Leviticus 26:1-46 | Sunday October 19, 2025
Every contract includes the specific terms that are to be upheld. If both parties fulfill their obligations in the contract then it describes the positive outcome. Conversely, penalties are included if one party does not honor the contract. In chapter 26 God is finalizing His covenant of what it means for Him to dwell with Israel. A little over a year ago the Israelites were slaves in Egypt and God bought them through the blood and secured their freedom. He showed them how to build the tabernacle, and His presence abided there. He has spent the entire book of Leviticus explaining how they should live with Him. In chapter 26 God describes the blessings that He will give to them if they walk with Him and follow His Word. God also promises the curses that will come if they ignore His Word.
Leviticus 26:1-2 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.
(2) You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD.
God has such an amazing way of summarizing His law, and aiming straight at our hearts. It can be hard to imagine that after all God has done for Israel and shown them that they would be tempted to worship a man made idol, and yet we know how often they did. Before images or pillars were bowed down to, Israel would start neglecting the holiness of God’s presence in the tabernacle and ignore God’s various Sabbaths, (weekly and yearly). It is much easier to start worshipping a stone statue when you forget who God is and what He has done for you. Keeping the Sabbaths and revering the tabernacle were meant to draw Isreal into a deep walk with Him. If Israel obeyed God they could enjoy the rich blessings of fellowship with Him.
Leviticus 26:3-13 ESV
(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.
God gives an extensive list of all the ways He wants to bless His people. These blessings include favorable weather for abundant crops, peace from enemies and even from wild animals. God also promises a supernatural ability to defend themselves and strike fear into their enemies. God promises that the nation would be fruitful, secure, and would multiply in the land. Unlike other ancient covenants from neighboring nations, Israel is not praying for God to bless them. Instead, God is the one making these promises.
Deuteronomy 32:30-31 ESV
(30) How could one have chased a thousand, and two have put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had given them up?
(31) For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves.
Other nations relied on false gods and would make great pleas for their help. Instead Israel relied on the one true Rock. He alone could make one Israelite chase a thousand enemies. As Moses shares these truths, it is in the past tense. God promised it in Leviticus 26, and they have seen it happen. Even with all these great earthly blessings God finishes with the best promise of all, His presence.
Leviticus 26:11-13 NKJV
(11) I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.
(12) I will walk among you and 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; I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.
The God of the universe is offering a close intimate relationship with Isreal. He is offering to be apart of their daily lives, and abide with them. God was offering to dwell, with His people, to Tabernacle with them. The blessings all flow from being with God. He is promising to restore the intimacy that has been lost since the garden.
Genesis 3:8 ESV
(8) And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Adam and Eve had sinned so the hid from God ‘s presence and humanity has been hiding from Him ever since. Instead of hearing God coming and being filled with joy and drawing near to Him we now move away from Him. God was offering to restore this relationship. They were His people, He brought them out of Egypt, now was their chance to have fellowship with Him and be blessed. For Israel these blessings were physical. As New Testament believers our blessings are eternal.
Ephesians 1:3 ESV
(3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
In the church we are not promised good crops, or material wealth. Taking these promises for Israel out of context does a lot of harm. As we walk in fellowship with Jesus we are still blessed but in an eternal spiritual way. For instance suffering is a blessing of fellowship.
Philippians 1:29 ESV
(29) For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake,
Suffering is viewed as a blessing and grace in our life. It is a high calling that produces more for eternity than we can ever know here. We are truly blessed in Jesus and we get to experience those blessings as we walk close with Him. Unfortunately, the chapter does not stop with these blessings. If Israel refuses to walk with God then there are tremendous curses that will come upon them. This chapter is defined by the word “IF.”
Leviticus 26:14-15 ESV
(14) “But if you will not listen to Me and will not do all these commandments,
(15) if you spurn My statutes, and if your soul abhors My rules, so that you will not do all My commandments, but break My covenant,
Even though Isreal has been brought out of Egypt, and have been declared God’s people, walking in fellowship with God is not a forgone conclusion. The people now have a choice. In their sinful hearts, they can reject God’s word. To abhor His rules is to view them as vile, and see them as something that is spoiled or rotten. Instead of God’s blessings Israel would receive His curses.
Leviticus 26:16-30 ESV
(16) then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. 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 down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.
(18) And if in spite of this you will not listen to Me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins,
(19) and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.
(20) And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
(21) “Then if you walk contrary to Me and will not listen to Me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins.
(22) And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.
(23) “And if by this discipline you are not turned to Me but walk contrary to Me,
(24) then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.
(25) And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
(26) When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
(27) “But if in spite of this you will not listen to Me, but walk contrary to Me,
(28) then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins.
(29) You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.
