DBG - February 13 - Leviticus 26-27

This chapter tells the fates of Israel’s faithfulness or lack thereof.

vs. 1 – This section opens with WHO the Israelites were to serve.  Reiterates the First and Second Commandments.

vs. 2 – Now we see HOW the Israelites were to serve God.

vs. 3-13 – Here are the blessings bestowed if Israel would be faithful to God.  Prosperity and peace would fill their land.  God’s presence would be among them.

vs. 14-39 – Here are the curses pronounced if Israel did not remain faithful.  Famine, fear, and failure would fill the land.  We will see these very things happen when we get into Judges and then throughout the kingdom period.  God is holy and God is just.  He cannot allow sin to go unpunished, even among the people He had chosen unto Himself.

vs. 40-45 – Here is the promise of restoration.  Even if Israel were punished because of their sin and rebellion, God would restore them if they would but repent.  We see this playout from Judges to the return after the Babylonian Captivity.  God is just, God is holy, but God is also merciful and gracious to those that confess their sin and humble themselves before Him.

In this chapter there are commands regarding vows made to the Lord.  Vows were promises to God based on a condition.  A common form of these would be “If God does _________ for me, in return I will _________.”

B.H. Carroll writes about this chapter: “It is really a treatise on persons, animals, houses, and lands vowed to God, and the commutation of these vows. You know that the word ‘commutation’ means, if you vow a certain house, you may substitute for that house a valuation that the priest will put upon it. That is a commutation of the vow, or taking an equivalent in the place of the vow. So that it consists of a treatise of persons, animals, houses) and lands vowed to God and the commutation of them.”

vs. 2-8 – Here are prescribed values that could be paid in cases were a vow promised to dedicate a person to the Lord.

vs. 9-13 – Here are instructions for valuing animals vowed to the Lord.  To ensure the proper value is made there is 20% premium added to the valuation.

vs. 14-15 – Here are instructions for valuing a house vowed to the Lord.  A 20% premium is added to the valuation.

vs. 16-24 – Here are instructions for valuing a field vowed to the Lord. The price was determined by the amount of barley seed it would take to sow it.  This amount is then multiplied by the years remaining until the next Year of Jubilee, then a 20% premium added to that.  If the original owner does not redeem it by Jubilee, it becomes property of the priesthood, and he loses the ability to redeem it.

vs. 25 – God knows mankind will try to find loopholes to get a better deal.  It is declared that the standardized weight of the shekel at the Tabernacle was to be used in these transactions.

vs. 26-33 – The focus of this final section is regarding things that are already claimed by God, such as tithes and the firstborn animals.  The firstborn clean animals were claimed by God in Exodus 13:2,12-13 and could not be redeemed.  Unclean animals could be redeemed at valuation plus 20%.  Things already devoted could not be devoted again.  Things condemned could not be devoted.  The tithe of the increase could be redeemed at valuation plus 20% with no allowance for substitution or cherry-picking.

Chapter 26 is a critical passage in the Bible.  God is holy and just.  He cannot let sin go unpunished, especially among His own people.  He woos us to follow Him by blessing obedience and shoos us from evil by cursing rebellion.  It all is working to bring His people to Him.  Even when we fail, He is still seeking to restore us.  God does not punish His own out of hatred, but rather corrects us out of love.

Today’s hymn, “God of Mercy, God of Grace” by Henry Francis Lyte, opens with two beautiful verses that exemplify the truest spirit of giving.  They acknowledge that all we have truly belongs to God in the first place and that we are but stewards of it all.

We give Thee but Thine own,
Whate’er the gift may be;
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from Thee.

May we Thy bounties thus
As stewards true receive,
And gladly, as Thou blessest us,
To Thee our firstfruits give.

O hearts are bruised and dead,
And homes are bare and cold,
And lambs for whom the Shepherd bled
Are straying from the fold.

To comfort and to bless,
To find a balm for woe,
To tend the lone and fatherless
Is angels’ work below.

The captive to release,
To God the lost to bring,
To teach the way of life and peace—
It is a Christ-like thing.

And we believe Thy Word,
Though dim our faith may be;
Whate’er for Thine we do, O Lord,
We do it unto Thee.