But if ye hearken not unto me, and do not all these commandments,
Leviticus 26 sets two futures side by side, and this verse is the hinge. Before it, obedience brings rain and blessing; after it, the same covenant speaks in warnings, and the question is what God gives on condition and what He gives freely.
Commentators read the chapter as two panels, and this verse opens the darker one.
Leviticus 26, which we have now reached, has an extremely 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 disobedience marked them.
God promised Canaan to the patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — with no strings attached. Living in it came on different terms.
God gave the promises to the patriarchs absolutely, without 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 keep My commandments and do them, then I will give you rain"… "But if you will not listen to Me, and will not do all these commandments"… "I will bring the land into desolation… and I will scatter you among the nations" (Lev. 26:14-33)… So the Israelites never had more than a conditional hold on the land. And a conditional gift, of course, is no fulfilment of an unconditional promise.
The judgments here are not one blow. They come in stages, and each stage waits to see whether the people will bend.
Israel's promises end in misery. Jehovah judges Israel's disobedience as it deserves, and He judges more severely as their rebellion grows. Their soul hated His righteous rules, so He sends on the people "panic, wasting disease and fever" — not only the dread of a guilty conscience, but disease in its slow wasting form and in its fierce burning form… If this is not enough to humble them before Him, He will punish them sevenfold more, to break their pride… And if this fails to discipline their stubborn spirit, He will walk against them in displeasure, just as they walked against Him in self-will.
These warnings landed in real history. One writer points to the sabbath years Israel ignored — every seventh year, when the land was meant to rest.
It is a long chapter. God promises blessings if the people obey… But "if you will not listen to me," (v. 14), He threatens them with the heaviest judgments, and in the end He drives them out of their land (v. 31-39). This is exactly what happened when Babylon carried them away captive (compare 2 Chron. 36:21 with Lev. 26:34). While Jerusalem lay desolate, the land enjoyed her sabbaths. Once every seven years there was to be a year of rest, but the people had no faith in God to observe it.
A chapter of "if" is a chapter about how God governs. Confusing that with grace damages both.
We very easily confuse two things which God's word clearly separates: God's government and God's grace. The evils that come from this confusion are many. It weakens our sense of the dignity and seriousness of government. It also weakens our sense of the purity, fullness and height of grace. It is quite true that in government God keeps the sovereign right to act in patience, long-suffering and mercy. But He shows these qualities from His throne of government. Never confuse that with the unconditional workings of pure and absolute grace.
The same writer shows where the distinction leads. What obedience could not secure, grace will.
All this is government. But in time God will bring Israel into the land of Canaan on the ground of grace alone — grace that never changes, exercised in divine righteousness through the blood of the cross… So they will never again be driven out. No enemy will ever trouble them… Their hold on the land will rest on the eternal stability of divine grace.
The blessings in this chapter were earthly, and they hung on one small word.
All was 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… There is no mention of heaven or of the life to come. What a contrast with the Christian's portion — blessed "with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3), and with no "if" attached at all.
- The "if" — Verse 14 turns the chapter from promise to warning. Everything hung on one condition, and that condition proved fatal.
- Conditional — God promised Canaan to the patriarchs with no conditions. Israel's hold on it was conditional, and a conditional gift never fulfils an unconditional promise.
- Escalating — The judgments rise sevenfold in stages. Each stage aims to humble a spirit that the one before did not bend.
- Fulfilled — Babylon proved the words true. The people went into captivity, and the land took the sabbath rests they had refused to give it.
- Grace — Keep government and grace apart. What Israel lost under the first will be theirs for ever under the second, held by the cross and not by their obedience.
and if ye shall despise my statutes, and if your soul shall abhor mine ordinances, so that ye do not all my commandments, that ye break my covenant,
Leviticus 26 sets two roads before Israel: obey and be blessed in the land, or refuse and face growing discipline. Verse 15 shows the second road at its root. It is not one act of failure, but contempt for His statutes, a soul that loathes His rules, refusal to do His commandments, and a covenant broken.
