Rewards and Punishments

Lesson
#18
Rewards and Punishments
(Levi&cus 26: 1-46)
As Levi&cus 23 structured sacred &me with seven holidays throughout

the year, Levi&cus 24-25 extends sacred &me to include every seven
years (the Sabba&cal Year) and every seven &mes seven years (the
Jubilee).
Every seventh year the land is to lie fallow, allowing it to rest. In
addi&on, every seven &mes seven years all land is returned to its
original owner and all personal debts are cancelled. Combined, the
Sabba&cal Year and the Jubilee ensure that neither poverty nor wealth
become systemic among Gods covenant people.
This command to reset the economy each genera&on lays the
founda&on for a just and holy society.
In Lesson #17 we viewed the transi&onal Chapter 24, and then we
looked in depth at the Sabba&cal Year and the Jubilee.
When we studied the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12, we learned that a

covenant is a binding legal agreement between two par&es, and that a
covenant involves privileges and obliga:ons on the part of both par&es,
which must be taken seriously. When God rearms his covenant with the
en&re Israelite community at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19, those privileges and
obliga&ons are implicit.
Gods covenant with Israel is uncondi:onal. In Exodus 4: 22 God says,
Israel is my son, my rstborn. And St. Paul arms in Romans 11: 26, 29
that all Israel will be saved . . . for the giDs and the call of God are
irrevocable. Israels posi:on as Gods son, his rstborn, is eternal; but
enjoying the preroga:ves of that posi&on is condi:onal, based upon
obedience to Gods law.
In Levi&cus 26 God enumerates the rewards for obedience and the
punishments for disobedience, a list that is expanded and made more
graphic in Deuteronomy 28.
When we began our Scripture study we

learned that Genesis consists of four
parts:
1. Primeval History (1: 1 11: 32)
2. The Abraham/Isaac story (12: 1 25: 18)
3. The Isaac/Jacob story (25: 19 36: 43)
4. The Jacob/Joseph story (37: 1 50: 26)
In Primeval History we learned that

when God created the world, it was good,
perfect and complete; and we learned
that God walked with Adam and Eve in
the Garden of Eden in an in&mate, loving
rela&onship.

But when sin entered the world in Genesis 3,

all that changed. We dened sin as a
condi:on of aliena:on and separa:on from
God that manifests itself in outward, sinful
ac:ons. And we learned that sin has four
characteris&cs:
1.
2.
3.
4.
William Blake, God Judging Adam (color relief print
with pen, ink and water color), c. 1795.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Sin is subtle
Sin distorts our judgment
Sin escalates
Sin cascades down through genera&ons.
Indeed, sin spread quickly through humanity

like a virulent disease. In Genesis 6: 5-6 we
read:
When the Lord saw how great the wickedness of
human beings was on earth, and how every desire
that their heart conceived was always nothing but
evil, the Lord regreJed making human beings on
the earth and his heart was grieved.
And he said . . .
In response, God brought the ood,

washing the board clean and giving
humanity a second chance.
But when Noah got o the ark, he
planted a vineyard, got drunk, cursed his
children . . . and by Genesis 11 we were at
the Tower of Babel.
It happened all over again!
Pieter Brueghel the Elder. The Tower of Babel (oil
on panel), 1563. Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna.
Sin had captured humanity, entwining us

in its tentacles, pulling us into the depths
of the muck and the mire like a
grotesque, mul&-armed sea creature,
squeezing the life out of us. Lek to our
own devices, we cannot escape sins grip.
So, what was God to do?
In Genesis 12 God introduces his

plan of redemp&on, bringing
humanity back from sin into an
in&mate, loving rela&onship with
God.
He begins by making a covenant
with Abraham:
Abraham & Sarah in Haran (Eastern Turkey)
Photography by Ana Maria Vargas
I will make of you a great na:on, and I will

bless you; I will make your name great, so that
you will be a blessing. I will bless those who
bless you and curse those who curse you. All
the families of the earth will nd blessing in
you.

