And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me, I will bring sevenfold more plagues upon you according to your sins.
Leviticus 26 sets out the warnings God gave Israel before they entered the land, and each refusal to listen brings a heavier stroke, not a lighter one. So why would a God who wants His people back make their trouble worse, and what does it mean that He walks "contrary" to them?
The chapter has two halves, and the shorter one is the bright half.
Leviticus 26, which we have now reached, is an extremely solemn chapter. Verses 1-13 give a glowing picture of blessing and prosperity on earth. That is what their obedience would bring. Verses 14-39 give a terrible forecast of the evils that would follow if they lived in disobedience.
Judgment was never God's first choice for this nation.
How ready the Lord was to bless His people! How full was the blessing He could give them! He would have delighted to walk among them. But they would not. So He had to deal with them in judgment. Yet how slow to anger! He would only deal blow after blow when each preceding one had failed to bring them to repentance.
Verse 21 is one link in that chain. The stroke before it had already come and gone without result.
If these punishments did not soften their hearts into obedience, they could expect their troubles to increase sevenfold again (v. 21). God would send wild beasts among them. The beasts would destroy great numbers of their children, their livestock and their adults too (v. 22). Their highways would lie deserted, with no one passing through.
"Contrary" points to self-will, a direction the people chose. God answers that walk with a walk of His own.
If that is not enough to humble them before Him, He will punish seven times more, to break their arrogance. He will make their heaven like iron and their earth like bronze, holding back all heat and moisture and growth. Their work would then be useless... And if this failed to discipline their stubborn spirit, He would walk as contrary to them in displeasure as they walked to Him in self-will.
The wild animals of verse 22 are not a random horror. They belong to a set of four that reappears in the prophets.
Most of the chapter warns of the dreadful evils their disobedience would provoke. Those evils would fall on them with sevenfold intensity. In the days of Ezekiel, Israel's sad history of law-breaking was reaching its climax. Through him the Lord spoke of "my four disastrous acts of judgment... sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence" (Ezekiel 14:21). In our chapter the same four appear. Only the sword comes fourth here instead of first.
Centuries later, during the siege of Samaria, the warning came true word for word.
Now God's government allows the enemy to besiege Samaria, and "a great famine" follows in the city. The people are driven to terrible straits, and there the solemn prophecy spoken more than five hundred years before comes true. Moses had warned God's people about turning away from Him. The time would come when their enemies besieged them and brought them so low that tender, delicate women would eat their own children in secret (Leviticus 26:21-29; Deuteronomy 28:49-57). This abomination had at last come to pass.
Because the warnings held, the nation itself became a public lesson.
Under the heavy weight of these judgments they are suffering at this very hour. Scattered and stripped, wasted and outcast, they are the monuments of the Lord's unbending truth and justice. They read aloud to all the nations of the earth a most impressive lesson about the moral government of God. Those nations would gain much by studying that lesson closely, and our own hearts would do well to ponder it too.
The escalation stops the moment two things appear, and the second is the one people skip.
First, there must be the confession of their iniquities. Second, the acceptance of the punishment that their iniquities have brought upon them. Notice that this second condition comes twice, and clearly it matters a great deal... A man may confess his sin. But if he still kicks against the punishment it brings, his confession is only on the surface and lacks real sorrow. This is as true for us today as it was for Israel long ago. God's dealings with His children are always in love, but they are also in strict righteousness.
- Contrary — The word means a chosen direction, not a stumble. God answers in kind and walks contrary to those who walk contrary to Him.
- Graduated — The judgments arrive in stages. Each one comes only after the one before it failed to bring repentance.
- Sevenfold — Ignored discipline is not withdrawn. God multiplies it, because the aim is to break arrogance, not just to punish.
- Fulfilled — Wild beasts, famine, sword and pestilence all came centuries later, just as warned. The scattered nation still reads that lesson to the world.
- Answered — The sequence ends when confession joins with accepting the punishment. Confession that resents the rod is only surface deep.
