Leviticus 25

Blessings, Curses, & Unfailing Love

Reading through the blessings and punishments of God in Leviticus 26 is interesting. As modern Christians under the New Covenant with Jesus the “goods” of obediences and “bads” of disobedience seem much more… temporal and terrestrial. Grounded in the things of this earth. Since Jesus has come we tend to think of God’s blessings and cursings more in light of eternity than in light of Tuesday (Word of Faith preachers excluded, of course). So the contrast of this passage struck me as interesting.

What I noticed after looking at the progression God offers here in Leviticus is that God’s punishment is carried out not by His hand in some spectacular, spiritual way, but rather by the progressive withdrawl of His blessings.

First, disease and military defeat will come. Second, the earth and skies will not cooperate with our work, producing little yield. Third, wild animals will attack, steal, and kill. Fourth, their land will be dispossessed. Fifth, they will live in constant fear as foreigners. But the key comes in sixth…

Sixth, the people will finally come back to God and repent. And so God will restore them. God so badly wants to bless us. Even in His anger His desire is not to punish us, but to draw us to Himself. He continues to hold that blessing, eager to bestow it on a people who love Him and are faithful to him. And yes, that blessing may come this side of heaven, but it very well may also come when we are raised in glory.

I hope that you will be blessed and seek his blessing

Feb 25 | Lev 25:24-26:46 | 056/365

Blasphemy & Death

To this point no punishment has yet been handed down for blasphemy despite it’s prohibition (Ex20:7;22:28. It would stand to reason, then, that it is likely to this point that no one HAS blasphemed the Lord.

Along comes this half-Egyptian/half-Hebrew fellow. Who does not simply blaspheme, but blasphemes AND curses! We’ll get to what those mean in a moment, but first it’s noteworthy that this man — whose father is never identified — gets into a fight with an Israelite man. We are never really told why this happens, but from the details we DO have, I think we can make some educated guesses.

Now we know that the man’s mother was from the tribe of Dan. And I suppose it’s likely that this man who chose to come with the Israelites wanted to settle with the tribe of Dan. But it’s also likely that the Danites were not open to this fellow’s inclusion. Remember that lineage came from the father. And this man’s lineage was not Israelite, but rather Egyptian. So it’s entirely possible that the man was not welcomed into the tribe of Dan as he had hoped. This probably was not a new development, but perhaps one that had not been resolved to this point and finally came to blows.

And during the fight, the fateful words spill out. Remember that words uttered in the heat of a moment are not lies, but concealed truths of the heart. And the truth was that this man blasphemed and cursed God.

The word blaspheme means to pierce, puncture, or strike through. And the word curse means to make light of or trifle with. This man had no respect or reverence for God and dissension in this nascent, previously lawless group now known as Israelites could not be tolerated. I know this seems barbaric by today’s standards, but the world was a different place four thousand years ago. Heck, the world was a different place TWO HUNDRED years ago. In 19th century England you could be hanged for stealing as little as a shekel (~$30 today)!

Today’s takeaway is this: the truth will find you out. Take heart in or heed of that as you will.

Feb 24 | Lev 23:1-25:23 | 055/365