The Bible Recap - Day 053 (Leviticus 26-27) - Year 6

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today we finished our fourth book of the Bible. We're 15% of the way through. And the even better news is that you guys are pressing through on the days that are tough. You know there's still something to learn on those days and that even if you hit a dry patch tomorrow is a new day with new chapters. I'm really proud of you.

We are many days into God's conversation with Moses on Mount Sinai during Visit 2.0, and today we wrap up this book and this conversation. Some of you are very excited to move into a new book, and others of you know that our next book is Numbers and that does not make you excited. But I'm here to tell you that Numbers is one of my favorite books of the Bible. We're about to enter some of my favorite passages in all of scripture.

We do have to go through a few census details before we get to those parts, but it will all be worth it, I promise. As God wraps up this covenant conversation with Moses, he does something that's pretty standard for a covenant agreement. He sets out the expectations for blessings and curses based on whether the covenant is kept or broken.

This was how most covenants in that day were written, giving all these footnotes at the end. In God's words here, we see that faithfulness to him is a big deal. If Israel remains faithful to his laws and keeps his Sabbath, he will bless them in obvious ways, peace and abundance and security. And even though they'll still have enemies,

they'll have victory over them. But if they don't stay faithful to him, he outlines five phases of curses that will follow their rebellion. If at any point they repent, he won't execute the next phase. These phases increase in intensity as they progress, with the final phase being exile and scattering from the land he promised to give them.

There are a lot of other terrible things that come along with this too. Hearts full of fear and paranoia, defeat at the hands of foreign armies, a lack of food so pronounced that it leads to cannibalism. And God says he will make their heavens like iron and their earth like bronze, which is to say, the sky won't rain and the ground will be too hard to plant or grow food. And it's in that setting that most of them would die, never returning from exile. And as a result of their sins, their children would be raised up in exile in the lands of foreign enemies, just like they had been.

If they do break the covenant and these curses do come, it's clear that all these things are intended by God to wake them up and prompt repentance in them. To repent means to turn away from their sins and toward God. Discipline is what God is working out here, not punishment. We see that in 26, 18, and 23. Discipline is the act of any loving father whose child is walking in rebellion. If this weren't discipline, if it were a casting off of these people altogether, God wouldn't be outlining their chance for repentance and redemption. In chapter 26, Yahweh makes his vows to the people, and in chapter 27, we see details

of the people's vows to Him. There wasn't a lot of context for this, so let me explain briefly. People were either supposed to serve in the sanctuary or make a financial vow. If you were a Levite, you served, but if you weren't a Levite, you weren't allowed to serve, so you paid the vow. This ensured that everyone had an investment in supporting the work of the sanctuary.

No one was allowed to just sit the bench. Everybody participated. The values are adjusted based on what that person would likely be expected to contribute as far as physical labor is concerned. In this section, I loved seeing God's detailed care for his people. In verse eight, we see how God handles those

who are too poor to pay the vow. He says, the priest shall value him according to what the vower can afford. And those who were of greater means would sometimes vow their animals or houses or land to God as well. If they gave land though, it reverted to the original owner in the year of Jubilee. That's one interesting thing about the transactions involving the land God gave them. It was less like selling and more like a lease that ended in the Jubilee year.

The people weren't allowed to exchange land long-term. It always reverted back to the specific person or family or tribe that God gave it to originally. He makes the determination of who gets what land and they can't amend his decision. But just a reminder that they don't actually have this land yet. They don't have these homes

that they might hypothetically donate. This is God just telling them in advance how to plan for what he will do for them. They're still in the wilderness. Today, we also see the word tithe show up for the first time in scripture. This was a donation of one-tenth of their income to the sanctuary,

even if that income was in the form of food or animals. The word tithe literally means one-tenth of their income to the sanctuary, even if that income was in the form of food or animals. The word tithe literally means one-tenth, and it served to provide for the Levites and the maintenance of the sanctuary since they were doing the hard work of helping people draw near to God. What was your God shot for today? Mine was at the end of chapter 26 when he was telling them how he would respond if they broke the covenant and then repented. That was not a standard part of ancient covenants. A broken covenant usually meant a finished covenant, but God wasn't letting go. Providing an opportunity for them to turn back

was next level mercy. Instead of the normal treatment, what we see God saying is that even in rebellion, if they humble themselves and repent, He will forgive them. In 26, 44 through 45, God says He will not break His covenant with them. He will remember it to be their God. God keeps leaving the light on for them. Even in this covenant agreement, it's like He's saying, if you fail to keep up your end of the deal, there will be consequences. But the aim of these consequences is to turn your heart back to me.

And when you do turn back, I will love you no less. Your faithlessness will be met with my faithfulness. Maybe you know someone who used to walk with God that has turned away and now they seem to be too far gone. With our God, it's not possible to be too far gone. With our God, it's not possible to be too far gone. You never know. Maybe he'll use a tough situation to humble them, or maybe he'll just show them there's no flourishing and thriving to be found in the things they're chasing. Whatever means he may or may not use, we can pray that he changes their hearts to see that he's where

the joy is. Tomorrow we'll be starting the Book of Numbers. It's 36 chapters long. We've linked to a short video overview in the show notes. Check that out if you have seven minutes to spare. Lots of you want the daily transcripts of our podcast for a variety of reasons. Some of you are visual learners, some like to highlight and take notes, and whatever the reason, we're happy to offer those to you as a recapiton.

They're available at the transcript tier or higher. But let's say you just want one transcript, not all of them. If that's you, you can get those for just $1 each in our TBR store. Click the link in the show notes for either the recapitons or our store. If you're praying for emotional, spiritual, or physical healing today, click the link in the show notes for some songs

to add to your playlist. They're full of truth, and sometimes we can all use a few reminders of what God's Word says about healing and wholeness.