And I will send the beasts of the field among you, that they may rob you of your children, and cut off your cattle, and make you few in number; and your streets shall be desolate.
Leviticus 26 sets two futures before Israel. Obedience brings blessing. Refusal brings trouble that rises step by step, and verse 22 is one of those steps. Why would God turn wild animals loose on His own people?
The judgments of this chapter are not a single blow. They come in stages, each one applied after the one before it failed to produce repentance.
These steps, as detailed here, are five in number. How they tell of the longing of Jehovah's heart over His rebellious people! He disciplines them only as far as it takes to bring them to repentance. (1) First comes the threat of sickness, and of slaughter by their enemies. Their crops, the fruit of their labours, are left at the mercy of the invader (verses 16-17)... If that had succeeded in bringing them to repentance, God's dealing in government would have stopped. But when that failed, He would send drought and the famine that follows (18-20).
Earlier in the same chapter God promised to clear dangerous animals out of the land. Verse 22 takes that promise back.
Had Israel walked in obedience, they would have been unbeatable. "I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land."
That safety rested on their walk with God.
The presence of God should always have been their shield and defence. No weapon formed against them could succeed. But only an obedient people could enjoy that presence. Jehovah could not put His presence behind disobedience or wickedness... Their strength was to walk with God in a spirit of dependence and obedience.
Children, livestock, numbers, empty roads: each loss strikes the nation's future, not just its comfort.
And if this was not enough to call them back, seven times more plagues would fall on them. The very beasts of the field would rob them of their children and cut off their cattle. This would cut their numbers down without limit and leave their very streets deserted.
The same wild beasts appear again in the prophets, as one of four judgments.
Most of the chapter gives warnings about the dreadful evils their disobedience would provoke. These would fall on them with sevenfold intensity. In Ezekiel's day the sad history of Israel's law-breaking was reaching its climax. Through him the Lord spoke of "my four disastrous acts of judgment... sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence" (Ezek. 14:21). In our chapter the four judgments appear, only the sword comes fourth instead of first.
In Ezekiel the list carries a further weight. When one of these judgments falls, even the most righteous people cannot shelter anyone but themselves.
The prophet hears the awful sentence. Evil reaches its last excess, and God strikes the land with one of His judgments. At that point the three men whose prayers for others appear at critical moments in God's dealings with man could save no one but their own souls by their righteousness. The question here is God's government in this world, not grace for eternal life. If famine were sent, if wild beasts, if a sword, if a pestilence, not even Noah nor Daniel nor Job would save son or daughter beyond themselves.
These threats were not vague. God put them in writing in advance because He knew what Israel would do.
This section takes up the largest part of the chapter because God knew that Israel would not obey Him. They needed the plain warning that 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.
A chapter built on "if" can only condemn the one who breaks it. The answer had to come from somewhere else.
The law as such knows no grace; its function must be to condemn every breach. Grace and truth came through our Lord Jesus... And sovereign mercy shall once more shine on Israel, and for ever.
- Measured, not random. The wild beasts are the third of five steps, each step going only as far as it takes to bring the people back.
- Withdrawn, not added. Verse 6 promised to remove harmful beasts. Verse 22 lifts the protection that obedience secured.
- Aimed at the future. The beasts take the children and the cattle, so the nation shrinks and its roads empty.
- Named again later. Wild beasts join sword, famine and pestilence in God's four judgments. In Ezekiel 14 no one's righteousness can shelter another person.
- Answered elsewhere. The chapter's "if" can only condemn. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, and God's mercy will shine on Israel again.
And if ye will not be disciplined by me through these, but walk contrary unto me,
This verse sits in a chapter that climbs step by step. God has already warned of sickness, drought and wild animals. Now He asks what happens if none of it works. The question is not whether God punishes, but what He wants His punishment to achieve.
