Because of What God Promised (Lev. 26:3-13)

11/18/2008 8:05 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                    Focus:  Because of what God promised

Bible Reading & Meditation     Reference:  Leviticus 26:3-13

            Message of the verses:  “3  ‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, 4  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.  5  ‘Indeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. You will thus eat your food to the full and live securely in your land.  6  ‘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.  7  ‘But you will chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword; 8  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.

9  ‘So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you.  10  ‘You will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the new.  11  ‘Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you.  12  ‘I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.  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 made you walk erect.”

            This is the forth of four reasons why Israel should obey the Lord, and obeying the Lord is the first of four responsibilities that every Christian believer has toward the Lord.

            Dr. Wiersbe points out in his commentary on this section that this was a covenant between the Lord and Israel and although God does bless His children today it does not necessarily mean that if we follow these same rules that God set up for Israel that the same results will come.  As believers in Jesus Christ in this age of grace or in the Church age we, as His children, have everything we need to live a godly life, “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence,” (2 Peter 1:3). We can do this because God has given us every spiritual blessing in Christ, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” (Ephesians 1:3).  As Dr. Wiersbe points out there is a difference between possessing these truths and enjoying them.  How is it that we can to begin to enjoy these blessings that God has given to us?  I do believe that one key answer to this question is found in Colossians 2:6, “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”  Now how is it that a believer receives Christ Jesus? “8  For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

9  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast,” (Ephesians 2:8-9).  I think that this is the answer to living, walking and enjoying the Christian life and in order to understand this a bit more I would like to site an example on how I believe this all works.  When the Presidential elections were going on I knew in my heart that it was the Lord who was the one who had already chosen who it was that He wanted to be our next President, yet it still bothered me and so I went to the Scriptures and found Daniel 2:21, which states, “It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding.”  Next I had to make this a part of my life just as it was when I became a believer, by grace through faith.  I have the faith to trust the Lord because of His character that He can never make a mistake and because He knows all things and is all powerful and is also the God of love, and it is because of God’s grace that I am able to have the faith to believe His promises, and this is exactly the way it was that I became a believer.

            Dr. Wiersbe goes on to say that as believers “we too have battles to fight and work to do; but as we walk in obedience to the Lord, He will enable us to overcome the enemy, claim the land, and enjoy the blessings.”

            God promised Israel rain on time in order to have successful crops, (Lev. 26:3-5).  Since Israel was an agricultural nation it depended on the rains to come just when they needed them, and if they would obey this would happen.

            God also promised to give them peace from their enemies as seen in Leviticus 26: 5-8 if they obeyed the Lord, and He also promised them to multiply and to have their tribes to increase if they obeyed the Lord.

            God also promised the that He would be in their presence in Leviticus 26:11-12, “11  ‘Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you.  12  ‘I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.”  Of all of these promises the is the one that is the most important, yet in all of these promises the children of Israel did not obey and eventually were driven from their land and the presence of the Lord left their temple and returned in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ whom they killed, but God has promised to send the Lord back to rule over them and when this happens Israel will find peace and will enjoy the blessings of the Lord.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I write this SD there are many troubles that are surrounding me.  If I understand and want to take something out  of this passage for myself it is that  need to realize that I have all that I need to live a godly life and that I have been given every spiritual blessing in Christ, and that I can live the Christian life in the same way that I was saved, by faith through grace, then I will begin to enjoy my walk with the Lord just as He has promised.  So what is next?  I need to find the nuggets of gold in the Scriptures that pertain to the “troubles” that surround me and claim them by faith and depend upon the grace of God to make them true in my life.  I think this is what growing in grace is all about.  I realize that these are not new truths to me, yet I certainly needed them to be reinforced at this time and am thankful for this passage in Leviticus and Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary, and of course the Holy Spirit’s teaching to again make them clear to me.  I was also reminded of these truths Sunday evening.

My Steps of Faith for Today: 

1. I truly need to put into practice all that I have been reminded in this SD.  I realize that all of this will be something that will at times stretch my faith, but stretching my faith will cause me to grow in my walk with the Lord.

Memory verses for the week:                                              Romans 6:1-6

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

11/18/2008 9:15 AM