Leviticus 26 ~ and I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people

Leviticus 26

“You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. 2 You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 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. 


5 Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. 7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 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. 

9 I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. 11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. 

12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

14 “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 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. 18 And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, 19 and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

21 “Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. 22 And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.

23 “And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, 24 then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.

27 “But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, 28 then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. 31 And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. 32 And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. 33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

34 “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it. 36 And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies' lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.

40 “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, 41 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, 42 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. 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. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 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.”

46 These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai.





oh... no... not Leviticus.


Yes, Leviticus. When John saw Heaven and wrote The Book of Revelation - this is yesterday, today and tomorrow. "I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people"


And how will we treat this chapter honestly?


Habakkuk 3

16 I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us. 

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, 18 Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.




The truth is this. Jesus was named after a man the world passes by. Joshua. Yeshua is honoring Joshua. Who waited 40 years knowing that his voice was unheeded to "Trust in the Lord" when Moses had the Philistines spied upon.


We can take all things to harm one another. But we have to twist the Goodness, the Mercy, the Love, Joy and make things harsh. We have to form tools from the Mercy of God and make something what it was not intended to be.

Which is exactly why the chapter starts out talking about idols. We have to get to the bones of why we do what we do. For the glory of God. For Love.

Why do we do the things we do? Usually for our comfort. Or power. Or envy. Or money.

We can say that the Lord bores us and not to read Leviticus.

1. Yet the Book of Job reports Leviticus to be true. Job kept holding up his own righteousness. The Bible tells us not to weary of doing good. But we all get weary. We have to renew in Jesus especially when the circumstances will wear you to a nub.

This is why we thank God and thank God and thank God for the opportunity to land on this side of the Resurrection of Jesus. We are the Easter People and we will get through Good Friday of Life. By remembering to thank GOD for the trials and the fleas and see the upside of all the tribulation life holds for us all.

2. Jesus and His Travels to Tyre and Sidon to probably see the Syrophoenician woman have humility. Humility. We need God, it's not that He needs us. We can all reach a time where we just don't have it in us to go on with cheer or even hope. And Jesus says, "Right, I know you are not that righteous. Yet like Aaron, I love you more than your downside, come to me - you who are weary, I will refresh you. " Eyes on Jesus - we will have the Holy Spirit and His comfort that there is hope.

3. David and Solomon agree - God gives both blessing and woe. Remember to look to Him.

4. Jesus tells the people not to judge the man born blind. And not to judge those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them-- do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?

When I went to Texas A&M University, and as you took the required Kinesiology, the first week you jogged or you did tennis or riflery as a test for your 12 weeks to see improvement. Even the Aggies knew you did not put forth your best effort until the final exam.

Doesn't this apply to our efforts for Jesus?

If we look like we line up our ducks in a row for the camera - we surely 'look' ducky.

The point is - did Father God give us 5 talents and we say we have 1 talent? This passage always concernsd me. What we do with just the gift of one day. But really we have to hand this to the Lord and ask Him to be with us - even as we pray. We need Jesus. We have to hold on to His Promises.

We are supposed to confess our sins, but surely we know where we really are supposed to go. This isn't for others to boo and hiss - this is for the quiet understanding in our hearts to Jesus. What we do to the least of our brothers - we do to Jesus.

If we were to judge Habakkuk - this would give us some good conversation. But would we have used our talents Jesus wants? Jesus would be pleased with Habakkuk's soul.

And surely, we know all those who need our honesty and our compassion - because - we don't want them to fall - the fall is forever. We want them to be lifted to Jesus and His Love and Joy. The point of Christianity is to pray for those we wonder about - with Love.  Now the very soul and truth is this - Salvation is purely a work of the Lord. But do you really believe we should forget to pray for those who need His Love. If for nothing else, that our hearts do not grow cold as we act as God to people we love. Sometimes, I feel my prayer life being obligiatory. But let me tell you - meet one of those days where you feel bone weary for God - and He rushes in to help - and suddenly - your prayer life will renew for the very joy that God will rush in. 

This God of ours is is is is is is is Living Water. Come Holy Spirit. We need you. 

Leviticus 26. Maybe the point is. Oh No. Leviticus. Says something.
 
It's disliked - Our Supreme God is involved in Blessing and Woe. YET - We seem to have a lot of cultural woe. Let's work past the woe to remember The Acts of the Apostles worked past 'WHOA" to be the blessing.

If the culture wants you to hush - speak up - give LOVE. 

Remembering God works past our own whoa's. With His Grace and Love. 

Father God,

Help us to be open hearted to all of Your Word and Circumstance. To have our hearts and sights set on adventure and flexibility. Forgiving of each other, our circumstances - to allow us to grow.

Help us to let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from us, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, rejoicing in our salvation for God in Christ forgave me.

Help us to find honesty not to excuse ourselves from being tender-hearted, but to bring forth truth to make the path straight. To Jesus.

Help us keep going forth - to be Love. Strengthen us - to meet the challenges. Help us when we do need to duck. Favor us with your Graciousness, when we need to say "I can't, I just can't". Help our Yes to be Yes of You. And not the desire to be super ego I will. Give us, please, more opportunities to be Yes and not the go into "No" as an unwise person.

Bless us with Your Favor, please God.

Jesus is You, Father. Perfection. What Jesus does for us in fulfilling the Law.

Day after day we use our God given talents to stand to minister and to offer again and again the same sacrifices. Reminding each other what Jesus does - who takes away sins.

When we see Leviticus for so much education and trouble and mess - rejoice and remember many parts of life seem to have troubles and discord. And be glad in what Jesus takes from us. Wow Leviticus lists and lists what God has taken from us. Alleluia.


Let's remember 1 John 3, See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

Let's not let dislike push us apart. For easy comfort. Remembering to love.

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

Let us be covered in the Name of Jesus and be brave to embrace, Yes, for Jesus.  To call upon Jesus to be forgiven for our weaknesses, flaws and sins. Going forth with God - forgiven.

Being wise to not embrace what is displeasing to God. Avoid what is foolish controversy - God says not to name what is harmful. Let us not gossip. Let what is important be spoken and what is able to wash away.

Let us do the good works God has put for us to walk in, letting God straighten paths.

Father God,  we want to walk with You. We lift our concerns to You.  Help the care givers provide care, renew and open our eyes to what we need to do.  We need Your Help Father God. Our loved ones covered with Jesus. The comfort of the Holy Spirit. We cover in Jesus' name communities, Churches and Jesus honoring people. Lifting up the Nation to be covered in Jesus. Rejoicing in salvation for ourselves and all of His around the world.

Thank God for His ever present Hope of His Love. He is walking with us and we are His People. Blessed Jesus Thank God for give us this Day. Alleluia in Jesus.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves!  †