ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE
Day 42 -Leviticus 26-27 (God Always Does What He Says He Will Do: A Powerful Lesson From Israel’s History)
"But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you: I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall rest--for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it.” (Leviticus 26:14-16;34-35)
God commanded the Israelites in Leviticus 25 not to sow their fields every seventh year which is the Sabbath of the Seventh Year. Then He warned them of the consequences of disobeying this specific command of the Sabbath year in our text above, that is, that “the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall rest--for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it.” (vv34-35)
The Israelites disregarded God’s command and warning concerning the Sabbath year and so after 490 years of not observing it, God made good His Word and sent the Jews into exile in Babylon for seventy years - one year for each of the seven years that the land did not have its Sabbath rest. Before God carried out His punishment of Israel, He conitinued to warn them through the prophet Jeremiah up until the time of the destruction of Jerusalem:
"Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: "Because you have not heard My words, 9behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,' says the LORD, "and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations…. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” (Jeremiah 25:8-11)
So, what lesson can we learn from God’s warning to Israel and her eventual disobedience regarding the Sabbath year? Clearly, one lesson is that God always does what He says He will do. There is not one thing that God said He would do that He did not do except where He said He would punish a people but relented when those people repented of their evil ways as in the case of Jonah and the people of Nineveh.
One thing that God said in the Bible is that those whose names are not found in the Book of Life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire which is hell: “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:15) You may disregard this warning or even completely disbelieve it but one thing is for sure, God will do as He said He would. So if I were you and you are not sure if your name is written in the Book of Life, I would make sure that my name is written in it. You can know for sure by repenting of your sins right now and asking Christ who died for you to forgive you and to give you eternal life.
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