Introduction
The consequences for Israel of obeying or disobeying God.
Verses
1“ ‘You shall make for yourselves no idols, and you shall not raise up a carved image or a pillar, and you shall not place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God.
2“ ‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the LORD.
3“ ‘If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments, and do them,
4then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5Your threshing shall continue until the vintage, and the vintage shall continue until the sowing time. You shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6“ ‘I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid. I will remove evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
7You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9“ ‘I will have respect for you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.
10You shall eat old supplies long kept, and you shall move out the old because of the new.
11I will set my tent amongst you, and my soul won’t abhor you.
12I will walk amongst you, and will be your God, and you will be my people.
13I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you walk upright.
14“ ‘But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments,
15and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,
16I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.
17I will set my face against you, and you will be struck before your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you; and you will flee when no one pursues you.
18“ ‘If you in spite of these things will not listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.
19I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like bronze.
20Your strength will be spent in vain; for your land won’t yield its increase, neither will the trees of the land yield their fruit.
21“ ‘If you walk contrary to me, and won’t listen to me, then I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins.
22I will send the wild animals amongst you, which will rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number. Your roads will become desolate.
23“ ‘If by these things you won’t be turned back to me, but will walk contrary to me,
24then I will also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins.
25I will bring a sword upon you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant. You will be gathered together within your cities, and I will send the pestilence amongst you. You will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight. You shall eat, and not be satisfied.
27“ ‘If you in spite of this won’t listen to me, but walk contrary to me,
28then I will walk contrary to you in wrath. I will also chastise you seven times for your sins.
29You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.
30I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you.
31I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation. I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of your offerings.
32I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies that dwell in it will be astonished at it.
33I will scatter you amongst the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
34Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land. Even then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.
35As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it didn’t have in your Sabbaths when you lived on it.
36“ ‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword. They will fall when no one pursues.
37They will stumble over one another, as it were before the sword, when no one pursues. You will have no power to stand before your enemies.
38You will perish amongst the nations. The land of your enemies will eat you up.
39Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away with them.
40“ ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me; and also that because they walked contrary to me,
41I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity,
42then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.
43The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.
44Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly and to break my covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.
45But I will for their sake remember the covenant of 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.’ ”
46These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.
Questions
1. What three things will God do if they keep his commands?
v 4 ... I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
v 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid. ...
v 9 I will have respect for you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.
2. If they will not do God’s commandments, and will not change when he sends plagues upon them, what will be their ultimate punishment?
v 33 I will scatter you amongst the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
3. Why does God say he will not utterly destroy them?
v 45 But I will for their sake remember the covenant of 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.’ ”
Summary Points
- v 1 and 2 A reminder that no idols are to be made and the Sabbath is to be kept
- v 3 to 13 Blessings to be enjoyed if the nation is obedient to God:
- v 3 to 5 good harvests
- v 6 to 8 peace and security
- v 9 to 13 increase in numbers and be God's people
- v 14 to 39 Punishments to come on the nation for disobedience:
- v 14 to 17 disease, no harvests or stolen harvests and defeat by enemies
- v 18 to 22 problems will increase if they continue to disobey
- v 23 to 26 problems will intensify more if they still disobey
- v 27 to 39 if they still disobey, famine will be so severe they will eat their own children, their cities will be rubble and they will be scattered throughout the world
- v 40 to 43 God will remember his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob if they turn back to him
v 44 to 46 Despite all the punishment that God will inflict on them, he will not totally destroy them
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