Chapter 26

1 Of idolatry. 2 Religiousness. 3 A blessing to them that keep the commandments. 14 A curse to those that break them. 40 God promiseth to remember them that repent.

3. If ye walk. This chapter of Leviticus is a conditional prophecy delineating the blessings to come upon Israel for obedience and the punishments for disobedience. Many of these prophecies were fulfilled to a striking degree.

4. Rain in due season. Palestine was peculiarly dependent on rain at the usual times, for prosperity and plenty. In Egypt, Israel had seen the regular overflow of the Nile, which watered the land and made it fruitful (see on Gen. 41:34). Palestine was “a land of hills and valleys,” and so not adapted to irrigation (Deut. 11:10–12). Israel had not been used to rain, for it seldom rains in Egypt. Now they were coming to a land where their very existence depended upon rain from heaven. To reassure them God promised to send the rains in their season, “the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil” (Deut. 11:13, 14). It was not merely rain that was needed, but rain in “season.”

God warned them, however, that rain would not fall as a matter of course, that indeed there would “be no rain” (Deut. 11:17) if they turned from Him to worship idols. This was fulfilled during the days of Ahab (1 Kings 17:1).

14. If ye will not hearken. Dire punishments were threatened should Israel fail to serve God, and turn instead to other gods. Five increasingly severe punishments are predicted, after each of the first four of which God promises to send a sevenfold worse evil upon them (vs. 18, 21, 24, 28). “Seven” here probably denotes greatly intensified punishment rather than precise mathematical increase.

The first step in the fivefold punishment for persistent rebellion appears in vs. 14-17. All Israel’s history bears witness to the fulfillment of this threat.

18. Yet for all this. The second step is described in vs. 18–20 (see also Deut. 28:23, 24). This threat repeatedly found its fulfillment in the history of Israel. In the time of Haggai, God explained to His people why He had withheld rain from them—“Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house” (Haggai 1:9–11).

21. If ye walk contrary. The third step is given in vs. 21, 22. One instance of the fulfillment of this is given in 2 Kings 17:25; another, in Judges 5:6.

23. If ye will not be reformed. The fourth step appears in vs. 23–26.

25. The quarrel of my covenant. God had entered into covenant relation with Israel, and when they failed to keep their part of the covenant He would send the sword upon them, and also pestilence. Ezekiel repeated this threat (Eze. 5:12), which was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and later by the Romans.

26. Ten women. The famine would be so intense and bread so scarce that only one oven would be needed where ten had been used before.

27. For all this. The fifth step is stated in vs. 27–33. One fulfillment of this occurred in the siege of Samaria (2 Kings 6:28, 29), and another in that of Jerusalem (Jer. 19:9; Lam. 4:10).

31. Make your cities waste. Samaria and Jerusalem, for example (see on v. 27).

33. Scatter you. Not only in captivity by Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans, but also by dispersion over various lands. See vol. 5, pp. 59-61; vol. 6, pp. 136ff.

34. Then shall the land rest. God had commanded that the land should rest every seventh year. This seems to have been the case for a time, but the custom later fell into disuse. Doubtless some thought that they might enrich themselves by refusing to let the land rest every seventh year. But as a result they lost the land altogether. God kept account of the time during which the land had been deprived of the Sabbath rest. And when destruction came, with the arrival of the Chaldeans, the land was given “rest” to make up for the time of transgression (2 Chron. 36:21). Seventy years would suggest that for 490 years the land had not kept “her sabbaths.”

40. If they shall confess. The Jews have suffered much in centuries gone by, and the present generation has been no exception. But God has not forsaken any individual Jew who will “confess.” The nation may be rejected, but whoever turns to God may yet be saved.

Lest any Gentile Christian should boast of this and think himself in a more favored position than the Jew, let him remember that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34; Rom. 11:20, 21). The conditions of salvation are the same for all. God is strict, and God is merciful—to all alike.

Ellen G. White comments

3-6Ed 140

4-17PP 535

5, 6, 19-212T 661

21 PK 429

23, 24 1T 589; 5T 365

24 2T 154, 661

28, 33 PK 429