Everything from verse 14 on describes stages. One writer asks why exile should ever fall on a people whose God was the Lord:
Why should they experience the bitterness and shame of exile? Why waste away in the land of their enemies? The Lord was their God. Exile could never come from His inability to shield them from the invader, but it might come from His unwillingness to do it. The lawgiver next goes on to say when that might be the case. He describes the different steps in God's dealings in chastisement with the people. Those steps would end in captivity, and they could only hope to return from it after real confession of their sins.
The discipline in this verse has a goal. If one stage brought the people back, God would go no further:
These steps, as detailed here, are five in number. How they tell of the longing of the Lord's heart over His rebellious people! He chastised them only as much as was needed to lead them to repentance. The first step is sickness, with slaughter by their enemies. Their crops, the fruit of their labours, are left at the mercy of the invader (verses 16-17)... If that had succeeded in bringing them to repentance, God's dealing in government would have stopped. When it failed, He would send drought and the famine that follows (verses 18-20). In the days of Ahab, Israel felt this in full. They also proved the Lord's willingness to relax His hand in punishment when they confessed that He was God (1 Kings 18).
The same phrase describes both sides. Their walk against God came from self-will; His answer comes as displeasure:
And if this failed to discipline their stubborn spirit, He would walk as contrary to them in displeasure as they walked to Him in self-will. He must strike them Himself, sevenfold for their sins. He would bring a sword on them to carry out the vengeance of the covenant. As they gathered into their cities out of the good land, He would send the plague on them and hand them over to the enemy. Their efforts to unite for strength would only and surely bring on them death and disgrace as a people.
It is easy to mix up two things that Scripture keeps apart:
We are very prone to confuse two things which the word clearly distinguishes — God's government and God's grace. The evils that result from this confusion are many. 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 God in government keeps for Himself the sovereign right to act in patience, long-suffering and mercy. But He exercises these attributes from His throne of government. We must never confuse that with the unconditional acting of pure and absolute grace. In this chapter God in government meets the earliest and faintest stirrings of a broken and repentant spirit with long-suffering mercy.
The "if" of this verse did not stay an "if." Israel's later history proved it, and the lesson reaches past Israel:
But Israel failed completely. A solemn and terrible picture stood before their eyes in verses 14-33 of this chapter. Even so, they abandoned the Lord and served other gods. They brought on themselves the severe judgements threatened here, and the bare record of them is enough to make the ears tingle... To all the nations of the earth they read aloud a deeply impressive lesson on the moral government of God. Those nations would profit by studying that lesson closely, and it would be good for our own hearts to ponder it too.
The rising blows are not the chapter's last word. Even here, God has mercy in view:
God does not close this searching word without remembering, as it says, His covenant with Jacob, His covenant with Isaac, and His covenant with Abraham. He speaks here with unusual emphasis of His covenant with every one of them. So even from His own mouth — the One they had sinned against so long and so deeply — there would be a threefold witness for His mercy in that day.
- Step. This verse is one of five steps of chastisement, not God's final sentence on His people.
- Measured. God sent only as much as was needed to bring repentance. Had an earlier step worked, His dealing would have stopped there.
- Mirrored. To "walk contrary" is God meeting their self-will with His displeasure.
- Distinguished. God's government is not the same as His grace, and blurring them weakens our grasp of both.
- Mercy. The chapter ends with God remembering His covenant with Jacob, Isaac and Abraham. That is a threefold witness for mercy from the very One they had wronged.
then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will smite you, even I, sevenfold for your sins.
Leviticus 26 sets out blessings for obedience and a rising line of warnings for refusal. This verse is the point where God says He will answer His people Himself.
Each warning in the chapter begins only when the one before it fails. One writer counts five of them, and hears the heart of God in the whole series.
These steps, as detailed here, are five in number. How they tell of the longing of Jehovah's heart over His rebellious people! He chastises them only as much as it takes to lead them to repentance. (1) The first step threatens sickness, with slaughter by their enemies. The produce of the soil, the fruit of their labours, would lie at the mercy of the invader (verses 16-17)... If that had succeeded in bringing them to repentance, God's dealing in government would have stopped. That failing, He would send drought and the famine that follows (18-20).
