Leviticus 26: The prophecies contained in this chapter of Leviticus in conjunction with Ezekiel chapter 4 are nothing short of miraculous. Elohim tells the Israelites their future over 3300 years before it happens.
This chapter will cover a panoramic view of the history of Israel from the time they conquer the Promised Land to the time of modern day Israel. It starts out with Elohim telling the Israelites how wonderful things could be. Then He tells them how bad it will get if (when) they disobey.
(Lev 26:1 NASB) ‘You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God.
(Lev 26:2 NASB) ‘You shall keep My sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the LORD.
Lev 26:2: These first two verses tell us the sins that highlight the future disobedience of Israel. The previous chapter highlighted the Sabbaths: the seventh day, the seventh Sabbath year of the land, and the Year of Jubilee. The number “seven” plays a crucial part in Elohim dealing with Israel.
(Lev 26:3 NASB) ‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out,
(Lev 26:4 NASB) then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.
(Lev 26:5 NASB) ‘Indeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. You will thus eat your food to the full and live securely in your land.
(Lev 26:6 NASB) ‘I shall also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down with no one making you tremble. I shall also eliminate harmful beasts from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.
Lev 26:6: Notice that this is an “If – then” statement. IF the Isrealites obey Elohim, THEN Elohim promises those blessings of rain, plentiful food, safety, and peace in their land.
(Lev 26:7 NASB) ‘But you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword;
(Lev 26:8 NASB) five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.
Lev 26:8: Victory over their enemies is another of Elohim’s blessings to them. Elohim fulfilled this promise by sending people like Joshua, Samson, Gideon, Samuel, Elijah, David, Esther, and others (Josh 23:10).
The fact that they have been successful in defeating their enemies for the last 67 years is proof that Elohim is blessing them again.
(Lev 26:9 NASB) ‘So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you.
Lev 26:9: The Isrealites multiplied greatly.
(Lev 26:10 NASB) ‘And you will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the new.
Lev 26:10: The harvest will be multiplied to compensate for the growth in population. As a matter of fact, they would have to throw away the old harvest in order to make room for the new harvest.
(Lev 26:11 NASB) ‘Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you.
(Lev 26:12 NASB) ‘I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
(Lev 26:13 NASB) ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you should not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
Lev 26:13: This marks the end of the good news. Now we come to the bad news.
(Lev 26:14 NASB) ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments,
Lev 26:14: “BUT…..” Elohim has made an “if – then” statement and is following up with the “but” end of this statement to Israel.
Elohim knew the Israelites wouldn’t remain in His favor by keeping His commands. I imagine that if they were going to obey Elohim forever, He would not have given them this warning of future judgment. Elohim knew this was going to happen, but He still blessed them as He had promised and was patient and longsuffering before He judged them.
(Lev 26:15 NASB) if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,
(Lev 26:16 NASB) I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that shall waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also, you shall sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies shall eat it up.
(Lev 26:17 NASB) ‘And I will set My face against you so that you shall be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when no one is pursuing you.
Lev 26:17: We can read about this first degree of judgement in Judges 2:14, 3:8, 4:2.
(Lev 26:18 NASB) ‘If also after these things, you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
Lev 26:18: Elohim is saying that if the Israelites don’t obey Him, then He is going to punish them severely. If they still do not turn to Him and obey Him after the warning, Elohim will multiply their punishment by seven times.
This is a very important part of Elohim’s judgment. We often think of Elohim’s dealing with Israel as Old Testament history, but we can now see this part of Isreal’s judgment has only been fulfilled in the very recent past.
(Lev 26:19 NASB) ‘And I will also break down your pride of power; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze.
Lev 26:19: Pride is the sin Elohim hates more than any other.
(Lev 26:20 NASB) ‘And your strength shall be spent uselessly, for your land shall not yield its produce and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
(Lev 26:21 NASB) ‘If then, you act with hostility against Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins.
Lev 26:21: Once again, Elohim is repeating that He is going to punish them. If after a period of punishment they still do not repent, He is going to increase their penalty seven times.
