We wrap up our big-picture journey through Leviticus by looking at chapters 26 and 27. Chapter 26 describes the blessings and consequences associated with Israel’s covenant relationship with God, while chapter 27 focuses on vows and things dedicated to the Lord. These chapters remind us that a covenant is more than a list of rules; it is a relationship built on shared commitments and faithfulness. We also see that even when God’s people wander away, the possibility of restoration remains. As we finish Leviticus, we’re reminded that our promises matter, our integrity matters, and the way we live together as God’s people matters. The heart of this challenging book is the covenant relationship God establishes with God’s people and the holy life that grows out of that relationship.
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Good morning! It’s good to be with you on this Wednesday morning. I hope you’re doing well and that life is treating you well as we finish up our big-picture look at Leviticus.
Today we’re bringing this series to a close, looking at what Leviticus is about, what it can teach us, and how we can make sense of this important book.
Leviticus is one of those books we’ve talked about that can be difficult to understand. So much of it feels foreign to our modern ears. And the question for us is: How do we, in the twenty-first century, make sense of the timeless truths found in Leviticus?
It’s one of the primary books of the Old Testament. It’s essential to understanding the covenant, and as Christians, our beginnings are rooted in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is essential to understanding who God is and who we are.
So how do we make sense of it?
We’ve talked about the larger structure of the book. We’ve looked at how it moves from the outside in, dealing with the covenant, worship, the priests, and what holiness looks like. Then we arrive at the center, chapter 16, the Day of Atonement.
From there, we move back out. We look at what the holy life looks like, the role of the priests, the role of worship, the appointed festivals, and finally, the significance of the covenant itself.
Today we’re looking at chapters 26 and 27.
Chapter 26 deals with the blessings and consequences of covenant life. Chapter 27 deals with vows and things that are dedicated to God.
Let’s look at chapter 26 first.
The basic idea is pretty straightforward. If the people keep the covenant and remain faithful, there will be blessings. If they are unfaithful and turn away from the covenant, there will be consequences.
But even in the midst of those consequences, there’s the possibility of restoration.
And honestly, this is the story of Israel. It’s the story of so much of life, isn’t it?
We make covenants with God in moments that are often mountaintop experiences. Think about the moments when we make these commitments: baptisms, marriages, conversions, and other significant moments in our lives.
We have these moments when we make promises to God and to one another. We commit ourselves to living a certain way. We enter into relationships and make commitments that shape the way we live.
And I think that’s important because a covenant is not simply a list of rules.
Now, covenants certainly have expectations and responsibilities. There are things we agree to live by. But I think it’s easy for us to mistake the rules associated with a covenant for the covenant itself.
And when we do that, we miss the point.
A covenant is about a relationship. It’s about the things we agree to together. It’s about our shared values and our shared life.
As an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, I’m part of a covenant community with my fellow clergy. We’ve made commitments to one another about how we’re going to live and serve together.
As someone who is married, I’ve made a covenant with my wife about the life we’re going to share.
And when you join a church, you take vows. You make commitments to God and to the community of faith about the way you’re going to live.
Those commitments matter.
Leviticus is about the covenant God makes with God’s people. And chapter 26 asks what happens when we remain faithful to that covenant, what happens when we break it, and how restoration remains possible when we wander away.
I think one of the dangers for us is that we can turn this into something transactional.
We can read it as though it means, “If I do this, God will give me that. And if I don’t do this, God will punish me.”
But that’s not really the heart of what is happening here.
The covenant isn’t simply an arrangement where God rewards good behavior and punishes bad behavior. The covenant establishes a way of life. It describes the kind of life God is calling the people to live.
When we live in that way, we are living in a healthy and faithful manner. We are living in the way God intends for us to live. And good things emerge from that kind of life.
When we depart from the covenant, when we turn away from the beautiful life God has called us to live, we move toward a way of life that is not as beautiful. We experience the consequences of living apart from God’s direction.
The blessings and curses in chapter 26 describe the consequences of keeping or departing from the covenant.
And here’s the important part: even when the people wander away, there is a possibility of coming home.
God remains faithful to the covenant. Even when the people are unfaithful, God remembers the covenant and leaves open the possibility of restoration.
I think that’s something we need to remember. No matter how far we wander from home, we can always come home to God. God leaves the light on for us.
Then we get to chapter 27.
Chapter 27 is a little different. It deals with vows and things that are dedicated to God. It talks about making promises concerning people, animals, houses, and land.
Some of the details can sound strange to our modern ears. There are specific valuations assigned to people according to age and sex. For example, the chapter gives different monetary valuations for men and women in different age groups.
We need to recognize that these instructions come from a particular historical and cultural setting. Those valuations reflect the way that ancient society organized these obligations. They are not a statement about the inherent worth or dignity of men and women before God.
But the larger point of the chapter is that vows matter.
If you make a vow to the Lord, you need to take that vow seriously. If you dedicate something to God, you need to honor that commitment.
Our promises to God matter because our relationship with God matters. And our promises to one another matter because our shared life together matters.
Think about how our holiness affects the way we live with one another.
What is the greatest commandment? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it: to love your neighbor as yourself.
If I’m departing from the covenant, if I’m not living faithfully with God, that’s going to affect the way I live with you. If I’m not allowing God to shape my heart and my life, I’m not going to love my neighbor as I should.
So when I make a promise to you, when I make a vow to God, when I make a commitment to my community or my church, those promises should matter.
God takes our commitments seriously, and we should take them seriously, too.
Our word matters.
There’s an old saying that a good name is worth more than rubies. Our integrity is one of the most important things we have. If we don’t have integrity, if people can’t trust our word, then something important has been lost.
So if I make a vow to God, if I dedicate something to God, if I make a promise to someone else, I need to live in light of that promise.
Honor your marriage vows. Honor your commitments to your friends. Honor your commitments to your church.
I’ve said this before, but think about what happens when we baptize a child. We don’t simply baptize that child and move on. We make promises as a congregation. We promise to surround that child with a community of love and forgiveness, to pray for that child, and to help that child grow in the Christian faith.
Those vows don’t end when the baptismal service is over. They continue throughout that child’s life.
We need to honor the promises we make to one another in the church.
And so, as we finish Leviticus, I want to come back to the big picture.
Leviticus is a book full of rules. There’s no way around that. It’s full of rules, regulations, instructions, and practices that may or may not make immediate sense to us.
Some of those things belong to a particular time and place. Not everything translates directly into how we live our lives today.
But at the heart of Leviticus is the relationship we have with God. It’s about the covenant God makes with God’s people, and it’s about how we live out that relationship together.
That’s the big picture.
The covenant matters. Our relationship with God matters. And the way we live that relationship out in our community matters.
Maybe everything in Leviticus doesn’t translate perfectly into our modern world. Maybe there are things that we read and don’t fully understand. But the larger truth of the book is still incredibly important.
We are a people who belong to God. We are called to live in relationship with God and with one another. And our lives are to reflect that covenant.
So that’s our big-picture look at Leviticus. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I’ve certainly enjoyed spending some time with this book and looking at it in a way that helps us understand the larger picture.
I’m not quite sure where we’re going tomorrow. I’m leaning toward continuing along these same lines, looking at some of the more difficult books and passages of Scripture. I’ve enjoyed taking something that can be hard to understand and stepping back to see what it has to teach us.
So tune in tomorrow. Who knows where we’ll wind up? We’ll wind up somewhere fun.
I hope this series has given you some new perspectives and helped you better understand Leviticus.
Thanks for being with us. Have a great rest of your day. See you in the morning!