The words mirror each other: their walk toward God sets the shape of His walk toward them. One writer follows the escalation to this point, where God strikes in person.
And if this failed to discipline their stubborn spirit, He would walk as contrary to them in displeasure as they had walked to Him in self-will. He must strike them Himself, in person, sevenfold for their sins, and bring a sword on them to carry out the vengeance of the covenant. And as they gathered into their cities out of the good land, He would send the plague on them and hand them over to the enemy.
Seven is never a random figure in Scripture.
SEVEN. Spiritual completeness, generally in good but occasionally in evil. It is the compound of three and four, and the highest single indivisible number. There are seven days in a week. Every seventh day was a day of rest. Every seventh year was a year of rest for the land. Every seven times seven years brought the jubilee.
So the sevenfold blow is not limitless rage. It is a full measure, matched to their sin.
Everything threatened here actually happened.
But Israel failed completely. A solemn and appalling picture stood before their eyes in verses 14-33 of this chapter. Even so, they abandoned the Lord and served other gods. They brought on themselves the severe judgements threatened in this section, and 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. They read aloud, to all the nations of the earth, a deeply impressive lesson on the subject of the moral government of God.
The chapter does not end at the bottom of the descent. Once the strokes have run their course, God goes back behind the conditions to promises that never had any.
It goes on assuming they would break the terms. It runs on until the cities lie in ruins, the land and its sanctuaries are desolate, and the nation is scattered among the nations, in their enemies' land. And then, even while they are in their enemies' land, God speaks. He says, "I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God."... After they have destroyed themselves, the Lord turns back to His own unconditional promises to their forefathers. While they are in their enemies' land, He does not forget them or cast them off completely.
These blows belong to Israel under a conditional covenant. But God also governs His own children, and forgiveness is not what is at stake.
It is very important to remember that there is a government of God with respect to His children. It is not a question of whether they are justified and forgiven. This government assumes that they are righteous in His sight, as to salvation; Job 36. But the Lord always keeps His eye on them, blesses them, and makes them conscious of His favour when they are walking rightly in the enjoyment of God. If we do not walk rightly, He warns us. If we do not listen to the voice of God, He chastens us, to rouse the soul that is falling asleep and has begun to forget God. And His goodness, His amazing patience, His love for us, are never worn out!
- Refusal. Each earlier stage of discipline would have stopped the moment it worked. This stroke falls because none of them did.
- Reflection. They walked against God, so God walks against them — and this time He strikes in person.
- Measure. "Seven times" means completeness — a full amount, matched to their sins, not limitless rage.
- Record. God carried out the threats, and Israel's scattered history still stands as public evidence that He governs the world morally.
- Remedy. The chapter aims at repentance. Past the last stroke, God falls back on promises to the fathers that were never conditional.
And I will bring a sword upon you that avengeth with the vengeance of the covenant, and ye shall be gathered together into your cities, and I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
Leviticus 26 sets two futures before Israel: blessing if they obey, and ever-heavier strokes if they refuse. Verse 25 is the fourth of those strokes, and it raises a hard question: why does God Himself send a sword to avenge a covenant?
The judgments in this chapter are not one blow. They come in stages. Each stage is heavier because the one before it failed to bring the people back. One writer counts five stages, and hears God's reluctance in them, not rage:
These steps, as detailed here, are five in number. How they tell of the yearnings of Jehovah's heart over His rebellious people, disciplining them only as much as it would take to lead them to repentance. (1) First comes the threat of sickness, along with slaughter by their enemies. The invader would be free to take their crops, the fruit of their work (verses 16-17)... If that had succeeded in bringing them to repentance, God's dealing in government would have stopped.
By verse 25 the people have refused every earlier stroke. Now God says He will strike them Himself.
And if this failed to discipline their stubborn spirit, He would oppose them in displeasure just as they opposed Him in self-will. He must strike them Himself seven times over for their sins, and bring a sword on them to carry out the vengeance of the covenant. As they gathered into their cities out of the good land, He would send the plague on them, and deliver them into the hand of the enemy. Their efforts at union for strength would only and surely bring them death and degradation as a people.
