods covenant to preserve them in existence as a nation. The chapter then closes (Lev_26:46) with the declaration: "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."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Religion as determining a Nation’s Destiny
Religion as determining a Nation’s Destiny
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Lev_26:1-13.—If ye walk in My statutes, etc. The Lord engaged to enrich them as a nation with temporal blessings and religious advantages, if, and so long as, Israel maintained allegiance to God’s worship and statutes, His Sabbaths and sanctuary. He crowns the enumeration of favours relating to this life with higher assurance that He would dwell among them in all the spiritual nearness ensured by His “covenant.” Our fidelity to God is the measure of our prosperity and happiness. They who fear the Lord shall not lack any good thing. Human life is so dependant, in nothing sufficient of itself, either to provide the necessities of physical being, or to ensure for the soul fitness for Divine acceptance and favour; that we may well prize the “exceeding great and precious promises,” which are all ours in Christ, if we but maintain a true relationship with Him by obedience and faith. God does not ask a hard thing in what He requires: how gratefully we should yield Him our utmost in return for the riches of His grace!
Lev_26:14-39.—But if ye will not hearken unto Me. A happy people, honoured and privileged so long as they were religious, could sink to lowest degradation and misery by revolt against the Lord their God. The picture of Israel’s pitiable desolation and anguish delineates the awful spoliation which now sin inflicts on transgressors, and the dark terrors which will follow in the world beyond. These terrible denunciations show how aggrieved God is with human wrong doing, how He regards with abhorrence man’s impious rebellion against His goodness and grace, and how heavily He will avenge it. Let sinners “fear before Him,” and “kiss the Son, lest He be angry.” A brilliant light casts the blackest shadows. God’s great grace for unworthy men throws on those who maltreat it the darkest gloom of His indignation and wrath (Rom_2:8-9.)
Lev_26:40; Lev_26:46.—If they shall confess their iniquity. Though having deeply sinned, yet, if by their miseries they return in contrition, infinite mercy would receive them again. Wondrous pity: grace abounding! “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity?” It is the glory of the gospel to proclaim salvation “even unto the uttermost,” and our comfort to know that “if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn_1:9.)
PECULIARITIES OF CHAPTER 26
i. Ceremonial institutions, social regulations, and moral injunctions, have hitherto constituted the substance of the book of Leviticus. Now they yield place to PROPHETIC PROMISES AND WARNINGS concerning the nation (which extend over all after ages of Israel’s career, sketching the national apostacy and overthrow, its disappearance through long centuries, and its ultimate repentance and restoration.
ii. The camp of Israel has hitherto been regarded as a sacred community surrounding the Shekinah within the Holy of Holies, with whom Jehovah was maintaining gracious relationship and hallowed fellowship, through priests and sacrifices. Now Israel is viewed as a NATION TO BE RULED BY DIVINE GOVERNMENT, with material rewards and secular blessings, affixed to loyal obedience to Jehovah’s laws, and likewise secular punishment threatened in the event of revolt from the Divine sway.
iii. Although the aspect of Israel as a sacred community passes into that of a nation under Divine government, yet THE BOND OF SPECIAL AND SPIRITUAL UNION BETWEEN JEHOVAH AND ISRAEL is forcefully emphasized, and Israel’s national security and prosperity are bound up with the maintenance of the Theocracy: Religion being the secret of her life and continuance.
iv. The predictions of this chapter form THE BASIS OF ALL AFTER PROPHECIES concerning the future of Israel, the very phraseology of these promises and threatenings reappearing almost literally in the messages of God’s prophets in successive ages—E.g.,
Lev_26:4.—“Then will I give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit;” Lev_26:5.—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;” Lev_26:6.—“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.”
Compare Ezekiel 34, Lev_26:26, “I will cause the shower to come down in his season, there shall be showers of blessing;” Lev_26:27.—“And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land;” Lev_26:25.—“I will make with them a convenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land.”
Compare with Lev_26:5, Amo_9:13, “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed.”
Notably, let Joe_2:19-27, be read with these verses under view. Thus Lev_26:23, “He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month;” and Lev_26:24.—“And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.”
v. The providential sway of Jehovah is claimed as ORIGINATING, AND ORDERING THESE MATERIAL FAVOURS or distresses, making them consequent upon the religion or irreligion of Israel, although they may be naturally accounted for as results ensuing from certain physical conditions in the land or in the nation’s social development. But behind natural incidents lies the supernatural hand of God, physical laws have an invisible legislator administering them, and all the occurrences in Israel’s career, bright or dark, are traced directly to Jehovah’s personal dealings with His people. “If ye walk in my statutes, then I will give you rain” (Lev_26:3-4). “I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my convenant with you” (Lev_26:9), etc.
SECTIONAL HOMILIES
Topic: THE ADVANTAGES OF RELIGION IN A NATION’S LIFE (Lev_26:1-12)
“We know,” says Burke (in his Reflections on the Revolution in France), “and, what is better, we feel inwardly, that religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good, and of all comfort.”
To this may be added the famous testimony of Josiah Quincy (Boston, 1830): “Human happiness has no perfect security but freedom; freedom none but virtue; virtue none but knowledge; and neither freedom, nor virtue, nor knowledge has any vigour, or immortal hope, except in the principles of the Christian faith, and in the sanctities of the Christian religion” (see Addenda to chapter, National Irreligion).
I. WHEREIN A NATION’S RELIGIOUS LIFE CONSISTS.
The recognised presence of God in the midst of the people (Lev_26:11-12): “I will set my tabernacle among you; and I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.” This may be realized—
1. In sanctuaries consecrated to Divine worship throughout the land, and in assembled congregations gathering to adore Him (Lev_26:2).
2. In sacred literature diffusing religious knowledge among the people.
3. In benevolent and elevating institutions diffusing Christianity in its practical forms.
4. In educational agencies for the training of children early in moral and religious truth.
5. In homes and family life sweetened by the influence of piety.
6. In a legislature ruled by the fear of God and observant of Scripture precepts.
7. In wealth, gathered righteously, being expended for evangelical and Christian ends.
8. In the happy relationship of all social classes, based upon goodwill and respect.
9. In the stores of harvest and gains of commerce being acknowledged as God’s providential gifts and generous benefactions (Lev_26:4-5). All such public recognitions of the authority and the claims of religion, emphasize and declare that within this nation’s life God dwells—known, revered, and served.
II. ADVANTAGES WHICH RESULT TO A NATION FROM RELIGION.
1. Religion impels to industry, intelligence, self-respect, and social improvement; and these will affect every branch of labour and enterprise, resulting in material prosperity (Lev_26:4-5).
2. Religion leads to avoidance of agitation and conflict, checks greed, ambition, and vainglory, and thus promotes a wise content among the people, and peaceful relationships with surrounding nations (Lev_26:6).
3. Religion fosters sobriety, energy, and courage, and these qualities will assert themselves on the fields of war when sad occasion arises, and will ensure the overthrow of tyranny and the defeat of invasion (Lev_26:8).
4. Religion nurtures the wise oversight of homes and families, the preservation of domestic purity, the development of healthful and intelligent children, and these will work out in a strong and increasing population (Lev_26:9).
5. Religion corrects the intrigues of self-destructive commerce, and teaches honesty, forethought, and justice in business arrangements; thus checking waste, extravagance and insolence, and these issue in the enjoyment of plenty (Lev_26:10).
6. Religion enjoins Sabbath observance and sanctuary services (Lev_26:2) which nourish holiness in thought and life, sweeten character, purify the springs of action, incite to righteous and noble deeds, to social good will, to mutual regard, to sacred ministries, to reverence for Scripture, to recognition of the claims of the unseen world, and thus bring down upon all people the blessings of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Lev_26:11-12).
How can religion fail to convey benefits of every valuable order to society and the whole nation when it makes the individual a nobler, kinder, purer, Godlier man? That land is enriched in which dwells a people whose individual character may be sketched thus:
I venerate a man whose heart is warm.
Whose hands are pure, whose doctrines and whose life
Coincident, exhibit lucid proof
That he is honest in the Sacred Cause.—Cowper.
III. WITHIN A RELIGIOUS NATION GOD PLEDGES HIMSELF TO DWELL.
And where He makes His tabernacle (Lev_26:11) there—
1. Happiness will be realised, the joy of the Lord will be known, “His loving kindness, which is more than life,” will be enjoyed.
2. Security will be assured. “None make you afraid” (Lev_26:6), for He will be as a “defence to His people.”
3. Sanctity will flourish. Intercourse with God (Lev_26:12) will elevate, refine, and grace a people’s character and life. “Happy the people in such a case, yea, happy the people whose God is the Lord.”
Topic: THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE (Lev_26:3-14)
Throughout Leviticus the voice of mercy sounds; for what is mercy but a remedy for woe? At Sinai’s base grace sweetly smiles; for what is grace but safety for the lost? These final words from God have an awakening import. There is a seriousness in parting words. Last admonitions usually sink deep.
