King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 10 notes
1Ye 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.
2Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
3If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
4Then 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.
5And 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.
6And 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.
7And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
Wow… It's almost pure paradise for the children of Israel.
They were to be the dominant force if they walked with the Lord.
8And 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.
9For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
Oh my Lord and my God, just as we honour and respect people of worth... Here God is saying,
I have my ways… I am not some idol through whom disorder emanates.
No, if you keep my decrees and honour my laws, I will have respect for you.
Wow.
10And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.
11And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
12And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
Wow.
Here was the ideal situation God was painting 🎨 for them, if perhaps they would desire that and be lured into God's beautiful plan for them.
13I 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.
14But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
What is the difference between commands, statutes and judgements?
Judgements are easier, in that they are God's decisions concerning issues and cases that come up, especially from breaking any of his laws.
So all these burnt offerings, stoning offenders, etc. are his judgements concerning breaking his laws.
I presume then that his statutes are the same as his laws, whiles his commandments may be like decrees.
I would have to search out the original Hebrew words.
15And 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:
16I 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.
17And 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.
18And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
19And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
Since mostly they were farmers and shepherds, an iron heaven represents no rain and intense sunshine ☀, which burns and dries up.
And brazen earth 🌎 is as a result of an iron heaven, and not just that, but even that which is planted will yield little, if at all.
Far less than what even a scorched earth 🌎 is supposed to yield.
20And 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.
21And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
22I 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.
23And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;
24Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.
25And 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.
26And 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.
27And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
28Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
I mean, after all these, for a people to refuse to yield and return to the Lord?
What kind of a people are those? Such blessedness — blessedness in the sense that God will continue to even more extremes just to win them back to himself.
Why does he not let them alone till they self-destruct like the other nations? Because they are his covenant people, and he always leaves even a remnant.
Oh Lord, bless me by yourself indeed, that I will be a covenant people, that there always will be a remnant to do your will, oh Lord, no matter how far off I or my seed stray from you. This I pray 🙏 oh Lord.
29And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
30And 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.
31And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
32And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
33And 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.
34Then 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.
35As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
Can we say that the Lord will calculate the years of the land not having her sabbath and send the children of Israel into captivity to make up the sabbaths?
God is so just, in a funny way.
36And 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.
37And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39And 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.
40If 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;
When I read this passage, I wondered why the repentance of the people attracted the Lord's attention and mercy, meanwhile in the preceding verses he himself said he will not accept their incense or offering.
What had changed this time? It is because the first time the people just continued in their ways and sins, business as usual, and yet still maintained a posture of religiosity and holiness.
This is what the verse says:
“And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.”
Leviticus 26:31 KJV
So these people were offering sweet odours to the Lord as if all was well. Meanwhile they were disobeying his laws.
They kept the rituals but not his laws and judgements.
However, when finally they came to themselves and recognized their wicked ways and humbled themselves, God began their redemption.
He further states that they have to accept the punishment of their iniquity, in that they deserved it and it was just.
I think, like Daniel, one can repent on his own behalf and that of his nation, family, etc.
Lord, have mercy on my family.
41And 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:
42Then 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.
In verse 28 I prayed a prayer for covenant, but in this verse I realized that we are already covenant children.
The covenant of Abraham we covet, and so I know my prayer is heard — not that God needs to consider cutting a new covenant with me, but that the old covenant of Abraham I am a part of, so I covet the blessing of that covenant.
Of course that doesn't mean he does not renew or cut new covenants within covenant.
We see he cut covenants with David, all within the Abrahamic covenant.
43The 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.
44And 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.
45But 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.
46These 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.
Amen. I'm still trying to figure out the difference between commandments and statutes.
Could the statutes be the numerous customs and rituals of cleansing etc., whiles commandments are like the Ten Commandments and other laws for daily living?