(Lev 26:22 NASB) ‘And I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that your roads lie deserted.
Lev 26:22: Elohim did this on more than one occasion (2 Kings17:25, Ezek. 5:17).
(Lev 26:23 NASB) ‘And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility against Me,
(Lev 26:24 NASB) then I will act with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins.
Lev 26:24: Elohim is repeating again that their punishment will be multiplied by seven if they continue to disobey.
(Lev 26:25 NASB) ‘I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands.
Lev 26:25: Elohim warns they will be taken captive by their enemies. This judgement is pronounced through the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 4:1-6).
(Lev 26:26 NASB) ‘When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts, so that you will eat and not be satisfied.
(Lev 26:27 NASB) ‘Yet if in spite of this, you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me,
(Lev 26:28 NASB) then I will act with wrathful hostility against you; and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins.
Lev 26:28: Elohim mentions that if the exile period does not turn them back to Him, Elohim will multiply their captivity by seven. This is the fourth time Elohim has repeated this warning to the Israelites.
(Lev 26:29 NASB) ‘Further, you shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat.
Lev 26:29: This is exactly what the Israelites did during their most desperate times (2 Kings 6:25-29, Lam. 4:10).
It also happened at the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Josephus gives a horrifying detail about a woman named Mary, who, in the extremity of the famine, during the seige, killed her nursing child, roasted him, and had eaten part of him, when she discovered by the soldiers!
(Lev 26:30 NASB) ‘I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols; for My soul shall abhor you.
(Lev 26:31 NASB) ‘I will lay waste your cities as well, and will make your sanctuaries desolate; and I will not smell your soothing aromas.
(Lev 26:32 NASB) ‘And I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled over it.
(Lev 26:33 NASB) ‘You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.
Lev 26:33: Verse 33 is a picture of the “Promised Land” from the time of 70 AD when Titus the Roman devastated it until just this century.
(Lev 26:34 NASB) ‘Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.
(Lev 26:35 NASB) ‘All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it.
Lev 26:35: The Isrealites were taken into captivity by the Babylonians for a period of seventy years to make up for the 490 years the Isrealites didn’t honor the Sabbaths of the land (2 Chron. 36:21).
(Lev 26:36 NASB) ‘As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them and even when no one is pursuing, they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall.
Lev 26:36: This has been a characteristic of rebellious Israel throughout time (Ezek. 21:7, 14-15).
(Lev 26:37 NASB) ‘They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies.
(Lev 26:38 NASB) ‘But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you.
(Lev 26:39 NASB) ‘So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers they will rot away with them.
Lev 26:39: In this passage you can picture the atrocities of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union upon the Jewish people. This book of Leviticus speaks to us in modern times.
(Lev 26:40 NASB) ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me–
(Lev 26:41 NASB) I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies– or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity,
(Lev 26:42 NASB) then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.
Lev 26:42: If Israel confesses their iniquity and that of their forefathers, then He will remember His covenants He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
(Lev 26:43 NASB) ‘For the land shall be abandoned by them, and shall make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, shall be making amends for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My statutes.
(Lev 26:44 NASB) ‘Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.
Lev 26:44: This once again brings to mind the atrocities of WWII and Nazi Germany. However, Elohim used that horrible event to bring His people back into His Land.
(Lev 26:45 NASB) ‘But I will remember for them the covenant with 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 the LORD.'”
Lev 26:45: He will remember for them the covenant He made with their ancestors. He said the ancestors of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will dwell and thrive in the land of Israel.
(Lev 26:46 NASB) These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the LORD established between Himself and the sons of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.
Lev 26:46: Elohim says He will remember them and remember the promise He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and He will bring them back into their land. Elohim followed His promise of punishment and restoration exactly as He said He would. Combining this chapter with other information in passages such as Ezekiel 4:1-8 show us that Elohim performed and fulfilled His Words in frightfully accurate detail.
See: #3: The Punishment Periods of Judah and Israel | Beit Yeshua Torah Assembly
Patrick McGuire
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