Leviticus 26
Don’t worship idols
“You shouldn’t make idols for yourselves, and you shouldn’t bow down to monuments and statues, because I am your God the Existing One. You should observe my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am the Existing One.
God promises good things if Israel obeys him
“If you follow my instructions and carry them out, then I will provide you with rain, and cause your crops to grow. Your harvesting will last all the way until the grape picking season, and your grape picking will last until it’s time to plant crops again. You will enjoy your food to the fullest and live in security. I will bring peace to your country and you’ll be able to lie down without having anything to be scared of. I will keep your enemies and dangerous animals away from you. You will chase your enemies and your swords will overpower them. Five of you will chase 100 of them, and your 100 will chase 10,000 of them. I’ll be open toward you and allow you to prosper. You’ll grow as a country and I will fulfill my promises to you. Your food will last you so long that you’ll have to throw some away just to make room for the new food. My home will be where you are, and I won’t despise you. I’ll walk with you. I will be your God, and you will be my people. I am your God the Existing One who rescued you from slavery in Egypt, breaking the shackles on your back and allowing you to stand up straight again.
God promises hardship if Israel disobeys him
“But if you refuse to listen to me, don’t follow my instructions, despise my principles, and break our agreements instead of following through, then here’s what I’ll do to you: I will strike you with anxiety, disease, and fever that will cause your eyes and soul to deteriorate. You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will eat them all. I will oppose you so that your enemies overpower you and the people who hate you will become your superiors. You will try to run away when no one is even chasing you. Then if you still refuse to obey me, then I will discipline you seven times as harshly for your guilt. I’ll break down any pride you had in your power, and make your sky as grey as iron and your ground as brown as bronze. All your effort will be spent for nothing because your land won’t grow its crops and your trees won’t produce their fruit.
“Then if you continue to oppose me, unwilling to obey me, then I’ll increase your hardship another 7 times because of your guilt. I will let the wild animals loose to wreak havoc on your children and cattle. Your numbers will dwindle so much that your roads will lie deserted.
“And if that doesn’t make you turn to me, and you still oppose me, then I will oppose you. I will hit you seven times for your offenses. I’ll bring a sword and execute vengeance on you for violating our alliance. When you congregate in cities I’ll send diseases there and hand you over to your enemies. When I break your food supplies, ten women will have to share one oven and will only have a little bit of bread to bring you so that you won’t have enough to eat.
“If that doesn’t cause you to obey me and you continue to oppose me, then I will oppose you furiously. I will up your punishment another seven times for your offenses. You will have to eat your own children just for the meat. I’ll destroy your shrines and incense altars and then heap your remains into a pile on top of your idols’ remains, and everything in me will abhor you. I’ll lay waste to your cities and devastate your sanctuaries, refusing to smell your fragrances. I will devastate your farmlands so that your enemies who conquer it will be appalled by it. I will scatter you throughout the world and pull out my sword against you as I wreak destruction upon your cities and your land.
“Then the land will finally be able to enjoy some rest wile you are held captive in your enemies countries. Your land will finally be able to find some relief. For the entire time that it’s desolate, it will finally be able to enjoy the rest it didn’t get to have on the sabbaths while you were living on it. And for those of you who remain, I will cause you to feel weak while you’re held captive in your enemies’ countries. Even the sound of a leaf falling will spook them, and they’ll run away and fall even if no one is chasing them. They’ll stumble over each other as they run for their lives even if no one is chasing them. You won’t have any strength left to stand up against your enemies. You’ll die in foreign countries and be swallowed up by their land. Any of you who remain will join your forefathers in rotting away because of your corruption.
God will remember his alliance with Israel if they repent
“After I oppose them and hand them over to their enemies, if they recognize their guilt (along with their ancestors guilt) and confess the ways they betrayed me, or if their uncommitted hearts become humbled enough to make amends for their corruption, then I will remember my alliance with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham. I’ll also remember the land they abandoned that is catching up on its sabbaths. Even though they’ll have to make amends for opposing me, rejected my instructions, and despising my principles, I still won’t reject them, annihilate them, or break my alliance with them, because I am their God the Existing One. I’ll remember the alliance I made with their ancestors who I rescued from Egypt in front of all the other countries so that I could be their God.
These are the principles, decrees, and instructions that the Existing One established between himself and Israel’s descendants through Moses at Mount Sinai.