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Leviticus 24-27
Blessings or Cursings:
Your Choice
Psalm 20:1-9 In What Do You Trust?
1.“May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob set you up on high,2.send you help from the sanctuary, grant you support from Zion,3.remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah.4.May He grant you your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your counsel/plans.5.We will triumph in your salvation. In the name of our God, we will set up our banners. May Yahweh grant all your requests.6.Now I know that Yahweh saves His anointed. He will answer him from His holy heaven, with the saving strength of His right hand.7.Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust the name of Yahweh our God.8.They are bowed down and fallen, but we rise up, and stand upright.9.Yahweh save the King. Answer us when we call!"
Observations
20:1-5.Psalm 20 has some good tips when praying for someone else (other than “God be with or bless so-and-so.”)
20:4-5.
It's not just about their requests, but a reminder of all that God can do when His people trust Him. (20:1-3, 6,8)
20:6-7.
God answers prayer so others can see what He does, and be encouraged to seek Him.
Application
Are your requests and desires such that others would want God to be glorified in answering them?
Prayer
God, my King, You are greater than chariots and horses; thank You that You don't just answer but You support, You help, You cause Your people to rise and stand upright, and rejoice in your deliverance. Amen
Proverbs 5:22-23 Don't Go There!
22.The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.23.He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.“Observation
5:22-23.This chapter was devoted almost exclusively to avoiding immorality, ending in 5:21, with a stern warning that God is intently considering and examining (judging) all our paths. The final verses address the consequences of ignoring wisdom with respect to sexual purity. Repeated sin wears a rut in our thinking and physiologically in our brains, making it easier and easier for desires to express themselves in evil, and more and more difficult to do the right thing. Like the Lilliputian threads eventually bound Gulliver, so the thinnest webs of sin accumulate to form an unbreakable snare. The fool, who chooses the wrong objective of short-term sensual gratification will die due to a lack of correction/instruction. Repeated folly causes the fool to go astray, as in over the cliff, and smashed on the rocks. There is no happy ending for the fool.
Application
Don't train yourself to like things that aren't profitable or good for you.
Prayer
Lord, help me see sin for the deadly evil it is, and not be deceived by its deception; please guide me to the paths of righteousness and peace. Thanks. Amen.
Leviticus 24-27 Blessings or Cursings: Your Choice
If you're short on time skip directly to chapter 26, in which God specifies how He blesses the wise and how He curses the wayward. Your view of God should never be the same (see Digging Deeper).
Leviticus 24 Pure Oil, Bread, and Stones
1.Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,2.Command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually.6.You shall set (loaves of bread) in two rows, six on a row, on the pure table before Yahweh.7.You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire to Yahweh.8.Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before Yahweh continually; it is on the behalf of the children of Israel, an everlasting covenant.11.the son of the Israelite woman (and Egyptian father) blasphemed the Name with a curse; NIV and they brought him to Moses.14.Bring forth him who has cursed outside of the camp; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.22.You shall have one manner of law, as well for the sojourner, as for the home-born: for I am Yahweh your God.23.Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and they brought forth him who had cursed out of the camp, and stoned him with stones. The children of Israel did as Yahweh commanded Moses.Observations
24:1.As In Exodus 22 the community had the responsibility of enforcing God's laws.
24:11.
To blaspheme is usually translated “to curse”, in Greek it means to “speak against.” The Hebrew word translated “curse” in v11 is the intentional intensive form of the verb “to slight, or be of little account.” This looks like an intentional misuse of God's name to bring harm on his opponent, both of whose parents were Israelites. This explains the comment in v22.
Leviticus 25 Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee
1.Yahweh spoke to Moses in Mount Sinai, saying,2.Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath to Yahweh.3.Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruits of it;4.but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.5.That which grows of itself of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.6.The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you;8.You shall number seven Sabbaths of years...even forty-nine years.9.Then shall you send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall you send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land.10.You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants of it: it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family.18.Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.19.The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.20.If you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;21.then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.22.You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store.23.The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for you are strangers and sojourners with me.39.If your brother has grown poor with you, and sell himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a bond-servant.40.As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you to the year of jubilee:41.then shall he go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family,42.For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondservants.44.As for your bondservants, and your bondmaids, whom you shall have; of the nations that are round about you, of them shall you buy bondservants and bondmaids.55.For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your God.Observations
25:6.They could eat what was in the field, in the field, but not harvest it. God would command blessing (25:21) so the land would produce triple: enough for the sixth, seventh, and eighth year (because they couldn't sow in the seventh year to yield a crop in the eighth). Ex 23:11 introduced the Sabbath for the land, indicating the benefit for the poor.
The only way this command could have been proposed and accepted is if God were obviously and supernaturally providing for His people (manna in the morning).
25:23.
The Year of Jubilee was a fresh start, all farm land (means of production) reverted back to the original owners (so it was to be purchased with that in mind). Israelites who had sold themselves to pay their debts went free, because they were the Lord's servants. Foreign slaves didn't. There is no record that Israel followed these commands. In fact they went into captivity for the amount of time necessary for the land to get its Sabbath rest.