Ere the tribes advance to Canaan, God seeks to admonish and impress. Truly when sinners rush to ruin they strive against a warning God, they stop their ears, they set their faces like flint, they harden their necks. Here God adjoins paternal counsels to a Sovereign’s command. He shows what blessings crown obedient paths, what miseries beset the rebel-way.
I. ALLURING PROMISES.
Unfold the roll (Lev_26:3-13). It is a picture in which plenteousness abounds:—
The earth in season yields luxuriant stores. Peace waves her gentle sceptre. No invading hosts scare the quiet vales. No ravening beasts watch for prey. If assailing armies dare make attack, they advance to sure defeat. A little band puts multitudes to flight. A happy progeny rejoices in each house. These are external gifts.
Spiritual delights are scattered with copious hand. God’s presence is assured. His near abode is among His people. He claims them as His own (Lev_26:12). He gives Himself to them.
Such are the blessings pledged if His statutes are observed. Could any hear, yet choose the rebel path?
II. TREMENDOUS THREATS.
The scene now changes. Peal follows peal of terrifying awe (Lev_26:14-39). The disobedient must prepare for appalling miseries:—
Health shall wither: pining malady, sore disease, and racking pain shall prey upon the tortured frame.
Famine shall raise its ghastly form: penury shall sit at every hearth.
Nature shall not yield increase: no crops shall spring from sown seed, the trees shall mock with fruitless boughs.
Savage life shall ravage: children and cattle shall be mangled in the roads, and the homesteads become solitary.
War shall rage: the hostile banner deride the fallen city.
The holy sanctuary should be no refuge: its offerings God would refuse.
Such is the heritage if God’s covenant be not kept.
III. FORESHADOWED DOOM REALISED.
God’s word is sure. Performance follows.
1. Israel madly scorned His sway. They rashly followed their own hearts desire.
3. Threatened vengeance fell. Witness the desolation of their bounteous land and the tribes scattered through the world’s breadth. The sterile plains at home, the outcast wanderers abroad, bear witness that the doom predicted comes.
IV. A SPIRITUAL ALLEGORY.
1. A picture is given of the fair land of grace. The obedience of faith wins the full possession of that beauteous inheritance which Christ purchased for His redeemed. And faith finds abundance in the land of grace. Surely that life is blessed which gains all-sufficiency in Christ’s perfect righteousness, renewing power, plenteous redemption, unspeakable peace. “All things are yours, for ye are Christ’s.” Supplies of grace are lavishly given; the heavens come down in showers of goodness.
2. But a fearful contract appears. Crowds upon crowds refuse to obey; slight the Saviour’s charms. Therefore sins remain. The world enslaves. Troubles abound. Misery steeps your life. If you look upward the heavens are barred; God frowns; each attribute condemns. Friends bring no peace; foes wound, and no balm heals. Life is a misery, death plunges into deeper woe, eternity is hell.
When God’s grace is scorned, when His precious Son is crucified afresh, Mercy can show no mercy, pardon cannot release. The heritage of unbelief is one unmitigated curse.
The blessing and the curse are set side by side. So sweetly point the blessing that eager souls will grasp it. So awfully pronounce the curse that alarmed sinners may dread it. Happy souls are they, who, yielding obedience to the persuasions of Almighty goodness, inherit the blessing.
Partly evolved from Dean Law’s “Christ is All.”
Topic: NATIONAL TRANSGRESSION AND DISASTER (Lev_26:14-19)
For 770 years before they were literally fulfilled in their bitter experience, these appalling warnings, graphic and minute in their details, were in the hands of the Hebrew nation, were continuously read in their hearing as a voice of entreaty that they would cleave to the Lord their God. But “because sentence is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecc_8:12).
Yet deferred sentence, both
1. Manifests the Divine patience and His unwillingness to smite; and
2. Prolongs mans opportunity to forsake evil and find mercy.
Nevertheless: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise”; He does not relax because He delays. The storm only gathers greater violence when long pent up. Here is vividly delineated.
1. A NATION’S PROGRESSIVE APOSTASY.
1. Passive indifference to divine teachings and appeals (Lev_26:14). Mental obliquity or wilful inattention to the known will of God. This mere listlessness is commonly the first downward step: “Ye will not hearken unto Me.” To this non-attention next succeeds,
2. Non-compliance with divine calls and claims (Lev_26:14). “Will not do all these commandments.” Practical resistance of God’s authority: “We will not have this man to reign over us.” Not as yet profane rebellion, but settled unconcern and neglect. This leads forward to,
3. Contemptuous rejection of God’s statutes. “Ye shall despise My statutes” (Lev_26:15). Pride lifts the heart into dislike and derision of sacred regulations and requirements. “Who is the Lord that I should serve Him?” “It is vain to serve God,” etc. (Mal_3:14-15).
4. Spiritual revolt from all sacred demands. “Your soul abhor my judgments” (Lev_26:15). “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light,” etc. (Joh_3:20). “These are they that rebel against the light” (Job_24:13). It is the soul’s loathing of all holy rule and heavenly allurement. It argues a fearful departure from God. How great a fall was that!
5. Violation of all covenant relationship. “Ye break my covenant” (Lev_26:15). It severs all bonds between the soul and God; denies His right to command; rejects Him utterly—in atheistic scorn, in wilful rebellion. The “thing made” disowns Him who made it.
Notes: (a) Such decline from God, whether by communities or individuals, only occurs by progressive stages. The wreck is not instantaneous. The castle falls not a ruin by one stroke; it wastes by the process of dilapidation—stone from stone; crumbles to decay.
(b) This decline from God is not allowed to proceed without gracious efforts made to arrest its course. God sent His prophets to plead and warn, His judgments to awaken, His providential mercies to win, His sanctuary privileges to allure. A sinner goes from God amid pathetic pleadings and arresting importunities: “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?”
II. AN APOSTATE NATION’S CALAMITIES.
1. Sin brings disease and physical suffering in its train (Lev_26:16). “Terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart.” Impiety inevitably drifts into impurity. When God is rejected, the “lusts of the flesh and the eyes and the mind” dominate. And in physical degradation, defilement, and decay the fruits of sin are reaped. “Destruction and misery are in their way.” These are the natural consequences of sin; but God smote Israel with supernatural afflictions.
2. Failure and penury follow quickly upon habits of indulgence and impurity. “Sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it” (Lev_26:16). Nothing succeeds in the hands of a dissipated and dissolute man; and he becomes a prey to his hated scorners and rivals. There was a peculiar fulfilment to Israel of this threat; for God laid their land open to the incursions of predatory tribes and despotic spoilers, by which the people were continually wasted.
3. A godless life invites the ravages of the enemy (Lev_26:17). God withdrew His protection, and adversaries swept down upon Israel. They who repudiate Divine government are “taken captive by the devil at his will,” and serve their enemies. Sin is very cruel. It “slays” its victims; slaughters their virtue, peace, happiness, hopes; detroys precious souls.
4. Sin also fills the life of wrong-doers with terrors: they “flee when none pursuit.” Even in nations there is “strong confidence” and “a sound mind” only when conscious of rectitude and the enjoyment of God’s approval. It paralyses a people’s heart to feel that Heaven is alienated and Divine favour lost. Armies, too, have gone with assurance into battles when convinced that God is with them; as Cromwell’s “Ironsides”: while enemies have fled with panic, as did the Spanish Armada, when possessed with alarm that God was against them.
5. There are the yet darker calamities of abject overthrow and Divine desertion: “I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass” (Lev_26:19)—a picture of prostration and helplessness which finds verification in
(a) Babylon’s fall: now lying buried amid bleaching sands, emblem of rebuked pride.
(b) The desolation of Jerusalem: now a waste scene, and her children the “tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast.”
(c) The buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum: interred beneath volcanic ashes, a monument of sudden wrath on a voluptuous people.
Such historic admonitions—Warn against National Impiety, and Call mankind to seriousness and prayer. For even in the solemn threatenings of God, there lies an overt assurance of mercy, that “if a nation or individual will cease from apostacy and sin and hearken unto Him” (Lev_26:18), He will turn aside the “seven times more” punishment for sins, and show the forgiveness in which He delights, and the salvation which the glorious gospel of His grace proclaims. (See Addenda to chapter, National Irreligion).
Topic: DESOLATION UPON ISRAEL (Lev_26:29; Lev_26:39)
Though chosen in grace, and pledged in covenant, as God’s people; though being led miraculously to Canaan, to be settled in the goodly land; yet an alarming picture of woe and ruin is outspread whose realisation seemed incredible.
I. HOW HORRIFYING THE MISERIES WHICH MAY BEFALL A PRIVILEGED PEOPLE.
The miseries of penury and siege (Lev_26:29); of captivity and slaughter (Lev_26:33); of anguish and derision (Lev_26:36); of pitiless misery and disaster (Lev_26:39).
1. None are so secure in grace and privilege that they can disregard the possibility of a fall.
2. None are so rich in sacred favours as to be beyond danger of their total loss.
3. None are so honoured by God’s selecting and distinguishing grace but they may lapse into alienation and desolation.
II. HOW AMAZING THE DISASTERS WHICH MAY DEVASTATE A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY.
Canaan was a wealthy land, a scene of loveliness, abundance and delight. Yet on it came the disasters of depopulation (Lev_26:31): sterility (Lev_26:32); desertion (Lev_26:35)—even enemies abandoning it.
