Leviticus 26:8

Everything in the passage rests on its first sentence: “If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them”. Leviticus has given twenty-five chapters to offerings, priesthood, cleanness, the feasts and the daily life of a holy people, and chapter 26 gathers all of it into one choice set before the nation. The blessings come first, in verses 3–13. The curses for disobedience follow, and the chapter ends with a promise of restoration for a people who had broken the covenant (Leviticus 26:14–45).

These words belong to the covenant God made with Israel at Sinai (Exodus 19). There the LORD, who had brought the people out of Egypt, set his statutes and commandments before them, with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, and they answered, “All that the LORD hath spoken we will do.” He was the great King and they were his people, called to be holy because he is holy (Leviticus 11:44–45). This verse shows what that holiness looks like in practice.

The verse uses three verbs. To walk, yâlak, is the ordinary word for walking, used here in its figurative sense for the way a person goes through life. To walk in God’s statutes is to live along the path he has marked out. The statutes, chuqqâh, are things prescribed, enactments. The same word can mean the customs or practices of a people, and these are God’s own: “my statutes”. The commandments, mitsvâh, are commands or precepts, and the word often stands for the Law as a whole. To keep them is to give them careful attention, guarding and observing them so that they are remembered and upheld. Then comes “and do them”, with ʻâsâh, the verb for doing or making in the broadest sense. Walking speaks of the direction of a whole life, keeping of care over each command, and doing of the deeds themselves, so obedience reaches from the heart all the way into what Israel actually does.

Scripture joins obedience and blessing in the same way elsewhere. Moses ties loving and serving God to rain in its season (Deuteronomy 11:13–15), and Deuteronomy 28:1–14 repeats many of the blessings of this passage. The LORD tells Joshua that success will follow his care to do all the law (Joshua 1:7–8), and Psalm 119 opens, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way” (Psalm 119:1–2).

“Then I will give you rain in due season”. The word for rain, geshem, means a shower or rain, and “due season” renders ʻêth, time or appointed time. Canaan lived on its rain. The early rains came in autumn, when the ground was ready for planting, and the latter rains in spring, as the crops ripened. Egypt was watered by the yearly flooding of the Nile. In the land God was giving Israel, the crops waited on rain, and rain that came late or at the wrong time brought hunger. Heavy rain at harvest could spoil a crop as surely as drought. The Canaanites credited rain and fertility to Baal. Here the LORD promises that he himself will send it, and at the right time.

Then “the land shall yield her increase”. The increase, yᵉbûwl, is the produce of the land, its grain and the other crops that fed the people. The land is spoken of as bearing, as if it answered God’s rain with a harvest. “The trees of the field shall yield their fruit” adds the olive, the fig and the vine. The first psalm pictures the blessed man as a tree that yields its fruit in its season (Psalm 1:3).

Verse 5 shows how great the harvest will be: “your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time”. Threshing, dayish, is the beating out of grain from its husks after the grain harvest, in late spring or early summer. The vintage, bâtsîyr, from a root meaning “clipped”, is the grape harvest of late summer or early autumn, and sowing came in the autumn. The grain will be so plentiful that the threshing is still going on when the grapes are ready, and the grapes so many that the vintage lasts until it is time to sow again. One harvest runs into the next, and food lasts the whole year round.

“Ye shall eat your bread to the full” promises enough to be satisfied, and “dwell in your land safely” promises the security to enjoy it. The word beṭach means safety or security, both the fact of being safe and the feeling of trust that goes with it, and it is often used, as here, for living “safely”.

Verse 10 takes the picture further: “And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.” The verb to eat is ʼâkal. The old store, yâshên, is produce that has grown old in storage, last year’s grain still being eaten when the new harvest arrives. The new, châdâsh, is the fresh harvest, and it is so large that the old, still good, has to be brought out to make room for it. Israel will be emptying full storehouses to fill them fuller. The verb for bringing out, yâtsâʼ, comes back in verse 13, where the LORD “brought you forth out of the land of Egypt”.

These promises answer Israel’s most basic daily need, and they show the LORD as the giver of every harvest. Every creature looks to him for its food (Psalm 104:27–28), and Proverbs speaks of honouring the LORD with the firstfruits (Proverbs 3:9–10).

