YEAR 2, WEEK 11, Day 5, Friday, 14 March 2025

https://esv.literalword.com/?q=Leviticus+26

Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Friday, 14 March 2025:

Leviticus 26:17 – I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.

All that matters in life is whether you are right with God. If God is with you, who can be against you? If God is against you, everything for you is cursed.

There are consequences for keeping and for breaking covenant with God. The blessings for Old Covenant (Mosaic Law) faithfulness included healthy and vibrant families and fields, safety from one’s enemies, and much more (Lev. 26:1–13). Leviticus 26:14–39 lists curses for breaking covenant (see also Deut. 28:15–68), curses including disease, infertility, and defeat in war. These curses grew in intensity the longer the people remained impenitent, faithless, and disobedient, culminating in the worst covenant curse of all—exile, the banishment from God’s special place of blessing.

Many skeptics have pointed to the punishments described in the Old Testament to describe God as a mean, perpetually angry God, but the covenant curses actually demonstrate God’s patience. God is “slow to anger” (Ex. 34:6; Num. 14:18; Jonah 4:2), not in that He ever tolerates wickedness, but He is willing to show mercy and grace in hopes of repentance and reconciliation. The Lord does not typically pour out the fullness of His wrath all at once, but He sends trouble to warn His covenant people of their waywardness and call them to repent. “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.” (Joel 2:13) However, He will not be patient forever (Matt. 25:31–46). We cannot presume upon His mercy and grace, and the unrepentant will experience an ultimate, eternal exile.

“Just as the Lord sent covenant curses on the old covenant church to call it to repentance, He will also allow His new covenant church to feel trouble as a means of disciplining us for our sin. We cannot equate every hardship that we face with the Lord’s hand of chastisement, but when God allows us to suffer the consequences of our sin, He is disciplining us and calling us to return to Him. May we always heed this call.” (Ligonier Ministries)

Leviticus 26:40-42 – “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.”

God leaves room for forgiveness, which begins with humble repentance. God not only promises forgiveness for the truly repentant, He also promises restoration – “…then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.” (Deuteronomy 30:3) Until Christ returns or death occurs, whichever comes first, there is always hope that sinners can turn from their wickedness and begin to experience restoration in Jesus. We should never be afraid to pray for the salvation of those who seem the most far gone.

Leviticus 26:43 – But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes.

God says you sin because you hate the teachings and expectations He has set before you.

When the people robbed the land of God’s directed Sabbath rests, God brought justice to the land by punishing His people, removing them from the land so it could “enjoy its Sabbaths… without them.” If we don’t have internal discipline (self-discipline), God will give us external discipline (punishment), not merely to cause us to suffer but to bring us to repentance and to create in us Christlike character, which is His goal for us. If we truly want for ourselves what God wants for us (Christlike character and unity with Him), and if we truly trust Him in His perfect, sovereign, loving fidelity, we will start to appreciate that all of our circumstances, even those which are used by God to discipline us, are actually opportunities to experience God’s immeasurable blessings. How we respond to life events reveals what we really think about God.

Leviticus 26:45 – But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.

God keeps His commitments, 100%.

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 14 March 2025: Trust God in repentance, and walk in the confident hope of restoration. Remember, in Christ, whatever is happening in your life, isn’t happening “to” you, it is happening “for” you, to conform you to Christlike character for His glory. You can always trust God with your circumstances, even with the consequences of your sins and mistakes.