Leviticus 26

The Explanation

The people of Israel are camped at the foot of a mountain. Mount Sinai. Tents everywhere, goats bleating, children running between the ropes. And on the mountain: God. Moses climbs up, and God gives him words to carry down.

They are big words. Like a king speaking to the people he has rescued.

"Don't make any statues to bow down to," God says. "No stone idols. I am Yahweh your God." That is his name, the name of the God who broke their chains in Egypt. "I broke the bars of your yoke," he says, "and made you walk upright." A yoke is a heavy wooden beam laid on the neck of an ox. Slaves in Egypt walked bent over like that. God straightened their backs.

Then God paints two pictures.

The first picture is beautiful. If you walk in my ways, God says, I will send rain at the right time. The fields will be so full that you are still threshing your grain when it is already time to pick the grapes. Bread until you are full. And this: "you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid." Imagine that. Lying on your mat at night with no fear at all. And best of all, God says, "I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be my people."

The second picture is dark, and I am not going to pretend it isn't. If the people turn their backs on God, everything goes wrong. The sky becomes like iron, hard and shut, and no rain falls. The ground becomes like bronze. Nothing grows. Enemies come. The people become so frightened that even the sound of one leaf blowing across the ground makes them run. One leaf! And they will be carried far away from their land, scattered among strangers.

Would you have kept listening to Moses that day? It is frightening to hear.

But God does not stop there. And what he says last is the most important thing of all.

What Does This Mean?

God is not making a threat to scare children in their beds. He is telling the truth, like a father who says: this road leads home, and that road leads off the cliff. Walking away from God really does hurt. God loves his people too much to lie about it.

And notice what God wants most. Not statues. Not perfect people. He wants to live with them. "I will set my tent among you," he says. God pitching his tent right in the middle of the camp, like a neighbour.

The Common Thread

Now listen to the end, because it is astonishing. Even when the people have gone wrong and are far away in enemy lands, God says: if they say sorry, I will remember my covenant. A covenant is a promise God ties himself to and never unties. He remembers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And then: "I will not reject them."

That is the thread running all the way to Jesus. God kept wanting to live among his people. So one day he came himself, as a baby, and pitched his tent among us. Jesus took the punishment on himself, so that the dark picture would not fall on us. He carried the heavy beam, the cross, so our backs could be straight.

For You

God says: don't bow down to anything else. You probably don't have a stone statue in your room. But you might have something you love so much that you forget everybody else. A screen. A toy. Try this today: put that thing down when someone calls you, and go.

And there is the other half, God's rest day. This week, ask if you may have one quiet half hour with your family. No rushing. Read a Bible story together, or just sit and thank God out loud for three things.

Talk About It

Which of God's two pictures would you most want to live in, and why?

God says he will not reject his people, even when they run away. How does that make you feel?

Praying Together

Lord God, thank you that you want to live close to us. Help me to love you more than my favourite things. And thank you that you never let go of me. Amen.