Leviticus 26–27

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. Glad you're here this evening. Let's take just a minute, say a word of prayer, and we'll get started. Lord, we thank you so much for this opportunity to come together like this. We thank you for your love and your mercy that you pour out on us daily. You're so good to us, and we give you praise. Ask, Lord, that you would bless our time together as we have this time to worship you

and a time in your word and time to fellowship, Lord. We just give this evening to you now in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's worship together.

Present your bodies and your soul. A song said by the Lord, we can sing it with confidence, this last song.

Lord, to keep our eyes and see and hear.

Good evening. Glad you could be here tonight. If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Leviticus, chapter 26. Leviticus 26. Before we get going, I have a favor to ask. We have carpet layers coming tomorrow to lay new carpet in the office. That's right. That's right. All of the stained carpet, much like our sins, will be gone. And so, it feels like it just goes with Leviticus, right?

It'll be washed away by the work of a carpet layer. That to say, I could sure use some big, strong men to help me afterwards move some desks out of the office. So, if anybody's available right after church, it would be a glorious thing to have you join me in the lifting of heavy things and the fellowship of the brethren. So, that's going to be taking place right after the service.

All right. Leviticus, chapter 26. Hey, kids, guess what? Tonight, we finish the book of Leviticus. Yeah, I know. It is with a heavy heart, but a happy face that we finish the book of Leviticus because it has been really good. It has been challenging at times. But man, there is just so much about Jesus in this book, isn't there? There has been so much truth of who Jesus is in a book that most people try to avoid.

So, we pick up in chapter 26, verse 1, with the blessings and the cursings. Much like any treaty that would have been made at this point in time when a treaty was ratified, they would go through the, if you do this part of the treaty, then good things are going to happen. But if you break your portion of the treaty, then these are the things that will happen to you. And that's exactly.

What God is going to do now with the nation of Israel. So, he comes and he says, you shall not, chapter 26, verse 1, you shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep my Sabbaths and you shall reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

And so, as he begins this process to talk about the Lord, he says, I am the Lord your God. He talks to them about the blessings of obedience. He sort of lays out the principles of obedience that really are threefold. And I would say that if we were to go through and talk about some of the main points that were emphasized over and over again throughout the book of Leviticus, these three would probably have been emphasized the most.

The first of them is that you should have no idols. God is a God that wants no other God put before him. He takes that very seriously. As a matter of fact, he told them so much so that when you come into the land, you need to destroy everything. And everyone, because otherwise they will lead you into that idolatry, which is actually spiritual unfaithfulness, spiritual adultery.

So no idols. Then, of course, the second thing that he says is you shall keep my Sabbaths, which is what we talked about in chapter 25, not just the Sabbath day, every seventh day of the week, or on the seventh day of the week, but also the Sabbath years, every seventh year, and then that year of Jubilee after 49 years. So they were to keep those Sabbath days. Again, I continue to be struck with how often God mentions rest in the Old Testament, a portion of Scripture that most people view as, hey, this is a really heavy portion of Scripture, and yet, as you look at the Old Testament, God over and over again just talks about rest and how important rest is for us.

So he says, keep my Sabbaths. And then the third thing he says is you shall reverence my sanctuary. In other words, God's dwelling place, the place where God would be amongst the people, was to be a place that was reverenced or held in great esteem because it is holy, not just because of what it is, but because of who is there, because God is there, and God was to be held in that place of absolute holiness. Something, again, I think that can often be missed in the church today is that God is so holy, and he is so other than who we are as human beings, and I think sometimes we forget to reverence him as he truly desires to be.

And so he says, you shall have no idols, keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary, for I am the Lord. And now he moves into this process of talking about the blessings. He says, if you will walk in my statutes and keep my commandments so as to carry them out, then I shall give you rains in their season so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. Indeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time.

Thus, you will thus eat your food to the full. And live securely in the land. I shall also grant peace in the land so that you may lie down with no one making you tremble. I shall also eliminate harmful beasts from the land, and no sword will pass through your land. But you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies

will fall before you by the sword. So I will turn toward you. And make you fruitful and multiply you. And I will confirm my covenant with you. You will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the new. Moreover, I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul will not reject you. I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be my people.

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves. And I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. So that grouping of verses tells us. It tells us about the blessings that there are for obedience. They fall into several different categories. The first category, he says, the land will always be fruitful.

