Leviticus 26-27

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Leviticus 26:1-46

“Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God. 2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. 3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; 4 then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. 6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. 7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. 10 And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. 11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. 13 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright. 14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 and if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: 16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. 18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 20 and your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. 21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. 23 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. 27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28 then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. 31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. 32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. 35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. 36 And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. 37 And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. 40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; 41 and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: 42 then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. 43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD 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 heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD. 46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.”

Introduction

[Audio version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED577]

“Leviticus chapter 26 and 27, interesting chapters. We have the word “if” thirty-two times in these last two chapters, nine times I believe in chapter 26, twenty-three times in chapter 27. And we have God saying in response to those, “if” you will do this, “I will” he responds twenty-four times. And as the New Testament Church, we’re under a better Covenant, this was under the Old Covenant. There are certainly spiritual lessons for us to learn, and it says ‘The things that were written aforetime were written for our learning, our instruction upon whom the ends of the age are come, that we might have hope.’ (1^st Corinthians 10) We read these things in the New Testament, so certainly there are lessons and things for us. But in regards to the nation of Israel, and the Covenant they were in with God in the Old Testament, he gave them his commandments and his statutes, and said “if” “then I will.” And it’s almost impossible for us to understand the history of the nation of Israel without the word “if,” as God lays it out, “if you’ll do this, if you’ll keep my statutes, if you’ll keep my covenant, if you’ll keep my law, if you’ll keep my ways, then I will do this.” And all through the Old Testament we see the rehearsal of that, when they rebel against God, the way then that he responds, and if they obey and yield, the blessings that come, we see those things as we go through the Old Testament. So these last two chapters of Leviticus outline some very interesting parts of that. If you look here in chapter 26 in verse 3 is the first challenge, ‘if you will walk in my statutes,’ over in verse 14, there’s a ‘but’ in front of it, ‘but, if you will not hearken,’ then he tells what he’ll do if they disobey and rebel, and in verse 40 he says ‘but if they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers,’ then he tells them to trust in his covenant, ‘that if they have sinned, if they’ve gone away, if they turn back, if they repent, if they ask forgiveness,’ that their relationship with him in fact is in the framework of a covenant, and that he will continue to lead them and continue to love them, and continue to care for them. So those are the three big “if’s” in this chapter. There are many more as we come to chapter 27, Lord willing, we’ll get through both of these this evening.

