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Vayikra 25:1-26:2 and Vayikra 26:3-27:34

(Please take the time to read the portion completely as this "reflection" is designed to be a life application of only a small part of the Torah portion and is not an in depth commentary, nor does it normally touch the scheduled corresponding Haftorah and Brit Chadashah readings)

Shalom Friends,

Lev 26:21 '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.

We would all agree that we would never act with hostility toward our Creator. The thought of it just makes us cringe. We love our Heavenly Father and would never be against Him. Or would we?

Let's look at another translation:

Lev 26:21 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.

Ok, now we have the word "contrary." So if we are hostile or contrary He will plague us seven times more. That doesn't sound good to me, how about to you? I for one would like to avoid this seven plagues thing. Actually I want what was first promised to us as B'nai Israel. Follow along with me;

Lev 26:3-13 '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.

All Right! This is what I am talking about. All the blessings that I can handle. But wait! There is another part before we get to the seven plagues;

Lev 26:14-20 'But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, (15) 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, (16) I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up. (17) 'I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you. (18) 'If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. (19) 'I will also break down your pride of power; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. (20) 'Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

So we can disobey and not have the seven plagues? Yes! Because YHVH has told us that He will use the opposite of the blessings to get our attention. We just recently had the privilege of helping some new Torah walking believers to celebrate the second Passover as found in B'rmidbar (Num.) chapter 9 and I was reminded as we recounted the story of the Exodus from Egypt that the first three plagues affected Israel as well as Egypt. YHVH was getting the attention of His people. We see the same thing here, when we step out of obedience, He uses these promises to GET US BACK IN LINE! YHVH is not cruel or sadistic. He did not create a bunch of impossible rules to follow. He gave us good commandments to guide our lives. Elohim set before us life and peace so we could walk with Him.

It is commonly taught that no one can obey the Torah. I would propose that is not true. We can and should obey the Torah. It does not mean we NEVER sin, it means when we sin we must repent. That, my friend is the message of Torah. The Torah was NEVER given to bring salvation; it was given to reveal sin unto repentance (Rm. 3:20) and to teach us about Messiah (Gal. 3:24).

OK back to the text.

Lev 26:21 '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.

If after all the bad stuff that happens you still don't repent and obey your Creator, THEN He will visit the plagues seven times according to your sins. Now we know that sin is violation of Torah (1 Jn 3:4). And so the problem is two fold. There is lack of repentance and the original sins still remain.

Now I want to show you something that stunned me when I first saw it. According to Raphael Hirsch's Etymological Dictionary of Hebrew, in the above verse the correct meaning is "occurring without intent." It means to be casual! A person knows what to do, disobeys that instruction and just sort of brushes it aside as unimportant. Before you say "Oh I would never do that!" think about the last time someone revealed to you some "mistake" they had made. How did you react? Did you call sin- sin? Or did you sort of smooth it over so as to not hurt their feelings? Now I am not suggesting that we run around and beat people over the head with the Bible. But did you or better yet did I say that the mistake was sin and repentance and possible restoration, as prescribed by Torah, was in order?
That my friend is how we treat YHVH casually. When someone commits sin and then there is a consequence, do we point out the root cause of the problem or do we give that person the "poor little thing" sympathy trip?

I propose to you that our ignoring of sin has caused us to be a fearful, sickly and far-from-God people. Let us make teshuvah, return to the Torah, and get back to being close to our loving Creator. He wants us all to seek Him and Obey His commands so we will have life. Remember what Yeshuah said:

Joh 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."

Shalom in Yeshuah,

Bill