Leviticus 26 is a collection of blessings on those who keep the law and curses on those who don’t. Evidentially this was a common way to end a legal document in Old Testament times as both the Code of Hammurabi and several Babylonian documents used a similar close. The opening subject was a familiar one to them, and to us.<\/p>\n
God Almighty is to be the only object of worship and adoration in our lives. Idols are literally nothings<\/em> because false gods are not really gods at all. The most common idols are the three P<\/em>s\u2014passion, power, and possessions\u2014but anything in our lives that is more important than God is by definition an idol. Or said another way, we must continually ask ourselves what is our most prized possession? Would we be willing to give it up if Jesus asked us to? If our answer is no, then our possession has taken God’s place in our hearts and become an idol.<\/p>\n Augustine expanded on this idea of idols when he wrote, \u201cIdolatry is worshiping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that ought to be worshiped.\u201d These Old Testament believers often fell into the sin of idolatry, and things have not changed much in three thousand years. Our idols may be slightly more sophisticated but they are idols just the same.<\/p>\n The cure? Repentance. Repentance means to turn around and agree with God that we are sinful and that we need His help. God loves us and will forgive us if we simply humble ourselves before Him, surrender, and ask His forgiveness.<\/p>\n “LORD, forgive us and change our hearts this day; in Jesus\u2019 name, we pray, Amen.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leviticus 26 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I\u00a0am<\/em>the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God.\u00a0\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>the\u00a0LORD. 3<\/sup> If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make\u00a0you\u00a0<\/em>afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.\u00a0\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright. 14<\/sup>\u00a0But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments,\u00a0but\u00a0<\/em>that ye break my covenant:\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.\u00a0\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. 21<\/sup>\u00a0And 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.\u00a0\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your\u00a0high\u00a0<\/em>ways shall be desolate.\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.\u00a025<\/sup>\u00a0And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of\u00a0my\u00a0<\/em>covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.\u00a026<\/sup>\u00a0And\u00a0<\/em>when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver\u00a0you\u00a0<\/em>your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.\u00a027<\/sup>\u00a0And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;\u00a028<\/sup>\u00a0Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.\u00a029<\/sup>\u00a0And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.\u00a030<\/sup>\u00a0And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.\u00a031<\/sup>And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.\u00a032<\/sup>\u00a0And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.\u00a033<\/sup>\u00a0And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.\u00a034<\/sup>\u00a0Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye\u00a0be\u00a0<\/em>in your enemies\u2019 land;\u00a0even\u00a0<\/em>then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.\u00a035<\/sup>\u00a0As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.\u00a036<\/sup>\u00a0And upon them that are left\u00a0alive\u00a0<\/em>of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.\u00a0\u00a037<\/sup>\u00a0And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.\u00a038<\/sup>\u00a0And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.\u00a039<\/sup>\u00a0And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies\u2019 lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. 40<\/sup>\u00a0If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;\u00a041<\/sup>\u00a0And\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:\u00a042<\/sup>\u00a0Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.\u00a043<\/sup>\u00a0The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.\u00a044<\/sup>\u00a0And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>the\u00a0LORD\u00a0their God. 45<\/sup>\u00a0But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>the\u00a0LORD.\u00a046<\/sup>\u00a0These\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>the statutes and judgments and laws, which the\u00a0LORD\u00a0made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leviticus 26 is a collection of blessings on those who keep the law and curses on those who don’t. Evidentially this was a common way to end a legal document in Old Testament times as both the Code of Hammurabi and several Babylonian documents used a similar close. The opening subject was a familiar one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5573"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15937,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5573\/revisions\/15937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}