Verse 6 moves from the harvest to the safety to enjoy it: “And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid”. The verb give, nâthan, has a very wide range, to give, put, set or make, and here the LORD himself is the giver. Peace, shalom, is wholeness and well-being in every part of life, and it includes the end of war. To lie down in safety is to sleep at night in peace. The verb behind “make you afraid”, chârad, means to tremble or shudder with fear, and the LORD promises to take away every cause of it. A psalm speaks of lying down in peace and sleeping in safety under the LORD’s care (Psalm 4:8).

Two dangers are named. Wild animals threatened people, flocks and crops, and the LORD will “rid evil beasts out of the land”. War was the other: “neither shall the sword go through your land”. The word chereb means a sword or another cutting tool, and it also stands for war itself, so the promise is a land kept safe from invasion and bloodshed. After the conquest the LORD gave Israel rest on every side (Joshua 21:44), and Isaiah looks ahead to peace among the nations (Isaiah 2:4).

“And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.” To chase, râdaph, is to run after or pursue, usually with hostile intent. The enemies, ʼôyêb, are those who are hostile, for the word is a participle of the verb “to be hostile”. To fall, nâphal, before someone is the language of defeat in battle. Israel will be the pursuer and its enemies the ones in flight. The sword that is kept out of Israel’s land in verse 6 falls on its enemies in verse 7.

Verse 8 puts numbers to it: “And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight”. Five against a hundred is one against twenty, and a hundred against ten thousand is one against a hundred, so the odds grow as the armies grow. “Chase” and “put to flight” render the same verb, râdaph. Victories like these come from God fighting for his people. Joshua told Israel, “One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you” (Joshua 23:10). A psalm confesses the same dependence: “For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us” (Psalm 44:6–7). Moses’ song turns the picture around for an Israel that had turned from God, and asks how one could chase a thousand of them: “How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?” (Deuteronomy 32:30).

Israel had already seen the LORD fight for them at the Red Sea (Exodus 14), and the instructions for war in Deuteronomy 20 rest on him as the one who fights for Israel. The nations of the day credited their victories to their own gods, as the Philistines praised Dagon when Samson was delivered into their hands. Israel’s victories would show that the LORD fought for them.

“For I will have respect unto you”. The verb pânâh means to turn or to face, and here God turns his face toward his people in favour, the opposite of hiding his face from them in judgment. The rest of the verse says what that favour brings.

“And make you fruitful, and multiply you”. To be fruitful, pârâh, is to bear fruit, and the word also covers sprouting, growing and increasing. Here it means chiefly the growth of the nation in number, with the fruitfulness of land and flocks alongside. The words carry the blessing of creation, “Be fruitful, and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), and the promises to the fathers: to Abraham that he would become a great nation (Genesis 12:1–3) and be exceedingly fruitful (Genesis 17:6), in Isaac’s blessing on Jacob (Genesis 28:3), and in God’s word to Jacob himself (Genesis 35:11). A people about to enter a land needed to grow to fill it, and God promises the growth.

“And establish my covenant with you”. The verb qûwm means to rise or stand, and in this causative form to raise, set up or establish. God will uphold the covenant he made at Sinai and bring its promises to pass. Isaiah later speaks of an everlasting covenant (Isaiah 55:3).

Every blessing so far is something God gives. In verses 11 and 12 he gives himself, and this is the height of the list: “And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.” The verb “set” is nâthan, the same verb rendered “give” in “I will give peace” in verse 6. The tabernacle, mishkân, comes from shakan, “to dwell”, and means a dwelling-place, the word used for a tent or hut as well as for the sanctuary. Israel’s tabernacle was the portable sanctuary that housed the ark of the covenant. God had commanded it so that he might “dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8), and when it was finished his glory filled it (Exodus 40:34–38). The promise is that his dwelling will stay among an obedient people.

To abhor, gâʻal, is to loathe, detest or reject. God speaks of his “soul” in human terms so that we can understand him, and he assures Israel that he will keep his favour and his delight on them. The plenty, the peace and the victories all flow from this nearness.

Verse 12 goes further: “And I will walk among you”. To walk, hâlak, pictures God going about among his people, as he once walked in the garden (Genesis 3:8). Verse 3 asked Israel to walk in God’s statutes, and here God promises to walk among them. The KJV uses “walk” in both places, and the Hebrew has a verb of walking in each.