(Genesis 12: 2-3)
As we con&nue in Genesis, we learn that

the Abrahamic Covenant involves two
things:
1. Property: To your descendants I will
give this land (12: 7); and
2. Progeny: Look up at the sky and
count the stars, if you can. Just so . . .
will your descendants be (15: 5).
And we learn that the Abrahamic
Covenant is uncondi:onal. It has
nothing whatsoever to do with
Abrahams beliefs, ac&ons or delity; it
depends solely upon Gods delity.

God rearms his covenant with Abrahams

son, Isaac (Genesis 26: 3-5) and with Isaacs
son, Jacob (Genesis 28: 13-14; he then
rearms his covenant with the en&re Israelite
community at the foot of Mount Sinai (Exodus
19: 4-6).
When the Israelites agree to the terms of the
covenant, responding, Everything the Lord
has said, we will do (Exodus 19: 8), the
covenant takes full eect. God then gives his
covenant people the Law (ten principles for
living with God and one another) and the
Tabernacle (the means for a sinful people to
gain access to an innitely holy God).
In Levi&cus God tells his people how to use
the Tabernacle and how to apply the Law.
God created a unique rela&onship with

the Israelites by establishing his covenant
with them, and that rela&onship is
permanent, as a fathers rela&onship is to
his son.
Indeed, in Exodus 4: 22 God says, Israel
is my son, my rstborn. And St. Paul
arms in Romans 11: 26, 29 that all
Israel will be saved . . . for the giDs and
the call of God are irrevocable.
Israels posi:on as Gods son, his
rstborn is eternal; but enjoying the
preroga:ves of that posi&on is
Rembrandt. The Apostle Paul (oil on canvas), 1657. condi:onal, based upon obedience to the
Na&onal Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
terms of the covenant.
10
As we learned in our study of Exodus (Lesson

#9), the Hebrew word for covenant is berith,
meaning a pact, treaty or binding legal
agreement between two par&es.
Ancient Near Eastern covenants were
commonplace between sovereigns and
vassals, and typically they had a 6-part
standardized form:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Preamble, or introduc&on of the speaker;

Historical prologue;
S&pula&ons;
The document;
Calling the gods as witnesses; and
Blessings and curses.
In Levi&cus 26 we have reached the

Blessings and Curses of Gods covenant
with Israel.
The Blessings and Curses are structured as if/

then statements, with the dis&nc&ons between
rewards and punishments a series of asymmetrical
contrasts:
Introduc&on (1-3)
The Blessings
1.
2.
3.
4.
Plenty (4-5)
Peace (6-8)
Abundance 9-10
Gods presence (11-12)
The Curses
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Terror (14-17)
Famine (18-20)
Wild beasts (21-22)
War (23-26)
Cannibalism (27-29)
Broken shrines (30-31)
Destroyed ci&es (32)
Exile (33-35)
Disappearance (36-39)
Conclusion (40-45)
12
I wonder why
there are so many
curses aNot
nd mso
e. f ew
blessings?
Thats a good
ques&on!
13
The great Medieval rabbi

Nahmanides said of those
who ask such a ques&on:
Nahmanides (1194-1270), commonly

known by his acronym, Ramban.
Wall mural in Acre, Israel.
The empty-headed who remarked

(in puzzlement) that the curses are
more numerous than the
blessings, have not told the truth.
The blessings are stated as
generaliza:ons whereas the curses
are stated in detail in order to
frighten the hearers.

14
Oooh!
I feel like such a
fool!

15
Lets turn rst to the

Introduc&on
Introduc&on (1-3)
The Blessings
1.
2.
3.
4.
Plenty (4-5)
Peace (6-8)
Abundance 9-10
The Curses
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Terror (14-17)
Famine (18-20)
Wild beasts (21-22)
War (23-26)
Cannibalism (27-29)
Exile (33-35)
Conclusion (40-45)
16
Introduction
26: 1-3
Do not make idols for yourselves.
You shall not
erect a carved image or a sacred stone for yourselves,
nor shall you set up a carved stone for worship in
your land; for I, the Lord, am your God. Keep my
Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the
Lord.
The introduction is a general reminder to remember
Commandments 2 & 3: You shall not make idols, and
you must remember to keep the Sabbath, two
commandments that the Israelites went on to break.
17
During the early 6th century B.C. the

prophet Jeremiah lamented that in the
wake of the Babylonian aqacks (605, 597
and 588 B.C.):
Sacred stones lie scaJered at the head of
every courtyard.

