Ye shall make yourselves no idols, neither rear you up for yourselves carved image, or statue, nor shall ye set up a figured stone in your land, to bow down unto it; for I am Jehovah your God.
Leviticus 26 opens not with a new ritual but with a fence around the first thing of all: God will have no rival image in the land He gave. Everything that follows — harvest, peace, victory, or ruin — hangs on whether Israel kept that fence standing.
Verses 1 and 2 open a long list of promises and warnings. One writer explains what did, and did not, depend on Israel's obedience.
God's power brought them out of Egypt, and His promise brought them into the land. So their entrance into Canaan, and their possession of it, did not depend on their obedience. But if they were to stay there, keeping the covenant was an absolute necessity. Standing before God on the ground of law, they had to obey if the land was to support them, or to go on being farmed by those to whom Jehovah had given it.
The verse names one form after another: idols, carved image, pillar, figured stone. Kelly weighs where this command sits in the chapter, and what it says about human nature.
Chapter 26 opens by forbidding image worship. It then calls for the reverence due to the sabbath and to the sanctuary of Jehovah. These are the pillars of the law, and they deal with the very evils man was most prone to.
The verse ends with a Person, not a rule: "for I am the LORD your God." Kelly shows how little excuse Israel had, and why God could not be the true God and share their worship.
The sons of Israel of all men had the least excuse for idolatry. They heard His voice out of the fire, and begged for a mediator so that they would not die. They saw no form. They heard Him condemn the pagan practice of representing Him by any likeness of a creature in heaven above, on earth beneath, or in the waters below. He could not be the true God if He tolerated bowing down to another god. Real service must belong to Him alone. Yet Aaron's terrible weakness showed itself at the very start of their history, and Solomon's was worse still at its height. That was also where the constant war lay between His true prophets and the false ones, who misled kings, priests and people, until there was no remedy.
The ban had a purpose beyond protection. Kept together, verses 1 and 2 would have marked Israel out from every nation around them.
Suppose they avoided idolatry, remembered the Sabbath — the sign between Jehovah and Israel — and treated His sanctuary with reverence. Then the people would have stayed apart from other nations, and would have kept up the testimony to the one true God.
Carved stone is only one shape the sin takes. Kelly turns to the last line of John's first letter, written to people who were not bowing to statues.
How remarkable is the closing appeal in the First Epistle of John! "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." We cannot imagine that those he wrote to bowed to images of gold or silver, of wood or stone. There was a more subtle form of the evil that the apostle feared for the believers of his day. Nothing witnesses more powerfully to the danger, even for believers, than this. The same letter begins with the fullest revelation of the true God in our Lord Jesus, so as to bring us into fellowship with the Father and with His Son. Yet it ends with such a warning. When anything outside the Godhead now known in Christ becomes an object of the heart in a religious way, it is an idol.
Everything promised after this verse hangs on one small word: "if." That word governs the chapter, and it separates Israel's blessings from the Christian's.
It was all conditional. It is, "If you walk... then I will give." Everything depended on their obedience, and that "if" proved fatal. The blessings promised were of an earthly and material kind... There is no mention of heaven or of the life to come. What a contrast with what the Christian is given — "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:3), and no "if" attached.
- One place. God claims a place in the heart that no image, and nothing else, may occupy — He could not be the true God and tolerate a rival.
- One reason. The command gives its own basis: for I am the LORD your God. His claim rests on who He is.
- One witness. Refusing idols, keeping the sabbaths, honouring the sanctuary: this would have set Israel apart from the nations. It would have kept the testimony to the one true God alive.
- One danger, new dress. An idol is anything outside God as revealed in Christ that takes hold of the heart. No carving is required.
- One "if." Israel's earthly blessings all hung on that word, and it proved fatal. The Christian's spiritual blessings carry no "if."
Ye shall observe my sabbaths, and my sanctuary shall ye reverence I am Jehovah.
Leviticus 26 opens with two short commands. A long list of blessings and warnings fills the rest of the chapter. Here God names a day, the Sabbath, and a place, His sanctuary. He seals both with His own name.
One writer notes where this verse stands in the chapter.
Chapter 26 opens by forbidding image worship. It then commands the reverence due to the Sabbath and to the sanctuary of Jehovah. These are the pillars of the law, and they meet the very evils man was most prone to (verses 1, 2). His blessings on their obedience follow (verses 3-13).
"My Sabbaths" is not a general rule about rest. Two earlier passages give the day its meaning, and both are tied to Israel's own history.
The Sabbath was a "sign." God says through Ezekiel: "I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them" (Ezekiel 20:12). For this purpose it was fitted in every way. As first given in the book of Exodus, it is a memorial of God's rest as the Creator, satisfied with the goodness of all His hands had made. As a sign of God resting because He was satisfied, the Sabbath meant a great deal to an Israelite. In Deuteronomy 5:15 God commands them to keep it as a people redeemed from slavery in Egypt. Here too, losing it would be most serious. As the sign of a people set apart to God, they often accepted all kinds of injury rather than break it themselves.
The closing words give the reason for the command.
Israel's actions were to take their character from one fact: Jehovah was their God. They were called to behave in a way worthy of so high and holy a position. It was God's right to set out the special character and conduct that suited a people with whom He was pleased to link His name. So these expressions come again and again — "I am the LORD." "I am the LORD your God." "I the LORD your God am holy." Jehovah was their God, and He was holy. So they were called to be holy too.
