Leviticus 26:14-27:34
The blessing of boundaries
God loves you. He does not want you to get hurt and mess up your life and the lives of other people. That is why he gives you his instruction manual and warns of the dangers of living outside of his loving boundaries.
The last verse of Leviticus summarises what the whole book is about: ‘These are the commandments that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai for the People of Israel’ (27:34, MSG). His boundaries were intended to bring blessing.
Today’s passage describes the disastrous results when God’s people ‘will not listen to [him] and carry out all these commands’ (26:14): ‘If you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you…’ (v.15).
We see the chaotic world that results from ‘stubborn pride’ (v.19). The relationship with God is broken. Prayers do not get through. God says, ‘I will… make the sky above you like iron’ (v.19). Disobedience is draining, ‘Your strength will be spent in vain’ (v.20). However successful you are materially, it does not satisfy: ‘You will eat, but you will not be satisfied’ (v.26b). These are described literally as ‘the curses of disobedience’.
God gives every possible opportunity to repent. He puts all kind of obstacles in our way to persuade us to turn back to him (vv.18,21,23,27). In his faithfulness, and in spite of continual rejection, God is always ready to receive us back if we confess and humble ourselves (vv.40–42).
This all points forward to Jesus. The sad thing about all these commands is that no one is able to keep them. It is clear in these verses that God knows that the people will break them and bring all these curses upon themselves. Yet that is not the end of the story, God promises that even then he will act to save and redeem his people (vv.42–45). Ultimately God did this by taking the curses of the law upon himself.
It is only as we see the background to all this that we understand quite how amazing the cross is and how much Jesus took upon himself by becoming a curse for us, and the extraordinary blessing of being justified by faith and receiving the promise of the Spirit (Galatians 3:10–14).
God’s Holy Spirit changes us as he writes his boundaries on the tablets of our hearts. As Paul says, ‘Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh’ (5:16). God’s Spirit produces within you the fruit of ‘love, joy, peace’ and much more besides (v.22).
The boundaries were given out of love. Jesus summarises the commandments, ‘Love the Lord your God... and... love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 22:37–40). ‘We love because he first loved us’ (1 John 4:19). In love, he died for you and now he gives you his Holy Spirit to enable you to follow his commandments by living a life of love.
Lord, thank you that, through Jesus, you forgive my failure to keep within your boundaries. Thank you that now you give me your Holy Spirit to help me to keep your commands and to live a life of love.