26:1.
“Ye shall make no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing
image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down
unto it: for I am the Lord your God.”
The word
“idol” means good for nothing; vain, thing of vanity; worthless thing.
A graven image was usually of carved wood,
stone, or
metal; a standing image was generally in the form of a pillar of stone,
though it could also be of wood. Israel was not to worship anything or
anyone except Jehovah, the Lord their God.
As citizens of
the modern western world we look with supercilious disdain on those
“primitive” people who still worship idols, blind to the fact that we too
are idolaters, the only difference being that our gods are money, pleasure,
education, etc.
26:2.
“Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.”
Since the
sabbaths have already been discussed in previous chapters it is unnecessary
to elaborate further here.
The sanctuary
was the Tabernacle or tent of meeting from which God spoke to Moses,
see 1:1, and which was superseded by
the Temple. Reverence is defined as a feeling or attitude of deep
respect tinged with awe. This attitude was to mark them relative to the
Tabernacle because it was synonymous with the presence of God. That same
attitude should govern our thoughts and conduct in every meeting of the
local church, it being emphasized that in this context “the church” is not a
building, but rather the aggregate of those believers in any locality who
regularly meet together to worship, pray, study the Scriptures, etc. All
our meetings should be marked by a reverential attitude.
26:3.
“If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;”
26:4.
“Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her
increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.”
A statute is
an enactment or ordinance, and here it refers to the laws God had ordained
to govern the conduct of His people Israel.
In response to
their obedience He would give the necessary rain, and cause their land and
fruit trees to produce abundantly. Since the Israelites were God’s earthly
people, His reward of their obedience was also in earthly things. Those who
comprise the Church however, are a heavenly people, whose obedience is
accordingly recompensed with heavenly blessings, as it is written, “Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places (more correctly things) in
Christ,” Ephesians 1:3. Believers of this present dispensation should not
be looking for temporal blessings as evidence of God’s favor.
26:5.
“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 safely.”
The Bible
in Basic English renders this “And the crushing of the grain will overtake the
cutting of the grapes, and the cutting of the grapes will overtake the
planting of the seed, and there will be bread in full measure.” The
fertility of the earth would be such that the grinding of the grain wouldn’t
have been completed until it would be time to gather in the grape harvest,
nor would that be completed until it would be time to begin sowing again.
There would be superabundance of everything to be relished in the enjoyment
of peace.
It is to be
noted that this promised blessing was contingent on obedience,
see verse 3. And so is it always: God will not
bless disobedience.
26:6.
“And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall
make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall
the sword go through your land.”
Peace is a
blessing not fully appreciated until lost, its value being indicated in what
is written concerning it in Philippians 4:7, “And the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus.”
“... evil
beasts” are those that are vicious, ravenous. God would remove all such
from the land. The fuller measure of this blessing will be experienced in
the Millennium, as described in Isaiah 11:6-8, “The wolf also shall dwell
with the lamb, and the lepoard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and
the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead
them....”
“... the
sword” is used here as a synonym for war. Obedience would guarantee
deliverance from its misery and terrors; and again, complete fulfillment
awaits the Millennium, as described in Isaiah 2:4, “... and they shall beat
their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
more.”
26:7.
“And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the
sword.”
26:8.
“And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten
thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.”
This very
clearly pictures Israel’s supremacy in the Millennium.
26:9.
“For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you,
and establish my covenant with you.”
“... have
respect unto you,” is also translated, “I will look on you with favor; I
will look after you; I will turn towards you.”
“...and make
you fruitful,” isn’t necessarily limited to physical multiplication: it may
refer also to spiritual growth, but “multiply you” does refer to numerical
increase. In Israel a large family was viewed as evidence of God’s
blessing, a fact which is meant to teach us that it has also a spiritual
application for today: it ought to be our aim to have many children
spiritually, i.e., many whom we have led to the Lord.
Relative to
God’s covenant with Israel: it was basically that obedience would secure His
blessing; and the same principle applies to believers of this present age of
grace.
26:10.
“And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.”
This is also
rendered, “You shall have so much of old stores to eat, that you shall cast
out the old to make way for the new,” The Bible: An American Translation;
“And you shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to
make way for the new,” The Revised Standard Version. God’s provision
would be so abundant that they wouldn’t be able to eat it all.
The same
principle applies to us, for He is able to do for us “exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think,” Ephesians 3:20. And as for the future, we
have His assurance that, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him,” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
26:11.