The command to reverence the sanctuary appears twice in the law. One writer reads its neglect today as a mark of the last days.
God commands twice in His Holy Word, "You shall reverence my sanctuary" (Leviticus 19:30; 26:2). The growing disregard for sacred things is sad, and it marks the last days in which our lot is cast. Even professing Christians speak of God as if He were someone like themselves... This makes us fear that they may not know Him at all, or that they are praying to a god of their own imagination — a deity they have made up in their own minds.
One writer applies this verse to the traders in the temple court. The animals were lawful; their place was not.
That oxen, sheep, and doves should, under certain conditions and at certain times, be brought to God's altar was an undeniable fact. But God's revelation gave no permission for them to stand waiting in the Temple court for whatever the worshippers might need. Leviticus 26:2, "You shall reverence my sanctuary," would forbid such a practice, not allow it... This served man's convenience and man's profit. But which of the traders or of the money-changers cared in all that for the honour of their God?
Kept together, the commands of verses 1 and 2 would have shaped the nation's whole public life.
If they avoided idolatry, remembered the Sabbath — the sign between Jehovah and Israel — and reverenced His sanctuary, the people would have kept themselves apart from other nations. They would have kept up the testimony to the one true God.
One writer carries the same principle forward to the Assembly — God's people gathered today.
If there is one thing that should mark God's Assembly it is reverence, and I am sure we are not so marked by that as we might be. It is impossible to over-estimate the magnificence of the truth that the Assembly is the habitation of God through the Spirit. If we were called into the palace and presence of the king, we would behave in a way suited to the occasion. If we remember that God's people are His habitation through the Spirit, it will produce a seriousness in your mind and mine that perhaps has not always been there.
- Pillars. The Sabbath and the sanctuary stand at the head of Leviticus 26 as "the pillars of the law." They come before any promise of blessing.
- Sign. The Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel — a memorial of the Creator's rest, and of a people redeemed out of Egypt.
- Name. "I am the LORD" is the reason attached to the command: their conduct was to match the God who had linked His name to them.
- Reverence. God commands reverence for His sanctuary twice. Its loss shows when people speak of God as someone like themselves.
- Testimony. Kept together, these commands would have set Israel apart from the nations. They would have kept the one true God on public display.
If ye walk in my statutes, and observe my commandments and do them,
Leviticus 26 hangs the nation's whole future on one small word: if. Before God lists what obedience would bring, He names the two evils man is most prone to.
Chapter 26 opens by forbidding image worship, and by requiring reverence for the sabbath and the sanctuary of Jehovah — the pillars of the law. Man was most prone to break exactly these (verses 1, 2). Then come His blessings on their obedience (verses 3-13).
The verse sums up the rest of the law in two words. Then it adds a third demand.
Verse 1 prohibits idolatry of any kind. Verse 2 enforces the sanctity of the sabbath and the sanctuary. Verse 3 sums up all the other laws as "My statutes" and "My commandments," which were to be carried out. Lip service was not enough. They were to "do them."
Everything promised in the verses that follow hangs on the opening clause. No such "If" hangs over the Christian's blessings.
Then come the details of the prosperity that would follow. But it was all provisional. It is, "If you walk … then I will give." Everything depended on their obedience, and that "If" proved fatal. The blessings promised were earthly and material. We can sum them up as fruitfulness, peace, victory and the realized presence of God among them. There is no mention of heaven or of the life to come. What a contrast with the Christian's portion — blessed "in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:3), and that without any "if" at all.
Israel never asked for this offer. It shows what God was willing to do for them.
What a beautiful picture we have here of a people enjoying the blessing of Jehovah, and of His delight in them… Then, if they would walk in God's statutes, keep His commandments, and do them, all these blessings would be theirs. Unasked by Israel, God here offers to bless them, and to do it according to the desire of His heart. We learn what He could do, and would do, if they proved obedient. Nothing seems missing for an earthly people's happiness, before the kingdom would be set up in power.
The condition did not control how Israel entered Canaan. It controlled how long they would stay.
God brought them out of Egypt by divine power. He brought them into the land too, in fulfilment of His promise. So their entrance into Canaan and their possession of it did not depend on their obedience. But to stay there, keeping the covenant was an absolute necessity. They stood before God on the ground of law, and they had to obey if the land was to support them.
So the terms of Leviticus 26 do not fulfil the unconditional promises made earlier to Abraham and his line.
The Israelites have never held the land of Canaan unconditionally. They never had more than a conditional hold on it, and a conditional gift is plainly no fulfilment of an unconditional promise. We are not left to our own judgment here. Paul tells us plainly that "the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise" (Galatians 3:17-18).
The chapter reads like a forecast. History matched it — including what came after the judgment.
It is a long chapter, and it promises blessings if they obey. He even undertakes to place His tabernacle among them, and He promised them every earthly blessing (verses 3-13). "But if you will not listen to me" (verse 14), He threatens them with the heaviest judgments, and at last they are to be cast out of their land (verses 31-39). This is exactly what happened to them when they went into captivity in Babylon… A promise follows this threat: "If they confess their iniquity … then I will remember my covenant with Jacob" (verses 40-42). That is, God would bring them back.
Grace saves without conditions. Enjoying the blessing afterwards is another matter.