(Lamenta&ons 4: 1)
Bull stele at the city gate of Bethsaida.

Photography by Ana Maria Vargas
Sacred stones at a city gate were common in

Israel during this period. The one on the lek
sat at the city gate of Bethsaida, boyhood
home Peter, Andrew, James and John. It is an
image of a Mesopotamian God, probably the
moon god, Sin. It was apparently imported by
the residents of Bethsaida, and it is the only
bull stele found in Israel.
The one in the photo is a copy; the basalt
original is in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
18
Now, lets look at the

blessings
Introduc&on (1-3)
The Blessings
1.
2.
3.
4.
Plenty (4-5)
Peace (6-8)
Abundance 9-10
The Curses
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Terror (14-17)
Famine (18-20)
Wild beasts (21-22)
War (23-26)
Cannibalism (27-29)
Exile (33-35)
Conclusion (40-45)
19
The Blessings
26: 4-13
If you live in accordance with my statutes and are careful
to observe my commandments, [then] [1] I will give you your
rains in due season, so that the land will yield its crops, and
the trees their fruit; your threshing will last till vintage
time, and your vintage till the time for sowing, and you will
eat your fill of food, and live securely in your land. [2] I
will establish peace in the land, and you will lie down to
rest with no one to cause you anxiety. [3] I will rid the
country of ravenous beasts, and no sword shall sweep across
your land. You will rout your enemies, and they shall fall
before your sword. Five of you will put a hundred of your
foes to flight, and a hundred of you will put to flight ten
thousand, till your enemies fall before your sword . . .
20
The Blessings
26: 4-13
. . . [4] I will look with favor upon you and make you
fruitful and numerous, as I carry out my covenant with you.
You shall eat the oldest stored harvest, and have to discard
it to make room for the new. [5] I will set my tabernacle
in your midst, and will not loathe you. Ever present in your
midst, [6] I will be your God, and you will be my people; I,
the Lord, am your God, who brought you our of the land of
Egypt to be their slaves no more, breaking the bars of your
yoke and making you walk erect.
21
Notice the if/then structure, with God

saying if you do X, then I will do a series
of Ys.
The word loathe is literally my throat
will [not] expel youa vivid image, along the
lines of I will not vomit you out! Its used
again in the curses at vv. 14 & 43.
The phrase walk erect suggests that the
heavy yoke of slavery; the yoke removed, they
can walk upright with dignity. The opposite
image occurs in v. 37 of the curses.
Of Priestly PerfecAon
22
Now, we move on
to the curses
Introduc&on (1-3)
The Blessings
1.
2.
3.
4.
Plenty (4-5)
Peace (6-8)
Abundance 9-10
The Curses
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Terror (14-17)
Famine (18-20)
Wild beasts (21-22)
War (23-26)
Cannibalism (27-29)
Exile (33-35)
Conclusion (40-45)
23
As Jacob Milgrom points out, the rst set

of curses are measure-for-measure, &t-
for-tat: I, in turn, will do this to you (v.
16), with God increasing the Israelites
suering sevenfold as a refrain (vv. 18,
21, 24, 28), forming a soaring rhetorical
crescendo.
In addi&on, the blessings echo beneath
the curses: covenant (vv. 9. 15, 25, 42,
44); commandments (vv. 3, 14-15);
become your God (vv. 12, 45); brought
you out of the land of Egypt (vv. 13, 45);
loathe (vv. 11, 15, 30, 43); and I shall
give (vv. 4, 6, 11, 17, 19, 30-31).
Juxtaposed to the blessings, the curses
have a chilling eect, standing our hair on
end and overwhelming us with abject
horror!
24
Listen to the text