The sword is not random violence. It enforces an agreement Israel had accepted. One writer points to the angel of that covenant, who carried out both its promises and its penalties:
This was the angel of that conditional covenant which was now established. So on the one hand he would make good all God's promises to the people. On the other hand he would punish the people's sins against God. Later we see him appear at Bochim, to avenge on them the wrong done to this covenant (Judges 2:1).
The covenant was law, and law works in only one way:
The law as such knows no grace; its function must be to condemn every breach. Grace and truth came through our Lord Jesus.
The verse traces a movement: people run from the sword in the open country into their walled towns, and find the plague waiting for them there. Crowding together for safety becomes the very thing that destroys them.
He would send the sword of their enemies against them, and when they took cover in their cities they would be attacked by pestilence and become easy prey to the cruelty of their enemies (v. 25). Their supply of bread would be cut off, and family conditions so reduced that only one woman out of ten would have an oven, which she would have to share with others (v. 26), so that the little they had to eat would not satisfy them.
Centuries later, a prophet named the same cluster of calamities as God's standing judgments — and one commentator notices the order here is deliberately different:
In the days of Ezekiel, Israel's long history of law-breaking was reaching a climax. Through him the Lord spoke of "my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence" (Ezek. 14:21). In our chapter those same four judgments appear, only the sword comes fourth instead of first.
Verses like this one are often felt to contradict the kindness of God. Commentators answer by separating two distinct ways God acts:
We easily confuse two things the word clearly separates: God's government and God's grace. This confusion does various kinds of damage. It is sure to weaken our sense of the dignity and seriousness of government, and of the purity, fullness, and height of grace.
Being close to God raises the standard, not lowers it:
He punished the vile practices of the doomed nations who had intruded into His land. He disciplines His own people even more strictly. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2).
The escalation runs on to exile, but the last word of the chapter is not the sword.
Then, when they confess and humble themselves before God, He will remember His covenant with their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He will remember the land too. They will never be wiped out, for their God is that Jehovah who brought them out of the land of Egypt to be their God.
- Covenant — the sword avenges a broken agreement. It enforces terms Israel accepted, and law cannot excuse a breach.
- Graduated — this is stage four of five, and each stroke grew heavier because the people refused the one before.
- Cornered — sword outside, plague inside; the shelter they run to becomes the trap.
- Government — God's government is not His grace. Being close to Him means stricter dealing, not lighter.
- Purpose — the strokes aim at repentance. The chapter ends with God remembering His covenant, not destroying His people.
When I break the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and shall deliver you the bread again by weight; and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
This verse sits inside a long warning God gave Israel before they entered the land. If they turned away from Him, He would strike the one thing every home depends on. Why would God, who had promised plenty, bring hunger on His own people?
Leviticus 26 opens with promises of plenty. Every one of them rests on a single word.
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 can be summed up as fruitfulness, peace, victory and the realised 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 — blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3), and that without any "if" at all.
Verse 26 is not the first blow. It comes after a series of warnings, and each one grows heavier as Israel ignores the last.
If this failed to discipline their stubborn spirit, He would walk as contrary to them in displeasure as they walked contrary to Him in self-will. He must strike them Himself sevenfold for their sins. He would bring a sword on them to carry out the vengeance of the covenant. And as they gathered into their cities out of the good land, He would send the pestilence on them, and they would be handed over to the enemy. Scarcity of bread would do its withering work in their crushed condition.
Where the ESV says "your supply of bread," older translations read "the staff of your bread." A staff is a walking stick. Bread holds natural life upright in the same way.
Bread is often spoken of in Leviticus as the staff of natural life (Lev. 26:26; Psalm 105). In the same way, Jesus alone is the manna that came down from heaven. He is the spiritual food, the "Bread" for His people today, and the Giver of life to those who do not have it.
A family normally baked its own bread at home. Ten women crowding round one oven signals a collapse of ordinary life.
