Punishment for Disobedience

Punishment for Disobedience

Date: Dec. 19, 2021

Passage

Leviticus 26:14-33 (ESV)

14 “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. 18 And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, 19 and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

21 “Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. 22 And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.

23 “And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, 24 then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.

27 “But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, 28 then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. 31 And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. 32 And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. 33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

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Daily Bread

Key Verse: 26:21

“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins.

In this passage, God warns of his judgment on their disobedience. The Lord describes a progression of rebellion and the punishment he would bring upon them, making it seven times worse. (Why seven? It might mean it was his perfect will.) He would bring sudden terror, disease, and famine upon them. Their enemies would defeat them and rule over them. The country would suffer complete destitution. Packs of wild animals would attack them and their children. Their cities would be besieged. They would starve, and out of desperation, they would eat their own children (2Ki 6:26-29). Finally, his people would be carried off from the promised land into exile as prisoners of war. They will lose their freedom again and become slaves. It was a sign that God was against his people and they were suffering under his wrath on account of their sins.

Exactly as the Lord warned in this passage, his people hardened their hearts towards him and left him out of their lives and gave into idol worship. They were carried into exile. God’s desire was to bring them to repentance and to restore them. God never forsakes them, but increases the measure of punishment to humble them and to reform them. It was a sign of his love.

Prayer: Prayer: Father, you discipline those you love. Help us to repent our rebellion against you.

One Word: One Word: God disciplines those he loves; heed his warning before it is too late.

A Plague of Hungry Locusts

Joel 1:1-20

Key Verse: 1:4

  What the cutting locust left,
    the swarming locust has eaten.
  What the swarming locust left,
    the hopping locust has eaten,
  and what the hopping locust left,
    the destroying locust has eaten.

Today's Question

What are we specifically taught in the first commandment by the words before me?

See answer and references

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