Notice what it says. He says, I shall give you rains in their season so that the land will produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. You'll always have something to eat. And within the nation of Israel, when they were walking according to God's statutes the way that they were supposed to, God always blessed them with a plentiful crop. Now remember, that blessing came about because of not only.

Keeping his statutes in the aspect of holiness, but also in the aspect of rest. Because remember, that was an important part of God continuing to allow the land to produce. And so they would always have, the land would always be fruitful. The second thing that we take note of about the blessings is that within those blessings, that you would always have peace and security.

That first of all, no wild animals that would be dangerous would be roaming the land, which is a pretty important promise as far as I'm concerned. But also that you would always have peace and security. That you will live in security amongst your neighbors. Nobody's going to come in and take you over. As a matter of fact, and I think that this is kind of interesting, over here in verse

eight, it says five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase 10,000, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. What I appreciate about that is that those things actually did take place within the nation of Israel's history. Matter of fact, there was at least two times where this happened. Matter of fact, I can think of about three times where something similar.

Something similar to this happened. Pastor Allen and I were just talking about this yesterday, that whole battle of Jericho. That was such an amazing battle that took place in Jericho because no battle actually happened, right? They got ready to walk around. God said, here's what I want you to do. I just want you to walk around the city, and I promise the city will not survive.

Just walk around the city every day for six days, and don't say a word. We were discussing the fact that some people might not be able to make that journey, right? We all know someone that wouldn't be able to be there if they couldn't talk. You all know who you are. Anyway. And then on the seventh day, they would walk around it seven times, and finally, the loud

people could come because that time, they were going to shout. Some of you can join that time. And then the city came collapsing down, and they didn't have to do a thing. Why? Because they were going to dwell on the land in peace and security. I'm reminded of the story of Gideon in the time of the judges. Remember the story of Gideon when the nation of Israel had been taken over, I believe it

was by the Moabites, and Gideon was supposed to lead the people, the most fearful leader ever. And finally, God convinced him, yes, you need to do this. And you need to gather an army. So Gideon gathers an army, and God says, that's too many people. So he starts to weed them out. Finally, he gets them all the way down to 300 men against tens of thousands of the enemy.

And they surround the camp, and when they surround the camp, they hold that little torch, or they put the torch inside of the clay jar, and they break the clay jar and hold the torch, and they say, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, and all those people completely freak out, and they flee. Why? Because God was keeping his promise. Why? They came to a place of repentance, and when they came to a place of repentance, God allowed

that to take place. And of course, there's the really cool story of Jonathan. Jonathan, who I'm always sad about the fact that we never got to see what he could have really been. Jonathan, that son of Saul. You may remember the story that Jonathan and his armor bearer, there was a battle that was up ahead of them, or a potential battle that was up ahead of them, and it was only

Jonathan and his armor bearer. And Jonathan looked at his armor bearer, and he said, isn't it just as easy for God to deliver with two people than it is with a whole army of people? Hey, let's do this. Let's step out and throw a little fleece out, if you will, and if they call us to them to battle, we're going to battle. If they say they're coming to us, well, no, it's not of the Lord.

And so that's exactly what happens. Jonathan and his armor bearer, they take on hundreds of thousands of people. It was just an amazing battle that took place. Why? Because God kept his promise. When they lived in obedience, one of them could chase a ton. A hundred of them could chase 10,000. And so they would live in the land. And then, of course, number three, they would live in great fruitfulness.

In other words, they would continue having lots and lots of tiny people. And then the fourth thing is that, and I think this is the most important of all, which comes to us in verse 9, that they would have God's continual presence. Notice what it says. Oh, excuse me, in verse 11, it says,

And of course, that was perfectly seen through the presence of the tabernacle being right there in the midst. That's why when we get into the book of Numbers, we'll see that when they set up the camp, the tabernacle was always to be right in the middle of the camp because it was symbolic of the fact that God dwelt among them. Because after all, what was it that made them God's peculiar people? What was it that made them God's special people?

It was that God was dwelling in their midst. And that was one of the greatest blessings that they would have because of living in obedience. And then we come to verse 13, and we see the reason why they should continue to live obediently. I love this because God says, You should be obedient to me, not just because of the blessings, but in response to who I am.