It is different with Christians. They are saved by pure unconditional grace. But once saved, their blessing and their enjoyment of spiritual blessing depend on their walk, on obedience to the Word. We must always insist on this. They do not obey, we repeat, to be saved… God has brought them to Himself through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and now their blessing while they live in this world depends on their subjection to the mind and will of God.
- If. The whole promise of Leviticus 26 turns on one word, and that "If" proved fatal.
- Do. The verse names statutes and commandments, then adds a third demand. Lip service was not enough; they were to do them.
- Then. God offered it unasked, from the desire of His heart: fruitfulness, peace, victory, and His presence among them.
- After. Obedience never bought their entry into the land, only their stay in it. Such a conditional gift never fulfilled the unconditional promise made to Abraham. Disobedience finally carried them to Babylon, yet confession would bring God back to His covenant with Jacob.
- Now. Christians are saved by unconditional grace, and their enjoyment of that blessing still follows obedience to the Word.
then I will give your rain in the season thereof, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit;
God sets before Israel a picture of what life in the land would look like if they walked with Him. The first item on the list is rain. It is a promise about weather. Underneath it lies a deeper question: will a whole nation live from God's hand for its daily bread?
Verse 4 sits in the bright half of the chapter. The other half is its dark opposite.
Leviticus 26, which we have now reached, is a very solemn chapter. Verses 1-13 give a glowing picture of the earthly blessing and prosperity that would follow their obedience. Verses 14-39 give a terrible forecast of the evils that would follow if disobedience marked them.
Rain opens a list of blessings that leaves nothing out.
Here is a beautiful picture of a people enjoying the blessing of the Lord, and of His delight in them… Nothing seems lacking for the happiness of an earthly people, before the kingdom was to be set up in power. They could count on the fertility of the ground. Rain — the thing man cannot control — God promised He would not withhold in its season. He assured them of peace and plenty and security.
Egypt, where they had lived, ran on irrigation and human labour. The land they were entering ran on the sky.
What a vivid contrast between Egypt and Canaan! Egypt had no rain from heaven. It was all human effort there. Not so in the Lord's land. The human foot could do nothing there, and there was no need. The blessed rain from heaven fell on it, and the Lord Himself cared for it and watered it with the early and latter rain. Egypt depended on its own resources. Canaan depended wholly on God — on what came down from heaven… The habit in Egypt was to water with the foot; the habit in Canaan was to look up to heaven.
The rain is only the start. Each stage of the farming year would run so full that it overlapped the next.
Obedience to God's statutes and commandments would always bring the rain in its proper season. The land and the trees would yield healthy fruit. The harvest would be abundant, taking up all the time before the vintage of their vineyards. The vintage would be so great that it would continue until the time of sowing. Provision would then be enough for them, and they would also live safely in their land.
The whole promise hangs on the "if" of verse 3. That condition is not the same as the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God gave the promises to the patriarchs without any condition. But the Israelites have never had an unconditional possession of the land of Canaan. They entered on these terms — "If you walk in My statutes and observe My commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season," along with the other promised blessings… So the Israelites never had more than a conditional hold on the land. And a conditional gift is no fulfilment of an unconditional promise.
Later in the same chapter God describes the exact reverse of verse 4. The pictures He uses are physical, but the condition behind them is moral.
The beautiful blue heavens would no longer bring the promise of blessing. Instead the heavens would be like iron, strongly resisting Israel's bad condition. The earth would be like bronze, hard and unyielding, so that it would not produce.
A Christian reading this verse should not simply transfer the promise to himself. The blessings named here are earthly, and they come attached to a condition.
The blessings of the Church are spiritual blessings in heavenly places — not temporal blessings, as Israel's were. It was promised that they, if obedient, would be blessed in their basket and in their store, in the fruit of their body, the fruit of their cattle, and the fruit of the ground… And even in millennial times, when they will enjoy spiritual blessings also, the possession of every temporal comfort is a prominent feature in their predicted condition. "And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the LORD" (Ezekiel 34:27). There are no such promises as these to the Church.
- Condition. Verse 4 hangs on the "if" of verse 3; obedience was the door, and everything that follows comes through it.
- Gift. The first promise is the one thing farming skill cannot supply — rain in its season, held in God's hand alone.
- Dependence. Canaan drank rain from the sky, not water from a river. Its habit was to look up to heaven, not to water with the foot.
- Overflow. Threshing would still be going when the grape harvest began. The grape harvest would run on to sowing time. The blessing had no gap in it.
- Contrast. When God withheld the rain, that same sky turned to iron and the soil to bronze. The plenty promised here was Israel's portion. The Church's blessings are spiritual and heavenly, and carry no "if".
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 securely.
This promise sits in a chapter with two futures before Israel: blessing if they obey, ruin if they rebel. The verse pictures a farming year with no gaps in it. So what would that abundance have looked like, and why did Israel never see it?
One crop is not yet in when the next is ready. One writer traces the chain from rain to safe dwelling:
If they obeyed God's statutes and commandments, the result would always follow. He would send the rain in its proper season. The land and the trees would yield healthy fruit. The harvest would be so large that it filled all the time before the vintage of their vineyards, and the vintage would be so great that it ran on till the time of sowing. They would then have more than enough to live on, and they would also live safely in their land (vv. 3-5).
The vintage is the grape harvest. Why did it stretch over a period instead of one day?
The time of rejoicing when the grapes were gathered. As there were different elevations in the land, the grapes would not be all ripe at the same time.
