Blessing and Cursing (Leviticus 26)
Let’s talk about sanctification. But first we need to think about revelation.
Leviticus chapter 26 is a stunning preview of a sad history. Sure, there is the wonderful promise of blessings in obedience for the covenant people, but we all know how things turned out… exactly as God said they would if the people failed to follow God’s rules. It is so precise in its forecast, that many have argued it must have been written after the events described. (And, from outside of time, God was declaring things He had, indeed, already seen coming.) The point of this book of rules for the people living in the wilderness wanderings, with all the rules that are impossible for people to live up to, is precisely that—to show us we can’t be holy in our own power.
The New Testament makes it clear. Even though God saved the nation from slavery in Egypt to be His own special possession, it didn’t save them from their sin—from the slavery to sin. All of the animal sacrifices were a poor Band-Aid substitute covering a gaping wound that required true healing. And those animal sacrifices were not God’s plan of salvation for the world.
That would come with the sacrifice of His Son.
So, now we have been saved from the slavery to sin. But we are not in the promised land, with all of its blessings of healing, peace, and plenty quite yet. We are wandering in the wilderness of a fallen world, representing a holy God as His hole people. We no longer follow a Levitical guideline-for-holy-life law; we live by the law of Love, empowered by the very Spirit of God.
So, when we think of blessings and curses today it isn’t like it was for the Israelites back then. In the wilderness of sanctification, bad things can happen. And any good blessing we see here pales in comparison to the joys that await us in a redeemed creation to come. But we make an effort. We cooperate with God’s Spirit and His grace to be more and more like Him in this world. We grow in our holiness for the same reason that Israel was supposed to… to show the world that there is hope in a relationship with the God who created us, and loves us, and invites all who long for things to be made right.
And it starts with us.
Leviticus chapter 26 is a stunning preview of a sad history. Sure, there is the wonderful promise of blessings in obedience for the covenant people, but we all know how things turned out… exactly as God said they would if the people failed to follow God’s rules. It is so precise in its forecast, that many have argued it must have been written after the events described. (And, from outside of time, God was declaring things He had, indeed, already seen coming.) The point of this book of rules for the people living in the wilderness wanderings, with all the rules that are impossible for people to live up to, is precisely that—to show us we can’t be holy in our own power.
The New Testament makes it clear. Even though God saved the nation from slavery in Egypt to be His own special possession, it didn’t save them from their sin—from the slavery to sin. All of the animal sacrifices were a poor Band-Aid substitute covering a gaping wound that required true healing. And those animal sacrifices were not God’s plan of salvation for the world.
That would come with the sacrifice of His Son.
So, now we have been saved from the slavery to sin. But we are not in the promised land, with all of its blessings of healing, peace, and plenty quite yet. We are wandering in the wilderness of a fallen world, representing a holy God as His hole people. We no longer follow a Levitical guideline-for-holy-life law; we live by the law of Love, empowered by the very Spirit of God.
So, when we think of blessings and curses today it isn’t like it was for the Israelites back then. In the wilderness of sanctification, bad things can happen. And any good blessing we see here pales in comparison to the joys that await us in a redeemed creation to come. But we make an effort. We cooperate with God’s Spirit and His grace to be more and more like Him in this world. We grow in our holiness for the same reason that Israel was supposed to… to show the world that there is hope in a relationship with the God who created us, and loves us, and invites all who long for things to be made right.
And it starts with us.
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