Leviticus 26:1–2

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.