Notice what it says. Verse 13, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves. And I broke the bars of your yoke. And I made you walk erect. So why were they to live in response to God? Well, first of all, because he is the Lord. What does that mean? It means that he is the one that has the right to make the rules because he's the one in

charge. He says, I am the Lord God. And if there's no other reason to be obedient to God, then the fact that he is, well, God is a really good reason, right? It's sort of one of those, I brought you into this world and I can take you out of this world sort of a moments, right? I am the Lord your God. But he gives us more than that because the second thing he says is, I've set you free

from bondage. Remember that place where they were in Egypt when they were so held down by the Egyptian people, they were in bondage to the point where they cried out to the Lord for deliverance and God delivered them from that bondage. He says, I set you free from Egypt and the yoke of bondage that was on you. I set you free from that place where you were only slaves to Egypt and now you can be free.

Isn't there kind of an interesting parable? That we're given to our own lives because what does Egypt represent in scripture? Well, Egypt always represents the world and we too were at one point in time in bondage to the world. And while God continually told the nation of Israel in the Old Testament that their obedience to him should spring in response to the fact that he set them free from Egypt, our obedience to him springs from a response to the fact that he has set us free from the bondage of the world and the sin.

It's Satan. And so we know that he set us free from that bondage and so we obey in response. And then the third thing, and I found this to be interesting, this particular phrase stuck out to me. He says, I've set you free from the bondage of slavery and I broke the bars of your yoke. And then he says, and I made you walk erect or I made you walk upright. I found that to be kind of interesting.

So I looked up that word upright to see what it meant and I ended up finding in the Amplified Bible the way that they translated it. I thought it was fascinating. They translate it like this. I made you walk with your heads held high as free men. Is that not an amazing picture, first of all, of what God did for the nation of Israel, that they were at one point in time bowed low because of the bondage that they were

in in sin? And perhaps you remember the way that you were before you were walking with the Lord. Perhaps you remember how your life was before you met Jesus. And the best way that you can use to describe it is to say that your head was hung low because of sin. Because you couldn't even hardly look up. And then Jesus came along and he set you free from the bondage of the world.

But when he set you free from the bondage of the world, he fixed your gaze on him and now you can hold your head high like a free man. Not because of how great you are, but because of the amazing freedom that we have in Christ. And that's what he told him. He said, why should you live in response to me? Why should you live in this obedience? Well, first of all, I'm God and I deserve that kind of obedience.

But second of all, I set you free from bondage. And third, I gave you a chance to live in this obedience. I gave you a reason to live. I made it to where you could hold your heads high as free men. And may I say, as believers in Jesus Christ, is there any better reason for us to obey him than he is God? And he set us free. And now he's given us a reason to live as he's held our heads high so that we can live

as free men. And so we see this blessings that go along with obedience. But you know as well as I do that there has to be the cursings that come with disobedience. So in verse 14, it says this. But if you do not obey me and do not carry out all these commandments, if instead you reject my statutes and if your soul abhors my ordinances so as not to carry out all my

commandments and so break my covenant, I in turn will do this to you. I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption, and fever that shall waste away the eyes and cause the soul to be in danger. He says, Your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. Your strength shall be spent uselessly, for your land shall not yield its produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

If then you act with hostility against me and are unwilling to obey me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins. I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number. So that your roads lie deserted. And if by these things you are not turned to me, but act with hostility against me, then I will act with hostility against you.

And I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins. I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant. And when you gather together in your cities, I will send pestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands. When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts, so that you will eat and not be satisfied.

Yet if in spite of this you do not obey me, but act with hostility against me, then I will act with wrathful hostility against you. Can I just go ahead and say that nobody wants wrathful hostility, especially from God? And I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins. Further, you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat.

I then will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for my soul shall abhor you. I will lay waste your cities as well, and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas. I will make the land desolate, so that your enemies, who will destroy your sanctuaries, who will settle in it, shall be appalled over it. You, however, I will scatter among the nations, and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate, and your cities become waste.

Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of desolation while you are in your enemy's land. And then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your Sabbaths while you were there. As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into their hearts and the lands of their enemies, and the sound of a driven leaf will chase them.

And even when no one is pursuing, they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall. They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing. And you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies, but you will perish among the nations, and your enemies' land will consume you. So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of their enemies, and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers, they will rot away with them.

