Leviticus; The Law of Holiness and Grace

Jubilee and Covenant III

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Lesson: 75

Track: 75

Dictation Name: RR172AP75

Date: Early 70s

Let’s worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made Heaven and earth. The Lord heareth all them that calleth upon Him. He is mindful of their cry. Let us pray.

Our Father, we thank Thee that Thou art He who doest make all things new. And yet, yesterday, today and forever, Thou art the same. Thy grace and Thy mercy, Thy saving power, are eternally unchanged. And so we come into Thy presence, our Father, rejoicing in Thee, in Thy Word, and Thy many blessings. We gave thanks unto Thee that Thou hast called us to serve Thee. We thank Thee for all Thy promises in Christ which are yea and amen. We thank Thee that our times are in Thy hands who doest all things well. Give us grace so to walk, that in all things, we give thanks, that in all things we are mindful that Thou art making them work together for good, that in all things, we continue faithful in Thy service. In Christ’s name, amen.

Our text this morning is Leviticus 26:14-39. We shall read this, passage by passage as we go through the text. This is the conclusion, as it were, to Leviticus 25 which deals with the Jubilee.

The Jubilee declares that man must, in his economic life, be governed by God and His Law. It gives us a plan which obviates inflation and all the problems that attend it. It declares that debts can only be short-term, that every seventh year, there is to be a total end to debt. Short-term debt, no more than six years, means a major antidote to inflation. Then it tells us that rural properties every fiftieth year must revert to the original owners, meaning that in the population there is to be one stable element. Now, at point after point as we have seen (we will not take time now to go into it), the Bible gives us a program which eliminates inflation, which eliminates many of the problems of extreme wealth and poverty and gives us a social order which is godly, where men can live together in God’s service.

Now a key word in the verses we shall be dealing with, 14 – 39, which appears at least once in each of seven verses, is “contrary.” “If ye walk contrary unto me.” Now, this has been translated in different ways; by some, ‘if you defy me’, or ‘if you walk indifferently to me.’ The meanings are really the same because the whole point is that a people will walk with disregard to God’s word, whether in open contempt or feeling that what God has to say is not important. This is the essence of what these verses are talking about—people walking obstinately against God’s way, or indifferently, showing contempt. Our Lord in the parable of the two sons, tells of one son who says that he will do his father’s bidding, but does not. He talks to please his father, but what his father says is not important to him.

Now such an attitude which marked the Pharisees shows both a contrariness and an indifference. At any rate, in Leviticus, God makes clear that a people who go there way or in defiance or indifference to Him and to His Law, will find God indifferent to them and deliberately contrary to their hopes.

Now, at this point, you can understand why Leviticus is unpopular today. People want God to be like a grandfather—indulgent. Not a God who exercises vengeance upon evil-doers. Not a God who always brings judgment upon sin. Not a God who has a law and requires us to abide by His Law. Not, in other words, a covenant God. A covenant God is one who by His grace, gives His people the laws of life, so He is a God of both Law and grace at both one and the same time.

Now as we go through these judgments, one of the things we need to recognize, that every last one of these judgments is what we would call natural; while God at times exercises supernatural judgment. All these things are things that happen, that happen naturally. And again and again, we see these natural judgments coming at a time of judgment, when people have sinned and gone astray. So you find before Rome fell, all these judgments; before the end of the Middle Ages, all these judgments. And again, we are beginning to see all these same judgments coming into focus. When men are indifferent to God and His Law Word, then the physical world, the natural world, is at war with man. And the harmony of things is replaced with conflict and disaster.

The series of curses begins with the first curse in verses 14-17:

“14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;

15 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.”

Now similar texts can be found in Deuteronomy 28, I Samuel 2:33 and elsewhere in the Bible. The requirement here is that we do all these commandments. We are not given the option of selective obedience to God. God doesn’t say you can go through His Bible or through the books of Moses and say well, I don’t like this commandment, so I’ll disregard this. But I like this one, I can keep that! And then say I have a .350 batting average. That’s very good! God doesn’t accept that. His Word is that you are to do all these commandments; all these commandments.

Well, none of us can do that perfectly. But you see, there’s a difference in the two words for sin in the Bible, ‘hamartia’ and ‘anomia.’ Anomia is ant-law, going against the law deliberately, breaking it deliberately. Hamartia is moving toward the mark and falling short. God would judge us for anomia, for lawlessness, for being anti-law. But hamartia, falling short, that’s another thing. We are pressing toward the mark (martia). But sometimes (hamartia), we fall short of the mark.

So we have consequences for sin, for lawlessness. And these consequences hit us in every realm, including the loss of courage and the inability to resist tyranny. We are compelled here to recognize that every area of our life is governed by God, including our inner life, that all things are naked and open to God, and all things are under His total control. They are always subject to His judgments or to His blessings. We may imagine an indifference to God’s Laws as something possible, but God sees it as contrariness and hatred. Behind our heedlessness to God’s Law, there is contempt for God and for His Law. And God does not take kindly to it.