The Promised National Blessings For Obedience

He begins by saying, he’s wrapping up now this book of laws and sacrifices, Leviticus, very interesting here, the word “idols” is not the normal word that’s used in the Hebrew for “idols,” this is a word that means “nought,” or “nothings,” or “to come to nothing.” It says ‘You shall make yourselves no nothings,’ because in the ultimate sense that’s what idols all are, they’re “nothings.” “Ye shall make you no idols” ‘nothings,’ “nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.” (verse 1) That’s what he’ll build this around “for I am the LORD your God.” No standing images, don’t stand them up, because there is no image that will remain standing. You may stand and I may stand something up that we adhere to, that we bow down to, certainly these days it might be a car, a career, it might be some other thing. And many times a Christian will say ‘Well if my wife did this, if my marriage was this way, if my job was, then I’d act this way.’ No, there’s none of that in the Bible, that’s an idol. And what we’re saying sometimes ‘If my marriage was the way I thought it should be, then I would act like a Christian,’ or ‘If my boss, if he was fair, then I would act like a Christian,’ there’s none of that. Because that’s an imperfect idol, any of that you stand up will never stand, it will fall down. The reason we do what we do is because of him, because of Jesus, and he’s the one that directs our behavior, it isn’t circumstance, and there is no idol, there is no thing that anyone can ever stand up that will remain standing, none of it, he will be the only one that remains standing, and every knee will bow before him. ‘Ye shall stand up none of these nothings, to bow down in front of them.’ “Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.” (verse 2) and it’s plural here, remember we went through the Sabbaths of weeks, the Sabbath years, then the year of Jubilee, we went through a long study on that. [Also, in Leviticus 23, the High Holy Days are also called Sabbaths in that sense.] “and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.” because what we’re going to see in this chapter, the center of it is, he’s dwelling in the midst of them, ‘You shall reverence my sanctuary,’ because God giving the description of the Tabernacle to Moses and having the different artisans put together the Tabernacle, God has taken residence in the midst of his people for the first time since Adam and Eve dwelled with God in the Garden of Eden, he takes up a personal residence right in the midst of his people, so he says ‘You’re going to honor my sanctuary.’ The remarkable thing is that he himself, his presence would be there in the midst of them. And now he goes on to lay these things out. [Comment: Yahweh, the pre-Incarnate Christ would dwell in this Tabernacle, and then the Temple in Jerusalem from the point in time from Exodus 40 when the Tabernacle was finished, right up until just before the Babylonian captivity, when the LORD removed himself from the Temple, as witnessed by Ezekiel, due to their continued sinning, from ordinary people to the priesthood in the Temple (see https://unityinchrist.com/ezek/ezek1.html and scroll to Ezekial 8 and read from Ezekiel chapters 8 through 10, which describes the LORD’s literal departure from the Temple of Solomon just before the Babylonian captivity. The Jews and Levitical priesthood had stopped honouring God’s sanctuary, quite literally, polluting it with secret idol worship, right within the Temple itself.] He says, “If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then” now he comes to the “then.” If you do this, we understand conditional promises, when you raise your kids you say ‘Alright, want one of those? Well “if” you’ll do this, and if you do this, “then” you’ll get one of these, and if you don’t do it, you’re not gonna get one of these.’ The Book of Proverbs, ‘trust in the LORD with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him,’ “then,” ‘if you meet those conditions then he will direct your paths,’ it’s conditional. Trust in the LORD with all your heart, that’s easy, right? In all your ways acknowledge him, “and then, he will direct your paths.” And this is very much like that, he’s saying “If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;” not just make plaques out of them and put them on the wall, “then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” What he’s going to say, is, as we go through this, he’s going to say there will be provision, there’ll be productivity, there will be peace, in verse 6, there will be protection, in verse 6, there will be power, verse 7, there will by my presence in verse 11. You go through all of the, my wife likes sweet peas, this is a whole garden of sweet peas here that God puts in front of his people. “then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” (verse 4) You know, isn’t it interesting, we’re seeing in our nation, we’re looking around we’re seeing some areas of the country haven’t gotten any rain at all, then we’re seeing other areas that are getting more rain than they should get, and they’re all flooded. Rain is a blessing, but it’s the blessing that it should be when it’s in “due season.” When it’s all summer long and your house is underwater it’s not such a blessing. ‘But I will give you the rain,’ he’s in charge of that, ‘in due season, the land shall yield her increase, the trees of the land shall yield their fruit’ there’s going to be provision from God, there’s going to be productivity, “And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.” (verse 5) There’s productivity, there’s protection. “And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid:” boy, we long for that day, don’t we, “and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.” (verse 6) There will be protection, this is real Homeland Security here, when the Lord does this. You know it says the might of a nation depends upon its righteousness, and certainly with our land, the greatest threat is not some of the things that we’re trying to protect ourselves against, the greatest threats are some of the things we allow to go on inside of our own borders, some of the unrighteousness and the ungodly things that go on. He says ‘if we keep his statutes, walk in his commandments, he’ll do these things, he will rid the land of evil beasts,’ “neither shall the sword go through your land.” “And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.” for us, a picture of the Word of God, if we want to make application, “And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.” (verses 7-8) God’s Word, if his people yield to him, he will make them valiant in battle. You and I, if we’re yielded to him, his Word will work on our behalf, undoubtedly. [Haven’t we in the United States and the British Commonwealth seen this kind of victory over and over again against our enemies?] “For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.” (verses 9-10) So there’s going to be plenty in the land, the old left over from the year before will still be there when the new comes in. Certainly for you and I, this picture of prosperity, a scribe in the Kingdom brings out of his treasure things new and old, our prosperity is directly related to God’s truth. John would say this, “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth, for I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that was in thee, even thou walkest in truth, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” So there is a spiritual prosperity that we’re to have, and that is the walking in truth, to have our souls prospering. [The elephant in the room: Just look at the prosperity of the U.S. & British Commonwealth of Nations over the past 200 years.] Look, he’s going to come to the next thing, he says here, “And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.” (verse 11) We can’t take all of the Promises made to Israel and apply them to the Church, obviously. [Comment: as I’ve said before, the Law of God, given in Exodus through Deuteronomy, was the Constitution of Israel, Constitutional laws given for the governing of the nation of Israel, made up of 12 tribes, and the priestly tribe of Levi. Right here, in verses 1 through 14, God is promising physical blessings for obedience, on a national level, for obeying those Constitutional laws. As seen in Israel’s history, from Saul, king David, right up to the division of the Israelite nation into two kingdoms, the Ten Tribes to the north, and the Kingdom of Judah to the south after Solomon’s death, and up to the captivity and deportation of the Kingdom of Israel, the Ten Tribes to the north, and then the captivity of the Kingdom of Judah to the south 140 years later, God brought upon all 12 tribes of Israel the curses which follow in verses 14-46, for their disobedience. Their history is spelled out very graphically in this survey of Old Testament history at: https://www.unityinchrist.com/kings/1.html (this is a 6-part series, hypertext linked together at the end of each chapter). As you will see in https://www.unityinchrist.com/kings/3.html the ten tribed nation of Israel to the north was conquered, captured and deported by the Assyrian Empire, never to have permanently returned to the land of Israel. Whoever they are as nations, Abraham’s promised blessings of national wealth still apply to them, promises of their becoming great nations of their own (see https://www.unityinchrist.com/Genesis47-48.html and https://www.unityinchrist.com/Genesis49-50.html). So whoever and wherever those Ten Tribes are, historically lost, but not lost in God’s eyes, these Covenant promises of blessings and curses still apply to them in these end-times. We will come to see that these curses in verses 14-46 end up bringing those Israelite nations directly into the Tribulation scenario spelled out in Matthew 24 and the Books of Daniel and Revelation. So hang on, we’re going for a ride here, as these verses directly apply to some of the nations we live in right in the here and now.] We’re going to see as we go through our study tonight, that whole idea falls apart, there are literal promises made to Israel relative to the Land of Israel, we’re seeing some of that as we go home and turn the news on tonight, and you see a literal people back in a literal land. But certainly God’s presence, we have that, this promise, in the center of all of this is his presence in the Tabernacle, that is promised to us, that he’ll never leave us or forsake us. The New Testament tells us that, ‘Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the Age.’ And certainly it is through his presence that his Word prospers in our lives, it’s through his presence, the power of his Spirit is realized in our lives. We may go through and will go through difficulties, there is illness. I mean, we look at the world that we live in, I’m always amazed as I watch and I see the prophetic gears turning, and I realize ‘Hey, the Bird Flu could set all of us back 40 years if God wanted to.’ We’re just so vulnerable [Covid-19 almost did that, in 2019 through 2020], and we’re so frail in so many ways, and we don’t realize that until it comes to our door, our own mortality. But one thing we know is, we’ll always have his presence. Whatever our path brings to us, you know, we were talking in Bible class the other day about Jesus sending his disciples across the Sea of Galilee, he sent them into the storm, he knew the storm was coming. And they weren’t in the storm because they did anything wrong, they were in the storm because they were obedient. Jonah was in a storm because he was disobedient. There are storms of correction, but there are storms of instruction. And they will come in our lives, but he never leaves us, he never forsakes us, his presence, he says, will be in the midst of you, it will always be there for you and I. And it’s a greater covenant than they enjoyed, that you and I enjoy. “And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.” (verses 12-13) Nine times in the Book of Leviticus he mentions this specifically, that he had brought them out of the land of Egypt and set them free, “and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.” So, these promises, ‘If you will walk in my ways, if you keep my statutes, get rid of idolatry.’ And the land they were coming into would be filled with idolatry. ‘If you will keep from those things, and what you do keep is my Word, my Statutes, my Commandments,’ he says, ‘then I’ll make provision, I’ll make prosperity, I’ll make peace, I’ll make plenty, I’ll make my presence there, I’ll make my covenant,’ he goes through this list of all of these things that he promises, if they will walk with him. But look at verse 14.

