Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why Obey God? | Torah | Leviticus 26

Episode Date: August 17, 2022

What's with God's punishment in the Bible? Isn't God a God of love? Do you have to work to get into heaven? If you're already a Christian, why should you obey God? In today's episode, Jensen looks at Leviticus 26 to share the importance of obedience to God. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Leviticus 26

Welcome to 10-minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. When you were a kid, did you ever make a bet with someone? Like, did you ever look your sibling in the eye and say, I bet you can't eat that whole piece of cake in one bite? If you didn't ever do anything like that, then I'm sorry because it's actually a lot of fun to watch someone try to eat a whole piece of cake in one bite. But if you have, then you know the important part comes after you challenge someone. You set the stakes. Your sibling probably said, well, what do I get if I win? And you say something back like, if you do it, I'll do the dishes for a week.

But if you can't, you have to do the dishes for a week. And then you shake on it or something like that and you'd try to eat a whole piece of cake in one bite. Making a bet with a sibling is not serious stuff. But we still know how to go about it the right way. You make the proposal of what each of you will do, and then you set the terms on what happens if you fail or succeed. In the times that scripture was written and Moses is in the wilderness with God's people, things weren't all that different, just a little more serious. When people would make a covenant with one another, you would go through and lay out the proposal part, the part where you say what each of you will do. You agree to be faithful to certain actions.

That's what we've seen so far in Leviticus, as God has laid out how Israel, as his chosen people, are to live. And then, Chapter 26 in Leviticus is the terms part of the covenant. It was commonplace for there to be a section following the covenant that laid out what would happen if the parties were faithful or unfaithful to the covenant. It's a section of blessings and curses. So the beginning section of Chapter 26 lays out the blessings that will be. be given to Israel if they are faithful to this covenant. God says, if you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees, their fruit. I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down, and no one will make you

afraid. I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will be eating last year's harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high. So the Israelites' obedience will result in reward. in life with their God, in safety and peace and blessing and abundance. But the chapter doesn't end here.

It also lays out what happens if the Israelites fail. But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you. I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength. You will plant seed in vain because your enemies will eat it. I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.

It's not good. It's almost hard to read. But it continues. The Lord goes on to say that if after that, they still don't listen, he will punish them for their sins seven times over. He will break down their pride and keep their lands from giving them food. And again, after that, he says, if they continue to remain hostile, he will multiply their afflictions seven times over. He will send wild animals against them, and they will rob them of their children. And again, he says, if in spite of these things, you do not accept my correction, but continue to be hostile towards me.

I, myself, will be hostile towards you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over. He will send the sword. They will eat, but they will not be satisfied. One last time, he says, if they still continue in their sin, then he will punish them for their sins again. He will scatter his people and destroy their high places.

He will send their enemies against them. Each time the Lord sends punishment for their sin and the people fail to respond in repentance, the stakes get higher and the curse becomes more and more unbearable. Now, I am going to generalize here, but I would assume that most of us fall into two categories here when we hear these verses. For some of you, these verses are confusing. Maybe they make you angry. You've always seen God as loving and forgiving.

You're wondering, how could God do that? How could he send such horrible things against people he claims to love? Maybe you're confused because it sounds a lot like works-based salvation rather than faith-based salvation. Do good, get good, do bad, get bad. Isn't God a God of love? What's with all this punishment? For others of you, this seems about right.

God has always been transactional for you. When you're good, you expect blessings from him. And when you mess up, you expect him to send punishment. This just confirms your belief that to get to heaven, you need to be a good person. You need to work hard. See, whichever category you fall into, or maybe you're somewhere else entirely, either way, I want to help shape the way we see this scripture. Because I think that there's a lot of beauty in what is happening here. And I don't want us to be stuck believing in a picture of God that just isn't complete. So the first thing we need to remember here is that this isn't God laying out the grounds for salvation. This is God talking to a people he is already saved,

a people he has made a covenant with. Speaking for the Gospel Coalition, Pastor Paul Carter puts it this way. This is not God telling people how to be saved. This is God telling saved people how to enjoy his presence. See, remember, when God was laying out the blessings, he ends with saying, if they are faithful, if they live in obedience to his covenant, he will dwell among them. He will be their God. And he reminds them that he is the one who has already freed them from Egypt and broken their chains. This is not work salvation. What we do see here is that God is saying that he expects obedience from his people, from the already saved. We see God confirming that part of being God's people is living in the way that he created us to live, a way that

will bring about human flourishing. And so, it makes sense that when his people fail to do this, he sends punishment for their sin. As you're reading, you see again and again that he sends punishment because the people fail to return to God. They fail to live faithfully. As things crumble around them, as they live outside of the covenant, outside of the way for human flourishing, they double down and refuse to humble themselves before their God. And so God gives them what their sin deserves. He does so not because he enjoys the punishment of his people, but because he wants them to turn back to him, to see their sin for what it is, to repent. and to return to life with him.

God is faithfully pursuing and calling his people out of their brokenness, out of their devastation. He has already saved them. The door to life with him is wide open. He's calling them to live a faithful life with him. The first chapter of lamentations is a poem all about the devastation of Israel. Spoiler alert, they break the covenant. and these curses become a reality for them. The author writes of Jerusalem's devastation.

And in verse 14, he says, My transgressions were bound into a yoke. By his hand, they were fastened together. They were set upon my neck. He caused my strength to fail. And the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand. It can be uncomfortable to read that the Lord does these things. But we have to see it for what it is.

The Lord places the weight of their sin upon them, and they cannot withstand it. Their strength fails and their enemies overtake them. The Lord gives them up to the disobedience they stubbornly continue to pursue. He allows them to be utterly devastated because in his mercy, he will not allow his people to continue to live in disobedience to the way that they were created to live. God's people will only ever find ultimate fulfillment in flourishing in obediently and faithfully following his commands. There is reward for faithfulness, and it is life with God, peace with God, covenantal safety with God. We will be satisfied in Him. We will have plenty in Him.

And in His mercy, He will punish the sins of His people to call them back. to the humble, flourishing life of obedience. Chapter 26 ends this way. Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the Lord, their God. But for their sake, I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nation. to be their God. I am the Lord. In spite of our constant rejection, in spite of our disobedience, in spite of the devastation, our sins and brokenness and stubborn wandering hearts have created, God will be faithful to His covenant. He has saved his people. He is made away. He is Yahweh. He will

not abandon his people. There are no blessings or curses for God if he's faithful or not to the covenant because he is and will always be faithful. He has already saved us. He rescued Israel from Egypt and he died on a cross for the transgressions of his own people. He will not abandon us to the destruction of our hearts. He calls us to obedience because in obedience there's true flourishing of life. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.