“And I will set my
tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.”
Since it was
synonymous with His very presence, God’s having the Tabernacle set up in the
midst of the camp of Israel, was their assurance of His presence abiding
with them: and since “abhor” means to reject, spurn, despise, the
further assurance was given that while He might have to administer
chastisement, He would never cast them away permanently.
The tangible
evidence of His presence in their midst was the shekinah cloud which
overshadowed the mercy seat, and that was seen only by the High Priest on
those rare occasions when he was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies, so
that His presence was virtually invisible. The counterpart of His dwelling
in their midst is the invisible, but none the less real indwelling of the
Holy Spirit in every believer today.
Israel’s
continued sinning however, brought that sad day recorded in Ezekiel
10:18-19; 11:23, when God’s presence departed from them - a tragic
experience that the believer of this present age will never undergo, for
while we may quench and grieve the Holy Spirit Who indwells and seals us as
God’s children, He will never leave us. (We quench the Holy Spirit when we
do what He forbids, and we grieve Him when we refuse to do what he desires).
26:12.
“And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my
people.”
This is the
continued assurance of God’s presence with them, and also of their unique
and highly privileged position: they were His people, of whom it is written,
“...happy is that people, whose God is the Lord,” Psalm 144:15.
26:13.
“I am the Lord your God, which 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 to go upright.”
This was the
reminder of what they had been, and of what God had done for them. They had
been the bondslaves of the Egyptians, bowed down under cruelly heavy
burdens, but the Lord had broken their bands and set them free, causing them
to “go upright,” i.e., no longer bowed down under the weight of the grievous
loads their taskmasters had compelled them to bear.
This is a
typological picture of the experience every believer has undergone prior to
conversion. Egypt is a type of the world of business and pleasure living in
defiant independence of God, and during our unconverted days we were the
bondslaves of Satan in that world, having become so used to our bondage that
we were unaware of it.
26:14.
“But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
“
26:15.
“And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so
that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:”
Having
declared the blessings that would attend obedience, God then declared the
consequences of disobedience. “... my statutes” were His judgments or
customs. His covenant was that which He had made with Israel, guaranteeing
them blessing for obedience, and chastisement for disobedience. Foolish
Israel however, had failed to obey, and by her disobedience had broken the
covenant, thereby forfeiting blessing, and making herself the object of His
wrath. And how eagerly the Church has followed in her disobedient footsteps
- with the same result!
26:16.
“I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror,
consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause
sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall
eat it.”
God would
recompense them according to their deeds. Peace would be exchanged for
apprehension. They would exist in the constant dread of expected trouble
and misery. Consumption here means emaciation: they would be worn away with
worry and hunger, and be wracked with “burning ague,” i.e., with recurring
bouts of fever that would affect their eyes, impairing their vision. Their
hearts would be continually weighed down with sorrow; and their agricultural
labors would be wasted, for their enemies would eat the produce of their
fields, and olive trees and vines.
26:17.
“And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your
enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when
none pursueth you.”
How dreadful
is the state of the man who exhausts God’s patience, thus making himself the
object of divine wrath and judgment! Relative to that invisible line which
separates God’s mercy from His wrath, another has written, “There is a line
by man unseen, which crosses every path: it is the line which separates
God’s mercy from His wrath.” He who is guilty of such utter folly as to
cross that invisible line dooms himself to the eternal torment of the awful
lake of fire. And how is that line crossed? By resisting the strivings of
the Holy Spirit which are designed to produce conviction of sin, and lead to
repentant faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. Once the Holy Spirit ceases
to strive with an individual, that man or woman is as sure of existing in
the eternal torment of the lake of fire as if he or she were there already.
The misery of
disobedient Israel’s earthly state, as described here, is but a faint
foreshadowing of the eternal wretchedness awaiting the sinner who dies
unrepentant.
Foolish
Israel, by continued rebellion, had crossed that fatal line. They to whom
God would have given dominion over the nations, were now doomed to flee
before them and be slain, they who escaped death becoming the bondslaves of
those who hated them. “... ye shall flee when none pursueth you.” Even
when there was no pursuer, their terrified imaginations would invent one,
with the result that they would never know a moment’s peace.
How different
is the lot of those who obey the Lord, as it is written, “Great peace have
they which love thy law,” Psalm 119:165.
26:18.
“And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you
seven times more for your sins.”
