Leviticus 26 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence

          This is one of two places in the Law of Moses, along with Deuteronomy chapter twenty-eight, in which blessings are pronounced upon Israel for their obedience to the law and curses are pronounced upon them for their disobedience.

They were told that if they kept God’s laws then He would give them their seasonal rains resulting in abundant crops and fullness of bread.  He would give them peace and security in their land, and he would love them and make His dwelling in their midst.  However, if they disobeyed the Lord and broke covenant with Him, then he promised to visit them with panic and wasting disease.  He would bring raiders and pillagers to ravish their land. 

If the Israelites didn’t repent under this discipline of the Lord, he would discipline them again sevenfold breaking their pride with drought and famine.  If they didn’t repent under that discipline, the Lord would bring wild beasts to kill their livestock as well as their children.  If they didn’t repent then, he would bring the sword of their enemies to slaughter them.  Then they would be forced to eat the flesh of their own children, before finally the Lord would destroy their sanctuary and scatter them among the nations, promising that they would perish in exile.  If any were to survive, those left would rot away in their enemies’ lands because of their iniquity.

Clearly, God takes sin seriously and expects his people to honor the covenant that He made with them that He would be their God and they would be His holy people.  Of course, as we read through the long list of curses today, we understand that Israel experienced all of this and more because of their great disobedience to the Lord.  And that seems rather harsh to us that the Lord would bring such judgments upon His own people.  But we must understand that God is showing them grace upon grace, continually extending mercy to them by disciplining them in love.  It is only after numerous judgments and many calls to repentance that the Lord finally removes them from the Promised Land. 

This is quite unlike the covenant of works that God entered into with Adam in the Garden of Eden.  In paradise, there were no second chances.  God promised that if they disobeyed him even once, if they merely ate one piece of fruit from the forbidden tree, they would face an immediate judgment, that the wages of their sin would be death.  Here, in the Mosaic covenant, which is an extension of the covenant of grace between the Lord and His people, the Lord not only gives them many warnings, but gives them a multitude of sacrifices to cover over a multitude of sins.

Notice how the Lord makes a way for them to be restored in vv.40ff.  If they would but confess their sin and make amends for their iniquity then God would remember his covenant with them and would not forsake them.  He would not utterly destroy them but would keep his covenant with them, even though they had broken covenant with Him.

Of course, we don’t live in the Promised Land today, and we are not subjects of the Mosaic covenant stipulations.  Nevertheless, the curse of God still falls upon all individuals who have broken God’s holy law.  So, like Israel, we too were under the curse of God for breaking His commands. But, the apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 3:13-14, for all who have trusted in Christ that “he has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.”  Therefore, as Paul says in Romans 8:1, “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” 

We must understand that the law was never intended to save us, but rather to continually pronounce a curse upon us for our disobedience in order that we might see our need for a savior.  It is only as we are united to Christ by faith that we receive the blessing of God.  Each Sunday, when the pastor raises his hands to pronounce the benediction at the end of the service, he is pronouncing the blessing that Christ deserves due to his obedience to the law, but he is pronouncing it upon a sinful people who have had their sins covered by Christ’s blood.  Thus, when God sees us as Christians in union with Christ, he does not pronounce a curse upon us, but only blessing, for Christ has kept the law of God in our place.