In Saturday's study we looked at all the wonderful things the Lord vows to do for Israel in the promised land if the people will obey His laws and commandments. He intends to reward them for faithfulness. But, as we'll see today and tomorrow, He intends to discipline them if they are unfaithful. If they refuse to adhere to what He has said is right and good, misfortunes will come into their lives.
All the things He promised them in yesterday's passage sounded so good that it might be difficult for us to imagine why they would not want to be careful to obey Him so they can receive these huge blessings. I got to thinking about this and realized that there is a tendency for humans to be satisfied with what is mediocre. Perhaps if the Lord had not provided the portion of Scripture we'll be studying today and tomorrow, the people could have said to themselves, "Okay, so if we mess up on some of the stuff in the first half of Leviticus 26, we'll miss out on the really huge blessings, but we'll still have all we need in this good land and we'll still enjoy our freedom from slavery Egypt and we'll still be a sovereign nation that rules itself." But God is going to explain that things won't be okay if they aren't obedient. They might have been satisfied with mediocre faith and with the ordinary blessings of everyday life, but God doesn't think that's good enough for His children. Instead of mediocre faith, He wants them to have exceptional faith. Instead of ordinary blessings, He wants them to have extraordinary blessings. God wants more for mankind than mankind wants for himself, and that's why He has to remind us that we can't just go our own way and wallow in sin and expect Him to bless our disobedience. If He blessed our disobedience we'd never step up our game spiritually and be all we were created to be.
"But if you will not listen to Me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject My decrees and abhor My laws and fail to carry out all My commands and so violate My covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. I will set My face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those that hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you." (Leviticus 26:14-17) He says, "If you reject Me and My commands, I will allow plague to come into your population. I will allow you to be defeated in battle. Your enemies will eat what you have planted. You will not enjoy good health or the fruit of the land or peace from your enemies if you break faith with Me."
If the Lord has to send these bad things into the nation to correct sinful behavior, and if the people don't take His discipline to heart and change their ways, He will have to resort to even harsher measures to turn them around. "If after all this you will not listen to Me, I will punish you for your sin seven times over. I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of your land yield their fruit." (Leviticus 26:18-20) Famine will result if the people continue to resist turning back to the Lord. The sky will be like iron; no rain will come through. The ground will be like bronze, so hard and dry that to try and cultivate it will be futile. The trees will be stricken with blight and will bear no fruit. If the loss of close fellowship with God was not enough to change their hearts, and if the loss of peace and safety wasn't enough to change their hearts, and if the emergence of plague into the land wasn't enough to change their hearts, perhaps growling bellies will compel them to turn back to God for mercy.
If hunger isn't enough to change their minds, the Lord will turn the wild animal kingdom against them. "If you remain hostile toward Me and refuse to listen to Me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve. I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted." (Leviticus 26:21-22) I believe what the Lord means is that if He he has to send famine upon the people, the famine would eventually affect the wild animals too. In Genesis 9:2 the Lord put a "fear and dread" of humans into the minds of animals so they would not be prone to attacking and killing humans. The reason we sometimes hear news stories about a person being attacked and killed by a bear or mountain lion is because it's not an everyday happening. Most wild animals obey their God-given instinct to hide or flee when humans appear. But when the wild animals' food sources become scarce they grow bold enough to come close to human habitations to forage for scraps or to attack and eat domestic animals. Hungry wild animals will sometimes dare to kill a human for food, especially someone of small stature like a child. If famine comes and wild animals begin to roam the inhabited areas of the land, it won't be safe for people's children to play outside or perform any outdoor chores. It won't even be safe for humans to travel the roadways unless they travel in groups.
Join us tomorrow as we take a look at the second half of the passage regarding disciplinary actions the Lord will be compelled to take if the things outlined in today's passage aren't enough to change the people's hearts. Until tomorrow let's think about the troubles in our own nation and whether or not at least some of our misfortunes might be the result of us not being faithful to our God. Let's search our hearts and repent of anything the Holy Spirit brings to mind. Let's confess our own sins and the sins of our nation as a whole and ask God to forgive us and heal us. I believe it's clear from our passage today, and from a passage I'm going to close with, that misfortune is often the result of going astray---and not because the world in general has gone astray, but because God's people have gone astray. God doesn't expect those who don't belong to Him to do what's right; He knows they won't. But He expects His own children to do what's right. The health and prosperity of a nation is only as strong and vibrant as the faith and obedience of God's people, so in the verse with which we will close, we find God calling upon His own to repent and pray. If those who belong to Him will do this, He issues a comforting promise: "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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