1. National plenty and prosperity are conditional upon national righteousness and piety.
2. National greatness and glory have been withered by the anger of an insulted God.
3. National strength and safety are only guaranteed as religion is fostered by the laws of a country, and in the habits and lives of its people.
III. HOW PITEOUS THE PROFANATION WHICH MAY DESPOIL A NATION’S SANCTITIES!
Canaan was the scene of Jehovah’s sanctuary: the Temple rose on Zion; and the land sent up her tribes to the celebration of sacred feasts and to the holy worship of God. Yet all her “sanctuaries” were brought “unto desolation” (Lev_26:31), all the fragrance of her sacrifices became loathsome to Jehovah (Lev_26:31), and her desecrated Sabbaths were avenged in the bleak silence and loneliness which fell on hallowed scenes (Lev_26:34).
1. Religious favours, if abused, may be utterly withdrawn from us.
2. God loathes the offerings once delightful to Him: when the offerer’s love is estranged.
3. Holy scenes and holy days become a barren mockery if a trifling spirit alienate the sacred Presence:—“Ichabod!”
Topic: THE LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL (Lev_26:38-39)
“Ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat yon up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ land: and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.”
Does this threat import the complete extermination of the outcast Israel! Are the exiles from Palestine literally “eaten up” in the land of their enemies! What are the rival theories?
i. THAT THE OUTCAST TRIBES OF ISRAEL ABSOLUTELY PERISHED IN THE LANDS OF THEIR CAPTIVITY: that they have ceased to be a distinct people; that they or their descendants are not to be discovered in any portion of the globe; and that, therefore, there is no possibility or hope of their recovery.
Against this theory it is to be urged that,
1. This threat applies equally to Judah and Israel; and that as certainly Judah it not exterminated, so equally it is probable that Israel, though not discovered, is still existing.
2. That as nineteen centuries have not sufficed to extinguish the Jewish part of the original Hebrew nation, so neither can it be thought that the preceding eight centuries, from the Assyrian captivity till the Christian age, would effect the obliteration of the Israelitish tribes.
3. That as it was predicted of the Israelitish tribes that they should be “lost” from sight (2Ki_18:18), whereas the Jewish tribes were to be preserved as a visible witness among the nations, the non-discovery of the lost ten tribes is as literal a part of God’s plan as the distinctive preservation of the Jew.
4. That there are promises of God which absolutely affirm Israel’s ultimate discovery and restoration equally with Judah’s.
Therefore this threat must be equally applied to all the twelve tribes, and can only mean their destruction as a distinct nation.
ii. That the LONG AND MOURNFUL OBLITERATION OF THE HEBREW NATION, AS A JUDGMENT, WILL ISSUE IN ITS FINAL MIRACULOUS RE-GATHERING. For,
1. The covenant of God with the whole nation ensures their imperishableness.
2. The threat of obliteration is qualified by the promise of recovery and restoration, if they should repent (Lev_26:41-42). [Compare Deu_4:27; Deu_4:31].
3. It is pledged here absolutely that, though driven away in exile, God would not Himself “cast them away,” “nor utterly destroy them” (Lev_26:44); because His “covenant” with them must stand (Rom_11:2).
Topic: FUNDAMENTALS IN TRUE RELIGION (Lev_26:1-2)
Israel was ever prone to depart from the living God, to forget His commandments. Hence the need of frequent reiteration of the divine precepts. The inculcation of statutes respecting fundamentals in religion comes very suitably here, enforcing Jehovah’s claim to sole and supreme worship. Thus Israel was solemnly reminded—
I. OF THE PERSON to whom alone religious worhip should be presented.
The light of nature and our inner consciousness suggest that the author of all things, our Creator and King, ought to be reverently worshipped; but they do not teach us whether or not He will accept our worship, nor what kind of worship He requires. In Levitical ritual the needed information was given, not only as to what He would accept, but what He righteously demanded. No idol of any kind was to be set up in Canaan. No material object could fairly represent the invisible and eternal Lord. Idolatry degrades and brutalises men; men never rise above their ideals. Idolatry is an insult to the only true and living God. The only image of the invisible God ever presented to the world was the Man Christ Jesus. “Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh,” etc. Nothing short of the living God can satisfy the longing of the human heart. All his needs are fully met in the person and work of Christ.
II. OF THE TIME most favourable for the presentation of religious worship.
Worship is the duty, privilege, and prerogative of man at all times. His very work should be done in such a fervent and devout spirit that it may be worship, and all worldly service so performed that it may partake of the character of sacrament. But there are times when worship may be more full and devout: such are the divinely-appointed and weekly-occurring Sabbaths. They arrest the rush and roar of secular life. The hallowed associations of the day, the opportunity for public communion and fellowship suggest and foster reverence. The Sabbath reminds man that he has a soul to care for; and divine life in the individual and nation is generally concurrent with the extent to which the day of holy convocation is observed. Let the Sabbath be neglected and desecrated and at once the way is open for all kinds of irreligion and iniquity. The people were also reminded.
III. OF THE PEACE where religious worship is the most acceptable to the Lord.
Under the old dispensation God appointed certain spots and localities, where He would meet His people, and consecrated certain buildings as His audience chambers: among such places were the Tabernacle and Temple. “He loved the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob,” and spake glorious things of his own favourite city. The devout heart, nevertheless, could find any place a “house of God” and “gate of heaven” when God saw fit to make Himself known, as he did to the Patriarchs, especially to Jacob at Bethel. It aided men in worship, and gave them courage and confidence in seeking the Lord to know that He was to be found “always at home” as it were, in some places, and ready to manifest Himself, as He did, not to the world or out in the world. Reverence for special sacred places among the Jews was not superstition; Christ paid respect to the Temple, and twice showed His indignation at its profanation by expelling the unholy traders. Though under the new dispensation we have no Tabernacle or Temple, as of old, yet our meeting-places for prayer and praise are sanctuaries of the Lord, for He has promised to meet with those who gather together in His name, even though there be but two or three. The Divine presence consecrates the house where believers meet, and earthly worship may become preparatory to the worship of heaven, where “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it.”—F. W. B.
Topic: INCENTIVES TO TRUE RELIGION (Lev_26:3; Lev_26:42).
The injunctions of this chapter are contemporaneous with, and confirmatory of, the laws contained in the Book of Exodus, especially of the Ten Commandments given on the tables of stone. The people were evidently not elected to unconditional favours and salvation; they are addressed as free and accountable agents, in a state of trial, and passing through a period of probation. It was merciful and just to acquaint Israel of the conditions of service and stewardship, to warn them from evil doing, to excite them to holy living. Notice,
I. THE BLESSINGS PROMISED TO OBEDIENCE.
To those who would walk in the statutes of the Lord and keep His commandments, there would be vouchsafed,
1. Temporal blessings. (a) Seasons of plenty; (b) Times of tranquility; (c) Joys of society. Thus their physical and social wants would be met, their minds kept in peace, their hearts and homes filled with joy.
2. Spiritual blessings. (a) The Lord would own them; be their Friend and King; (b) The Lord would dwell among them. These were blessings and honours enjoyed by no other nations, and which laid upon Israel commensurate responsibility. The Lord would be with them, and bless them abundantly, if only they would walk in His statutes. The Gospel does not destroy the moral teaching of the law; Antinomianism is not taught in the New Testament. Christ comes to and blesses those who love His commandments and do them, and will pronounce His final approval upon those who have in this life, not simply believed, but “well done.”
II. THE PUNISHMENT THREATENED TO DISOBEDIENCE.
Here we have held out the red danger-light, the warning beacon, that the people might be deterred from breaking the divine laws. When the Lord entered into judgment with His people, they could plead no excuse, they had His mind and will made known repeatedly. In this chapter to the disobedient are threatened—(a) Physical and mental sufferings; (b) Useless labour; (c) Ignominious defeat; (d) Aggravated sorrows; (e) Degradation; (f) Desolation; (g) Destruction. Thus they would be chastised, and almost exterminated, if they turned from God and gave themselves up to iniquity.
We are here taught the doctrine of a righteous retributive Providence. The world is under, not only the natural, but the moral government of God. In this world God visits the sins of nations, and sometimes the sins of individuals—this is a place, though it is not the place of punishment. The covenants of the Lord with men have always been conditional; to obey has been to live; to disobey has been to die. While Israel obeyed, as in the days of Solomon, the blessing of this chapter came upon them; but when they forsook the Lord and gave themselves up to every kind of iniquity, the judgments denounced here were literally fulfilled. To-day the land of Canaan lies waste; and the Jews are scattered to the four winds of heaven. Blessing and curse are set before us in the gospel Life or death depend on our choice. “The wages of sin in death, but the gift,” etc.—F. W. B.