I think the first thing that I'm struck by in that entire thing is just how much God hates sin. We'll go through a handful of things that I think are important to point out in just a minute, but even just now reading through it, I was just struck again with how much God hates sin. I fear something. Sometimes that I don't hate sin the way that God wants me to.

I was speaking with an athlete last night about the importance of practice and the importance of working hard and the importance of if you don't practice, sometimes you can't perform the way that you want to. And I said, it really kind of comes down to this. You have to hate losing more than you like being comfortable. I said, it's kind of the way I see it.

It's kind of the way God is with us. We have to hate sinning more than we enjoy pleasure because there comes a point in time where if you don't hate it the way that God hates it, then you will find that you love it the way that your flesh loves it. And that's how God handles sin. And so as we look at this, we see that these cursings fit into a handful of things.

He said, you know, if you don't, if you do not obey me and don't carry out all these commandments, and instead you reject my statutes, which I think that's another important point that's to be made, that when we don't obey, we're automatically rejecting God. It doesn't always seem that that's the case. No, no, I want to be able to do what I want to do and still love Jesus. But God's kind of like, but if you do what you want to do and not what I want you to do, then you're automatically rejecting me.

I think that that's a statement that needs to be made in churches all over the country right now. Where the word continues to go out, God wants you to be happy. Therefore, you live your best life. No, God wants you to be holy. Therefore, you need to live in obedience. And obedience begins with repentance from sin. And so he says, if this is what you do, then these are the things that are coming.

The first category is that there will be illness and famine and death. And if you go into, I was listening today, I think it was Bob Davis that I was listening to today. And he was teaching on this. And he said, it's almost like God was giving the history of Israel before the history was actually written. Because when you look through all of these things, you go, this is exactly what the nation of Israel did.

This is exactly what the nation of Israel took part in. They did all of these things. They rejected God and walked in their own ways instead of his own statutes. And so God did all of these things. It's almost like you can word for word pull some verses out of your head. You can pull some verses out of the book of Judges or the book of 2 Kings or the book of 2 Chronicles

or any one of the prophets. You could pull a lot of the words out of those and put them right on top and you wouldn't know the difference because God was giving the history of Israel because he said, this isn't a maybe. This isn't a, I think this is what's going to happen. This is a, this is what's going to happen because I know humanity. And if you reject me, there is no happy medium.

The only thing that's left is, is sin. And what comes with sin is consequences. And so he says, first of all, there will be illness and there will be famine and there will be death. Well, again, I think you could pick just about any portion out of the rest of the Old Testament that you want to and see that this happened. We've talked several times in the past couple of months

as different people have taught up here about Elijah. And we know what happened in the days of Elijah. Because of the sin of the nation, there was a famine that came across the entire land. Why? Because there was no rain. And what happened to the ground, it became like iron. And they couldn't grow anything. And so we see that that began to take place, that illness, that famine, and that death.

The second thing that we see is that there was drought and there was bad harvest. No rain. They couldn't bring any food. The third thing that we see, and why God chose this, I don't know, is that dangerous animals roamed the land. Do you know when that was fulfilled? So after the children of Israel were taken captive by the Babylonians, they left some of the people behind.

And as some of the people got left behind, they also filled in with other nations. And when they filled in with other nations, those other nations began to worship foreign gods. And do you know what happened to not only the Israelites that were left behind, but also the people worshiping foreign gods? It says that God sent lions to attack them. And they said, here's the thing.

This is happening because you're worshiping foreign gods. And so that was when they began to add God to all of the other idols. And we developed one. We developed what's known as the Samaritans. And so that actually happened to the nation of Israel that animals came in and destroyed the people. The fourth thing that we see is that there was disease and desolation by their enemies.

There was disease within the land and absolute desolation by their enemies. So much so that they began to starve the people. And that part about eating their kids, you can actually read about it in the book of 2 Kings. It says, And then, of course, the fifth thing that we see is that culmination of all of those cursings for disobedience, devastation, and deportation.