In cities there were people who worked as bakers, with built-up ovens. Everywhere else, every household normally had its own simple oven.
The shortage reaches right down into what each family owns.
Their supply of bread would be cut off. Family conditions would be so reduced that only one woman out of ten would have an oven, and she would have to share it with others (v. 26). So the little they had to eat would not satisfy them.
When God's people go short, the shortage carries a message.
We know well that God does not want His people to suffer. He is not stingy, and if the rain is withheld, the fault lies with His people and not with Him. He had made this clear to them, so that they understood well that when heaven was "shut up" it was discipline.
Centuries later an enemy army surrounded the city of Samaria, and the words came true.
Now, in the government of God the enemy is allowed to besiege Samaria, leading to "a great famine" in the city. The famine drives the people to terrible straits, and the solemn prophecy spoken more than five hundred years earlier comes true.
The chapter does not end with empty ovens. God set two outcomes before Israel: blessing if they obeyed, ruin if they did not. One writer follows the second outcome to its end.
It goes on assuming the second case would happen. The cities are ruined. The land and its holy places are left desolate. The nation is scattered among the nations, into their enemies' land. And then, even while they are in the enemies' land, God says, "I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God." … The Lord then turns back to His own unconditional promises to their forefathers, after they have destroyed themselves.
- Bread promised. Plenty was real, but conditional: "If you walk … then I will give." That one word "if" decided Israel's whole history in the land.
- Bread broken. Bread holds natural life upright. When God takes it away, that is discipline, not stinginess. The fault lies with the people, not with Him.
- Bread weighed. Every household once had its own oven. Ten women sharing one, and bread given out by weight, show family life collapsing into rationing.
- Bread unsatisfying. The weighed-out portion still leaves them hungry. Judgment reaches the appetite, not just the harvest.
- Bread remembered. After the sword, the siege and the scattering, God turns back to His unconditional promises to their forefathers. He will not break His covenant.
And if for this ye hearken not to me, but walk contrary unto me,
This verse comes near the end of a long warning God gave Israel. Blow after blow had already fallen, and each one had failed to bring them back. So the words "if you will not listen" open one more step. What does God do when correction has not changed a heart?
The judgments in this chapter come in stages. One writer shows what each blow was aiming at:
How ready the Lord was to bless His people! How full was the blessing He could give them! He would have delighted to walk among them. But they would not have it. So judgment had to come. Yet how slow to anger! He would only deal blow after blow when each earlier one had failed to bring them to repentance. At last exile had to be their lot.
To "walk contrary" is to go the opposite way to God. One writer traces Israel's misery to that:
He said it to Israel again and again: they walked contrary to Him, and that was why they were miserable. God knows that walking with Him is what secures the happiness and holiness of His people. A way of their own will always end in misery. And even now, after all He has revealed of Himself in Jesus — even now He says to faith, "Walk before me."
Verse 28 gives the answer, and it is personal. God names Himself as the one who strikes:
The furnace of wrath grows hotter against guilty Israel, and the Lord says, "I Myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins." They would eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters. The high places and sun-pillars they had honoured would be cut down. Their own dead bodies would be heaped on those of their idols, and His soul would abhor them.
Belonging to God is no shelter from His hand. The same writer sets two other passages beside this one:
He is gracious beyond measure. But we know Him who said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:30-31). He punished the vile practices of the doomed nations who had pushed into His land. He chastens His own people even more strictly. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2).
Readers have long asked what that number means. One writer denies that it measures a length of time and points ahead to a future crisis for Israel:
Some have guessed at the meaning of the words about judgments coming on them seven times. These "seven times" cannot mean the exact length of Israel's scattering. They point ahead instead to the time of Jacob's trouble. That is the last seven years of the times of the Gentiles, when their judgments will be at their worst.