The Promised National Curses For Disobedience

Verse 14 he says (it’s almost like he knows them, isn’t it?) “But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;” Wait until we get to the Book of Deuteronomy, one of the most amazing passages in the end of the Book of Deuteronomy as Moses is getting ready, he’s coming to the end of his life, he’s over 100 years old [he’s actually 120 years old], and the steering wheel is going to be handed to Joshua. And the LORD says to Moses, ‘Go get Joshua, and bring him to the tent of meeting here,’ and Moses goes and finds Joshua and says ‘Hey, Josh,’ ‘Ya,’ ‘The LORD wants to talk to you,’ ‘Mua? Are you sure?’ ‘Yup, he told me to bring you down to the Tabernacle, he’s got something he wants to say to you.’ And Moses brings Joshua back to the tent of meeting, and then God goes off on him and says ‘Moses, you did this, you struck the rock, you’re not going to go in, but the people are going to go in, and when the people go in, Moses, they’re going to do this, they’re going to do that, and then they’re going to turn away, and serve other gods, and serve idols, and I’m going to take then, and I’m going to judge them, I’m going to drive them out of the Land, I’m going to do this, and do that,’ and he goes through this whole thing with Moses, and then he says to Joshua, the LORD turns to Joshua, and says ‘Be strong and of good courage, for I am with you.’ You know, Moses is going to die, he’s 120, Joshua’s 100 years old, he’s going to spend the next 7 years of his life in a war that’s not going to bear anything in the long run, and he just told him ‘Joshua, cheer up, you know the last 7 years of your life, you’re 100 years old now, are really going to be for nothing, but be strong and of good courage, for I am with you.’ And it says Joshua, when he dies, he was 107, and it says they buried Joshua “the servant of the LORD.” “Be of good courage, for I am with you.” We all come to that most crucial place in our life, when that is the most important thing, “for I am with you.” He says here to them, because he knows, them and us, “But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; and if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you;” (verses 14-16a) Now he’s going to outline here, the things that he will do to the nation of Israel if they rebel against the things he’s saying to them here. A remarkable God, a father unto them, one who loves them. In the Book of Amos, chapter 3, verse 2, he says, speaking to Israel, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.” ‘You’re the only nation that I’ve known, of all of the families of the earth, you’re my kid, so when you do something wrong, you’re getting spanked.’ ‘Therefore will I punish you.’ God is not a permissive parent. It’s important for us to see that, parents, we’re always shocked here, at movies that parents in this church let their kids see. To hear how many of our first graders and second graders saw the Titanic, I didn’t see it [I did, but I used the almighty clicker to skip past the one steamy sex scene, we have that all-powerful remote in our hand, use it], I heard there was an unclean shot with a woman, I didn’t go see the movie, but it was PG-13. So Hollywood said, don’t bring your kid here unless he’s 13, but Christian families let their kids go see it who are 11-years old, and 10-years old, and I’m thinking ‘Does Hollywood care more about our kids than we do?’ God is not a permissive parent at all. And I’m always surprised at some of the things we let our kids get away with, for the sake of what? being their buddy? My kids had buddies, they only had one dad. You got buddies, you only got one of me, I’m going to do my job, because one day I’m going to stand before the Lord and I’m going to give an account for the stewardship, I have four of these creatures that I love with all of my heart, that I’d lay down my life for, but they’re on loan, and they belong to him. My calling, my life’s work, my heart is to know that when it’s my time to go home, they are going to walk with the Lord, if the Lord tarries that long. Or to know when the Trumpet blows, we’re all going up together. And God is not a permissive parent. He’s going to say here, ‘These are all the blessings will that come your way if you listen to me.’ You ever say that to your kids? “Listen to me! What did I tell you?! Hey, hey, hey!!! What did we tell you before we got here?!’ I love to sometimes when parents come up to dedicate their children, they got other smaller kids come up, I’ll say ‘Now is there anything your parents told you not to do when you got up here on stage today?’ God says, ‘All of these things I’ll bless you in these things. But if you rebel, if you refuse to listen, if you refuse to hearken to me,’ he will take them now through six judgments that he’ll bring. Five of them are in the land. The sixth one, which is most severe, he finally says ‘I will drive you among all the nations, I’ll scatter you.’ The first five judgments, he says he’ll deal with them in the land. Four times he says “he will multiply his judgment on them 7 times,” very interesting idea, certainly is a picture of a Hebrew idiom for “fullness of judgment,” of God’s discipline, chastening. It tells us in Hebrews that no chastening is pleasant at the present time. If we’re not chastened, it tells us we’re not his. But chastening does yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Solomon the wisest man that ever lived, told his son, ‘Don’t despise the chastening of the LORD.’ And here he’s going to tell his nation, and it’s for us to listen to how he will deal with them if they don’t listen. Verse 16, “I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.” (verses 16-17) ‘You’ll become paranoid, become afraid. If you listen to me, walk with me, I’ll give you power, I’ll protect you, the sword won’t even come into your land.’ This is like God saying, ‘OK, choose, this is kind of a no-brainer, if you do this my way, I’m gonna bless you, keep you, there won’t be war, the enemy will never overtake you, the sword won’t come into the land, I’ll give you power, he’ll flee before you, ten of you will chase 100, 100 will chase 10,000, my blessing, my presence, all of that, BUT if you want to do this the hard way, this is what will happen, none of those things will be yours, I can’t extend them to you if you’re disobedient, so your enemy will have victory over you, your crops will fail.’ [Comment: First to come, sickness amongst the population of the land, various diseases. Loosing various wars. Israel was in constant warfare, and when disobedient after king David and Solomon, lost many wars.]