Because they eventually got kicked out of the land. Take note of one spot here, if you will, as he's talking about kicking them out of the land. Notice what it says in verse 34. Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths. All the desolation while you are in your enemy's land. And the land will enjoy its Sabbaths. All of the days of desolation it will observe the rest

which it did not observe on your Sabbaths while you were living in it. Isn't it funny? That hasn't even happened yet. And God is saying it like it happened. Why? Because he knows man. And he knows that if they reject him, they will also reject what one main command, one of the main commandments that God gave us at the beginning of this chapter. You should remember the Sabbath days

and the Sabbath years. He knew that if they rejected him, they would also reject rest. Rest not only for themselves, but rest for the land. Because they would become selfish. And they would think, you know, if I take that year off, I'm not going to make very much money. If I'll just work that extra year, I can make even more. God said, I know that if you reject me,

that's what's going to happen. And if that's what happens, then you're going to have to be sent out. And then what you did not do in obedience, I will do in judgment. And so that deportation is the ultimate end to all of it. Now, again, there's three main things that I take note of, and I actually had her put these up so that you could write them down because I think that they're important things

for us to pay attention to. Number one, this judgment is a response to rebellion. It's a response to rebellion. I point that out because judgment is God's strange work, and he doesn't, he doesn't throw it out for no good reason. And he doesn't throw it out without warning. When God begins to do things like this to a land, when God begins to do things like this to a nation,

it is because that nation has not heeded the warnings that God has brought. And so he has to bring in response to their rebellion, this punishment. It's the same way that we take care of our kids, right? We don't want to do anything that would punish them. I want to give them everything that I can. But eventually when rebellion happens, if I love them, then I have to respond to that rebellion sometimes

in a very swift and in a very definite sort of way. And so it's a response to rebellion. Number two, consistent rebellion leads to increasing discipline. Did you take note of the language that was used? Look at a couple of different places. Look at verse 18. It says, If also after these things you do not obey me, then I will punish you seven times more. Verse 21,

If then you act with hostility against me and are unwilling to obey, I will increase the plague on you seven times more. Verse 23, And if by these things you are not turned to me, but act with hostility against me, then I will act with hostility against you. And verse 27, Yet if in spite of this you do not obey me, but act with hostility against me, then I will act with hostility against you. I will act with wrathful hostility against you.

You see, consistent rebellion leads to increasing discipline. God has to keep raising the bar of the discipline. Why? Because if that didn't work, then I need to do something else that does. If that doesn't get the message through to you, then I've got to do something harsher that does get the message through to you. It's like somebody that just keeps committing the same crime.

If you just keep being guilty of the exact same thing, eventually they have to say, because you will not learn your lesson, because you are a danger to yourself and to others and the things that you're doing, the punishment has to continue to get more harsh until you understand how terrible what you're doing is. I don't believe this is because this is what God wants to do, and I'll make that in my third point, but I do think it's what God has to do. Number three, its purpose is repentance. And I think that that's a really, really important point that needs to be made.

Its purpose is repentance. You see, when God begins to bring judgment on a nation or when God begins to bring judgment on a life, it's not just because God is mean. It's because God has a distinct desire to see repentance be produced in a life. He wants to produce that peaceable fruit of repentance. So that's what God has to do here. And I know that because of what it says

in the remainder of this chapter, look at verse 40. If they confess their iniquity in the iniquity of their forefathers and the unfaithfulness which they committed against me and also in their acting with hostility against me, I was also acting with hostility against them to bring them into the land of their enemies. Or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will also remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. For the land shall be abandoned by them and shall make up for its sabbaths while it is desolate without them.

They, meanwhile, shall be making amends for their iniquity because they rejected my ordinance and their soul abhorred my statutes. Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them. Nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking my covenant with them. For I am their God. But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors

whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations that I might be their God. I am the Lord. These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between himself and the sons of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai. Isn't that great? Because he then talks about the blessing of repentance. And I don't know about you, but after that entire stretch

of those things that will come upon you if you live in rebellion to God, verse 40 is like cool water on a hot day. It just kind of makes you go, because repentance is still an option. Isn't it a glorious place to come to in our lives when we perhaps have been doing things that Jesus doesn't want us to do, failing in the areas of the flesh, finding ourselves stumbling in sin just like the nation of Israel did to know that repentance is still an option. That the chastening that God is bringing into your life is not to destroy you, but it's actually to bring you to the place of complete repentance.

And so that's what it says. And of course, the repentance is summed up, I think, in three ways. Number one, confess your iniquity. That's what he says. If they confess, verse 40, their iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers, in other words, just say, this is what's been going wrong. It really lends a lot of color to what happens in the book of Daniel.