Topic: THE BOW IN THE CLOUD (Lev_26:42-45)
In the hope held out to the rebellious, and the mercy promised to the penitent at the end of this chapter, we see how the Lord delighteth in mercy, how slow He is to anger, and plenteous in goodness and truth. For though the people should rebel and bring upon themselves all the threatened punishments; yet if they would repent and confess humbly their sins, the blessings promised to obedience should come upon them to replace the punishments, as they again took delight in the commandments of the Lord. On the black cloud that hung threateningly over the land, there fell rays of hope, a bow of promise arched the darkest sky. “The Lord was not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” These verses show,
I. THAT THE WAY WAS LEFT OPEN FOR THE REBELLIOUS TO RETURN.
1. It was the way of reflection. They were to look back upon the wrong doing of their lives, and see how far they had deflected from the good old way, how they had been guilty of dereliction of duty.
2. It was the way of confession. They were to feel sorry for their sins, and confess and acknowledge their iniquity.
3. It was the way of humiliation. They were not to return proudly, feeling they had not been rewarded according to their iniquities. The way is still open for the vilest to return; for, the New Testament teaches that these are the steps in the ladder of life, out of sin to holiness, from earth to heaven, from self to God, viz.: Repentance, conversion, consecration.
II. THAT IF THE REBELLIOUS RETURNED TO THE LORD IN HIS OWN APPOINTED WAY, HE WOULD GRACIOUSLY RECEIVE THEM.
1. He would do so for the sake of their fathers. He would remember His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
2. He would do so for the sake of His name. “For I am the Lord.” He had purposed, as well as promised, to deal mercifully with them.
3. He would do so for the sake of the land. He had selected Canaan as the arena where He would specially display His glory to men, and He would not allow it to lie waste for ever.
4. He would do it for the sake of His covenant. “I will remember my covenant.” The Lord does not make a covenant and then tear it rashly to pieces; if broken by man He will speedily renew, nor allow the irregularities and irreligion of men to thwart His beneficent arrangements. Here, indeed, was a resplendent bow of many colours, beaming with the beautiful light of the mild and merciful countenance of the Most High.
What encouragement for sinful men to return to the Lord, “for He will have mercy upon them, and abundantly pardon.” The Levitical Law closes with offers of mercy, the last words of the Law are words of entreaty and promise. Glad tidings reached the ears of Israel in the desert. The object of the Law was to restrain from sin and restore from its practice and power. Design of Law and Gospel identical; the tree of life has its roots deep down in the soil of the old economy. God’s written word is natural religion vocalised, and Christianity is Judaism fulfilled, in the final declaration of how sins may be forgiven. This truth could not be learned from Nature, and was only symbolically and typically taught by Moses. Whosoever will, may come now and take of the water of life freely.—F. W. B.
OUTLINES ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 26
Lev_26:1.—Theme: IDOLATRY INTERDICTED.
The Israelites, having been surrounded by idolators during their sojourn in Egypt, would be in danger of yielding to the influence such surroundings would exert upon them, even when in the presence of circumstances calculated to keep alive constant recognition of the only true and living God. Hence the repetition needed of injunctions against all idol worship; indeed, the whole system of Judaism rests upon the sublime truth, there is but one God. Let us inquire—
I. WHAT THE PRONENESS OF HUMAN NATURE TO IDOLATRY SUGGESTS.
It shows both the dignity and depravity of man; that—
(a) He is endowed with religious instincts. Capable of worship, of exercising faith, hope, love, reverence, fear, etc.
(b) He is conscious of amenability to some supreme power. Seeks to propitiate, secure favour, and aid.
(c) He is apprehensive of a future state of existence. Ideas vague, indefinite, absurd, yet the outcome of inward presentiment, etc.
(d) He is unable by light of nature to discover God. His knowledge is so faded, light so dim. How low the soul must have fallen to substitute “nothings” for the Eternal One! Heathenism has never of itself emerged into the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, as seen in the voice that has spoken from heaven, and has been recorded by holy men moved by the Holy Ghost.
II. WHAT INDULGENCE IN IDOLATRY ENTAILS.
(a) Degradation. Worship of heathen deities demoralising In their temples, at their services, the rites observed are grovelling, and, in some instances, demoniacal.
(b) Superstition. Devotees are duped by priests, enslaved by torturing ritualism, subject and victims of absurd delusions.
(c) Misery. Fear the ruling passion, not love. Nothing ennobling, inspiring, quickening, comforting. Idol worship mucks the longings of the human soul, cannot appease its hunger, satisfy its thirst.
III. HOW IDOLATRY MAY BE ABOLISHED.
Darkness can only be dispersed by the letting in of light. The folly of idolatry must be shown, its helplessness, misery, sin by the spread of the written revelation of heaven, the preaching of the glorious Gospel. Israel, by its worship of Jehovah, was a living protest against all idolatry; and the Christian Church is commissioned to proclaim the gospel among all nations, that the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ. No person, place, or thing must come between our souls and God, or have the faith, hope, love, trust that are due only to Him. We are guilty of idolatry if we regard anything as a representative of, or substitute for Him. What we supremely love and live for is our God. Christ is God, we ought, therefore, to live to Him—F. W. B.
Lev_26:3; Lev_26:14.—Theme: THE EQUITY OF GOD’S WAYS “If ye walk in my statues … then,” etc. (Lev_26:3). “But if ye will not … I will,” etc. (Lev_26:14).
Natural religion teaches us that the government of the author of nature is retributive Revealed religion teaches analogous truth in other realms of the divine procedure. Penal consequences of wrong doing act as warnings against sin, and awaken regret for transgression Retribution is—
I. UNIVERSAL. Everywhere, and in all time, the transgression of God’s laws entails, in some way penalty.
II. REMEDIAL.
Intended to prevent defiance of heaven, usurpation of divine sovereignty. Pain has a merciful ministry. The peace and satisfaction virtue and obedience bring are a proof that God is holy and on the side of goodness. Israel was shown not only that God demanded worship and loyalty on account of what He is in Himself, but because of what they would secure for all who lived in harmony with His revealed will. Hence the positive commands in connection with the Levitical ritual were supplemented by persuasives to a holy life. Inducements were held oat to win obedience, threatenings pronounced to deter from transgression. Thus the people were taught that Jehovah was not arbitrary and despotic, but merciful as well as just, unconditionally excluding none from the blessing of the covenant made to their fathers.
Not only was the sovereignty of God revealed to Israel, but the prerogative of choice in man, by which he is distinguished from all inanimate things and irrational creatures. In the gospel these truths are republished with additional clearness and power. Christ invites to supreme blessedness; those who remain unblest are those who will not come unto Him that they may have life, who destroy themselves, reap what they sow. Thus the ways of God are just and right, and will so be acknowledged at last before an assembled universe.—F.W.B.
Lev_26:8.—Theme: VALOUR AND VICTORY THROUGH GODLINESS.
“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.”
[See addenda to chapter, Valour].
I. Religion begets a DAUNTLESS ARDOUR.
A fervent enthusiasm is awakened, which defies obstacles, perils, foes.
Proved by the heroes of faith (Hebrews 11); by the sufferings of Huguenots Puritans, and Covenanters; by the records of martyrdom.
II. Religion imparts an INTREPID CONFIDENCE.
They who have God on their side, see armies of horses and chariots fighting with them (2Ki_6:17.); so as to realize that “they that be with us are more than they that be against us.” And John Wesley’s strong boast becomes their motto: “The best of all is, God is for us.”
III. Religion animates with STRONG CONSOLATION.
Foes may be many, and life may be beset with devices of evil; yet this is the stay of the believer, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper” (Isa_54:17).
IV. Religion ensures a GLORIOUS VICTORY.
Adversaries, however numerous, shall flee. Peace shall be realized, not by complicity with the world, nor compromise with enemies, but by their vanquishment. “We are more than conquerors through Him that loveth us:” and even now our pæon shout is this, “Thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ”; while beyond death this shall be our record: “They overcome by the blood of the Lamb.”
Lev_26:10.—Theme: EMMANUEL AMID HIS PEOPLE.
“I will set my tabernacle among you.”
I. AMID THE NATION ON ZION rested the SHEKINAH.
“In Salem is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion” (Psa_76:2).
II. INCARNATE ON EARTH dwelt the Lord Jesus.
“The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (Joh_1:14).
III. ENSHRINED IN LOWLY HEARTS abides the Holy Spirit.
“He shall abide with you for ever” (Joh_14:17).
IV. ETERNALLY AMID THE GLORIFIED is manifested the glad presence of God.
“I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying. Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Rev_21:3).
Lev_26:13.—Theme: EMANCIPATED AND ELEVATED.
“I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright”
I. FREED FROM OLD ENSLAVEMENTS: such is the initial act of redeeming grace, “Being made free from sin,” “Christ hath made us free,” “The Lord’s free men.”
II. DELIVERANCE THE PREPARATION FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The “yoke broken” is not the end; it sets the life free that it may “go upright”; in rectitude of conduct. in elevation of desire and aim; in uplifted longings and affections; in righteousness and holiness of spirit.