Coming Famine On The Land

The things that he had promised to take care of if they were obedient, they’ll fall apart on their own if he removes his hand. Verse 18, the next one, “And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: and your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.” (verses 18-20) The earth, it won’t give rain, and it won’t take seed, the soil. [Comment: Loosing the pride of our power, on a national level, that’s started to happen to the United States of America, first we lost in Vietnam, which was an unjust war to begin with, then we pulled out unceremoniously from Afghanistan and just let the Taliban take over. The turning of our heavens as iron, and our earth as brass has already begun. People don’t like to admit that Global Warming is occurring, but it is, some of it through man’s greed in the industrial sector. The heat domes that are forming on our lower latitudes are drying up the breadbasket sections of our nation. Now for the believer, we need not worry, Jesus at his 2^nd coming will straighten all that out. But in prophecy, verse 19 of Leviticus merely shows that God knew what we’d do to ourselves, as Pastor Joe said, he merely removes his protective hand and let’s us eat of the fruit of our own doings. (this article explains the science involved in this, and please don’t be a science denier: https://www.unityinchrist.com/warming/warming1.htm). Without crops, this nation will crumble from within. Military defenses are nothing if your population is going into starvation from crop failure. The significance of verse 19 of Leviticus 26 is vastly underestimated, even by believers. It is a dire warning of coming famine on the land.] Well he just told them earlier that they would eat the fruits of their trees, if they’d listen to him. “And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.” the next one, verse 23, “And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.” (verses 21-25) Pestilence is deadly infectious disease, one of the things that is prophecied about the Last Days, certainly the avion flu would be part of that [as well as Covid-19]. You know, scientists are discovering inside of you and I, at any given time, there are about 30 different families of bacteria, in there playing around. And once in awhile they have a roll-call, just they call everybody front-and-center, just to count them, and see how many of them there are, it’s call quorum sensing, we’re just learning about it, and they’ll all line up. And if at any given time, those bacteria feel like they outnumber the antibodies, then they attack you. And we’re trying to mess with that, we’re trying to confuse it and come up with something that keeps them from mustering and counting correctly, but that goes on inside of us all the time. God doesn’t have to import something if he wants to get our attention, bless you, my point right there. He says there will be pestilence. “And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.” (verse 26) [Comment: this verse is the result of verse 19, heavens of iron and earth of brass, the end result, food rationing and starvation. How fast can a superpower be brought to its knees? this is how, no rain = no food.] “And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.” (verses 27-29) Very common in ancient cultures, in the siege, when armies surrounded the city, for cannibalism to set in. “And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.” (verse 30) The high places is where they would worship Baal and Molech. Now listen, as these things set in, they are already sacrificing their own children to Molech [or Baal, another name of Molech] and to these idolatrous gods. So “And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.” (verses 30-31) [This happened in ancient Israel and Judah, and now our cities can be laid waste with the nuclear missiles of one nuclear Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine. This was applicable to the ancient House of Israel and the ancient house of Judah, and it is also applicable to whomever those Ten Lost Tribes of Israel become, the inheritors of the promised blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (see https://www.unityinchrist.com/Genesis47-48.html)]

National Captivity, Back Then, And Coming

The last judgment now, where he finally says that he will deal with them by driving them out. “And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.” (verses 32-34) God says ‘When I drive you out of the land, it’s going to enjoy its Sabbaths, there’s going to be order.’ He said previously, ‘If you’ll remember my Sabbaths and you’ll honour me in my sanctuary in the middle of you, and you’ll keep my statutes, and walk in my commandments, then I’ll bless you with all of these things. My presence is going to be there, and my covenant is going to be there, everything’s going to be there on your behalf. And you are going to rebel and rebel and rebel and rebel, this is going to be the situation you’re going to find yourself in.’ And then he says the land will enjoy its Sabbaths. When they [the Jews, the House of Judah] were carried away to Babylon it was 70 years, they owed God 70 years, for 490 years they hadn’t let the land have a Sabbatical year, so they owed God 70 years to let the land rest, and he carried them away for 70 years, and the land rested for those 70 years. And 70 years to the day, they returned. [see https://www.unityinchrist.com/kings/6.html, Also after 70 years from the Assyrian captivity and deportation of the Ten Northern tribes of Israel, the House of Israel, those tribes broke free from Assyrian captivity and migrated northwestward from the Caspian Sea region, see https://www.unityinchrist.com/kings/3.html and https://www.unityinchrist.com/kings/4.html and https://www.unityinchrist.com/kings/5.html for a more complete history of where those ten northern tribes ended up.] God is a good time-keeper. “Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.” (verses 34-36) They hung their harps on the willows in Babylon. They shall fall when none pursueth, the faintness, you know, they hung their harps on the willows in Babylon, they couldn’t sing the songs of Zion, they would say. “And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.” (verses 37-39) [This mirrors in description of the capture of the Jews by the Nazis in Europe, capture and deportation enmass. It is also prophetic of the times we’re coming into, for whoever are the descendants of the Ten Tribes of Israel. Our English speaking peoples could be them, and our national sins have mounted to the heavens. A prophecied United States of Europe is coming, with the modern Assyrian nation of Germany leading them. These events will repeat themselves, as they did in 721BC (see https://www.unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming_4.htm).]