Eating "bread to the full" means more than food on the table. It means they never had to sell their grain to pay for other needs:
They would have bread to the full, instead of selling it to pay for their other needs. And they would have safety inside their homes. More than that: no dangerous animals and no enemy sword would alarm them.
The promise is the second half of a sentence. It begins with a condition, and that condition decided Israel's history:
Then come the details of the prosperity that would follow. But it was all conditional. It is, "If you walk … then I will give." All depended upon their obedience and that "If" proved fatal. The blessings promised were of an earthly and material sort. We can sum them up as fruitfulness, peace, victory, and the known presence of God among them… There is no mention of heaven or of the life to come. What a contrast with the Christian's portion — blessed "in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3), and that without any "if" at all.
Kelly draws the same line. These blessings, he says, are "for Israel obedient to their God, Jehovah, and earthly, however rich; they are not those characteristic of the Christian, whatever special pleaders argue."
Full barns were not the point in themselves. Israel was to be a display of what life looks like under God's direct rule:
Two things must be obvious to every serious reader of the Old Testament. First, God designed the nation of Israel to stand as a witness against idol worship. It was a witness that God is one, and that Jehovah is the one true God. Second, God designed Israel to be a sample of the happiness — the prosperity — of a people living under the direct government of Jehovah.
Under Solomon, Israel saw something of this:
"Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea… And Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon" (1 Kings 4:20-25). This fulfilled the word of Jehovah in Leviticus 26:5… The foolish people threw away all that they enjoyed in the golden days of Solomon, so that they might enjoy "the fleeting pleasures of sin."
But the promise still has a future:
These promised blessings were plenty of rain, great fruitfulness of their land, and peace in the land. They also included rescue from wild animals and the sword, and victory over their enemies. They would grow in number, and He would establish His covenant with them. More than that: "I will walk among you, and will be your God and you shall be My people." What blessings Jehovah held out to them! They never had them in full. Some day Israel and Israel's land will enter into these blessings.
- Condition. The promise hangs on an "if" — "If you walk … then I will give" — and that "if" proved fatal to Israel's enjoyment of it.
- Overlap. If they obeyed, no season would be lean. Threshing would run into the grape harvest, and the grape harvest into sowing time.
- Fullness. Bread "to the full" meant food they never had to sell to meet other needs, and homes where nothing could alarm them.
- Display. The prosperity had a purpose beyond comfort. Israel was to be a sample of how happy a people are under God's own rule.
- Ahead. Solomon's reign gave a glimpse. Israel never had the blessings in full, and one writer looks for them in a day still to come.
And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will put away the evil beasts out of the land; and the sword shall not go through your land.
This promise is one line in a long list of "then I will" statements. They all hang on a single "if" at the start of the chapter. And this line moves past food and harvest to something harder to secure: a night's sleep with nothing to fear.
God offered every blessing in this section, peace included, on terms. One writer notes the small word the whole passage hangs on, then contrasts it with what believers have now.
Then follow the details of the prosperity that would follow. But it was all strictly provisional. It is, "If you walk … then I will give." Everything depended on their obedience, and that "if" proved fatal. The blessings promised were earthly and material. They come down to fruitfulness, peace, victory and the presence of God enjoyed among them. The Lord had broken the bands of the yoke that Egypt put on them. So they walked upright instead of being bent under heavy burdens. His presence would be their continual salvation. There is no mention of heaven or of the life to come. The Christian's portion is a great contrast. Believers are blessed "with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3), and with no "if" attached at all.
The verse names what God would take away: fear, wild animals, and the invading sword. Another writer places this peace after full bread and a safe home, then adds what more it covers.
Bread to the full would be theirs, instead of selling it to meet their other needs, and safety within their homes. More than that, neither wild animals nor a hostile sword should alarm them. "I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid."
What makes the offer striking is where Israel would enjoy it. This is not a promise of a new creation, but of untroubled life in the middle of the old one.
He assured them of peace and plenty and security. No wild animal would remain in the land, and the sword would not pass through it. Power in victory would be theirs, and they would multiply in their inheritance. Further, God's dwelling place would be among them. He would walk among them, and be their God, and they would be His people. As long ago in the garden God had delight in men, so He would take delight in His redeemed people. And as then, God kept back nothing the creature needed for his happiness. So it would be for the Israelites too. That held even though they lived on an earth where sin is, with nations around them that felt every bitter consequence of the fall.
The promise had a purpose beyond Israel's comfort. Their life as a nation was meant to show the watching nations what God's rule produces.
Two things must be obvious to every serious reader of the Old Testament. First, God designed the nation of Israel to stand as a testimony against idolatry. It was a testimony to the unity of God, and to the truth that the Lord is the one true God. Second, God designed Israel to be a sample of the happiness — the prosperity — of a people living under His direct government.
Israel did taste this, briefly. One writer points to Solomon's reign as the moment the words came true on the ground.
The prosperity and tranquillity of the people was as remarkable as the glory and power of the king. "Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy … [they] lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon" (1 Kings 4:20-25). So this fulfilled what the Lord said in Leviticus 26:5: "Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid."
Israel's hold on the land in this chapter always came with terms. But one writer sets that arrangement apart from the earlier promise God made to Abraham.
The promises were given to the patriarchs absolutely, without condition. But the Israelites have never held the land of Canaan unconditionally… So the Israelites never had more than a conditional hold on the land. And a conditional gift is plainly no fulfilment of an unconditional promise.
