레위기 Chapter 26

Translation: ESV

1

"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.

Key Message

The covenant blessings depend entirely on serving only the LORD and removing idols.

▸Leviticus 26 is the conclusion of the Holiness Code, presenting blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.

Leviticus 26 is the conclusion of the Holiness Code, presenting blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. This chapter is a concise form of the more detailed list of blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28. The chapter begins with the prohibition of idolatry and the requirement to keep the Sabbath.

Related Verses

"And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today,
3

"If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them,

Key Message

God's blessing depends not on mere knowledge but on obedience lived out in life.

▸The condition for blessing is presented.

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.

Key Message

God gives material blessings to an obedient people through nature.

▸The blessings for obedience begin with natural abundance.

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.

Key Message

The peace God gives to the obedient is complete security that removes all fear.

▸'I will give peace in the land' is one of the most precious blessings.

11

I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.

Key Message

God's presence dwelling with us is the greatest of all blessings.

▸The greatest of the blessings for obedience is God dwelling with them.

12

And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

Key Message

The covenant formula 'I am your God, you are my people' is the core declaration running through all of salvation history.

▸'I will be your God, and you shall be my people' is the core of the covenant formula.

14

"But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,

Key Message

God's curse is an expression of judgment, but more fundamentally it is a warning of love calling them to return to obedience.

▸This is the turning point from the section on blessings to the section on curses.

33

And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

Key Message

God's judgment is prophesied, and disobedience necessarily brings its consequences, but the door of restoration is also open.

▸The most extreme curse, exile, is prophesied.

40

"But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me,

Key Message

The beginning of restoration is honestly confessing personal and communal sins before God.

▸After the list of curses, the condition for restoration is presented.

44

yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God.

Key Message

God's covenant love is not cancelled by our disobedience, and this is the basis of hope.

▸This is the declaration that even in the midst of curses and captivity, God did not abandon his covenant.