But If You Repent, My Covenant Is Still Standing, It Is Not Removed

Verse 40 now brings us to God saying ‘But, if you repent, if you turn to me, if you turn from your iniquity, my covenant is still standing, it is not removed.’ Very interesting by the way, those of you who are Misslerites, if you go to Chuck Missler’s website Khouse.org, he puts out all of the figures, it’s very interesting here, because Ezekiel, when they were carried away, makes a prophecy about 430 years, and a year for each day, and they were only there for 70 years, and that left 360 years, but if you take that and multiply it by 7 times, and you do it with 360-day years, he has all of the equations for the leap years and all of that stuff, from the desolations of Jerusalem you add seven times, the amount of time that was left, and it brings you to June 6^th when the Jews took back the city of Jerusalem in 1967. [btw, Chuck and Nancy Missler have both passed away, and much of this material is no longer on the website he ran, which is being run by others.] If you add it to the desolation of Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar first came and when he wasted the land, it brings you to 1948 when David Ben Gurion proclaimed, to the day, David Ben Gurion proclaimed the nation of Israel in the land. What he’s going to say in these last verses is ‘I am a covenant keeping God.’ ‘I may multiply your punishment seven times, I might drive you out of the land for 70 years, and if you won’t listen I may multiply that, the remainder of that time by times seven, but I am a covenant keeping God.’ “If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:” (verses 40-41) That’s the problem, the heart of the problem is always the problem of the heart, it isn’t that they hadn’t circumcised their flesh, it was their hearts that had remained uncircumcised. They hadn’t cut away the flesh internally, the carnal nature. “and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:” they finally say ‘LORD, you owed this to us, we deserved it.’ That’s confession, look, 1^st John, ‘If we confess our sins he’s faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ Confession is never saying ‘I’m sorry.’ And by the way, if you sin against another Christian, it isn’t enough for you to say ‘I’m sorry,’ what you need to say is ‘Forgive me,’ that’s vastly different. Because when you say ‘Forgive me’ to another believer, you’re owning your sin, you’re admitting there’s something that needs to be forgiven. ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t cut it. And when we confess our sins to God, it’s not ‘I’m sorry.’ To confess, homolagao, “homo” is “the same,” “lagao” is “to speak,” the logos, the word, homolagao, to say the same thing, when we confess our sins is when we’re saying ‘Lord, you’re right, this is sexual sin,’ it’s not making love. ‘Lord, you’re right, I’m spending my money on heroine or cocaine, Lord, you’re right, this is sin, I’m wasting my family money in gambling or drinking, Lord you’re right, I’m filled with bitterness and hatred,’ you know, that’s confession. Confession is to say the same thing that God says about your problem, you’re coming into line with him. And if we confess, then he’s faithful, and I love this word, just, because he’s faithful already, he’s faithful and just to forgive us, and then to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He says here, if you will do that, and humble your hearts, and they accept of the punishment of their iniquity, that’s confession, they’re saying ‘LORD, you’re right, we deserve this,’ “then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.” (verse 42) Please take note of that, ‘I will remember the land,’ it is alive on television today, “I will remember the land. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet” that’s grace, “for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.” (verses 42c-44) He’s going to tell them, he’s going to bring them back to the land. All of Romans chapter 11 proves that God has not cast off his ancient people Israel [Comment: And that “ancient people Israel” includes all 12 tribes, including the lead two tribes of Ephraim & Manasseh, whom the incredible blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were given to by Jacob in Genesis chapter 48 (see https://www.unityinchrist.com/Genesis47-48.html and https://www.unityinchrist.com/Genesis49-50.html). The Sunday observing Christians do not like to admit that Israel, the House of Israel, whoever they are right now, wherever God has placed them in this world, are still a part of Israel overall, and that the Jews are only one-12^th of Israel as a whole]. Jeremiah chapter 31 says “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and the house of Judah:” [see, that includes all 12 tribes, the House of Israel being the Ten Northern tribes, and House of Judah being the Jews, Levites and part of Benjamin, now the Israelis] “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake,” that’s what he’s talking to them about here, “although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days,” [after Jesus returns, puts an end to World War III, and regathers the tribes from the House of Israel and the House of Judah, regathered back into the land of Israel in the Middle East is what this is talking about] “saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinance of the moon and the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.” (verses 31-37) He says when heaven and earth, the sun and the moon and the stars pass away, that’s when I’ll be done with Israel as a nation. This replacement theology is not accurate, there are a people in the center of this earth, geographically, the Jews, God is not done with them, he was a plan for them, he is working before our eyes every day, the tensest place on the face of the earth is the Middle East, it is the Middle East, and the tensest place in the Middle East is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. And there’s no gold there, there’s no diamonds there, there’s no oil there. All there is, is the Muslims having a holy day on Friday, the Jews [and Sabbath-keeping Churches of God and Messianic Jews] having a holy day on Saturday, and the [Gentile] Christians having a holy day on Sunday, over the conviction of men’s heart, this whole world is going to quake, it’s gonna shake, it’s going to become a stumbling block for all of the nations of the whole world, a cup of trembling. [That’s starting to occur over this current war between the Israelis and Hamas of Gaza. Due to how the Israelis prosecuted this war, the world has been slowly turning against the Israelis. Watch current events, we’re getting close folks, as we head into the 2^nd half of the year 2024.] And it is that way tonight. I guarantee you, people at work in intelligence and security around this world, night after night, stay awake looking at the Middle East, trying to figure out what to do [especially now with that Israeli-Hamas war going on, and the Iranians stirring things up]. You’re watching what happens in Pakistan right now, if Musharah looses control of that government and radical Islam takes control of that government, what happens to the nuclear arsenal that’s sitting there, with weapons that are ready to go…what happens then? I don’t know, I’m just asking a question. I don’t know. The Middle East is trembling, it’s disintegrating [much, much more so right now]. But the One whose on the throne has everything under control, the One whose on the throne has everything under control. And he hasn’t forsaken his ancient people, and he’s brought them back [one 12^th of them, the Jews, and it was Judah, the tribe of Judah that always broke camp and led the other 11 tribes whenever the Pillar of Cloud and Pillar of Fire moved away from the Tabernacle in the wilderness, Judah led the way. Now Judah and Levi have returned to the Promised Land, ahead of the other 10 tribes], that’s a sociological miracle. “I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.” (verse 44) “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 heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.” (verse 45) Now verse 45 just changed gears to the future, where God was speaking to the past. He’s speaking up until this point, to the people he’s brought out of the land of Egypt. Now all of a sudden, in verse 45 he’s says “But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors,” well that’s who he’s talking to right there, “whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt,” all of a sudden he’s talking from the future to the past, it’s very remarkable. “But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors,” that’s who he’s talking to, “in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD. These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.” (verses 45-46) [Comment: the entire chapter of Leviticus 26 is prophetic in nature, and these prophetic punishments have all been fulfilled once, in the two captivities and deportations that were brought upon the 10-tribed House of Israel and the House of Judah, the Jews to the south, first by the Assyrian Empire in 721BC, and then to the House of Judah in 586BC. But those punishments, as Pastor Joe also indicates, are about to be brought upon whoever the House of Israel, those Ten Northern tribes are as nations scattered in the world today. As will be seen in the near future, Leviticus 26 is a dire prophetic warning to our English-speaking peoples, and we had better take it very seriously, as well as for the Israeli Jews.]