Life apart from God, in other words, is terror and judgment. Life’s alternatives for us are clearly curses or blessings. And there is no other choice. God says in this passage, I will even appoint over you terror. And the word can be rendered ‘trembling.’ Life becomes fear and anxiety.

In verse 9 we saw that the promise to the faithful is, “I will have respect unto you.” It’s a word used by kings. I will turn toward you, literally. The King of Kings says that busy as He is, when you come into His presence, I will turn towards you. That’s in verse 9. But now he says in verse 17, exactly the opposite as King of Kings. “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.” In other words, instead of turning toward us with grace, God turns towards us with judgment and gives us over to our enemies, and then we are helpless before them. To flee when none pursue means utter demoralization. These curses include failed harvests and physical ailments. Many such passages exist in scripture, as in Micah 6:13-15 and others.

Now the second curse is draught and poor harvest, verses 18-20:

“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.”

Well, weather disasters are striking the whole world. Many parts of the world have been in draught for a decade. In other areas there are extremes of hot and cold, wet and dry, so that farmers everywhere are affected. The growing season has shortened as much as three weeks in many parts of the world, which means that crops which traditionally grew there now cannot be grown.

Moreover, the word translated as ‘punish’ in verse 18, “I will punish you seven times more for your sins,” can be translated as ‘I shall discipline, or teach you.’ So that God’s judgments are both punitive and also to reform us. God says I will send these things to take you up, to make you realize that I am God. And if the world will only see those things as bad weather, and not as the hand of God, then more will follow. God promises then draught and crop failures, and the breaking of man’s pride for persistence in rebellion. God’s Law here makes clear what G. Campbell Morgan said, “Conditions of well-being are ever entirely dependent on obedience to the government of God. Again in like manner, the warnings show that disobedience will always be followed with calamity.”

Now a century ago, C.D. Ginsberg had a very telling comment on verse 19. “And I will break the pride of your power, that is, the strength which is the cause of your pride, the wealth which they derive from the abundant harvests mentioned in verses 4 and 5. As is evident by what follows immediately, where the punishment is threatened against the resources of this power or wealth. The authorities during the Second Temple, however, took the phrase, ‘the pride of your power’ to denote the sanctuary, the temple which is called ‘the pride of your power’ in Ezekiel 24:21. The expression used here, but the identity of which is obliterated in the Authorized Version, by rendering the phrase, ‘the excellency of your strength.’ Hence, the Culdee version of the Jews paraphrases it, ‘and I will break down the glory of the strength of your sanctuary.’” That’s a little frightening, isn’t it? That the people at the time of Christ knew that this was a threat against their temple, that God said I will break it down.

Then the third curse is verse 21 and 22, wild animals: “21 and 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.

22 I 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.”

Now modern man has a sentimental view of wild animals. It is very difficult for him to see the proliferation of wild animals as a curse. However, many farmers and ranchers on the West Coast now are facing ruin and some have been wiped out because this sentimentalism has led to the proliferation of wild animals—sheep men, who’ve been put out of business by coyotes. Farmers here in California, who are averaging $5,000 - $10,000/year loss because of protected game birds which have increased to such an extent that they are wiping out their crops and they can do nothing about it legally. And it is the margin between barely getting by and doing well.

So we are setting ourselves up for such a judgment and doing it more and more. The mountain lion for example, are increasing and recently, because each mountain lion requires so many miles of territory to itself, they’ve been pushing and one was found within the city limits of Stockton. And yet, they’ve gone to court to prepare a case against having an open season for a while on a limited number of mountain lions. This is what happens when men walk contrary to God. If men in defiant opposition to God, would despise God’s Law and act as if accident ruled the moral and spiritual universe, God will judge them.

Now I began by calling attention to the word contrary and its meaning. Now there’s another meaning to it that is very important. If men walk accidentally before God, the meaning being that if they walk as though the whole world happened by accident—a very interesting meaning which goes back centuries, especially in rabbinic circles. If men walk as though the whole world were an accident and things happen accidentally, then God will judge them. And what else are people taught in our schools? The whole universe is an evolutionary accident.

Then the fourth curse in verses 23 – 26. The fourth curse is war.

“23 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.

25 And 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.

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.”

The judgment here is of war, of siege, of plague, and of famine. For ten women to bake bread for ten families in one oven, means that all the food they have, all the grain they have put together adds up to only two or three loaves, and that’s all they have to eat. In such a situation, survival is a major problem. There are shortages. There is famine. This is God’s judgment, the fourth curse.

The fifth curse describes the collapse of ordered and moral life. Verses 27-31:

“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 carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.

31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.”

God here reduces apostate man to the moral level of his life. Our moral level is revealed by crises. Men can know what is in us when we are put to the test in a time of crisis. These problems are shown to result in, among other things, cannibalism. In this century, cannibalism has been more common than the newspapers would tell us. This decent into barbarism is largely suppressed or ignored, but it has occurred in every continent virtually, at one time or another in this century. Few areas, and we are one of the privileged areas where this has not occurred. We descend into barbarism while our elitist rulers imagine an ascent into Heaven on earth. It is a grim and ironic fact that given man’s history from antiquity to the present and how common this kind of thing has become in times of war and famine, that one commentator could call the reference to cannibalism in verse 29 as merely a literary cliché. You wonder what kind of world some of these people live in.