Continued
rebellion would bring more severe chastisement; and since seven is the
number of perfection or completeness the “seven times” here indicates a full
measure of punishment which would produce repentant confession of sinfulness
resulting in salvation, or certainty of eternal damnation for those who died
unrepentant, an example of the latter being those described in Revelation
16:10-11, “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat (throne) of
the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their
tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains
and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.”
The punishment
which doesn’t produce repentance here on earth, will continue eternally in
the lake of fire, and in greater measure than the mind of man can
comprehend.
26:19.
“And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as
iron, and your earth as brass:”
Israel’s
imagined power would be shown to be as thistledown compared with the divine
omnipotence. The heavens from which fell His fertilizing rain, God would
make like a sheet of iron; and the earth in which He caused their food to
grow He would by drought make as barren as brass.
26:20.
“And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her
increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.”
All their
strength exerted in the cultivation of the earth would be wasted, for God
would refuse to make the soil fertile, so that there would be neither crops
in the fields, nor fruit on the trees. The men of that distant day refused
to acknowledge Him as the Giver of everything, nor has it ever been
different. Today the rebel creature even refuses to pronounce His name,
referring to all His activity as being the work of “mother nature.”
26:21.
“And if ye walk contrary to me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring
seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.”
Continued
rebellion would bring increased chastisement, the rebel creature failing to
realize what a puny thing he is compared to his Creator.
26:22.
“I will also send
wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy
your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be
desolate.”
The wild
beasts were another instrument which God would use to bring rebel Israel to
repentant obedience. The Creator has no lack of implements with which to
accomplish His purposes, and he is a wise man whose recognition of that fact
leads him to the repentant submission which brings peace and blessing.
26:23.
“And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk
contrary unto me;”
26:24.
“Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven
times for your sins.”
With
repetitive force God continues to hammer home the assurance that continued
rebellion brings continued punishment, but the defiant heart of unconverted
man will heed no warning. Unless arrested and convicted by the power of the
Holy Spirit, he will continue on his mad course, finally learning too late,
the deadly folly of his conduct, first in the torment of hell, and then
eternally in the dreadful lake of fire.
26:25.
“And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my
covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send
the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the
enemy.”
“... the
quarrel of my covenant” means “the breaking of my covenant.” Obedience
would have brought them the blessing of peace, but their wilful choice to
disobey God guaranteed instead their being ravished by war. And when they
would flee into the walled cities hoping to escape the sword of the invader,
God would there send the plague, of which many would die, leaving too few
survivors to defend the walls, and thus enabling the enemy to enter and slay
them.
There is only
one place of refuge from God’s wrath: in the Lord Jesus Christ trusted as
Savior.
26:26.
“And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your
bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight:
and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.”
Famine, the
frequent concomitant of war, was another judgment with which God would
afflict them. What would normally have been baked in ten ovens would be so
reduced that it would require only one oven, and would have to be rationed
so as to provide the minimum amount of bread needed to preserve life.
26:27.
“And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto
me;”
26:28.
“Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will
chastise you seven times for your sins.”
Their
continued rebellion would provoke the Lord to still greater fury, a word
which is also translated heat, anger, poison, fever, hot or furious
displeasure. The “seven times” is a symbolic way of saying that the
chastisement would be complete: it would either bring complete repentance or
utter destruction. There are no half measures with God. Faith in Christ as
Savior assures the believer of eternal bliss in heaven: lack of faith
assures the unbeliever of eternal torment in the lake of fire.
26:29.
“And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters
shall ye eat.”
This dire
prediction was shockingly fulfilled as recorded in 2 Kings 6:25-29; but like
many of the OT historical details, this one is also the typological
foreshadowing of what will be in the coming Great Tribulation, see
Revelation 6:5-6 where famine is depicted under the figure of a black horse
whose rider held “a pair of balances in his hand.”
26:30.
“And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast
your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.”
The “high
places” were literally the hilltop shrines, and the images were the figures
of their imaginary gods. Jehovah would destroy both the people and their
gods, “abhor” in the present context meaning to “cast off.”
26:31.
“And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto
desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors.”
By means of
war and plague God would make their cities deserted wastes, and their places
of idolatry devastated ruins; nor would He accept even the incense offerings
presented to Him, for it is to be remembered that they had continued to go
through the charade of worshiping Him even while they also worshiped idols,
thus reducing Him to the level of being just one of a host of other gods.
26:32.
“And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell
therein shall be astonished at it.”