Remember in the book of Daniel, when he said, I realized that the number of the years of the captivity were drawing to a close. And so I set my heart to pray to the Lord. And what was the first thing he did? I began confessing my sins and the sins of my people, Israel, to the Lord. Why does he do that? Well, because God said right there, in that foreign land,

if they confess, their sins and their iniquities of their fathers and their forefathers, then I will remember them. But the second thing that it says in this aspect of repentance is that they had to humble themselves. And may I say that oftentimes the hardest part of repentance is humbling yourself, isn't it? Coming to the place of realizing that I'll just never be good enough and I've got to repent of that sin.

And then the third beautiful part of that blessing of repentance is that God says, I will remember them and I will remember my covenant. I will remember them and my covenant. Now, this has both a theological and a very practical aspect. The theological aspect is that we are reminded that God has not nor will he ever forget his people, Israel. This is one of the many places

that God is very serious about what he says with the nation of Israel. He says, I will remember them. I will remember the covenant that I made with their forefathers. The very practical, the practical end of it is this. God remembers the covenant that he made with you. I don't know if you realize it or not, but you were born again because of a covenant. It's called the new covenant

and it's in the blood of Jesus Christ. And even in that place where we find ourselves stumbling in sin, when we come to Jesus in repentance, confession, and humility, he remembers the covenant in his blood that he made with us. The covenant to give us a brand new heart. And to make us brand new in him. And so, we have this beautiful place of the blessing of repentance.

Well, that's chapter 26. Now we move into chapter 27. It says this, and again, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, when a man makes a difficult vow, he shall be valued according to your valuation of persons belonging to the Lord. If your valuation is of the male from 20 years even to 60 years old, then your valuation shall be, 50 shekels of silver after the shekel of the sanctuary.

Or if it is a female, then your valuation shall be 30 shekels. If it be from five years to 27 years old, then your valuation for the male shall be 20 shekels and for the female, 10. But if they are from a month even up to five years old, then your valuation shall be five shekels of silver for the male. And for the female, your valuation shall be three shekels of silver.

If they are from 60 years old and upward, if it is a male, then your valuation, shall be 15 shekels, and for the female, 10 shekels. But if he is poorer than your valuation, then he shall be placed before the priest, and the priest shall value him according to the means of the one who vowed, and the priest shall value him. Now, as we move into chapter 27, it's kind of an interesting chapter that almost doesn't seem to fit with chapter 26. Chapter 26 seemed like a great ending to the book. Agreed? And this almost feels like an addendum, like a little

you know, afterword that was sort of added to the book. And yet, when we think about what this talks about, we think perhaps this is exactly what God intended, because this entire chapter is about vows and tithes. We could call this a chapter of being devoted to the Lord. And quite frankly, if we're going to speak about things like obedience and disobedience, and everything that the book of Leviticus talks about, being devoted to the Lord is a pretty important key, right? And so it starts off like this. It says, when a man makes a difficult

vow, we would call this a vow of consecration. When he makes a vow of consecration to the Lord, these are the things that he's supposed to do. And he first of all deals with the vow of a person. Let me give you a for instance. If I were to decide that I wanted to give myself in vow to the Lord, and I went to the tabernacle and said, I want to devote my whole life to the Lord,

and they said, that's a wonderful idea. I appreciate that you are making a difficult vow to the Lord, but quite frankly, we just don't have anywhere to put you right now. Well, then how do I show that I am completely vowed to the Lord? Well, you would do it according to the valuation of your life right here. So you would basically give the money to the tabernacle

instead of giving yourself as sacrifice to the Lord. You would still live in consecration to the Lord, but you would not then be someone who was only dedicated to the work of the priesthood because you weren't a Levite or whatever. And so if you were going to make that difficult vow, you could still do so. Even though they perhaps didn't want you to become a person that lived at the tabernacle, you could do so by paying the valuation of a person in a vow in the way that it's given here.