III. DIVINE SOURCE OF MAN’S BEDEMPTION.
“Old things have passed away; behold all things are become new: and all things are of God.” He is the emancipator from old sins, He our sufficiency for an “upright” walk.
“I am the Lord your God, which brought yon 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.” (See 1Co_1:30) “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,” etc.
Lev_26:17.—Theme: THE COWARDICE OF GUILT.
“Ye shall flee when none pursue you.”
I. GOODNESS DESPISES SUCH SERVILITY.
A righteous soul scorns cringing, and counts fear a degradation of soul and a dishonour to his avowed faith in God. It is weak and unmanly.
“There is,” says Montaigne, “but one thing of which I am afraid, and that is fear.”
And most truly.
“To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength
Gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe.”—Richard H, iii 2.
II. GODLINESS RECTIFIES SUCH COWARDICE.
By showing what resources the soul has in God, and by embracing the promises, which assure him of all grace and strength equal to his day. “Who is he that shall harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?”
Froude says, “Courage is, on all hands, considered as an essential of high character.”
“The righteous are bold as a lion.” In God’s favour the soul dwells confident.
III. GUILT RENDERS SOULS CRAVEN.
Fear is the black spectre ever before the ungodly.
“Cowards die many times before their deaths.”—Julius Cæsar, ii. 2.
Sinners “flee” from purity, salvation, Heaven; driven by their lusts, their folly, and their guilt to sin, to danger and to doom.
Lev_26:17.—Theme: PRIDE CRUSHED.
“I will break the pride of your power.”
I. Carnal pride BASES ITSELF ON FALSE TRUSTS.
The “power” of these Hebrews, what was it? They beguiled and deluded themselves by imagining themselves strong and secure.
So sinners rest elate on satisfaction with their health, their possessions, their self esteem.
II. Carnal pride OFFENDS AGAINST ALL DIVINE TEACHINGS.
Every dealing of Jehovah with this people taught that they were nought in themselves; all they were God had made them.
Pride is despicable in those who owe everything to Divine pity and grace. It is specially offensive to Him who has “wrought all our works in us”; for “what have we that we have not received?”
III. Carnal pride LEADS TO MOST RASH IMPIETY.
It led Israel to disregard Divine warnings, to indulge their own wayward inclinations, to disbelieve God and substitute idols after their own vain conceits; and thus to sever themselves from God’s covenant of protection and peace.
Pride still rejects Christ; grieves the Holy Spirit; and “goeth before destruction.”
IV. Carnal pride ASSUREDLY MUST BE CONTEMNED.
God will put it to shame. “I will break the pride of your power.”
By sickness—laying us even with the dust.
By losses—desolating us of all our boasted gains.
By terrors—filling the soul with horror and forebodings.
By death—stripping us of earth’s frivolous glory, and brings us face to face with the realities of righteousness and judgment.
[See Addenda to chapter, Pride crushed].
Lev_26:23-24.—Theme: OBSTINACY PUNISHED.
I. THE CHARACTER DESCRIBED.
One who persists obstinately in evil courses: “will not be reformed.” This may apply to
1. A nation;
2. An individual.
Such obstinacy may be the effect of
(1). A proud confidence in human wisdom and resources
(2). A rooted love of sin.
It betrays
(1). Great blindness of mind.
(2). Great hardness of heart.
II. THE DIVINE PROCEDURE in relation thereto.
1. Opposition. “I will walk contrary,” etc. Nature and Providence armed against the rebellious.
2. Punishment: which will be,
(1) Severe;
(2) Proportionate;
(3) Increasing.—J. Comper Gray.
Compare also Outline on Lev_26:27-28 below.
Lev_26:27-28.—Theme: GOD’S DETERMINATION TO PUNISH SINNERS.
“And if ye will not for all this hearken unto Me, but walk contrary unto Me, then will I walk contrary unto you also in fury.”
I. AN AFFECTING SUPPOSITION STATED.
The Lord here supposes that His people may commit three grevious sins:
The sin of disobedience. “If ye will not hearken unto Me.” Hence observe—
(a) That the Lord in His word speaks to us (Heb_8:12).
(b) That whatever the Lord says in His Word it is our bounden duty to hear (Heb_3:7; 1Th_5:20; Jas_1:19).
(c) That we are too apt to turn a deaf ear to Him (Exo_5:2; Psa_12:4).
2. The sin of incorrigibleness. “If for all this ye will not hearken.” Note here—
(a) That afflictions sometimes have the nature of punishments (Jer_13:21).
(b) That punishment is the natural and necessary consequence of transgression.
(c) That in the punishment which God inflicts He seeks our reformation (2Ch_18:22).
(d) That our depravity in too many cases frustrates His designs (Zep_3:2).
3. The sin of perverseness. “If ye walk contrary to Me.” Observe again—
(a) That the Lord’s pleasure is, we should walk with Him (Mic_6:8).
(b) That we walk with the Lord when we walk in His way (2Ki_20:3; Ecc_12:13).
(c) That walking otherwise than He has commanded is to show a perverse and untoward heart.
II. AN AWFUL CONSEQUENCE DECLARED.
“I will walk contrary also to you in fury. Thus we see that
1. Conformable to our character will be our end.
If God should deal thus with us
(a) We shall lose the blessing which He imparts to His obedient followers (Lev_26:4-12).
(b) Our expectations will issue in disappointment and vexation (Hos_8:7); and
(c) Like chaff before the wind we shall speedily be carried to destruction (Psa_1:4-5).
2. Enforcement of these considerations; We see
(a) That a religion consisting of mere notions will never save a man.
(b) That men are not at liberty, as some suppose, to live as they please.
(c) That God takes notice of the ways of all.
(d) That if He displays His anger we should be anxious to find out the cause; and
(e) That if anyone perish he will have no one to blame for it but himself (Isa_3:11).—Wm. Sleigh.
Lev_26:34.—Theme: SABBATH BARRENNESS.
“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.”
God had required that Sabbatical years should be observed, during which the land should rest; no tillage or harvest work being done. Owners of the soil would disregard this enactment, thinking they would benefit by making the land yield its produce through these Sabbath years. For this sin against God’s ordinance, the people would forfeit occupancy of the land, and pine in exile. “Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths.”
1. SABBATH ABUSE.
This abuse consisted in turning God’s sabbath into a time of selfish gain.
1 The interval of rest is not only genial but essential.
2. To invade that interval by exacting toils is to violate a benignant ordinance and to outrage God’s right of control.
3. All infringement of Sabbatic rest is both folly and a profanation; for greed defeats itself in this undue exaction of return, whether from man or soil.
4. The Sabbath repose was designed to give leisure for sacred interests and the service of God. Man’s spiritual life needs the pause.
5. The intrusion of selfish and covetous schemes into the holy period is the assertion of self-will to the rejection of God’s will; the enthronement of self in the supremacy claimed by God; thus “serving the creature more than the Creator.”
II. SABBATH DESOLATION.
God was refute such impious greed, such selfish effrontery. In the experience of these Israelites He cast off from the soil those who robbed it of the Sabbatic rest, and He gave full requital to the land in the years of depopulation.
1. Desolate Sabbaths are still requited upon transgressors.
Men neglect the holy day, in scorn of Heaven’s blest law; and do their own work and think their own thoughts through its sacred hours. As a fact in human experience now, God requites this wrong upon sinners in a restless life, A weary heart, a troubled conscience, a shadowed happiness.
2. Even God’s children suffer exile from sacred scenes and Sabbath privileges.
In days of health they trifled with their Sabbaths; spent them in indulgence rather than in earnest zeal and hallowed communion; even desecrating in part the sacred hours by selfish enjoyments or worldly concerns. This sin lies at the door of professedly Christian people to-day; God’s day is misused. There will come afflictions—the exile time, when the soul will cry out for the living God, to “appear before God;” and in Sabbaths spent in pain and banishment, in restless discomfort of soul, God will requite the wrong.
3. Unblest Sabbaths have their explanation in this law of requital. The sanctuary services bring to the hearer, when he went with eager longing, no relief or help. But it is the requital for those Sabbaths of indifference and undevoutness in which the sanctuary services have been contemned and marred. “Take heed how ye hear.” “Call the Sabbath a delight; the holy of the Lord, honourable.”
Lev_26:40-42.—Theme: GOD’S PROMISES TO PENITENTS.
Though God foreknew and foretold that His people would bring upon themselves His heavy judgments, Ho yet assured them that, if even in their lowest misery they should return to Him with humiliation and contrition. He would restore them to His favour, and to the land from whence they had been expelled.
What consolation Nehemiah derived from these declarations (Neh_1:5-9.)!
I. WHAT IS THAT REPENTANCE WHICH GOD REQUIRES?
That we acknowledge our guilt. Our father’s sins as well as our own are first grounds of national humiliation. Our own sins are the chief burden of personal contrition. But sin should be viewed in its true light, as “walking contrary to God” (Psa_51:4).
2. That we justify God in His judgments. If we have dared to walk contrary to Him, is not He justified in “walking contrary to us”? Whatever inflictions He imposes we have reason to own it as less than our deserts (Ezr_9:13), and that His judgments are just (Rev_16:7).