Leviticus 27:1-34

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation. 3 And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary. 4 And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. 5 And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 6 And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver. 7 And if it be from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 8 But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him. 9 And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the LORD, all that any man giveth of such unto the LORD shall be 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 beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy. 11 And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the LORD, then he shall present the beast before the priest: 12 and the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou valuest it, who art the priest, so shall it be. 13 But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation. 14 And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the LORD, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand. 15 And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his. 16 And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17 If he sanctify his field from the year of jubile, according to thy estimation it shall stand. 18 But if he sanctify his field after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain, even unto the year of the jubile, and it shall be abated from thy estimation. 19 And if he that sanctified the field will in any wise redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him. 20 And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more. 21 But the field, when it goeth out in the jubile, shall be holy unto the LORD, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest’s. 22 And if a man sanctify unto the LORD a field which he hath bought, which is not of the fields of his possession; 23 then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation, even unto the year of the jubile: and he shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto the LORD. 24 In the year of the jubile the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong. 25 And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel [11.6 grams of silver]. 26 Only the firstling of the beasts, which should be the LORD’s firstling, no man shall sanctify it; whether it be ox, or sheep: it is the LORD’s. 27 And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall redeem it according to thine estimation, and shall add a fifth part of it thereto: or if it be not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to the estimation. 28 Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the LORD of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto the LORD. 29 None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death. 30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s: it is holy unto the LORD. 31 And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. 32 And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD. 33 He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed. 34 These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.”

Introduction

“Ready? Chapter 27 is about vows, and making of vows, and promising God something. And the chapter brings us around to if you promise God something, and then you decide to redeem that, this is the way that is done. But it’s basically saying, you know, let your yea be yea and your nay be nay, don’t promise something to God and then just don’t deliver. How good are we at that? We make New Year’s resolutions every year, ‘I’m gonna loose 30 lbs this year,’ you are not going to loose 30 lbs, you haven’t lost 30 lbs since you were 12. We make New Year’s resolutions all the time. But how often do we do that to God? And this is basically saying to Israel ‘Don’t make promises to him and not keep them, because he keeps the promises he makes to you.’ When he says something to you, his promises are ‘Yea and amen,’ you can trust him. And it’s kind of a strange chapter. Some ancient, not too ancient, within the last 200 years commentators, just left it off, didn’t even go there. Let’s zoom there, here we go.

Conditions For Vowing Your Service Or Your Child’s Service, Or Your Animal Or Field To The LORD

