Leviticus 26:1-13--Blessings for Obedience

Leviticus 26:1-13
English Standard Version

Blessings for Obedience
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.

---

It is human nature to ask "What does it benefit me?" or "What do I get out of this?" when being asked to take on rules and regulations.  God repeats some of the Law here, specifically a summary of the first four commandments about how the people are supposed to treat Him, and then gives them a conditional covenant that hinges on their obedience to these commands.

If the people of God obey the commands of God, then God will bless them with rain and good crops of grain and grapes so that they will never be without food.  God will give them peace and safety and security in their land and will protect them from invaders and will even protect the people from the wild beasts.

God promises miraculous victories to them in war where they can defeat armies 20 to 100 times the size of their forces because God will fight for them.

God promises that the people will have the blessing of many children so that they will have heirs to inherit their covenant land and that God will confirm His covenant with each new generation.  He will be their God and they will be His people.

God again promises not just enough food to make it from season to season and year to year, but they would have an overabundance of food that they could store in their storehouses (to survive during the Sabbath years and the Year of Jubilee as well as to provide food for those around them who were in need and to provide for those who were their servants and slaves who were in their care).  God promises that they would have enough to do all that He commanded but also that none of it will go to waste.  They will always be able to clear out the old to make room for the new.

Probably the greatest promise here is that God's presence would dwell with His people and that they would not need to fear living in His presence, for if they are obedient to all that He has commanded than their sin will be atoned for and they need not worry about His holiness consuming them.  In fact, He even promises that He will walk among them.  While this may bring back images of God walking in the Garde with Adam and Eve, we know that this points forward to the time of Jesus (though the people were in no way obedient, God still did this) and the time of the New Heavens and the New Earth where God will once again dwell with His people and walk with them in a way that is the fulfillment of this covenant, because only then will we be perfectly obedient to all of God's Law.  God will do for us then in heaven all these things that we imagined to be earthly rewards for here and now.  The people were looking to make a kind of Utopia where they created heaven on earth where God would once again step into their world, but God has been making a place for us and has been about making us fit for that place so that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and "earth and heaven be one" as the lyrics of "This Is My Father's World" state.