3 That we be thankful for His dealings by which He has “humbled our uncircumcised hearts.”
Only real contrition can produce this. It realises mercy in judgment, and love in affliction.
II. THE CONNEXION BETWEEN OUR REPENTANCE AND GOD’S MERCY.
Repentance is void of merit. Even obedience is destitute of merit; “when we have done all we could we are unprofitable servants.” The acknowledgment of a debt is a very different thing from a discharge of that debt. A condemned criminal may be sorry for his offences, but that sorrow does not obliterate his crime, still less entitle him to rewards. Yet there is connection between repentance and pardon, and meekness in the exercise of mercy towards the penitent—
1. On God’s part. For repentance glorifies God. [See Jos_7:19].
2. On the part of the penitents. It incites to loathing of the sin, and to adoration of Divine grace.
So God insists on the condition, “If they be humbled, then will I pardon” For then God can do it consistently with His honour, and they will make a suitable improvement of the mercy vouchsafed them.
III. THE GROUND AND MEASURE OF THAT MERCY WHICH PENITENTS MAY EXPECT.
God’s covenant with their ancestors was the basis and warrant for His mercy to Israel (Lev_26:42; Lev_26:44-45).
His covenant with us in Christ is our hope and guarantee.
1. Be thankful that you are yet within reach of mercy.
2. Have especial respect unto the covenant of grace. It is to that God looks, and to that should we look also. It is the only basis in which mercy and redemption are now possible. C. Simeon, M.A.
Lev_26:45.—Theme: GAINS OF A GOOD ANCESTRY.
“I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors.”
I. THE VOWS AND PRAYERS OF A GOODLY PARENTAGE EXERCISE INFLUENCE UPON THE DIVINE PLANS.
That “covenant” is thrice referred to as determining God’s arrangements (Lev_26:42; Lev_26:44-45).
Note Job’s prayers for his children (Job_1:5); comp, with Lev_26:10, “Made a hedge about Job and about his house.”
II. OVER LONG INTERVALS THE INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL COVENANTS EXTEND.
This “covenant “with Abraham was made 1900 years B.C. (Gen_15:13-14). It is now 1900 years A.D., yet the word stands, “They are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom_11:28-29).
God is at work, though He seems to wait. “In due season ye shall reap if ye faint not.” Praying soul, anxious heart, clinging to the promises—
“Hope, and be undismayed;
God hears thy cries, and counts thy tears,
God shall lift up thy head.”
III. HOW GRAND THE LINK BETWEEN A PARENT’S PIETY AND THE CHILDREN’S DESTINY!
1. Live and pray for your descendants.
2. Value the sacred benefits even though as yet unrealised, of a godly ancestry.
3. Rest in the unfailing pledge of God to reward piety and prayer. [See Addenda to Chapter, Ancestors.]
ILLUSTRATIVE ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 26
NATIONAL IRRELIGION
“Men come to think that the guilt of sins committed in concert is distributed; and that, if there be a thousand men banded and banded together in wickedness, each shall have but one thousandth part of guilt. If a firm succeeds, the gain is distributed to each partner; but, if it fails, each one may be held for the whole loss. Whoever commits a sin will bear the sins, whether alone or with a thousand; whoever commits or connives at public sin will bear the blame. Public guilt always has private endorsement; and each man is liable for the whole note.”—H. W. Beecher.
“Sail on, O Ship of State!
Humanity, with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!”
—Longfellow.
“To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.”—Burke.
“Our heart, our hopes are all with thee,
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o’er our fears,
Are all with thee, are all with thee.”
—Longfellow.
VALOUR
It was said by a nobleman at the grave of
John Knox: “Here lies one who never feared the face of men.”
“The brave man is not he who feels no fear,
For that were stupid and irrational;
But he whose noble soul its fear subdues,
And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.”
—Joanna Bailie.
PRIDE CRUSHED
“Remember what thou wert before thy birth—nothing; what thou wert for many years after—weakness; what in all thy life—a great sinner; what in all thy excellencies—a mere debtor to God, to thy parents, to the earth, and to all creatures. Upon these or the like meditations, if we dwell, we shall see nothing more reasonable than to be humble, and nothing more foolish than to be proud.”—Jeremy Taylor.
“Pride thrust proud Nebuchadnezzar our of men’s society, proud Saul out of his kingdom, proud Adam out of paradise, proud Hamaan out of court, and proud Lucifer out of heaven.”—Henry Smith.
ANCESTORS
“My chastity’s the jewel of our house,
Bequeathed down from my ancestors.”
—Shakespeare.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 There is in these words a promise as to…
Lev 26:10
There is in these words a promise as to the fulness of the Divine gifts which has a far wider range and nobler application than to the harvests and granaries of old Palestine.
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We may take the text in that aspect:
I. As containing God’s pledge that these outward gifts shall come in unbroken continuity. It may be good that we should have to trust Him even when the storehouse is empty; it may be good for us to know something of want; but that discipline comes seldom, and is never carried very far. God’s machinery for distribution is perfect, and its very perfection, with the constancy of the resulting blessings, robs Him of His praise and hinders our gratitude. By assiduity He loses admiration.
II. May we not apply the same thought of the unbroken continuity of God’s gifts to the higher region of our spiritual experience? His supplies of wisdom, love, joy, peace, power, to our souls, are always enough and more than enough for our wants.
He means that there should be no parentheses of famine in our Christian life. The source is full to overflowing, and there are no limits to the supply. The only limit is our capacity, which, again, is largely determined by our desire.
III. We may also see in this text the prescription of a duty as well as the announcement of a promise. There is direction given here as to our manner of receiving God’s gifts, as well as large assurance as to His manner of bestowing them. All through our lives wisdom and faith say, "Bring forth the old because of the new." Accept cheerfully the law of constant change under which God has set us. Welcome the new, treasure the old, and in both see the purpose of that loving Father who, Himself unchanged, changeth all things, "fulfils Himself in many ways lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 11.
References: Lev 26:13.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 139. Lev 26:25.—Ibid., p. 140. Lev 26:36.—Ibid. Lev 27:32.—Ibid., p. 141.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv10, 13
Leviticus
THE OLD STORE AND THE NEW
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Lev 26:10.
This is one of the blessings promised to obedience. No doubt it, like the other elements of that ‘prosperity’ which ‘is the blessing of the Old Testament,’ presupposes a supernatural order of things, in which material well-being was connected with moral good far more closely and certainly than we see to be the case. But the spirit and heart of the promise remain, however the form of it may have passed away. It is a picturesque way of saying that the harvest shall be more than enough for the people’s wants. All through the winter, and the spring, and the ripening summer, their granaries shall yield supplies. There will be no season of scarcity such as often occurs in countries whose communications are imperfect, just before harvest, when the last year’s crop is exhausted, and it is hard to get anything to live on till this year’s is ready. But when the new wheat comes in they will have still much of the old, and will have to ‘bring it forth’ to empty their barns, to make room for the fresh supplies which the blessing of God has sent before they were needed. The same idea of superabundant yield from the fields is given under another form in a previous verse of this chapter {Lev 26:5}: ‘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’: which reminds one of the striking prophecy of Amos: ‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed.’ So rapid the growth, and so large the fruitfulness, that the gatherer shall follow close on the heels of the sower, and will not have accomplished his task before it is again time to sow. The prophet clearly has in his mind the old promise of the law, and applies it to higher matters, even to the fields white to harvest, where ‘he that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together.’ In the same way we may take these words, and gather from them better promises and larger thoughts than they originally carried.
There is in them a promise as to the fullness of the divine gifts, which has a far wider reach and nobler application than to the harvests and granaries of old Palestine.
We may take the words in that aspect, first, as containing God’s pledge that these outward gifts shall come in unbroken continuity. And have they not so come to us all, for all these long years? Has there ever been a gap left yawning? has there ever been a break in the chain of mercies and supplies? has it not rather been that ‘one post ran to meet another,’ that before one of the messengers had unladed all his budget, another’s arrival has antiquated and put aside his store? True, we are often brought very low; there may not be much in the barn but sweepings, and a few stray grains scattered over the floor. We may have but a handful of meal in the barrel, and be ready to dress it ‘that we may eat it, and die.’ But it never really comes to that. The new ever comes before the old is all eaten up; or if it be delayed even beyond that time, it comes before the hunger reaches inanition. It may be good that we should have to trust Him, even when the storehouse is empty; it may be good for us to know something of want, but that discipline comes seldom, and is never carried very far. For the most part He anticipates wants by gifts, and His good gifts overlap each other in our outward lives as slates on a roof, or scales on a fish.
We wonder at the smooth working of the machinery for feeding a great city; and how, day by day, the provisions come at the right time, and are parted out among hundreds of thousands of homes. But we seldom think of the punctual love, the perfect knowledge, the profound wisdom which cares for us all, and is always in time with its gifts. It was that quality of punctuality extended over a whole universe which seemed so wonderful to the Psalmist: ‘The eyes of all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season.’ God’s machinery for distribution is perfect, and its very perfection, with the constancy of the resulting blessings, robs Him of His praise, and hinders our gratitude. By assiduity He loses admiration.