Hopefully that kind of makes sense. So he says, if it's a dedication of a life that for some reason can't be fulfilled, then these are the fees and they are broken down both by gender and age and all those other kinds of things. Why? Because that's the way God wanted to do it. That's about the best explanation I can give to you because that's about the best explanation

any other commentator can give. But here's what I found to be interesting. If someone wanted to dedicate themselves to the Lord and make this vow of consecration, and again, they couldn't fulfill it by actually giving their body to the tabernacle, but they were too poor to pay the valuation, God didn't say, well, then your vow is useless. You're too poor. Now, what does God do? Verse eight, but if he is poorer than your

valuation, then he shall be placed before the priest and the priest shall be placed before the priest shall value him. According to the means of the one who vowed, the priest shall value him. I love this because you can never be too poor to serve the Lord. God never says, well, you're disqualified because you just don't have enough. No, God always makes a way for anybody that wants

to vow themselves to him. The next thing that he deals with is the vows of animals. Notice what it says. Now, if it is an animal of the kind which men can present as an offering to the Lord, verse nine, such that one gives to the Lord shall be holy. He shall not replace it or exchange it a good for a bad or a bad for a good. Or if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute

shall become holy. If, however, it is any unclean animal of the kind which men do not present as an offering to the Lord, then he shall place the animal before the priest. The priest shall value it either as good or bad as you, the priest, value it. So it shall be holy. If, however, it is any unclean animal, then it shall be. But if he should ever wish to redeem it, then he shall add one

fifth of it to your valuation. So again, if you bring your animal to the Lord, if it's a clean animal, it belongs to the Lord. If you decide, oh gosh, that was a better sheep. I don't want to give that one to the Lord. Can I have it back? I'll exchange it. God said, well, you can exchange it, but I'm keeping both of them, right? Kind of kept somebody from saying, let me give you the bad one

and I'll keep the good one. If it was an unclean animal and they decided that they still wanted to keep the animal, even though it was a bad one, then they decided to give it back to the Lord. Even though they wanted to dedicate it to the Lord again, they could redeem the animal, pay the price for it, and then add 20% to it. Let's say you had a donkey that was very valuable to you, unclean as far as sacrifice was concerned, but still had value to you, but you wanted to show your dedication to the Lord. You could redeem that animal. Let's say it's worth $100. Then you

could redeem it back for $120. So that was kind of the way that it worked with the animals. Now, the third thing that we see is the dedication of house and lands. It says in verse 15, yet if one who, excuse me, verse 14, now if a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, then the priest shall value it either as good or bad as the priest values, so it shall stand. Yet if the one who consecrates it should wish to redeem

his house, then he shall add one-fifth of your valuation price to it, so that it may be this. Again, if a man consecrates to the Lord part of his fields, of his own property, then your valuation shall be proportionate to the seed needed for it, a homer of barley seed at 50 shekels of silver. If he consecrates his field as of the year of jubilee, according to your valuation, it shall stand. If he consecrates his field after the jubilee, however, then the priest shall calculate the price for him proportionate to the years that are left until the year of jubilee, and it shall be deducted from your valuation.

If the one who consecrates it should ever wish to redeem the field, then he shall add one-fifth of the valuation to it, so that it may pass to him. Yet if he will not redeem the field, but has sold the field to another man, it may no longer be redeemed, and when it reverts in the jubilee, the field shall be holy to the Lord, like a field set apart, and shall be for the priest as his property. Similar kind of a situation if you decide you're going to dedicate your house, and then you go, shoot, I really liked that house. I spent a lot of time building that house. I'd kind of like that house. I'd like to build that house. I'd like to

build that house back. Great. You can buy it back at 20%. That's a pretty good return right there. So, same thing with the fields and the houses. Again, a lot of this is to say, hey, if you're going to devote it to the Lord, you better know what you're doing. The next thing that he talks about, or the last thing he talks about, is the dedication of the firstborn. Notice what it says

in verse 22. Or if he consecrates, or excuse me, no, verse 22. Or if he consecrates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not part of the field of his own property, then the priest shall calculate him the amount of your valuation up to the year of Jubilee. And he shall on that day add your valuation as holy to the Lord. In the year of Jubilee, the field shall return to the one

from whom he bought it, to whom the possession of the land belongs. Every valuation of yours, moreover, shall be after the shekel of the sanctuary. The shekel shall be 20 geras. Apologize. Now we talk about the firstborn. However, a firstborn among animals, which is as a firstborn belongs to the Lord. No man may consecrate it, whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord. But if it is among the unclean animals,

then he shall redeem it according to your valuation and add to it one-fifth of it. And if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation. Of course, we know from earlier in the book of Leviticus, all firstborn belong to the Lord. You could not redeem if it was a clean animal because it already belonged to the Lord. Unclean, you can redeem it back in the same way. So that's as far as the vows go. Now, the next thing that he talks

about in verse 28 are things that are devoted to the Lord. Notice what it says. Nevertheless, anything which a man sets apart to the Lord out of all that he has of man or animal or of the fields or of his property shall not be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted to destruction is most holy to the Lord. Anyone who may have been set apart among men shall be ransomed. He shall surely be put to death.