- Condition. The peace of this verse sits behind an "if" — obedience first, then the promise. That "if" proved fatal.
- Gift. Peace is something God says He will give, alongside rain, harvest and safety. He gives it; Israel does not bargain for it.
- Scope. God cancels three fears at once: the fear that keeps you awake, wild animals, and the invading sword.
- Witness. A settled, unafraid Israel was God's sample to the nations of life under His direct rule.
- Guarantee. Israel lost the land it held on terms. The promise God made to Abraham carried no terms, and it stands. What obedience could not secure, that promise still holds.
And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword;
Leviticus 26 sets two futures before Israel: blessing if they walk in God's statutes, and ruin if they refuse. Verse 7 belongs to the first list, and the whole weight of it rests on the word "if" that opens the chapter.
The verse cannot be read alone. It is one item in a list, and the list has a matching opposite.
Leviticus 26, which we have now reached, is deeply solemn. Verses 1–13 give a glowing picture of the earthly blessing and prosperity that would follow their obedience. Verses 14–39 give a terrible forecast of the evils that would follow if disobedience marked them.
Military success here is not credited to Israel's skill or numbers. Other nations could trust their weapons; Israel had only one resource, and it could not be borrowed while they lived in sin.
The presence of God should always have been their shield and protection. No weapon formed against them could succeed. But only an obedient people could enjoy that presence. The Lord could not use His presence to approve disobedience or wickedness. The nations around them, outside God's covenant, might rely on their bravery and their military resources. Israel had only the arm of the Lord, and that arm could never reach out to shield unholiness or disobedience. Their strength was to walk with God in a spirit of dependence and obedience. As long as they walked like that, there was a wall of fire around them, to protect them from every enemy and every evil.
The next verse pushes the numbers further: five chasing a hundred. Later history proved it was no exaggeration.
Everything would be at peace, with no fear of animals or enemies (v. 6). If enemies did come, Israel would defeat them easily. Five men would defeat a hundred, and a hundred men would put ten thousand to flight (vv. 7–8). Something like this did happen in the book of Judges. God used only three hundred men led by Gideon to completely rout the huge army of the Midianites (Judges 7:19-22).
Owning a promise and enjoying it are not the same thing. When the Philistines crushed Israel, this promise sat unused. No one asked God what had gone wrong.
Israel's defeat appears to have been sudden — a collapse before their enemies almost without striking a blow… After the first four thousand fell, the elders did not turn to the Lord as the warrior Joshua had done. If they had cried out to God to learn the cause, they might have been spared the second and worse defeat… "You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight" was the promise given to them at the very start of their history as a nation.
The same chapter that promises pursuit also promises panic. Verse 7 and verse 36 show what disobedience cost.
Instead of the courage He once gave them against all odds, they would fall into utter terror. "I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall chase them. They shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues" (v. 36).
Commentators are careful here. The blessings of this chapter are land, harvest, safety and battlefield success — the portion of an earthly people.
These blessings come with a condition. They are for Israel when obedient to their God, the Lord. They are earthly, however rich they may be. They are not the blessings that mark out the Christian, whatever one-sided arguments some may make.
Yet the principle behind the promise carries over into another conflict.
In the warfare appointed to them there was no need to fear the enemies… God's promise had three parts: the Lord goes with you, He fights for you, He saves you. This presupposes their obedience. If they were obedient, they had nothing to fear. Victory was on their side. And we too need fear nothing in our warfare with the wicked spirits (Eph. 6). The Lord is on our side, and if we resist the devil he will flee from us.
- Condition — verse 7 sits among the blessings of obedience in verses 1–13. Verses 14–39 spell out the opposite. The promise is a test, not a guarantee.
- Presence — Israel's advantage was never its army. It was God's presence, and that presence could not shield disobedience. Walking with Him was their whole strength.
- Power — with obedience, the numbers stopped mattering. Five would chase a hundred, as Gideon's three hundred later routed the Midianites.
- Forfeit — the Philistines beat Israel while this promise sat unused. No one cried out to God to learn the cause. Later in the chapter the picture flips: they flee when no one is chasing them.
- Reach — the blessings themselves are earthly and belong to Israel. Still, the same principle holds in the believer's fight with evil spirits. The Lord fights for the obedient, and the devil flees when we resist him.
and five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; and your enemies shall fall beside you by the sword.
God offers everything in this part of the chapter on terms. One writer shows what that small word cost Israel, and what Christians have instead:
Then follow the details of the prosperity that would follow. But it was all strictly provisional. It is, "If you walk … then I will give." Everything depended on their obedience, and that "if" proved fatal. The blessings promised were earthly and material. They add up to fruitfulness, peace, victory and the presence of God truly known among them… There is no mention of heaven or of the life to come. What a contrast with the Christian's portion — blessed "in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3), and with no "if" attached.
The figures are not random. Five stands for what is small and weak, and that is the point of the promise:
Five appears to stand for what is relatively small; the number marks weakness. In Lev. 26:8 we read, "Five of you shall chase a hundred." Israel's very smallness, if they stayed faithful, would easily rout their enemies in power. In Isaiah 30:17, on the other hand, it is said of them in the time of their judgment, "At the threat of five you shall flee."