‘Things grown common lose their dear delight.’ ‘If in His gifts and benefits He were more sparing and close-handed,’ said Luther, ‘we should learn to be thankful.’ But let us learn it by the continuity of our joys, that we may not need to be taught it by their interruption; and let us still all tremulous anticipation of possible failure or certain loss by the happy confidence which we have a right to cherish, that His mercies will meet our needs, continuous as they are, and be strung so close together on the poor thread of our lives that no gap will be discernible in the jewelled circle.
May we not apply that same thought of the unbroken continuity of God’s gifts to the higher region of our spiritual experience? His supplies of wisdom, love, joy, peace, power, to our souls are always enough and more than enough for our wants. If ever men complain of languishing vitality in their religious emotions, or of a stinted supply of food for their truest self, it is their own fault, not His. He means that there should be no parentheses of famine in our Christian life. It is not His doing if times of torpor alternate with seasons of quick energy and joyful fullness of life. So far as He is concerned the flow is uninterrupted, and if it come to us in jets and spurts as from an intermittent well, it is because our own fault has put some obstacle to choke the channel and dam out His Spirit from our spirits. We cannot too firmly hold, or too profoundly feel, that an unbroken continuity of supplies of His grace-unbroken and bright as a sunbeam reaching in one golden shaft all the way from the sun to the earth-is His purpose concerning us. Here, in this highest region, the thought of our text is most absolutely true; for He who gives is ever pouring forth His own self for us to take, and there is no limit to our reception but our capacity and our desire; nor any reason for a moment’s break in our possession of love, righteousness, peace, but our withdrawal of our souls from beneath the Niagara of His grace. As long as we keep our poor vessels below that constant downpour they will be full. It is all our own blame if they are empty. Why should Christian people have these dismal times of deadness, these parentheses of paralysis? as if their growth must be like that of a tree with its alternations of winter sleep and summer waking? In regard to outward blessings we are, as it were, put upon rations, and ‘that He gives’ us we ‘gather.’ There He sometimes does, in love and wisdom, put us on very short allowance, and even now and then causes ‘the fields to yield no meat.’ But never is it so in the higher region. There He puts the key of the storehouse into our own hands, and we may take as much as we will, and have as much as we take. There the bread of God is given for evermore, and He wills that in uninterrupted abundance ‘the meek shall eat and be satisfied.’
The source is full to overflowing, and there are no limits to the supply. The only limit is our capacity, which again is largely determined by our desire. So after all His gifts there is more yet unreceived to possess. After all His Self-revelation there is more yet unspoken to declare. Great as is the goodness which He has ‘wrought before the sons of men for them that trust in Him,’ there are far greater treasures of goodness ‘laid up’ in the deep mines of God ‘for them that fear Him.’ Bars of uncoined treasure and ingots of massy gold lie in His storehouses, to be put into circulation as soon as we need, and can use, them. Hence we have the right to look for an endless increase in our possession of God; and from the consideration of an Infinite Spirit that imparts Himself, and of finite but indefinitely expansible spirits that receive, the certainty arises of an endless life for us of growing glory; a heaven of ceaseless advance, where in constant alternation desire shall widen capacity, and capacity increase fruition, and fruition lead in, not satiety, but quickened appetite and deeper longing.
But we may also see in this text the prescription of a duty as well as the announcement of a promise. There is direction here as to our manner of receiving God’s gifts, as well as large assurance as to His manner of bestowing them. It is His to substitute the new for the old. It is ours gladly to accept the exchange, a task not always easy or pleasant.
No doubt there is a natural love of change deep in us all, but that is held in check by its opposite, and all poetry and human life itself are full of the sadness born of mutation. Our Lord laid bare a deep tendency, when He said, ‘No man having tasted old wine, straightway desireth new; because he saith the old is better.’ We cling to what is familiar, in the very furniture of our houses; and yet we are ever being forced to accept what is strange and new, and, like some fresh article in a room, is out of harmony with the well-worn things that we have seen standing in their corners for years. It takes some time for the raw look to wear off, and for us to ‘get used to it,’ as we say. So is it, though often for deeper reasons, in far more important things. A man, for instance, has been engaged in some kind of business for years, and at last God shows him, by clear indications, that he must turn to something else. How slow he is to see it, how reluctant to do it! How he cleaves to the ‘old store’ ! How he shrinks from clearing out the barn, to bring in the new! Or a household has been going on for many days unbroken, and at last a time comes when some of its members have to pass out into new circumstances; a son to push his way in the world, a daughter to brighten another fireside. It is hard for the parents to enter fully into the high hopes of their children, and to accept the new condition, without many vain longings for the old days that can never come back any more. So, all through our lives, wisdom and faith say, ‘Bring forth the old because of the new.’ Accept cheerfully the law of constant change under which God’s love has set us. Do not let the pleasant bonds of habit tie down your hearts so tightly to the familiar possessions that you shrink from the introduction of fresh elements. Be sure that the new comes from the same loving hand which sent the old in its season, and that change is meant to be progress. Do not confine yourselves within any mill-horse round of associations and occupations. Front the vicissitudes of life, not merely with brave patience, but with happy confidence, for they all come from Him whose love is older than your oldest blessings, and whose mercies, new every morning, express themselves afresh through every change. Welcome the new, treasure the old, and in both see the purpose of that loving Father who, Himself unchanged, changeth all things, and
‘. . .fulfils Himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.’
In higher matters than these our text may give us counsel as to our duty. ‘God hath more light yet to break forth from His holy word.’ We are bound to welcome new truth, so soon as to our apprehensions it has made good its title, and not to refuse it lodgment in our minds because it needs the displacement of their old contents. In the regions of our knowledge and of our Christian life, most chiefly, are we under solemn obligations to ‘bring forth the old store because of the new’; if we would not be unfaithful to God’s great educational process that goes on through all our lives. It is often difficult to adjust the relations of our last lesson with our previous possessions. There is always a temptation to make too much of a new truth, and to fancy that it will produce more change in our whole mental furniture than it really will do. No man is less likely to come to the knowledge of the truth than he who is always deep in love with some new thought, ‘the Cynthia of the minute,’ and ever ready to barter ‘old lamps for new ones.’ But all these things admitted, still it remains true that we are here to learn, that our education is to go on all our days, and that here on earth it can only be carried out by our parting with the old store, which may have become musty by long lying in the granaries, to make room for the new, just gathered in the ripened field. The great central truths of God in Christ are to be kept for ever; but we shall come to grasp them in their fullness only by joyfully welcoming every fresh access of clearer light which falls upon them; and gladly laying aside our inadequate thoughts of God’s permanent revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ, to house and garner in heart and spirit the fuller knowledge which it may please Him to impart.
So the law for life is thankful enjoyment of the old store, and openness of mind and freedom of heart which permit its unreluctant surrender when newer harvests ripen. And the highest form of the promise of our text will be when we pass into another world, and its rich abundance is poured out into our laps. Blessed are they who can willingly put away the familiar blessings of earth, and stretch out, willingly emptied, expectant hands to meet the ‘new store’ of Heaven!
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Concluding Exhortations
Concluding Exhortations
Similar exhortations are found at the conelusion of other codes of laws, as in Exo_23:20,; and frequently in Deuteronomy, e.g. in Leviticus 28. The leading ideas and phraseology are the same in all. There is the same insistence on the holy character of Jehovah, the same demand for holiness on the part of His people, the same promises on condition of obedience, and the same warnings against being led astray by the evil example of the idolatrous nations among whom they dwell.
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1, 2. These two vv. have no connexion with what follows, except that they form the fundamental principles of the Hebrew religion, and on them rests the entire body of the Levitical legislation: see on Exo_24:4; Exo_34:13.
3-13. Promise of prosperity attached to obedience.
4. In a country like Palestine rain in the proper season is an indispensable condition of prosperity and plenty. Hence it is frequently referred to in the OT. as a special mark of the divine favour: see on Deu_11:10, and cp. Eze_34:26; Isa_55:10-11; Hos_6:3. There are two rainy seasons in Palestine. The former rain falls in October-November when the seed is sown, and the latter rain in March-April before harvest.
5. There will be no scarce season.
10. Because of the new] i.e. to make room for the embarrassing abundance.
12. Cp. 2Co_6:16-18. God's presence among, and delight in, His people are the cause of all the material blessings spoken of.
14-39. The penalty of disobedience.
This is described in the form of a climax of which the steps are Lev_26:14-17, Lev_26:18-20, Lev_26:21-22, Lev_26:23-26, Lev_26:27-39.
19. The rain will be withheld, and the ground in consequence become like brass for hardness; see on Deu_28:23, and for an instance, 1Ki_17:1.
26. The staff of your bread] RV 'your staff of bread': i.e. the bread which is your staff or support: cp. Eze_4:16; Eze_5:16; Eze_14:13. Owing to the scarcity one oven will be sufficient to bake the bread of ten families.
