Blessings for Obedience
“If you walk in my statues and follow my commandments and do them then:
-I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
-Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing.
-You shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.
-I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall be afraid.
-I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.
-You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
-Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you.
-I will turn to you and make your fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you.
-You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new.
-I will make my dwelling (tabernacle) among you, and my soul shall not abhor (regard with disgust or hatred) you.
-I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
Punishment for Disobedience
“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you:
-I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache.
-You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
-I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies.
-Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.
-If in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins.
-I will break the pride of your power, and will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.
-Your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
-I will let loose wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.
-I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant.
-If you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of your enemy.
-When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
-You shall eat the flesh of your sons and daughters.
-I will destroy your high places and cut down you incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you.
-I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas.
-I will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it.
-I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
-The land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as it lies desolate, and it shall have rest.
-For those who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies.
-The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword.
-They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues.
-You shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
-You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
-Those that are left shall rot away.”
The final chapter of Leviticus is on the laws about vows. It concerns things promised to the Lord; like servants, animals, houses or lands. But provisions were made to give money instead of the item, in which case adding a fifth of its value was required. Such vows were expressions of special thanksgiving and were given over and above the expected sacrifices.
An animal given for a sacrifice could not be exchanged for another. You can not choose to offer the poorest animals after having vowed to offer a good one. If an unclean animal was offered, it could be redeemed with a penalty.
Devoting something was far more serious than dedicating it to sacred use. The devoted thing became totally the Lord’s.
Tithe=a tenth
From these passages, it appears that Israel actually had three tithes.
1.) The general tithe paid to the Levites, who in turn had to give a tenth to the priests.
2.) The tithe associated with the sacred meal involving offerer and Levite.
3.) The tithe paid every three years to the poor.
I have finally completed Leviticus! It was quite tedious and very difficult at times to follow and keep all of the rules and laws straight. I am still encouraged and motivated to continue this journey, and am looking forward to the next book…it has to be better than this one!