Application
Although He might apparently delay, God will do what He has promised, whether to bless or curse. Since Israel wouldn't obey and reap the blessing of the Sabbath year, God cursed them with exile so the land could rest. Whether by blessing or cursing God would have His way; so doesn't it make sense to do things His way?
Prayer
God whom I serve, may I do all that You have commanded, so You can command Your blessings upon me, and I can praise You for Your goodness to me. Amen.
Leviticus 26 Choose Blessing or Cursing, Your Choice
1.You shall make you no idols, neither shall you rear you up an engraved image, or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am Yahweh your God.2.You shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am Yahweh.3.If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;4.then I will give 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 reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.6.I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will cause evil animals to cease out of the land, neither shall the sword 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 have respect to you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.10.You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall bring forth the old because of the new.11.I will set my tent among you: and my soul won`t abhor you.12.I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people.13.I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondservants; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.14.But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments;15.and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant;16.I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.17.I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck before your enemies: those who hate you shall rule over you; and you shall flee when none pursues you.18.If you will not yet for these things listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.19.I will break the pride of your power: and I will make your sky as iron, and your earth as brass;20.and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.21.If you walk contrary to me, and still won`t listen to me, I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins.22.I will send the animal of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate.23.If by these things you still won`t be reformed to me, but will walk contrary to me;24.then will I also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins.25.I will bring a sword on you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant; and you shall be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.26.When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.27.If you still won`t for all this listen to me, but walk contrary to me;28.then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.29.You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat.30.I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your dead bodies on the bodies of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you.31.I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I won`t smell the savor of your sweet odors.32.I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it.33.You will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.34.Then shall the land enjoy its Sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemies` land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths.35.As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it didn`t have in your Sabbaths, when you lived on it.40.They shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me,41.I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: IF then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity;42.then will I remember my covenant...43....even because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.44.Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God;45.but I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am Yahweh.46.These are the statutes and ordinances and laws, which Yahweh made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.Observations
26:5.There will be so much grain, they'll be threshing it until it's time to make wine, and then so much wine, they'll be making it until it's grain time again. I was going to condense the blessing section, but it's too good to leave out.
26:14.
The cursing section (which is longer than the blessings because we tend to be motivated more by fear than desire) begins with not listening to God's Word. The soul abhorring (unsanctified mind, will, and emotions/values) leads to not valuing but breaking the covenant and getting themselves broke as a consequence.
Application
Learn at the low volume, that way you'll enjoy blessings rather than cursings. Smart, huh?
Prayer
Gracious God, forgive me for not valuing Your words and obeying You; thank You that You accept the humble and repentant. May I walk in Your ways the rest of my days, and reap Your blessings rather than Your cursings. Amen.
Leviticus 27 Vows and Valuations
1.Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,2.“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘When a man consecrates a person in a vow, according to your valuation...8.But if he is poorer than your valuation, then he shall be set before the priest, and the priest shall assign a value to him. The priest shall assign a value according to his ability to pay.9.“‘If it is an animal, of which men offer an offering to Yahweh, all that any man gives of such to Yahweh becomes holy.10.He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change animal for animal, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy.14.“‘When a man dedicates his house to be holy to Yahweh, then the priest shall evaluate it, whether it is good or bad: as the priest shall evaluate it, so shall it stand.15.If he who dedicates it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall be his.16.“‘If a man dedicates to Yahweh part of the field of his possession...25.All your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs to the shekel.30.“‘All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is Yahweh’s. It is holy to Yahweh.31.If a man redeems anything of his tithe, he shall add a fifth part to it.32.All the tithe of the herds or the flocks, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to Yahweh.33.He shall not search whether it is good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he changes it at all, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed.’”34.These are the commandments which Yahweh commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.Observations
27:1.A person could dedicate something to God out of gratitude or in a bargain. This chapter deals with the valuation of the vow (so the person could give the money value of the item to the service of the sanctuary), and the method of redeeming it (buying it back plus 20%) so the individual could use it again. Vows couldn't be altered.
27:25.
Sets a uniform standard of monetary measure.
27:32.
The tithe (a 10% flat tax on all the land produced) belonged to Yahweh.
Ecc 5:4 When you vow a vow to God, don't defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow. 5 It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay. 6 Don't allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don't protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?
Application
If you vow to give something to God, give it.
Prayer
God, You always keep Your word to me; help me keep mine to You. Amen.
Digging Deeper
God in a nutshell: It should come as no surprise to those who've been reading from Genesis 1 that our God blesses and curses based upon our obedience. His blessings flow out of His infinite goodness and justice, as do His cursings. He is patient and gracious in sending difficulties our way, escalating them to the point where we repent and start doing what is in our own best interest. He will relent when we repent, but we may still suffer the natural consequences of our actions (which may include total loss of blessings -see Numbers 14).Us in a nutshell: We are owned by God, as is the world. We would be wise to remember that and do as He instructs. Failure to follow Him results in failure, disobedience in discipline, rebellion in retribution. We are given the choice of following the route to blessings or cursings. If we choose incorrectly, God graciously gives incentives to go the right way, and gives us the opportunity to humble ourselves, acknowledge that we don't own our lives, and do things His way.