29. This actually took place more than once: see on Deu_28:53-57.
30. High places] places of worship, usually on an eminence. The name is sometimes applied to places, used for the worship of Jehovah, but in later times the 'high places' were condemned as idolatrous. Images] RV 'sun-images,' images of the sun-god worshipped by the Phœnicians and Babylonians: see 2Ki_23:11; 2Ch_14:5; 2Ch_34:4, 2Ch_34:7 and cp. Eze_6:4, Eze_6:5.
31. Savour of your sweet odours] i.e. sacrifices: see on Exo_29:18.
34. The land lying desolate will then enjoy the rest of the sabbaths and Sabbatical years refused to it by a disobedient people: see Lev_25:1-7, and cp. 2Ch_36:21.
36, 37. A highly imaginative description of the inherent weakness of all wrongdoing, and of the cowardice which is the result of an evil conscience: cp. Deu_28:65-67; Pro_28:1.
40-45. God desireth not the death of the sinner, and therefore every threat of punishment for disobedience is followed by a promise of mercy, on condition of repentance and amendment: cp. the way in which the prophecies of Amos and Micah conclude.
41. Uncircumcised hearts] unclean, not consecrated to God: see on Lev_19:23.
46. The conclusion of the Law of Holiness (see intro. to Leviticus 17-26). The following chapter is of the nature of an appendix.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v1 Leviticus 26 should be read in connection with Deuteronomy…
Leviticus 26 should be read in connection with Deuteronomy 28, 29, the Palestinian Covenant.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 5. The Blessing, the Curse and Israel’s History
5. The Blessing, the Curse and Israel’s History
CHAPTER 26
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1. Obedience and the blessings (Lev 26:1-13)
2. Disobedience and the curse (Lev 26:14-39)
3. The restoration (Lev 26:40-46)
This great chapter is very fitting for the close of this book. We have no types here, but direct utterances of Jehovah. Israel’s history and their future restoration is here predicted. He reminds them that He brought them out of the land of Egypt; they are His people. Therefore He wants obedience. If this is yielded blessings would be the results. These promised blessings consisted in abundance of rain, great fruitfulness of their land, peace in the land, deliverance from wild beasts and the sword, victory over their enemies. They would multiply and His covenant would be established with them; more than that: “I will walk among you, and will be your God and ye shall be My people.” What blessings Jehovah held out to them! They never possessed them in fulness. Some day Israel and Israel’s land will enter into these blessings. Then Moses’ last word will be true: “Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places” (Deu 33:29).
But how dreadful the threatened judgments on account of a broken covenant! judgment after judgment is announced, one greater than the other, every blessing is changed into a curse and the culminating threat is expulsion from the God-given land and dispersion, worldwide, among the nations. The nation called to blessing is threatened with the most awful judgments and disasters. And all these have become historical facts. Jewish history of many weary centuries records the constant fulfillment of these solemn declarations. We have therefore in this chapter, in the predicted curses and the literal fulfillment, a most valuable and powerful evidence of inspiration. The Jew and his history, the land and its desolation, is God’s standing witness for the Gentiles that the Bible is the Word of God.
“The fundamental importance and instructiveness of this prophecy is evident from the fact that all later predictions concerning the fortunes of Israel are but its more detailed exposition and application to successive historical conditions. Still more evident is its profound significance when we recall to mind the fact, disputed by none, that not only is it an epitome of all later prophecy of Holy Scripture concerning Israel, but, no less truly, an epitome of Israel’s history. So strictly true is this that we may accurately describe the history of that nation, from the days of Moses until now, as but the translation of this chapter from the language of prediction into that of history.” (S.H. Kellogg, Leviticus)
To this another fact must be added. It is predicted in this chapter that the people passing through judgment devastated by the sword, famine and pestilence, would continue to exist in their enemies’ land. Israel’s preservation throughout the long period of these executed judgments is a miracle. It cannot be explained in any other way. And the land itself bears witness to all this. It used to be one of the richest of all lands. But ever since the people Israel are driven out of the land and no longer possess it, desolation has come upon it. How remarkable this is!
“We point to the people of Israel as a perennial historical miracle. The continued existence of this nation up to the present day, the preservation of its national peculiarities throughout thousands of years, in spite of all dispersion and oppression, remains so unparalleled a phenomenon, that without the special providential preparation of God, and His constant interference and protection, it would be impossible for us to explain it. For where else is there a people over which such judgments have passed and yet not ended in destruction?” (Professor Christlieb)
Some have speculated on the statement that, they should have the judgments upon them seven times. However, these “seven times” cannot mean the exact duration of Israel’s dispersion. The “seven times,” however, foreshadow the time of Jacob’s trouble, the last seven years of the times of the Gentiles, during which their judgments will be the severest.
This important chapter closes with a promise of restoration. Confession of sin, acknowledgment of their guilt, humiliation and deep sorrow for their iniquity opens the way to this restoration. It will at once be seen that this connects again with the day of atonement. It is the year of jubilee. Then Jehovah remembers His covenant and remembers the land (verse 42). To this future repentance of the remnant of Israel and their regathering, the restoration of the land to the people and the people to the land, the entire prophetic Word bears witness.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 14, 34 Blessings Promised to the Obedient
Blessings Promised to the Obedient
v. 1. Ye shall make you no idols, literally, nothingnesses, vain, empty deities of your own imagination, nor graven image, one carved or chiseled from wood and stone, neither rear you up a standing image, a pillar of commemoration used for idolatrous purposes; neither shall ye set up any image of stone, a stone shaped or hewn to represent some real or imagined creature, in your land to bow down unto it; for I am the Lord, your God.
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v. 2. Ye shall keep My Sabbaths, as the days set a part for His special worship, and reverence My Sanctuary, stand in awe of the place where the holy God revealed Himself to them. I am the Lord. These two verses, containing substantially the entire Law of God as applied to the Jews in particular, serve admirably as a basis of the following promises and warnings.
v. 3. If ye walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, both the general precepts of the natural law and the special ordinances pertaining to the children of Israel, and do them,
v. 4. then I will give you rain in due season, the showers at the two periods of the year when the land needed moisture for fruitfulness, Deu 11:14, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. The extraordinary extent of the blessings is shown next.
v. 5. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time. Threshing in Palestine was done on the great open floors, beginning with the harvest, in April; the grapes were usually ripe in September; and sowing for the new crop began at the end of October or the beginning of November. And ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely, without cares and worries about the necessaries of life.
v. 6. And I will give peace in the land, perfect security, and ye shall lie down, in peaceful settlement, like a herd which is safe from the attacks of beasts of prey, and none shall make you afraid. And I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land, because the enemies that might venture an attack would be driven back triumphantly from their borders.
v. 7. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword, since the Israelites would be rendered invincible by the Lord.
v. 8. And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight, a proverbial expression for the absolute certainty of victory for Israel’s arms, Deu 23:20; Isa 30:17; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. These promises were abundantly fulfilled, as the history of Israel and Judah shows,e. g. in the case of Gideon.
v. 9. For I will have respect unto you, turning His face upon them in goodness and mercy, and make you fruitful and multiply you, giving increase upon increase, blessings which were properly appreciated in those days, and establish My covenant with you, which had promised such unusual blessings, Gen 17:4-6.
v. 10. And ye shall eat old store, grain of last year’s crop, and bring forth the old because of the new, since the old would not even he consumed by the time the new harvest would be filling the granaries.
v. 11. And I will set My Tabernacle among you, as the visible sign of His merciful presence; and My soul shall not abhor you.
v. 12. And I will walk among you, in gracious communion through the worship offered to Him, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people. Cf Deu 23:15.
v. 13. I am the Lord, your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt that ye should not be their bondmen, held in shameful slavery by a heathen nation; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright. The deliverance from Egypt was a proof and pledge of the fulfillment of God’s promises, and the fellowship which the children of Israel enjoyed in Him was symbolic of the perfect communion which the children of God have entered upon with Him through the redemption of Christ. If we Christians believe and trust in God with all our heart, and walk in the ways of His commandments, then He will remain with us with His Word and Sacraments. Therefore we should also love and trust in Him and gladly perform the demands of His holy will.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 34, 37, 40, 43, 44, 46 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues telling Moses what the people must do.
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keep my Sabbaths
"obey the rules for my Sabbaths"
translationWords
false god
raise
image
column
bow
Yahweh
God
Sabbath
honor
sanctuary
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 29, 30, 34, 36, 40, 41, 42 26:1 Israel was to make no idols or carved…
26:1 Israel was to make no idols or carved images to worship (see Exod 20:4-6). Creating an image to worship would blaspheme God by confining him to time and space and by manufacturing a lifeless image to take the place of the living God. • Early in Israel’s history, stones were set on end as memorials to various events (Gen 28:18; Exod 24:4). However, pillars and sculptured stones were associated with pagan worship (2 Kgs 3:2; 10:26, 27), especially when the carved image of a god rested on them. Some sculpture was clearly allowed (e.g., 1 Kgs 7:25); the focus here is on objects that might be worshiped and thereby become idolatrous.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.