This chapter shows God governing His people. One writer warns us not to mix that up with grace:
We are very prone to confuse two things that Scripture keeps clearly apart: God's government and God's grace. This confusion does harm in many ways. It is sure to weaken our sense of the dignity and solemnity of government, and of the purity, fullness, and elevation of grace. It is quite true that in government God keeps the sovereign right to act in patience, long-suffering, and mercy. But we must never confuse that with the unconditional working of pure and absolute grace.
The chain of "ifs" turns at verse 40. A door opens, on two terms:
With verse 40 a ray of light begins to shine. A door of hope opens, if two things happen. First, they must confess their iniquities. Second, they must accept the punishment their iniquities have brought on them. This second condition comes up twice, you notice, and it clearly matters a great deal. Both things appear in Daniel's prayer (Dan. 9), so he got a speedy answer. A man may confess his sin. But if he still kicks against the punishment it brings, his confession is only surface-deep and lacks real, deep sorrow. This is as true for us today as it was for Israel long ago. God's governmental dealings with His children are always in love, but they are also in strict righteousness.
- If — the whole chapter hangs on repeated conditions. God moves to the next stroke only when the last one has failed to bring repentance.
- Contrary — going the opposite way to God is what makes a people miserable. His call, then and now, is to walk before Him.
- Fury — the discipline now turns personal and sevenfold. God names Himself as the one who strikes.
- Nearness — belonging to God brings stricter dealing, not lighter. He judges those He has known.
- Return — the door opens on two things: confessing the sin and accepting the punishment. A confession that resents the rod is only surface-deep.
then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven-fold for your sins.
Leviticus 26 sets two futures before Israel side by side. Verse 28 sits deep inside the darker one. There God meets their opposition with His own. Why does He speak of fury against the people He loves, and what is He after?
Both halves of the chapter turn on one thing: what Israel would do. Verse 28 falls in the second half.
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 obedience would bring. Verses 14-39 give a terrible forecast of the evils that disobedience would bring.
God's warning does not fall as one blow. It is counted out in stages.
These steps, as detailed here, are five in number. How they tell of the longings of the LORD's heart over His rebellious people, chastising them only as much as was needed to lead them to repentance.
Verse 28 almost repeats verse 24. That repetition is part of the message.
Verses 27 and 28 practically repeat verses 23 and 24. How wearying it must have been for God to find Israel rebellious again and again, despite His many disciplinary dealings! But His chastisement would then bring something dreadful: they would eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters (v. 29). Compare 2 Kings 6:26-29.
God names Himself as the one who acts. He does not hand this to anyone else. And Israel's nearness to Him does not soften the blow. It is the reason for it.
He is gracious beyond measure. But we know Him who said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:30-31). He punished the vile practices of the doomed nations who had intruded into His land. How much more strictly does He chasten His own people. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2).
These were not empty threats. The stage named in verse 28 came, and it came in the order given.
If the Lord's dealings still would not reform them, and they kept walking contrary to Him, then He would walk contrary to them. He would punish them seven times for their sins... Should that fail too, the Lord would walk contrary to them in fury. The people, brought to the last extremity, would eat their own children... That happened at last in the days of Zedekiah. Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem brought the predicted miseries, as Lamentations 1 and 2 describe.
God gave the warning long before the events. History then carried it out in public. Israel's story became a lesson for every other nation.
But, sad to say, Israel failed altogether. They had a solemn and appalling picture set before their eyes in verses 14-33 of this chapter. Even so, they forsook the Lord and served other gods, and so brought on themselves the severe judgements threatened in this section... They read aloud, to all the nations of the earth, a most impressive lesson on the moral government of God. These nations would gain much by studying that lesson. And our own hearts would do well to ponder it too.
The punishment is not where the chapter ends. The lowest point is the turning point.
When they are brought this low, into misery and shame, the goodness of God leads them to repentance. What a lesson to all the nations! Yet the nations never learn it, until Israel shows the way. Israel is forgiven by grace, at the very time when they cannot forgive themselves before the LORD and His anointed.
- Contrary, foretold. The chapter first promises blessing for obedience. Verse 28 belongs to the warning that runs from verse 14 to verse 39.