The promise was not left as theory. One writer points to a battle where the same arithmetic appeared:
All would be at peace, with no fear of beasts or enemies (v. 6), and if enemies did come, Israel would easily defeat them. Five men would defeat 100, and one hundred men would put 10,000 to flight (vv. 7-8). Something like this did happen in the book of Judges. God used only 300 men led by Gideon to completely rout the huge army of the Midianites (Judges 7:19-22).
Later Scripture reverses the picture as a warning. The numbers only run Israel's way while God fights for them:
Also, let them reason soberly. How could one enemy chase a thousand Israelites, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them and the Lord had given them up? (v.31)… In fact, God promised Israel that while they obeyed the Lord, "One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the LORD your God who fights for you" (Josh. 23:10). This is a simple matter for God. We see it in David, who depended on Him in faith and defeated the giant Goliath and all the armies of the Philistines (1 Sam. 17:45-52). But when Israel disobeys, God withdraws, and the opposite results soon follow.
Israel was later struck down before its enemies. One writer traces the failure not to the battlefield but to a refusal to face the cause:
But note this: all these promises were conditional. They depended on Israel carrying out its responsibilities faithfully. The first condition was, "If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them."… But Israel had sadly failed in all this. So they were stripped of their strength and struck down before their enemies. The only remedy left was to confess their backsliding and return to God with all their heart. But no. That would have required "great searchings of heart." It was humbling, and it would have taken too much time, they probably reasoned.
The same principle holds wherever God fights. A count of heads decides nothing:
When it is a matter of the Lord's battles we do not see men of God gathering their whole army together. It is rather the opposite. Gideon with three hundred men, Jonathan with a single companion, and many other captains won the most striking victories. God fought with them, and what are few or many soldiers to Him?… Numbers count for nothing in His victories.
- Condition — The victory is real, but conditional. "If you walk… then I will give" governs the whole passage, and that "if" is what broke Israel.
- Weakness — Five is the Bible's number for what is small. God promises the win to the few, so the strength on show is His.
- Fulfilment — It happened. Gideon and three hundred men scattered the whole Midianite army.
- Reversal — Disobedience runs the same equation backwards. One enemy then chases a thousand of them, and only because their Rock had handed them over.
- Remedy — When defeat came, the cure was not better tactics. It was searching of heart and a return to God — the very thing Israel judged too humbling and too slow.
And I will turn my face towards you and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
Leviticus 26:9 sits in a list of promises God makes to Israel if they keep His commandments — rain, harvest, peace, victory, and now His face turned toward them. Two questions follow: did Israel ever see this, and what happens to a promise when its condition fails?
The chapter sets two futures side by side, and verse 9 belongs to the bright one:
Leviticus 26, which we have now reached, has a very solemn character. Verses 1-13 give a glowing picture of the earthly blessing and prosperity that would follow their obedience. Verses 14-39 give a terrible forecast of the evils that would follow if they disobeyed.
The favour promised here is not one good year. Read with the next verse, the picture is of harvests arriving faster than they can be eaten:
God would look on them favourably, making them fruitful and multiplying the nation. After eating the old harvest they would clear out the rest to make room for the new. So the blessing would be continual (vv. 9-10).
Israel never asked for any of this. The offer came from God's side, and it shows what He wanted for them:
Here God offers to bless them though they never asked, and to bless them according to the desire of His heart. So we learn what He could do, and would do, if they proved obedient. For an earthly people's happiness, before the kingdom would be set up in power, nothing seems to be lacking... Power in victory should be theirs, and they should multiply in their inheritance.
The whole list, this verse included, hangs on one small word at the head of the chapter:
Then follow the details of the prosperity that would follow. But all of it was entirely provisional. It is, "If you walk... then I will give." Everything depended on their obedience, and that "If" proved fatal. The blessings promised were earthly and material... There is no mention of heaven or of the life to come. What a contrast with the Christian's portion! The Christian is blessed "with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3). And there is no "if" in it at all.
God promises to confirm His covenant. But the terms here are not the terms on which the land was first promised to Israel's ancestors:
The promises were given to the patriarchs absolutely, without any condition. But the Israelites have never had an unconditional possession of the land of Canaan. The terms on which they entered were these: "If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season." The other promised blessings came on the same terms. "For I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you" (Lev. 26:3-9)... So the Israelites never had more than a conditional hold on the land. A conditional gift is no fulfilment of an unconditional promise.
Did Israel ever taste the fruitfulness of this verse?
But all of this was conditional. Did they ever enjoy it? Did they ever experience the fulness of it — the barns so filled with the new harvest that they brought out the old store and ate it?... Alas, no... The Lord foresaw it all. He warned them of what He must do in righteousness, if they would not obey and so let Him bless them in grace.
Israel's failure did not cancel the promise. It only moved the day of its fulfilment:
They would multiply, and He would establish His covenant with them. More than that: "I will walk among you, and will be your God and you shall be My people." What blessings Jehovah held out to them! They never had them in fulness. Some day Israel and Israel's land will enter into these blessings.
Writing on similar promises elsewhere, Grant says why the outcome will differ next time:
This would have been marvellous indeed, though we know it did not take place. But in the millennium it will be so, because God's covenant with the fathers cannot fail. The grace of God will do what law never could.
- Face. God's favourable look comes first. Fruitfulness and increase follow His turning to them, not the reverse.
- Fruit. The increase would be continual: they would clear out the old harvest to make room for the new.
- Heart. No one asked for this. God offered it unprompted, according to the desire of His heart.
- If. The whole list rested on obedience. That "If" proved fatal, and a conditional gift is no fulfilment of an unconditional promise.
