King James Bible Study – [And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. – Mark 8:34]
Date: Thursday, February 22, 2024
Chapters: Leviticus Chapters 26-27
Message: Respecting God’s Commands
Hello My Friend,
I have been talking a lot about my shortcomings and how God has been telling me that I needed to let go of my past and doing things like I should be. Well, reading through Leviticus has taught me a lot about respecting your spouse, being diligent with your time, and whatever we do we need to do it with all of our might. And of course, all of it being backed by the power of God. I will say this, when God is behind it, He will get you to listen to Him one way or another, [Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.]
I have learned one valuable lesson these past few years, sometimes God does allow you to get out of His will so that we can learn that His way is the best way. As we come to the end of the reading of Leviticus, God, gives His final instructions on what would become the Law of Moses, and what He expected of them should they choose to follow Him. He goes on to inform them of the blessings that would come for their obedience, and also the curses should they go against Him. First, He reiterates that they were to make no idols or statues to worship.
[Leviticus 26:1-6 Ye shall make you 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. 2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. 3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; 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. 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. 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.]
[And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage,] [Threshing; Harvesting; The act of removing grain or seeds from hulls or husks] God, is promising that if they feared Him that the harvests in the land will be plentiful and not only that, they will be safe from attacks as well as have peace.
[Leviticus 26:9-13 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. 10 And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. 11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. 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 go upright.]
[which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt,] It is Jesus who brings us out of the bondage of the world, and while we may be sent out into the world to reach the lost, we are not of the world. Trust me, when we have the hedge of protection that God gives us in the world they know it and even our enemies have respect for us.
[Leviticus 26:15-20 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: 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. 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. 18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 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.]
[then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.] If we are not faithful to God, it is not actually Him that needs to lift a finger to punish us, we do it to ourselves. We have all been there, made some decision that was not the wisest and had to deal with it. God, just lets us fend for ourselves until we repent, but He is merciful to forgive us if we come Him, [1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.]
[And your strength shall be spent in vain:] Did you ever feel like you were working so hard, but have nothing to show for it? It is like me with my job, I am putting in over forty hours between store visits, driving through dangerous areas, and horrible traffic only to get paid for thirty-two hours. This is why I keep going through everything that I am doing to see if I am doing something that God is punishing me for. Well, God does not actually punish His faithful, but He does chasten and purge them, [Hebrews 12:6-7 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?]
If God just let us live the way we wanted to live, then we would be out of control and really pulled in several directions. I say that because you know your flesh, and I certainly know mine and what my triggers are. While we all need to search our hearts to see if we have any wicked way in us, there is a difference between your average sin nature sin and deliberately going against God. There is a word for what God is talking about here and it is, contrary, [Contrary; Opposite; contradictory; not merely different, but inconsistent or repugnant.] and He goes on to tell them what would come of them if they walk contrary to Him.
[Leviticus 26:23-24,26-30 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 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. 27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 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.]
[and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.] There is a lot of prophecy written here, and a very sad foreshadow of what will happen to them centuries later. However, there is some hope thrown in there. God, goes on to tell them that when they go against Him and He gives them up to pine away in their sin, He will be there for anyone who comes to Him for repentance.
[Leviticus 26:40-42,45 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; 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: 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. 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.]
[But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors,] It is not for the sake of our own righteousness that we whom have accepted Christ as their Saviour are not cast away, it is for the sake of our faith in Christ. It does not matter how faithful we are to God, we all have a little bit of wicked in us and this is why we always come short of the glory of God. It is also why we are justified through Christ, [Romans 3:23-24 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:]
Do you think God wants to see His people in so much pain? First of all, God gives us ample warning, even before we are tempted, not to even go there. And if we do, He give us plenty of opportunities to come to Him for forgiveness. Our salvation does not keep us from suffering while we are here for sin, it does give us liberty to come to Him and when we do, then He will lessen the pain. When we choose Christ, we make a vow with Him, we promise to trust Him alone for our salvation and He promises to keep us out of hell. While salvation is in fact a free gift, we must understand that it was not free, Christ paid that price for us. And when we receive Christ as our Saviour we belong to God, and that is when our works count. God, actually estimates us for what we devote to Him and goes on to tell the Israelites that there is a penalty for anyone who breaks a vow.
[Leviticus 27:2-8 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation. 3 And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary. 4 And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. 5 And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 6 And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver. 7 And if it be from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 8 But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him.]
[the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation.] Because of our faith in Christ, we have God’s favor. Because of our faith in Christ, we have God’s respect. Because of our faith in Christ, we have God’s honor. Because of our faith in Christ, we are chosen, and we are ordained to not only preach the Gospel, but live the Gospel. And yet He even understands when we have obligations that hinder us from following through with the vows we made with Him. For instance a wife who now has husband to attend to who at one time the only man in her life was Jesus, but then again I just realized that it works both ways,
[1 Corinthians 7:32-34 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: 33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. 34 There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.]
Even children that were dedicated to God were estimated, and this was according to what they were capable of doing. My five year old nephew loves to take the Bible and go through the pages, reading each book and words that He recognizes. We are not all going to be preachers or teachers, and that is perfectly fine because God does not expect us to be. What He does expect is for us to be faithful to Him and whatever it is that we do devote to Him, it needs to be our very best.
[Leviticus 27:28-33 Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the LORD of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto the LORD. 29 None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death. 30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S: it is holy unto the LORD. 31 And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. 32 And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD. 33 He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.]
[shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death.] God, does not and will not force Himself upon anyone, so, if we choose Him then He expects faithfulness and not our left overs. When we choose Christ, we make a vow with Him, we promise to trust Him alone for our salvation and He promises to keep us out of hell. It would be wise if we love Him and give Him our very best in return, [Mark 12:30-31 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.]
Jesus Christ Revealed/Magnified: [Leviticus 26:44-45 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. 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.]
Today’s Prayer: God, It is because of the great love of Your Son, Jesus, and His willingness to take on our sins to redeem us that we can receive eternal life through our faith in Him. It is truly amazing, the love You have for me and every soul, when I was lost, broken, and without hope, You found me, You took me in, accepted me, and made me one of Yours. Amen! Your mercy endures forever for those who do endure with You. I know I am not always in Your will, and I know I mess up every day. Forgive me where I have failed You, search my heart, know my thoughts, see if there be any wickedness in me, and lead me in the way that is everlasting. Lord, lead me and guide me in Your will and Your way, let me live a life that will always bring honor and glory to You, not to keep my salvation, or to even be relieved of any chastening, rather to give thanks for all that You have done for me. I ask these tings in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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