Lev 26:14-39 | KingComments | STEP | In it is about the consequences for the people if they are disobedient. Not listening to God’s commandments shows contempt for it. It is not about sins of ignorance or weakness. In that case, offerings can be made. But if the people consciously ignore God’s statutes and commandments, the blessing will diminish, and God will finally expel the people from the land. The people will be scattered among the nations. The Divine threats concern Israel’s future. The scattering of the people is literally fulfilled. This could make it difficult to believe that the prophecies of Leviticus 23 and Leviticus 25 will be fulfilled for the people and the land. But God will do what He has determined. He Himself will cause conversion in the astray people. He will do a work of grace in the people so they will be in a condition that He can fulfill all His plans for the converted people. That converted people will be a remnant, but that remnant is also “all Israel” ( ). God will bless them on the ground of His covenant with Jacob, Isaac and Abraham ( ). The first announcement of the consequences of the disobedience of the people promise illness, hunger and defeats. The plagues result from this fearful fact that the LORD has set His face against them ( ). He will act with hostility against them ( ). If that is the case, any measure to avert God’s wrath will prove a worthless, futile effort. When obedient no diseases shall affect them ( ).

‏ Leviticus 26:14-39

Consequences of Disobedience (1)

In Lev 26:14-40 it is about the consequences for the people if they are disobedient. Not listening to God’s commandments shows contempt for it. It is not about sins of ignorance or weakness. In that case, offerings can be made. But if the people consciously ignore God’s statutes and commandments, the blessing will diminish, and God will finally expel the people from the land. The people will be scattered among the nations. The Divine threats concern Israel’s future.

The scattering of the people is literally fulfilled. This could make it difficult to believe that the prophecies of Leviticus 23 and Leviticus 25 will be fulfilled for the people and the land. But God will do what He has determined. He Himself will cause conversion in the astray people. He will do a work of grace in the people so they will be in a condition that He can fulfill all His plans for the converted people.

That converted people will be a remnant, but that remnant is also “all Israel” (Rom 11:25-26). God will bless them on the ground of His covenant with Jacob, Isaac and Abraham (Lev 26:42 ; 45).

The first announcement of the consequences of the disobedience of the people promise illness, hunger and defeats. The plagues result from this fearful fact that the LORD has set His face against them (Lev 26:17). He will act with hostility against them (Lev 26:24 ; 28). If that is the case, any measure to avert God’s wrath will prove a worthless, futile effort. When obedient no diseases shall affect them (Exo 23:25 ; Exo 15:26).

Consequences of Disobedience (2)

If the discipline of God is not successful, and the people remain disobedient, the people will have to suffer even more terrible things. The fact that God speaks of following discipline indicates that He knows the heart of man, that it is incorrigible. God’s purpose with His discipline is to make His people change their ways, but the people act in a contrary way (Amos 4:6; cf. 2Chr 28:22).

In this second announcement God says that He will punish them seven times more if His first judgments are unsuccessful. Drought and infertility are promised. Facing an iron sky – no rain falls out – and a copper ground, which cannot be worked because of its hardness, they will be powerless. Every effort ends in nothing but consuming of power without any result in food. That will have to break down their pride of power.

Consequences of Disobedience (3)

If also the discipline that follows the ignoring of the second warning has no effect, and the people continue to disobey (cf. Jer 6:29), a third warning follows, pointing out what awaits them. If smaller judgments have no effect, God will send larger judgments. He will increase the plague on them, and will punish them seven times harder (cf. Dan 3:19). He will let loose the beasts of the field against them (Eze 14:21), which will eat children and cattle. For fear no one will dare to come out on the street.

Man is created to rule over the animals. By their conduct, because they have turned their backs on God, they have set themselves below the animals. Those animals will now reign over them. God uses the animals to exercise His discipline over His people.

Consequences of Disobedience (4)

If the people continue to resist, the fourth announcement follows what awaits them in seven times heavier form. The enemy will come and kill them with the sword. He who thinks he is safe from the sword in a city, will be struck with the plague and thus driven into the hands of the enemy.

The scarcity of food will be great; no one will be able to be satisfied. Ten families will have to deal with the ration for one family. Hunger will become more and more gnawing, leading people to resort to the horror of cannibalism, mentioned in the next section.

Consequences of Disobedience (5)

If the people continue to resist after all the previous disciplinary measures, the fifth announcement of disciplinary measures is also the final blow to the resistance. The people will be driven out of the land and scattered over the earth. Before that time, they will fall into cannibalism and that in its most horrible form: their own children are eaten (2Kgs 6:28-29). Egoism is so great that all natural love has disappeared. Children are not only sacrificed to idols, but here they are sacrificed purely for the sake of survival.

The LORD shall cast their corpses on the corpses of their idols, and disgust them. He Himself will destroy their cities. When the people have finally been driven out of it, the land will have rest and will be retributed for its sabbatical years which the people have withheld during their stay in it (2Chr 36:21).

The cities where the people have felt at ease and at home will be made a mess by the LORD. There will no longer be a place where they will have rest and feel at home. Nothing will remain of their sanctuaries, which as religious places have given them a sense of security and by which they have assumed themselves to be God’s people. Nothing of their religion is acceptable to God: “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon [festivals] and your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing [them]” (Isa 1:13-14).

The land as a whole shall be destroyed by the LORD in a way that even their enemies shall be appalled. The people will be driven out and will be destroyed on foreign ground outside the land.

There will be no force to hold against the enemy. They will see enemies where there are none and flee as a result of their imagination (Lev 26:17). He who rejects the fear of God will even be afraid of the sound of a driven leaf (Lev 26:36; Pro 28:1a).

Just as it was with Israel, so it will be with the professing Christianity. If those who were once in connection with God are judged by Him because of their total hardening, this will surprise even all those who have never been in connection with Him (cf. Jer 19:8).