Good morning. For those who wonder why I always start with good morning, it is because as I write this; it is 6:35a.m. That is when I normally have eaten breakfast, read my Bible verses, and booted up my computer.
Today, the verses we read were the last two chapters of Leviticus, 26-27.
There were two lessons from these chapters. I will take them in reverse.
God’s abundance
We see God’s warning of the wrath He will pour out on a people who do not keep His commandments. It is right for Him to do so.
God owns everything, and everyone. He blesses us to have all that we have, and especially in modern day America, we have so much more than ninety-nine percent of the people who ever lived, had.
Even the poorest among us are relatively blessed.
Think of the harsh conditions people in most eras had to endure. I know homeless people who have chosen that lifestyle. They don’t want the responsibility of going to work and maintaining a home. For them, their freedom is more important.
With those of my acquaintance who choose this lifestyle, drugs and alcohol have contributed to their choice, it is still their choice. Even taking those substances was their choice.
Help is available, they prefer what they have.
But God wants to give us life and not just life, but abundant life (see John 10:10).
Notice in Leviticus 26-46 that God repeatedly gives the people a chance to repent. He is a merciful God who does not wish that any should perish (see 2 Pet 3:9). He tells Moses that if they don’t repent, He will punish them more. If that doesn’t cause them to repent, He will add to it. This pattern repeats several times.
My life has gone sideways. But I didn’t heed the warning. I had to close my restaurant; still, I didn’t change my ways. My wife left me, I moved on, unphased. Even when I had a car wreck and broke my neck and back, I remained an atheist.
God never gave up trying to bring me back to Him, and I praise Him for His patience with me. I did not deserve to survive long enough to be saved.
Yet He kept me alive until I was born again, and then He blessed me.
A season for rain
Which leads to the opening 25 verses of chapter 26. I wanted to leave this to last, to end today on a positive note.
God has everything and controls everything. He can provide not only what we need, but every wholesome desire we could have.
I say wholesome desire because He will not contribute to our sinfulness.
If we as individuals, and as a nation, return to the Lord and keep His commandments, He will make us prosperous by sending rain in its season and causing the ground to yield its crops. Since most of us are not in the agricultural industry, this also means blessing us with success.
For nineteen years, I was one of the top producing sales agents at the company I still work for. People would ask me what my “secret” was, and all I could do was point to the Lord. I did nothing different from what they were doing, but He blessed me with success.
Peace in our time
He told the people of Israel they would live in safety. Would we not want to know this in our own land? He grants peace, and we live in a world that is desperate for this.
We hear of the terror that will persist without the Lord, and He promises to remove it, but just like the people of Israel, we need to return to Him.
He will walk among us and be our God and we will be His people, if we will humble ourselves and keep His commandments.
In verse 16, He warns that if we don’t, He will bring on sudden terror and wasting diseases and fever that will sap our strength. Have we not seen this recently?
When will we turn our ear and start listening to the Lord?
He is still offering us a chance, but one day, He will remove that opportunity.
Please don’t wait until it is too late. Call on the Lord Jesus Christ today. He is waiting.