- Grace. The covenant with the fathers cannot fail. What law never secured, grace will yet do.
And ye shall eat old store, and clear away the old because of the new.
Leviticus 26:10 sits inside a list of promises God ties to obedience: rain in season, safety, victory, and harvests too big for the barns. Two questions follow — what sort of blessing is this, and did Israel ever see it?
The verse describes a farmer's problem that only abundance creates. There is still food from the previous harvest, and the new crop is already pressing in.
After eating the old harvest, they would clear out the rest to make room for the new. So the blessing would be continual.
The point is not one good year. It is supply that never runs down, because the giving never stops.
The overflowing store is one line in a longer list. Rain comes first, then crops, then fruit — then something better than all of them.
If Israel walks in His statutes with a submissive heart, rain will come at the right time, the earth will yield its produce, and the trees their fruit... The old store will abound beyond their eating and need clearing away because of the new. And, better still: "I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people."
The full barn was never the best thing on offer. God Himself walking among them was.
All of it depended on how Israel walked. Even God's presence among them, their real defence, came with that condition attached.
God's presence should always have been their shield and defence. No weapon formed against them could succeed. But only an obedient people could enjoy God's presence. The Lord could not use His presence to approve disobedience or wickedness... Their strength was to walk with God in a spirit of dependence and obedience.
Their strength lay in the walk, not in the harvest.
So the honest question is whether the overflowing barn ever happened. Israel's own history answers it.
But all this was conditional. Did they ever enjoy it? Did they ever experience the fullness of it? Were the barns so full of the new harvest that they brought out the old store and ate it? Were the crops so heavy that their threshing reached to the grape harvest, and the grape harvest to the sowing time? Were they ever free from idolatry while they were in their land as a whole people? Alas, no. They had false gods in the days of Joshua (24:23). They forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtoreth in the days of the Judges (Judges 2:13).
These are material promises tied to one land and one nation. They still belong to Israel, and they are not the Christian's portion.
Israel's calling is an earthly one. Under law, they failed to meet the conditions that their continued enjoyment of earthly blessing depended on. So they failed to keep hold of it, even in Joshua's and Solomon's day, when God had given it to them so freely. In days to come, grace will restore and save them. Then they will stand in grace, no longer holding their blessings on the terms of their own obedience. Yet their blessings — the ones that mark out their calling and position — will still be earthly. Ours is a heavenly calling.
What obedience could not secure, grace will. Later in the same chapter, God goes back to a promise that never rested on Israel's obedience at all.
After they have destroyed themselves, the Lord turns back to His own unconditional promises to their forefathers. Even in their enemies' land, He does not forget them or cast them off completely.
The picture of old and new reaches past the harvest. One writer ties it to the Lord's own test of whether His disciples had understood.
The Lord asked His disciples: "Have you understood all these things?" (Matthew 13:51). They answered, "Yes." But the proof of their understanding would be that they would be able to bring out of their treasure of knowledge things new and old. True wisdom would never discard the old. It would gain fresh value because of the new. Men of understanding would "bring forth the old because of the new" (Leviticus 26:10).
Barker is using an older translation of the verse. The ESV reads, "you shall clear out the old to make way for the new."
- Condition — the promise starts with an if. God offered blessing on this scale; He never owed it.
- Overflow — God's favour shows up not in a full barn but in one they must empty to hold the next harvest.
- Presence — the harvest was the lesser gift; God walking among them as their God was the greater.
- Failure — Israel never saw this fullness. Idolatry started in Joshua's day and ran on through the Judges.
- Grace — they ruined themselves, and God went back to His unconditional promise to the fathers. What obedience lost, grace will restore.
And I will set my habitation among you; and my soul shall not abhor you;
Leviticus 26 promises rain, harvests, peace and safety to an obedient Israel. This verse crowns the list with God Himself — but what does it mean that His soul will not abhor them, and did the promise ever come true?
The rest of the chapter promises harvests, peace and safe borders. One writer, using an older translation, marks where the list reaches its peak:
The old harvest will be so plentiful that they must clear it out to make room for the new. And, better still: "I will set my habitation among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be my people."
The verse puts the promise as a negative: His soul will not abhor them. But the promise is warm. God offers to delight in a people again, as He once delighted in man in the garden:
What a beautiful picture we have here — a people enjoying the blessing of Jehovah, and His delight in them… Further, God's dwelling place would be among them. He would walk among them, be their God, and they would be His people. Long ago in the garden God delighted in men. In the same way He would take delight in His redeemed people. In the garden God withheld nothing that man needed for his happiness. It would be the same for the Israelites, even though they lived on an earth where sin is present.
God dwells among a people He has already rescued. The order matters: He may visit before redemption, but He moves in only after it.
Again, it is only on the ground of redemption that God dwells with man. He did not dwell with Adam innocent, though He came down to him. He did not dwell with Abraham, though He visited him and ate with him. But when Israel came out of Egypt, God said He brought them to Himself "that I may dwell among them." At once they built the tabernacle, and God's presence stood in the middle of His people.
Every promise in this chapter hangs on one small word. One writer weighs it, then contrasts Israel's blessings with the Christian's:
Then follow the details of the prosperity that would follow. But it was all conditional: "If you walk … then I will give." Everything depended on their obedience, and that "If" proved fatal. The blessings promised were earthly and material: fruitfulness, peace, victory, and the realized presence of God among them… There is no mention of heaven or of the life to come. How great the contrast with the Christian's portion! He is blessed "with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3), and without any "if" at all.