(30) And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and My soul will abhor you.
Instead of putting enemies to flight, Israel would run in panic as no one pursued them. Instead of peace and safety from wild animals, they would be ravaged by them. Instead of an abundance of food, ten women will be able to share an oven because bread is so scarce. If Israel keeps pursuing their sin, then as a curse they would even turn to cannibalism. In Leviticus 26, these are promises, that have not happened yet. They were meant to serve as warnings, instead they became prophetic. Throughout the Old Testament, we can find evidences of all these curses coming upon God’s people, even cannibalism.
2 Kings 6:28-29 ESV
(28) And the king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’
(29) So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him.’ But she has hidden her son.”
It is heart wrenching to see how far Israel fell. They serve as a sober warning of how hard hearted God’s people can become. God promises to discipline His people. His heart is fellowship and restoration, and He is willing to continually up the discipline until it is responded to. God’s discipline is done in love.
Amos 3:1-2 ESV
(1) Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt: (2) “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
Proverbs 3:11-12 NLT
(11) My child, don’t reject the LORD’s discipline, and don’t be upset when He corrects you. (12) For the LORD corrects those He loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom He delights.
Isreal had the unique privilege of being God’s people and He treated them as such. Out of His love and heart for relationship He punished there sin, and promised them curses for disobedience. We prefer the terms discipline and correction and yet it all describes the same thing. He loved His people enough not to let them continue in their sin. Israel was held accountable for how they walk with God and we will be held accountable as well.
2 Corinthians 5:9-10 ESV
(9) So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.
(10) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
All believers are saved by the blood of Jesus and will face no condemnation, no wrath from God. As God’s set apart people we will give an account for how we have lived for Him. We are called to make it our aim to please Him and walk in fellowship with Him. At this bema (judgment) seat is where the earthly and eternal will be separated. Our loving gracious God desires for us to enjoy His presence and not waste what has been given to us. Israel wasted so much. In discipline God was willing to punish them to the point of exile.
Leviticus 26:31-39 ESV
(31) And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas.
(32) And I Myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it.
(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.
(34) “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths.
(35) As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.
(36) And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.
(37) They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
(38) And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
(39) And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies' lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.
The land flowing with milk and Honey that God wanted His people to enjoy as their inheritance, He is promising to devastate. Israel continued in their sin and squandered walking in God’s goodness. The Israelites were going to be scattered among the nations and will perish. Then God affirms that He will not make a complete end of Isreal.
Leviticus 26:40-46 NET
(40) However, when they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against Me, by which they also walked in hostility against Me
(41) (and I Myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for their iniquity,
(42) I will remember My covenant with Jacob and also My covenant with Isaac and also My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
(43) The land will be abandoned by them in order that it may make up for its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them, and they will make up for their iniquity because they have rejected My regulations and have abhorred My statutes.
(44) In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break My covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God.
(45) I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the LORD.
(46) These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the LORD established between Himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through Moses.
Some translations start this passage with if, continuing the theme we have seen throughout the chapter. The only problem is there is no “IF” in verse 40. God is promising to remain faithful to His people. He will remember the covenants with Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. He will remember the physical land. He promises not to make a complete end of them.
This exile referred to the Babylonian exile but in a fuller way, it describes the Jewish history throughout the ages. Every country has a story of persecuting the Jews as they have been scattered throughout the world and the promised land lied in desolation for many years. It is amazing to read Samuel Henry Kellog remarks in 1891:
“The continued existence of this nation [Israel] up to the present day, the preservation […] throughout thousands of years, in spite of all dispersion and oppression, remains so unparalleled a phenomenon, that without […] God, and His constant interference and protection, it would be impossible for us to explain it.” “And, strangest of all, throughout this time the once fertile land has lain desolate, for the Gentiles have never settled in it in any great number.”
He wrote this 57 years before Isreal was declared a nation again. As He studied Leviticus 26, He was amazed at these truths. Without a homeland, scattered, and persecuted in the world the Jews still existed and the sought after prized promised land lie relatively empty and in ruin. The Word has been fulfilled in our lifetime. God is remaining faithful to His people and His promises. I want to be clear that modern Israel has not repented and is not walking with God, yet God has brought His people back into the promised land. A people He protected throughout the generations.
Why does this matter, because it anchors our hearts to how God will treat us. So many wonder what sins a believer cannot commit. Or we struggle with the idea of a believer continuing in sin for too long. Israel should serve as a warning and a promise. God disciplines His own who are not walking with Him and God remains faithful to His promises.
2 Timothy 2:11-13 ESV
(11) The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him;
(12) if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us;
(13) if we are faithless, He remains faithful— for He cannot deny himself.
Philippians 1:6 ESV
(6) And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.