The Blessings of the Faithful
Leviticus 26:1-13
Introduction.
We are approaching the end of Leviticus.
To me, when I read through this, this chapter seems like the logical end of this book.
It culminates in blessings or rewards should the Israelites obey this Law and curses or consequences if they don’t.
It ends by saying, “These are the statutes …” (26:46).
Then some more statutes are added, but we’ll talk about that in a couple weeks (probably).
Regardless, many of you are parents.
You no doubt have given your children instructions, and rewarded them or punished them accordingly—God is no different here.
Lev. 1-25 detail the instructions (coupled with the rest of the Law).
Lev. 26 now tells them ahead of time what the outcomes will be which depend upon their faithfulness.
Divisions in Lev. 26.
In the first 13 verses we find the blessings given to the faithful.
In the remaining 33 verses the curses are given to the disobedient, far outnumbering the blessings.
This apparent imbalance is actually typical of ancient covenants given at the time.
We can learn much from these outcomes, for they mirror our own outcomes in many ways.
While their outcomes were sometimes physical in nature, ours will certainly be spiritual.
After all, God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” right? (Eph. 1:3).
Preview—today we will be focusing on the blessings of God.
Summarized Command (26:1-3).
Earthly Blessings (26:4-10).
Spiritual Blessings (26:11-13).
Body.
Summarized Command (26:1-3).
Summary.
These first three verses provide an extremely brief summary of the Law.
The idea here is that if you avoid idolatry, keep the Sabbaths (weekly, yearly, Sabbath Year, and Jubilee), and pay the appropriate respect to His sanctuary (the tabernacle in this case), then they are far less likely to go astray.
This is so true with us as well, isn’t it?
Idolatry.
We need to make the Lord a priority in our lives (Matt. 6:33).
Otherwise we run the risk of falling into idolatry ourselves.
If we do not make the Lord our priority, we will place other things before Him.
We may even end up serving them and eventually abandon the Lord altogether.
Keep My Sabbaths.
While we don’t have all the holidays that the Israelites had that we had discussed when we looked at Lev. 23 & 25, we do have a weekly observance that we are to keep (Acts 20:7; Heb. 10:24-25).
I know in this time of pandemic it is difficult to gather together like we used to, but we should still do our best to worship in spirit and truth in some manner.
Often one of the early signs of someone falling away is their lack of church attendance—these days it’s hard to tell if that’s the reason or not.
Let us reach out to those who have not been here, make sure they remember that they are still apart of us and we of them.
Reverence My sanctuary.
And as we gather together, let us have the proper respect and reverence for the Lord and the goings on during our worship.
All these things must be taught to our children if we want them to be faithful—if they remember nothing else, let them leave your house with those three teachings.
Without the reverence due Him, we are not regarding the Lord as holy, something He demanded then and demands now (Lev. 10:3; 1 Pet. 1:16).
Earthly blessings (26:4-10).
There are two main earthly blessings that are promised.
A good crop and plenty of food (26:4-5, 9-10).
Peace and security (26:6-8).
Many of you may recall Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who came out with this paradigm in 1943 in a paper titled “A Theory of Human Motivation.”
This has fallen into some criticism in recent times, but there is still quite a bit of truth to it.
The bottom and most basic needs are physiological needs, such as food, water, and shelter.
The Lord promises to them these basic necessities of life, and in abundance.
The second tier include safety and security.
Again, the Lord promises these things to those who are faithful to Him.
As Christians, do we need to worry about our basic necessities?
No, of course not! Jesus tells us that if we seek first the kingdom of God, all the necessities of life will be provided for us (Matt. 6:25-34).
Does that mean we don’t have to work for it? No, but it does mean we don’t have to worry about it.
As Christians, do we need to worry about our peace and safety?
No, but that does not mean we are promised peace and safety on this earth.
Just look at the early Christians and the persecutions they faced, and Jesus told them to expect it.
In fact, He calls those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake blessed, or happy, even saying they should rejoice and be exceedingly glad (Matt. 5:10-12).
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
While we may suffer in this life, the Lord gives us the peace to endure it, particularly the peace that surpasses all understanding when we pray with thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6-7).
He reassures us that our ultimate heavenly reward will be great no matter what happens to us here.
Spiritual blessings (26:10-12).
The third and fourth tiers in this hierarchy of needs is a sense of belonging and self-esteem.
That fits in well with what we have in this next section.
The Lord assures the faithful Israelites that He will be with them and walk with them.
They will belong to Him, be one of His people, a part of something bigger than themselves.
Imagine what that does to their self-esteem when the Creator of heaven and earth, the God who is greater than anything else in the world has chosen to dwell with them.
We do that, too, sometimes. We look at a sunset, at a starry sky, at a newborn baby and wonder significance could we possibly have in all this wild and amazing universe.
Why would the Creator of all this want anything to do with us?
Both David and Job ask that very question,
“What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set your heart on him” (Job 7:17).
“What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?” (Psa. 8:4).
“Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man that you are mindful of him?” (Psa. 144:3).
It’s because He loves us, and that fills us with such a sense of love and belonging, and it builds us up so much.
The Jews went overboard with that esteem to the point where it blossomed into full-blown arrogance by the first century—they felt like they had earned their place through obedience to the Law of Moses.
We, too, need to be careful to remember our place, not to become too haughty or arrogant, thinking we are better than others for our obedience to the Law of Christ.
We only have to look at the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14 to see what I mean.
But what this does give us is a sense of belonging and love that we could have nowhere else.
In college, I had no desire to join a club or fraternity because I already had something I was apart of, and aside from my schoolwork, I didn’t want to divert my attention away from it—that was the Lord’s church.
He already gave me a sense of belonging that I didn’t need filled by any other club or social organization.
That’s not to say joining such things is wrong per se, but they shouldn’t take too much attention away from our work serving the Lord.
Not only that, but God dwells within us.
Perhaps not literally, but He is there nonetheless.
God Himself makes His home with us if we keep His word (John 14:23).
Christ also dwells in our hearts through faith (Eph. 3:17).
On top of that, His Spirit tabernacles with us, as we are told, “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own” (1 Cor. 6:19).
How awesome and amazing is that?
He dwells with us, not because we earned it—we have no cause to boast—but because He loved us and showed us such amazing and wonderful grace.
That grace taught us how to escape the clutches of sin and death through Jesus Christ.
Conclusion.
On Maslow’s top tier in his hierarchy of needs is self-actualization.
It’s difficult to describe exactly what that means, but once all the needs below it have been met, we can now work toward that goal.
We can create and build and do other great things since we’re not worried about all of our other, more base needs.
God provides us with all of that—if we are faithful to Him.
Next week, Lord willing, we will discuss the curses the follow the disobedient.
You can have these great and wonderful blessings, too.
Wouldn’t you like to become self-actualized, not having to worry about all the needs that we once had?
Recall, however, it’s not something we earn, so we have nothing to boast about.
That salvation can only be had by the grace of God through our faith (Eph. 2:8-9).
But true faith is empty without works (James 2:26), so let us obey the Lord, showing our faith with our actions (James 2:18).
Faith without works is dead.
Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
It is only in Christ that we can receive those spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3).
So become a Christian today!