The same promise appears again in 2 Corinthians 6 — but not word for word. One small change of preposition carries a large truth:
It is interesting to see the word "among," used in Exodus 29 and Leviticus 26, changed to "in" in 2 Corinthians 6. That marks the great truth of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in God's people, the great mark that sets the believer apart in this present age. And further, Scripture uses the word "temple," which gives the idea of permanence. The word "tabernacle" would not, as long as we are down here.
Israel's failure did not cancel God's purpose. It only delayed it. The same promise reappears in the prophets and finally as an accomplished fact:
Because of Israel's sins, this promise was never fully fulfilled. So God repeats it through Ezekiel, for He never allows His purpose to be frustrated. He applies it to the time of Messiah's kingdom during the millennium: "My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Ezek. 37:27). Coming to the last book of the Bible, we find almost the same words again — only now not as a promise, but as a statement of fact and accomplishment. Connecting the three scriptures, we learn that it was always God's thought to surround Himself with His redeemed people.
- Redemption first. God visited Adam and Abraham, but dwelt with neither. He moved in among Israel only after bringing them out of Egypt.
- Presence is the gift. Harvests, peace and victory head the list. God's own dwelling is the "better still" that crowns it.
- Delight, not endurance. "My soul shall not abhor you" means He would take pleasure in them, as He once delighted in man in the garden.
- The fatal "if." Every blessing here hung on obedience, and that condition proved fatal for Israel. The Christian's blessings carry no "if" at all.
- The reach beyond failure. Sin delayed the promise; it never cancelled it. God repeated it through Ezekiel, now dwells in believers by His Spirit, and states it at last as accomplished fact.
and I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be to me a people.
This promise closes a long list of good things God pledged to Israel if they would obey Him. The best blessing is not a thing but a Person. It is God Himself, walking among them, calling them His own and giving Himself to them as their God.
These promises were made to Israel, and they are earthly. One commentator marks out who they belong to, then names the best of them:
These blessings come with conditions. They are for Israel obeying their God, Jehovah, and they are earthly, however rich they may be. They are not the blessings that mark out the Christian, whatever those who plead a special case may argue. And, better still: "I will set my habitation among you, and my soul shall not abhor you; and I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people."
The word "walk" reaches back to the first pages of the Bible. It points to something God has wanted from the start:
We might notice that the first mention of walking is when God (Jehovah Elohim) Himself walked in the garden of Eden "in the cool of the day." That shows God's desire for the company of man, His creature. Leviticus 26:12 gives us the same thought. God tells His earthly people that if they would only keep the conditions He rightly insisted on, "I will walk among you."… "Enoch walked with God." This desire on Enoch's part seems to have pleased the Divine Persons so much that the Holy Spirit delighted to repeat the words.
God walking in the camp made a demand on the camp. Moses spelled it out:
The promise of Leviticus 26:11-12 depended on Israel staying faithful. Even so, we hear Moses tell Israel, "Because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that He may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you" (Deuteronomy 23:14).
Not everyone feels that demand as a burden. It depends on what a person loves:
If He was in their midst to secure victory over their enemies, He was also there to demand holiness of life. They were never, for one moment, to forget the majestic Person who walked up and down among them. Would this thought be a burden to anyone? Only to those who did not love holiness, purity and moral order.
The promise came with a condition. Israel failed to keep it, yet God did not drop the promise:
Israel was still in the wilderness. Jehovah was giving them instructions about how to behave once they were in the land, and He gave this promise along with them. It depended on their obedience… Because of Israel's sins, the promise was never completely fulfilled. So God repeats it through Ezekiel and applies it to the time of Messiah's kingdom — for God never lets anything defeat His purpose.
The words come up again in 2 Corinthians 6:16, now spoken to Christians. One commentator points out that a word changes there, and that the change is the point. (Older translations read "I will dwell in them, and walk in them"; the ESV has "among them".)
It is interesting to see the word "among," used in Exodus 29 and Leviticus 26, changed to "in" in 2 Corinthians 6. That marks the great truth that the Holy Spirit lives in God's people. This is the great mark that sets the believer apart in this present age. And further, the word chosen is "temple," which gives the idea of permanence. "Tabernacle" would not give that idea, while we are still down here.
The tent pitched in the wilderness was never the end of the story. It was a preview:
So the word "tabernacle" in Revelation 21 clearly points back to these scriptures. Israel's camp is in fact the first outward expression of God's purpose to have His eternal home among His people. His tabernacle in the wilderness, ringed by the twelve tribes, was both a picture given in advance and a prophecy. And once again the more perfect dwelling of the millennium became a picture of His perfected tabernacle in eternity.
- Desire. God has wanted man's company since Eden; "I will walk among you" is that same wish spoken to a nation.
- Best. Of all the blessings promised for obedience, His own presence is the best.
- Holiness. Because He walks there, the camp must be clean. Only those who love purity welcome that.
- Forfeited. Israel broke the condition, so the promise was never completely fulfilled. God restated it through Ezekiel for Messiah's kingdom.
- Deeper. In 2 Corinthians 6:16, "among" becomes "in" and "tabernacle" becomes "temple." Revelation 21 shows the whole line finished for ever.
I am Jehovah your God, who 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 walk upright.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.