Leviticus 26-27 = today's thought

Today’s thought is from Leviticus 26-27

 

We are in a series at church about living life and serving God as more than just a fan of Christ.  But rather whole hearted sold out committed living to the Lord.  These two chapters deal with this same topic today.  If you look in Chapter 26 you will find about 10 verses that explain how God cares for the faithful, the ones who do as they say and are living within the covenant that was established between God and the people of Israel through Moses on the mountain.  But then there are around 32 more verses that deal with what happens to the people if they are unfaithful and live outside the relationship and the covenant with God. Three times as much space is dedicated to the consequences of being unfaithful as there is to being faithful. 

 

I think there are some simple yet often missed realities here.  For the faithful person living out their faith within the will of the father, there is little that needs to be explained, there will be relationship that includes communication and therefore much is understood.  Blessings make sense, trials are able to be endured, life has purpose, and external relationships are deeper and have greater significance than the moment.  Read verses 3 – 13 and it is clear that those abiding in the will of God are going to know peace, prosperity and the joy of being in a right relationship with their creator.

 

Then read ahead. To the end of chapter 26, it turns bleak fast and future looks fully depressing.  The only consolation in the rest of this chapter is that there is hope that those outside the will of God will find their way back in, because living life out there is death.  I think that there is significantly great time devoted to this because when we live outside the will of God, we will make every excuse for our circumstances that we can muster.  Anything and everything will be to blame, except usually the fact that we are living outside God’s will.  Therefore God is trying to show us with many different illustrations that living outside the will of God is only going to lead to one thing, there are many ways to get there but the end is still death and separation from Him for all those choosing to ignore Covenant and reject His relationship.

 

Chapter 27 then goes back to the faithful and shows ways in which the faithful can demonstrate their commitment and give back to the Lord. Chapter 27 says nothing about the unfaithful group that was so focused on in 26 because there is no room for them in chapter 27,  27 is only for the believer and not just any believer but a committed believer that wants to demonstrate his/her faithfulness to the Lord.   I pray that for my life and the life of my family we are exemplify the opening of Chapter 26 and chapter 27, the alternative is misery without understanding, and that is a tragedy when hope abounds in living within the covenant.

 

Rob