“And will be your God, and ye shall be my people” is the covenant in a sentence, and the same promise comes again and again in Scripture. The word for God, ʼĕlôhîym, is plural in form, and when it names the true God it is read as a plural of majesty. The word for people, ʻam, means a people gathered as one. God gave the same promise with the tabernacle, saying that he would dwell among Israel and be their God (Exodus 29:45–46), and he repeats it in the new covenant of Jeremiah 31:33. Moses asks what other nation has God so near to it (Deuteronomy 4:7), and Isaiah speaks of God’s servant as a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6). Belonging to God made Israel distinct from every other nation, and it was the greatest reward for faithfulness.

The blessings end by naming the one who gives them: “I am the LORD your God”. The name Yᵉhôvâh, rendered “the LORD”, is God’s covenant name, from a root meaning “to be”. It speaks of the God who exists in himself and has bound himself to Israel. The same words, tied to the same deliverance, open the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2, Deuteronomy 5:6).

“Which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen”. The verb is yâtsâʼ, to bring out, and the bondmen are ʻebed, servants or slaves. Israel had been worked without mercy and made to build cities for Pharaoh (Exodus 1:11–14), until the night of the Passover when the LORD brought them out (Exodus 12). He brought them out so that they would serve him and walk in his statutes, as a psalm of the exodus also tells (Psalm 105:43–45).

“And I have broken the bands of your yoke”. A yoke was a wooden frame fastened on the necks of draft animals or captives to control and burden them. The word the KJV renders “bands”, môwṭâh, means a pole or the bar of a yoke, and the yoke itself is ʻôl. To break, shâbar, is to break or shatter. With the yoke broken, the instrument of slavery is gone. Isaiah calls the fast that God chooses one that breaks yokes (Isaiah 58:6).

“And made you go upright”. The word qôwmᵉmîyûwth means upright, standing erect. A slave bends under his load, and God lifted his people to stand and walk as free men and women. Their dignity was his gift.

This verse explains the whole passage. The God who asks obedience in verse 3 had already shown his faithfulness and power, so his commands came from the one who had set Israel free, and his blessings were the gifts of a Father who had already carried them out of bondage.

Christ is the obedient Son who walked in God’s statutes perfectly. He came to fulfil the law (Matthew 5:17) and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8), and by his obedience many are made righteous (Romans 5:19). God promised to put his Spirit within his people and cause them to walk in his statutes (Ezekiel 36:26–27), and through the Spirit the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us (Romans 8:4). So we are called to walk worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1) and worthy of the Lord (Colossians 1:10).

The promise of God’s dwelling comes true in him: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The Greek verb there, eskēnōsen, means “tabernacled”. Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23), in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9). Now the Spirit makes believers God’s temple (1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19) and builds the church into his dwelling place (Ephesians 2:21–22). God draws near to those who draw near to him (James 4:8), and the promise reaches its end in the new heaven and earth, where the tabernacle of God is with men and he wipes away every tear (Revelation 21:3–4).

The broken yoke points to a greater freedom. Jesus invites the weary to take his yoke instead: “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30). Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13), freed us from sin’s dominion (Romans 6:6), and gave us the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15), and the whole creation waits for the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:21).

The peace and victory of verses 6–8 are found in him as well. He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) and our peace, who broke down the wall of hostility (Ephesians 2:14–16). We have peace with God through him (Romans 5:1), he left his own peace with his disciples (John 14:27), he triumphed over the powers of darkness at the cross (Colossians 2:15), and death is the last enemy he will destroy (1 Corinthians 15:26).

The bread and fruit of the land point to him too. He is the bread of life (John 6:35) and the giver of living water (John 4:10–14), and he came that we might have life more abundantly (John 10:10). In him believers bear the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23) and the fruits of righteousness (Philippians 1:11). The fruitful and multiplying people of verse 9 grows as the Lord adds to the church (Acts 2:47) and as disciples are made of all nations (Matthew 28:19–20). The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), his blood seals the new covenant (Luke 22:20), a better covenant built on better promises (Hebrews 8:6–13), and anyone in Christ is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). All God’s promises are yea and Amen in him (2 Corinthians 1:20).

This passage lets us see the life God meant for a people living with him: rain at the right time, barns too full to hold the harvest, quiet nights, a growing family and peace on every border. God cares about bread and sleep and safety as well as worship, and every gift in the list flows from his presence among his people. At the centre of it all stands the promise “I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.”

The passage also shows his kindness in the order of his words. He puts his deliverance last, so that the command of verse 3 is heard in the light of the yoke he had already broken. Israel’s God asks for obedience as the one who first set them free and lifted their heads. In Christ, who tabernacled among us, that same God has come near, and he will dwell with his people for ever.