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation.” (verses 1-2) Now “singular” is particular, a vow in regards to a particular thing or a special vow. So you’re vowing something to the LORD of your family, of a person ‘LORD, I dedicate this child to you,’ you know, Samuel was dedicated by Hannah, but there are others that you might dedicate, ‘I dedicate their life to you,’ you’re going to take that child with you, but then you pay a redeeming fee for the vow you made, a ransom as it were. Now here are the different values “And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.” (verse 3) So if you promise your own life, ‘LORD, my life is yours.’ But they always had an abundance of Levites and priests, and they say ‘Look, we don’t need you here, but the way you can do this to the LORD now is 50 shekels of silver is equivalent.’ The shekel according to the sanctuary is a month’s wage, so 50 shekels was four years wages. If you make that gift, you’re free, you’re redeemed, you go live your life, but it’s equivalent to being here dedicating the rest of your life. Now you’re going to notice, there are different values on different ages and different sexes, children, adults, old people. That’s not because as an individual they’re worth anything different to God, they’re all important to God. But it’s strictly relative to their worth in regards to work and labour. So they’re pro-rated then, buying yourself out of your commitment here. So for a male between 20 and 60 would be 50 shekels of silver after the shekel of the sanctuary. “And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver. And if it be from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels.” (verses 4-7) You have Simeon and Anna in the New Testament, who just gave themselves to being in the Temple precincts, because God wanted when his Son came there to be dedicated, he wanted a real believer waiting to receive him the day that he came into the Temple precincts. This woman Anna had been a widow 85 years from when her husband had died, she had given herself to the LORD, and never turned away. If she had turned away, say she’d got to 60 and said ‘I’m getting tired of waiting for Messiah,’ it would have cost her 15 shekels to walk away, and that would have been equivalent to spending the rest of her life there. So it gives even here the worth for those that are older. “But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him.” (verse 8) So if he makes a vow, even if he’s in one of these categories but he’s impoverished, then you let the priest decide what the price of redemption would be. “And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the LORD, all that any man giveth of such unto the LORD shall be holy. 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 beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy.” (verses 9-10) Now isn’t it sad he has to tell us, you bring your ox, you have one of those days, you’re in love with the LORD, you’re so excited, you take your best ox, you go to the Temple, and you’re standing there thinking ‘Now wait a minute, this is my best ox, if he dies, whose gonna pull the plow, my wife’s going to shoot me.’ He says then you can’t go and get your sick ox and bring it back, and say ‘LORD, I made a mistake, I confused them, the sick one’s yours.’ Because doesn’t he know how we are. He says ‘Don’t try to replace a good for a bad, or a bad for a good,’ “if he shall at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy.” (verses 10b) ‘If you try to do that I’m taking both animals, you try any hocus pokus then both hocus and pokas are mine,’ the LORD says here. “And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the LORD, then he shall present the beast before the priest: and the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou valuest it, who art the priest, so shall it be. But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation.” (verses 11-13) so you’re adding 20 percent to it here if it’s an unclean beast and you’re going to take it back, you add an extra 20 percent on that one. “And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the LORD, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand.” (verse 14) ‘Lord, this house is your house’ you ever do that? You get a house, you’re so thankful when you move in? ‘This is your house, Lord.’ until we want to sell it. “And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his.” (verse 15) So you change your mind, then the priest puts a value on the house, you add 20 percent to that, the house is yours again. You think ‘That’s impossible, with the housing market today, the house has to be the Lord’s anyway, whose going to pay for it. Right?’ “And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.” (verse 16) So according to the potential of the field to produce, 50 shekels per omer of barley, “If he sanctify his field from the year of jubile, according to thy estimation it shall stand.” (verse 17) So it’s pro-rated according to when it would come back to him anyway, according to the year of Jubilee, “according to thy estimation it shall stand. But if he sanctify his field after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain, even unto the year of the jubile, and it shall be abated from thy estimation.” (verses 17b-18) So the more time that the land had to the year Jubilee, the more it was worth. “And if he that sanctified the field will in any wise redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him.” (verse 19) You’re going to pay 20 percent above its value to get it back. The idea is, don’t speak too hastily. Annanias and Sapphira, they come in and they said ‘Hey, we’re giving the whole thing unto the Lord,’ ‘Boom!’ one of them goes over, dead, they say to Sapphira, ‘The one’s who carried out your husband, they’re here to talk to you, it was within your power, the Lord didn’t ask for it, you didn’t have to do it, if you’re going to do it, do it without deception, do it without being phony.’ “And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more. But the field, when it goeth out in the jubile, shall be holy unto the LORD, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest’s. And if a man sanctify unto the LORD a field which he hath bought, which is not of the fields of his possession; then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation, even unto the year of the jubile: and he shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto the LORD.” (verses 20-23) So if you buy a field which is not yours, that you would normally have unto the year of Jubilee then have to give back to somebody else, then the priest would set the worth of that piece of ground relative to its value unto the year of Jubilee, and at that time, of course it’s holy unto the LORD, it would go back to the family who your rented it from. Verse 24, “In the year of the jubile the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong. And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel [11.6 grams of silver].” (verses 24-25)

The Things That Are Non-Redeemable

First Two Things: Firstlings & Devoted Things

Now verse 26 to verse 34 tells us about things that are unredeemable, there’s three of them. There is the firstling of the flock, you can’t redeem that. There is anything that’s under the ban, remember when the children of Israel came into the land of Canaan, Jericho, the whole city, is under the ban, none of it belongs to them, it’s devoted to the LORD. And then the third thing that they couldn’t redeem was the tithes, because it’s going to say all of these things already belong to the LORD. It would be like you go outside a church after church tonight and somebody pulls up in your car, and gets out and says ‘Here are the keys, I’ve always wanted to give this to you, and I hope you really like it.’ ‘What do you mean give it to me, it’s my car,’ ‘But I wanted to give it to you, I hope you appreciate it,’ ‘Well I don’t appreciate it, you’re driving my car, you pulled up, where’d you get my keys?! and don’t ever do it again! what do you mean you’re going to give me my car and I’m supposed to be impressed with this?’ Well that’s what he knows the children of Israel are going to try to do here. So “Only the firstling of the beasts, which should be the LORD’s firstling, no man shall sanctify it; whether it be ox, or sheep: it is the LORD’s.” (verse 26) it’s already his, you can’t take something dedicated to the LORD, it’s already his in the first place. “And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall redeem it according to thine estimation, and shall add a fifth part of it thereto: or if it be not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to the estimation.” (verse 27) Secondly, “Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the LORD of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto the LORD.” (verse 28) It’s already his in the first place, if it’s under the ban, if God says ‘This is to be burned, this is to be destroyed, this person is to be killed.’ Remember Samuel came to Saul and said ‘What’s this bleating of sheep I hear in my ears, and the lowing of oxen?’ And Saul said ‘Oh, I was going to take these sheep and oxen and sacrifice them unto the LORD.’ Well Samuel already told them, the LORD said ‘They’re under the ban, you kill Agag, you kill all of the Amalekites, you kill all of the sheep, you kill all of the oxen,’ and Saul comes back like he’s giving a present to the LORD, and that’s what it’s forbidding here, it’s already the LORD’s, that’s like somebody driving up with your car. How can you give something to the LORD that already belongs to him? This is forbidding things that are unredeemable from being devoted or given to the LORD in a vow, and then somebody trying to buy them back when they were already the LORD’s in the first place. [This amounts to a law against scamming the LORD. Now who would ever try to do that?] “None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death.” (verse 29) [i.e. Agag, all the inhabitants of Jericho other than Rahab.]