The chapter rests on an agreement Israel had already made. One writer sets out its two sides.
In Leviticus 26 we find what would follow for Israel if they kept the conditions they had accepted. Those conditions were the terms of their relationship with God, and of holding on to their blessings in the land. We also find the alternative if those terms were not met. "If you walk in my statutes … then I will give you your rains in their season" (Lev. 26:3-13); "But if you will not listen … then I will do this to you" (Lev. 26:14-39).
Blessing hung on obedience because Israel themselves had agreed to that arrangement. One commentator traces the danger back to that self-confidence.
They trusted in themselves. So they accepted the condition of keeping His covenant as the basis of their standing and blessing. This became the ground of their obligations. They were in relationship with Him as His people on earth, with His law as the rule that bound them in every respect. Obedience is a duty; but to rest life or blessing on it was fatal. Law therefore became, for sinful man, a ministry of death and condemnation. It is of the highest importance to grasp that on that ground no sinner can live: he needs to be justified by faith in Jesus, the only Saviour.
The verse names a soul that abhors God's rules. The failure starts inside, before anyone can see it. The same writer ties that inner contempt to the penalties that follow.
Israel's promises end in misery. Jehovah judges their disobedience as it deserves, and He punishes them more and more severely as their rebelliousness keeps growing. When their soul abhorred His righteous ordinances, He appoints over them "panic, with wasting disease and fever." That is not only the dread of a guilty conscience. It is disease in its slow, wasting form and in its raging, sudden form. He also sends their enemies to devour their harvests and rout their armies. They even flee when no one is chasing them.
The warnings fill far more of the chapter than the promises do. There is a reason for that.
This section takes up the largest part of the chapter. God knew that Israel would not obey Him. They needed the plain warning, and it would in fact become an accurate prophecy of their history. How can we be so insensitive that we read plain warnings like this and foolishly ignore them? God means what He says, whether He is promising blessing for obedience or warning of great suffering for disobedience. Simply to believe God is the only safe attitude for anyone.
The warning came true in their history.
But Israel failed completely. This chapter set a solemn and appalling picture before their eyes in verses 14-33. Even so, they forsook the Lord and served other gods. So they brought on themselves the severe judgements threatened in this section. The bare record of them is enough to make the ears tingle. Under the heavy weight of these judgements they are suffering at this very hour. Scattered and stripped, wasted and outcast, they are the monuments of Jehovah's unbending truth and justice.
This chapter calls for a distinction we easily blur.
We very easily confuse two things that the word clearly separates: God's government and God's grace. Many evils come from this confusion. It is sure to weaken our sense of the dignity and seriousness of government, and of the purity, fullness and height of grace. It is quite true that in government God keeps for Himself the sovereign right to act in patience, long-suffering and mercy. But that must never be confused with the unconditional working of pure and absolute grace.
Israel could break the covenant. God would not break His word to their fathers.
God does not close this searching word of His without remembering His covenant. As it says: His covenant with Jacob, His covenant with Isaac, and His covenant with Abraham. He speaks here in this rare and emphatic way of His covenant with every one of them. They had sinned against Him so long and so deeply. Yet even from His own mouth there should be a threefold witness for His mercy in that day.
- Covenant accepted. Israel's blessing in the land rested on conditions they themselves agreed to keep.
- Covenant despised. The break begins inside — contempt for His statutes, a soul that loathes His rules — before it ever shows in conduct.
- Covenant broken. Refusing to do His commandments breaks the agreement, and the penalties follow that inward contempt.
- Covenant enforced. The warning was not exaggeration. It became the nation's history, a lesson in God's government.
- Covenant remembered. Keep His government distinct from His grace. The chapter closes with His covenant named three times — Jacob, Isaac, Abraham — a witness to mercy.