The climax of this curse is that God refuses to associate Himself with the religious worship of an apostate people. They may invoke His name but his response is to smash their cities and their sanctuaries and their false cults, and their supposedly true houses of worship.

Then the culminating, the sixth and culminating curse is in verses 32- 39, dispersion and exile. Their organized life as a people is shattered, step-by-step. And then the relics of their national existence are broken. If they will not live on God’s terms, God says they are not going to live at all, so He brings His judgment to bear upon them.

These verses read, beginning with 32:

“32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.

33 And 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.

34 Then 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.

35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.

36 And 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.

37 And 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.

38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

39 And 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.”

Now many people over the centuries have lost their homelands, have been dispersed, but only to be blessed in their new homelands. But God’s curse here says that it’s going to be different. Exile will only bring more judgment up on the apostate. And their inner guilt before God will render them cowards and victims and God’s avenging sword pursue them wherever they go. And meanwhile, the land will enjoy its sabbaths. It will remain idle. All the neglected sabbaths of the land will be kept. God’s will is done. If men will not do it, God will execute it to their confounding.

Rotherham has translated verse 34, “then shall the land be paid her sabbaths, all the days she lieth desolate while you were in the land of your foes, then shall the land keep Sabbath and pay off her sabbath.” Now this is the meaning: God says there’s going to be a payment. You’re going to be paid for your sin, and the land is going to be paid back the sabbaths it has coming to it.

Now all this tells us of God’s judgment. And there is something further. God had promised the land to Abraham. But now that promise is reversed. The people who were the physical decedents of Abraham are cast out. They are given another opportunity. They return, but they fail again and they are cast out. And a new people made the New Israel of God—twelve disciples to signify the twelve tribes of Israel so that the people in Christ are now the New Israel of God. But what this means is that all the blessings and all the curses pronounced against the Old Israel for faithfulness and for unfaithfulness now apply to us. We who have become the heirs of Abraham in Christ will be similarly cut out, cast way and cursed if we persist in contempt of God’s covenant grace and covenant law. We can be blessed above all peoples that have ever lived upon the face of this earth, or cursed to an even greater extent. For as great is His mercy, so great is His judgment; and as great as His judgment can be, so too can His mercy and grace.

Let us pray.

Lord, we thank Thee for this, Thy Word. We thank Thee that so great promises and blessings are in store for us for faithfulness, and we know from Thy Word, how great are the curses for unfaithfulness. Make us a faithful people. Grant that Thy Word be honored and obeyed throughout the length and breadth of this land and that we again be a people of righteousness. We ask this in Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now on our lesson?

Yes

[Audience] How do you respond, ah, there’s a lot of talk about the boom-and-bust cycle right now and they related it to, like the 1929 depression and they’re optimistic from the standpoint that even if we go through a down-turn, inevitably it leads to an upward swing again so even if we do go through a tough period, say over the next three or four years, assuming they’re right, that that’s just going to lay the groundwork for the next economic boom.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] How do you respond to those people?

[Rushdoony] Yes, the Kondratiev Wave has been pretty well confirmed in history, but here is something that they don’t think about, these people who say alright, we’re going to hit bottom now, so there’s going to be a rise upward: what they forget is the rise upward doesn’t take place necessarily in the same place as where the bust centers. In other words, yes, we may hit bottom very shortly, in the next few years. But when the rise begins in the World Economy, because it is now a World economy, it may not be here in the United States. We may be a side eddy, irrelevant to the new development. This is what has happened again and again.

So, God judges a people, but He can then turn and bless another. God told Israel, He said, don’t you realize I could have chosen the Ethiopians out of Africa rather than you. There was nothing in you except my grace and mercy, so I can raise up a people unto myself at any time, and the whole point that the New Testament rests on is that a people who are not a people are made a people. We—we were not the chosen people. Now we are. And we can be cut out. And tomorrow a new chosen people can be made the center of everything.

We must remember that in the early centuries of Christianity, the center of the faith, one of the most prosperous areas, where you had many of the Nordic tribes settling very early, was North Africa. They became exceedingly prosperous, and indifferent. And what is North Africa today? The land itself has been destroyed. It was a rich farming and grain area, and what we call The Desert (Sahara), was once profitable. In fact, you can still see evidences of swamps and lakes and things of that sort, where alligators once lived. So, man has a capacity for bringing judgment on himself and then forgetting about it.

Yes.

[Audience] I don’t know who it was that said that no civilization had ever risen without a faith, and no civilization ever survived the loss of its faith.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Very, very much to the point. No civilization has ever survived the loss of its faith.

Any other questions or comments? Well if not, let us conclude with prayer.

Oh Lord our God, Thy Word is truth. Grant that Thy Word be a joy unto us and a light upon our way. That we walk in Thy light and not in our darkness. Make us strong by Thy Spirit, and by Thy Word. And now, go in peace. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.