Third Thing: Your Tithes Are Not Redeemable

“And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s: it is holy unto the LORD. And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof.” (verses 30-31) Anything you hold back from the LORD that’s rightfully his costs you 20 percent ontop. “And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD. He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.” (verses 32-33) So when the sheep were passing under the rod, every 10^th one belonged to the LORD, that was the tithe. He says you can’t see a really good looking one run by and lift the rod up, and then hit the next one that’s really ugly, because then both of them are going to belong to the LORD. Isn’t it sad that he knows us this well? He had to write a whole chapter just because of their shenanigans. ‘He shall not search whether it’s good or bad, every tenth one belongs to the LORD, if they try to do that, then both of them will be holy, it shall not be redeemed.’ “These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.” (verse 34) I told you we would get through this last chapter. But look, tithing was no simple thing in ancient Israel, there was the tithe of the land, a tithe that was given continually to the Levites, a tenth. Then when you read Numbers chapter 18, there was a tithe that was to be eaten by the worshipper in the presence of the LORD [this would have been the 2^nd tithe, or the Feast tithe, that was saved by the individual to enable them to have the money or food to be able to go to God’s Feasts, especially the Feast of Tabernacles]. And then every third year, a tithe above the tithe was given to the poor. [This last one is about tithing, to read a good study about the Old Testament tithe system as given in the Law, fully explained, see: https://www.unityinchrist.com/gifts4.htm] So tithing is not a simple institution in Scripture [that’s because it was set up to be an agrarian tithe, structured to an agrarian society, a society that was basically almost cashless, it was a simple society of farmers, and based on farm products.] I believe the New Testament principle is giving, I really believe that with all of my heart. Again, you know if there’s someone whose only making $10,000 dollars a year, and you feel like you’ve gotta give $1,000, and I’m not saying don’t do that, but my point is, I don’t want to be buying you Huggies and we’re going to be paying your gas bill, and we’re going to have you in counseling. You can come and work, you can serve, you can bake an extra loaf of bread, you can cut your neighbour’s lawn, you can come here and work in Sunday school, the New Testament principle is giving. If you’re making $200,000,000 a year, we want half, if you can’t live on $100,000,000 dollars a year you got a problem. The New Testament principle, it says they gave as they were able, every man gave, because it was on their hearts. And beautifully, as Paul writes to the Corinthians, even those who were less fortunate, they gave more, because they understood ‘This was a humanitarian collection for the saints in Jerusalem,’ it wasn’t to build glass cathedrals or anything [that was a special offering taken up to help the poor in Jerusalem who were going through a famine, it wasn’t a collection of tithes], it was to send to the impoverished people in Jerusalem, and the poor understood well the circumstances they were in, and Paul commended them. Because even the poor gave, because they knew their poor brethren, they knew their suffering, there was empathy, there was compassion. So, tithing, I don’t see it enforced in the New Testament, I think we should do it if the Lord puts it on our hearts, but I think giving. In the Old Testament he wanted a 7^th of your time, but he only wanted a 10^th of your increase, he wanted more of you than his did of your wallet. You’d never know that by listening to some of these guys on TV today. He was always more interested in the servant than the service, and he is today, he is today. [To read a chapter in the New Testament that specifically deals with tithing and giving, log onto and read https://unityinchrist.com/hebrews/Hebrews%207%201-28.htm] It’s still the greatest thing for me is to sit alone and lift up my head and say ‘Father, Father,’ it’s vastly superior to be his son than to be his pastor, there are no pastors in heaven, I’m looking for a new job there, we’ll get to be worship leaders or something, there will be no pastors in heaven, sons and daughters, sons and daughters. [As kings and priests during the Millennial Kingdom of God, we’ll be pastoring over huge congregations of humans, we’re just in training now--sorry Joe 😊]…and then if the Lord tarries, the Wednesday after that we will begin the Book of Numbers. Now look, I don’t want you to be discouraged, when you try to read the first few chapters of the Book of Numbers, because then you’re going to say ‘No wonder they call this Numbers.’ Well first of all, throughout the Book there’s incredible things, but in those numbers, we’re going to see some of the most beautiful patterns, God gave that for some specific reasons, and there is beauty and order and tenderness and consideration on the part of God, and notice of individual lives. There’s some remarkable things there, so don’t be taken back when you read it. Labour, give yourself to it, get through the first three or four chapters of the Book of Numbers, that’s your homework for two weeks from now, and you’ll have fun when we get into it, there’s some remarkable stuff there. So, let’s stand, let’s pray, and we’ll have the musicians come and lead us in a last song…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Leviticus 26:1-46 and Leviticus 27:1-34, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]