The New
American Bible
renders this verse, “So devastated will I leave the land that your very
enemies who come to live there will stand aghast at the sight of it.” This
will be fulfilled in even greater measure in the coming Great Tribulation.”
26:33.
“And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after
you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.”
This has been
partially fulfilled in the Babylonian captivity, and in the Diaspora that
has left the Jews scattered amongst the nations since AD 70, those who have
begun to return since 1948 being the proof that the end of the age is upon
us, the clearly imminent rapture of the Church, and the ensuing Great
Tribulation being further confirmatory evidence.
26:34.
“Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and
ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her
sabbaths.”
26:35.
“As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your
sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.”
From the reign
of Saul till the Babylonian captivity was 490 years, 70 of those being
sabbatic years during which the land was to have been allowed to life
fallow, but greedy Israel worked it, with the result that the sabbath rest
denied the land by her rebellious cupidity was enjoyed while the rebels
languished as captives in Babylon, and again during the past two millennia
when they have been scattered amongst the nations since AD 70.
26:36.
“And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their
hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall
chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall
fall when none pursueth.”
26:37.
“And they shall fall
one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye
shall have to power to stand before your enemies.”
The survivors
living in the lands of their enemies would exist in perpetual fear,
abounding idle rumors creating needless panic, so that some would die in the
course of flight from nonexistent enemies, while others would be slain by
their fellows who would mistake them for foes. They would be powerless
against their enemies.
26:38.
“And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall
eat you up.”
26:39.
“And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your
enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine
away with them.”
Knox has
translated this, “You will be lost among the Gentiles, swallowed up by a
hostile country.” This has been their experience, not only in Babylon, but
also for the past two thousand years during which time they have died far
from their own land, amongst the hated Gentiles.
As in the
past, the children walking in the evil footsteps of their fathers, had
suffered the righteous chastisement of God, and so is it still. Succeeding
generations, right down to the present, have reaped the terrible
consequences of their foolish and venomous response to Pilate’s question,
“What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto
him, Let him be crucified ... His blood be on us, and on our children,”
Matthew 27:22. For the past two thousand years Jewish blood has been
spilled like water on virtually every country on earth; and the coming Great
Tribulation will see them slaughtered in still greater numbers.
26:40.
“And if they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their
fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also
they have walked contrary unto me;”
26:41.
“And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into
the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled,
and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity;”
26:42.
“Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with
Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will
remember the land.”
Confession of
guilt is always the first step that must be taken by the man who would be
reconciled to God, the confession of the iniquity of their fathers being the
equivalent of the fact declared explicitly in Romans 3:10-12, “There is none
righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that
seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together
become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
The
uncircumcised heart is that which is stubborn, unbroken, unrepentant. It is
used here as the metaphoric description of the man who refuses to admit that
he is a sinner. The antithesis of this is the man who honestly confesses
that he is without one shred of righteousness.
The reference
to the covenants which God had made with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, is the
reminder of the blessings to be inherited by every man who will confess
himself a sinner, and cast himself on God’s mercy by accepting the Lord
Jesus Christ as his Savior.
26:43.
“The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while
she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of
their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and
because their soul abhorred my statutes.”
“The land
shall be left of them” is an archaic way of saying that the people would be
removed from the land because of their failure to observe the sabbaths, and
because they abhorred, i.e., were disdainfully contemptuous of God’s
ordinances. A judgment means a verdict, sentence, or charge; and a statute
is an enactment or ordinance. The people absolutely rejected God’s right to
rule over them, forgetting that as obedience guaranteed blessing so would
disobedience just as surely bring chastisement.
26:44.
“And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, 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.”
In spite of
all their waywardness God still loved them, and instead of destroying them,
would bring them by chastisement to repentant obedience, in order to bless
them.
26:45.
“But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I
brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I
might be their God: I am the Lord.”
The covenant
of their ancestors was the one He had made with them when He brought them
out of Egyptian bondage on the night of the Passover. That covenant
included the assurance of His protecting care and provision through their
forty years in the wilderness, and His bringing them into the land of Canaan
which He gave them for a permanent possession, their own disobedience being
that which had broken the covenant, and which had caused blessing to be
exchanged for chastisement.
26:46.
“These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between
him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.”
As noted
above, a judgment means a verdict, sentence, or charge; and a statute is an
enactment or ordinance. The God of order will not permit His perfectly
ordered creation to be marred by disorder, hence the imperative of obedience
on the part of those who would enjoy His blessing.