- Contrary, measured. The threatened dealings come in five steps. God chastises only as far as He must to bring His people to repentance.
- Contrary, repeated. Verses 27-28 restate verses 23-24. Israel stayed rebellious through all God's disciplinary dealings.
- Contrary, and personal. God says He Himself will act. Being the people He has known does not shield them — "you only have I known… therefore I will punish you."
- Contrary, until they turn. At the lowest point, God's goodness leads them to repentance. The nations learn the lesson only when Israel shows the way.
And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
Leviticus 26 sets out a rising scale of discipline for a people who keep turning away from God. Verse 29 sits near the bottom of that scale, where starving parents feed on their own children. The horror raises three questions. Why would God say such a thing? Did it ever happen? Is there anything past it?
The verse is not a random threat. It comes late in a chain of judgments — sword, hunger, disease — and each stage arrives only after the one before it fails to bring repentance.
If the Lord's dealings still did not correct them, and they went on walking contrary to Him, then He would walk contrary to them. He would punish them seven times for their sins. He would bring a sword to avenge the covenant, along with the two things that so often come with it: hunger and disease. Should that too fail, the Lord would walk contrary to them in fury. The people, pushed to the very last extreme, would eat their own children. And Jehovah would destroy the idols, showing them up to be idols.
God repeats His warning here because Israel keeps repeating its rebellion. Another road stayed open the whole way down, and Israel refused it.
Verses 27 and 28 repeat almost exactly what verses 23 and 24 said. How tiring it must have been for God to find Israel rebelling again and again, in the face of all His discipline! But His discipline would then bring the awful experience of eating the flesh of their own sons and daughters (v. 29)! Compare 2 Kings 6:26-29. Instead of turning to God in repentant faith and praying to Him, they would take the horrible alternative: murdering their children to satisfy their bodily hunger!
Centuries later, an enemy army shut Samaria in and the food ran out. What the city then did was no accident of war. God had said it in advance, and He allowed the siege that brought it about.
Now, in the government of God, God lets the enemy besiege Samaria, and "a great famine" follows in the city. Desperate need grips the people inside, and the solemn prophecy spoken more than five hundred years earlier comes true. Moses had warned the people of God about this. If they turned away from Him, the time would come when their enemies would besiege them. Need would press them so hard that tender, delicate women would eat their young children in secret (Lev. 26:21-29; Deut. 28:49-57). This abomination had at last come to pass.
Samaria was not the only time. Writers trace the same scene at other sieges of Jerusalem, generations apart.
The same horror occurred during the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (Lam. 4:10) and also, according to Josephus, during the siege by Titus in A.D. 70.
Verse 29 shows God ruling and judging His own people. Commentators warn that readers easily mix up two things the Bible keeps apart.
We very easily confuse two things that the Bible keeps apart: God's government and God's grace. The evils that come from this confusion are various. It is sure to weaken our sense of how dignified and serious God's government is. It also weakens our sense of how pure, full, and high His grace is. It is quite true that God in government reserves to Himself the sovereign right to act in patience, long-suffering, and mercy. But when He shows those attributes from His throne of government, we must never confuse them with the unconditional actings of pure and absolute grace.
Verse 29 is terrible, but the chapter does not stop there. Once the discipline has done its work, everything turns on a promise God made long before Israel failed.
Then they will confess and humble themselves before God. On that, He will remember His covenant with their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He will remember the land. They will never be completely destroyed, for their God is that Jehovah who brought them out of Egypt to be their God.
- Warned — Moses named this horror centuries before it happened, so no one could call it an accident.
- Graduated — each stage of discipline came only after the one before it failed to bring repentance. This one sits near the end of the ladder.
- Refused — prayer and repentance stayed open at every stage. Israel reached this depth by choosing anything but turning back.
- Fulfilled — the words came true at Samaria under siege, and again at Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar and later Titus.
- Outlasted — God's government is not His grace. When the discipline has run its course, He remembers a covenant older than Israel's failure, and He will not destroy them completely.