Now, the greatest example of this that we can think of of things that are wholly devoted to the Lord, we're again reminded of that story of Jericho. And if you remember, when the children of Israel came into the land there in the book of Joshua, God said, this first city, it all belongs to me. It shall be completely devoted to the Lord. It shall be completely devoted to the Lord. It shall be

destroyed. Nothing shall be kept. And of course, we know that there was one man who couldn't quite bring himself to do that. His name was Achan. And Achan kept back a portion of the city and caused a curse to be upon the rest of the children of Israel. Another interesting point along those lines would be when Saul was given the command to completely destroy the Amalekites. He said,

just wipe them all out. And of course, he kept some of the best alive. Even though it was devoted to destruction, he kept some of the best alive. And that was the nail in the coffin for him being the king. So when something was devoted to the Lord, it had to be 100% devoted to the Lord because it meant it was devoted to destruction. He says, verse 30, thus all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree

is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord. If therefore a man wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add one-fifth to it. So if he wants to take back a portion of the seed that's devoted to the Lord, he has to pay extra for it. Verse 32, for every tenth part of the herd or flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad,

nor shall he exchange it. Or if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. It shall not be redeemed. Of course, not only was there the tithe of the grain that came in, but there was also the tithe of the fruit of the seed. So if he wants to take back a portion of the flock, and so what the shepherd would do is he would line the flock up single file,

and he would take his rod, daub a little bit of red stuff on the end of it, and go, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. And he would know that that little red mark got put on that white wool, that one was devoted to the Lord. And so he had to set those aside. And he couldn't decide, oh, that's a really healthy sheep. I can't devote him to

the Lord and kind of skip him. Whether it was good or bad, he had to devote it to the Lord. He had to give his tithes to the Lord. So those are all of the tithes. Those are the vows and the tithes that they were supposed to give. And so now we come to verse 34. He says, and these are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the sons of Israel at Mount Sinai. And so that ends all of the commandments that God gave to them.

And so in a couple of weeks, we'll get into the book of Numbers, and we'll hopefully see the children of Israel get ready to continue on their wilderness journey. But as we wrap this up, I think there's three things that I would like for us to remember. Remember about the book of Leviticus. Number one, God is holy and requires holiness. God is a holy God, completely set apart, completely set apart from sin. And God does

not just, I think this is important for us as new covenant believers to remember, God does not just desire holiness from us. God requires holiness from us because that is the righteous requirement of the Lord. And so that's what we're going to talk about in this book of Numbers. And if we want to be right in God's eyes, then we have to be holy. Now, I don't know about you,

but up to this point in time, I've not been able to prove myself very holy. Which brings me to the second thing that we remember from the book of Leviticus. Christ is the fulfillment of the law. Every aspect of it. You see, God requires me to be holy. And the one thing I can't be is holy. And yet the one thing Jesus was for me was holy. And the sacrifice that he made for me

is enough to make me holy because Christ is the fulfillment of the law. That's why hopefully my desire, my prayer was that in every page of the book of Leviticus, I have hopefully painted the red blood of Jesus Christ all over it for you because that's what's all over the entire thing. And then number three, we now offer to God the sacrifice of our lives. Remember what we're told in Romans chapter 12, verse one. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. Matter of fact,

Steve's saying it tonight, that you would present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. That's what we're to be. That's now the sacrifice that we bring to the Lord. We don't bring him bulls and goats. We bring him a life laid up for us. We bring him a life laid up for us. We bring him a life laid up for

us. We bring him a life laid up on an altar as a whole burnt offering unto him. Amen. Father, we come before you and I thank you for this study that we've had here in the book of Leviticus. Lord, difficult at times, but definitely a study that has, at least for me, shown me more of you. And so, Lord, I pray that as we go out from this place tonight, God, that you would

help us to be obedient in everything that we do. Lord, that the things that you desire and require from us, we would be able to do through the power of your Holy Spirit so that we can live in that place of blessing and not in the place of cursing. Lord, we thank you for who you are in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.