Blessings or Curses

Leviticus 26 & 27

There is nothing like a series of “I will” statements to make you sit up and listen.

These are God’s Promises!

Here in the middle of all the rules and regulations.

A change of pace.

Chapter 26 talks all about the blessing and rewards of following God’s decrees and commands.  But it also talks all about the consequences of disobedience.   All the decrees and commands God set before Israel through Moses during that year encamped at Sinai. 

There is always an “if” and then the “I wills”.

Ch 26:3 “ If you follow my decrees

And are careful to obey my commands

4 I WILL

Send you rain in its season,

And the ground will yield its crops

And the trees of the field their fruit.

5 Your threshing

Will continue until grape harvest

And the grape harvest

Will continue until planting.

And you will eat

All the food you want

And live in safety in the land.

6 I will grant peace in the land

and you will lie down

and no one will make you afraid.

9 I will look on you with favor

and make you fruitful

and increase your numbers.

And I will keep my covenant with you.

11 I will put my dwelling place among you

12 I will walk among you

And be your God

And you will be my people.

I am the LORD.

13  I broke the bars of your yoke

And enabled you to walk

with heads held high.

Two things.

I love it that God resumes His possessive talk about His People calling them My People again.  And love the mention of the yoke.  God mentions the yoke in a context of delivering His People from the yoke of slavery, and Jesus, in the New Testament, talks about the yoke as a way of life of obedience. 

Matthew 11: 28 “Come to me,

all you who are weary and burdened,

and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I love these promises and the part they play in my story.  These promises speak loudly to me when I feel hungry and thirsty and when I am lost, afraid and alone, walking in circles of my own doing.  

Promises of always having enough to eat and drink.  Milk and honey.

Promises of safety and relationships and peace. 

Promised Land living. 

These promises.

Not without consequences. 

And not without doing some work. 

There are always consequences. 

Consequences for obeying the rules,

and consequences for breaking them.

The breaking of the covenant relationship and rules

come with some serious repercussions.

The list of curses is usually much longer than the list of blessings.

Numbers is right around the corner.

Numbers is a book of action and numbers.  

Obedience and disobedience.

And the Promised Land is in sight.