Levi&cus 26: 14-39

25
Holy cow!
Did any of these
things actually
Not me.
happen?
Scares me to
think about it!
26
Yes, they did.

Aker a series of devasta&ng aqacks by
the Assyrians beginning in 740 B.C.,
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, crushed the
northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C.,
taking cap&ve the survivors of the ten
northern tribes.
Then the Babylonians invaded the
southern kingdom of Judah under the
command of king Nebuchadnezzar in 605,
597 and 588, the last aqack resul&ng in a
two-year siege and the fall of Jerusalem
on August 14, 586 B.C. The city in ruins
and the Temple destroyed, the survivors
were taken cap&ve to Babylon.
27
Jeremiah the prophet was in

Jerusalem during the siege, and he
writes his eyewitness account in
the book of Lamenta:ons.
Listen to Chapter 2.
Horace Vernet. Jeremiah on the Ruins of

Jerusalem (oil on canvas), 1844.
Amsterdam Museum, Netherlands.
28
And why did this happen?

2 Chronicles 36: 21 sums it up nicely:
All this was to fulll the word of the Lord
spoken by Jeremiah: un:l the land has
retrieved its lost Sabbaths, during all the :me
it lies waste it shall have rest while seventy
years are fullled.
The Babylonian cap&vity lasted 70 years,

from the destruc&on of the Temple in 586
un&l the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the
dedica&on of the 2nd Temple in 516 70
years in all, one year for each of the 70
Sabbath Years the Israelites ignored, 490
years in total.
Tit-for-tat.
29
And now, we move to the

conclusion.
Introduc&on (1-3)
The Blessings
1.
2.
3.
4.
Plenty (4-5)
Peace (6-8)
Abundance 9-10
The Curses
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Terror (14-17)
Famine (18-20)
Wild beasts (21-22)
War (23-26)
Cannibalism (27-29)
Exile (33-35)
Conclusion (40-45)
30
Conclusion
26: 40-45
They will confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their
ancestors in their treachery against me, so that I, too, had
to be hostile to them and bring them into their enemies
land. Then, when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled
and they make amends for their iniquity, I will remember
my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac,
and also my covenant with Abraham, I will remember. The
land, too, I will remember. The land will be forsaken by
them, that in its desolation without them, it may make up
its Sabbaths, and that they, too, may make good the debt
of their guilt for having spurned my decrees and loathed
my statutes . . .
31
The Blessings
26: 4-13
Yet even so, even while they are in their enemies
land, I will not reject or loathe them to the point of
wiping them out, thus making void my covenant with
them, for I, the Lord, am their God. I will remember
for them the covenant I made with their forebears,
whom I brought out of the land of Egypt before the
eyes of the nations, that I might be their God. I am
the Lord.
32
Gods covenant involves progeny and

property: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and the
land itselfGod remembers both.
1 Chronicles 36: 21 is correct. The
Israelites ignored the Sabbath Year for 490
years, 70 Sabbath years; hence. the 70-year
Babylonian captivity.
The word loathed repeats twice in the
conclusion, creating a thematic thread weaving
together the blessings (11), the curses (14)
and the conclusion (44).
Of Priestly PerfecAon
33
So what is the lesson here?

As we noted at the start of this lesson, God
said, Israel is my son, my rstborn
(Exodus 2: 22), and St. Paul arms in
Romans 11: 26, 29 that all Israel will be
saved . . . for the giDs and the call of God
are irrevocable.
Israels posi:on as Gods covenant people is
uncondi&onal, but enjoying the
preroga:ves of that posi&on is condi&onal,
based upon Israels delity to the covenant.
34
One nal note.

Chapter 26 closes with:
These are the statutes, decrees and laws

the Lord established between himself
which
and the Israelites through Moses on Mount
Sinai.

(Levi&cus 26: 46)
Not part of chapter 26 proper, verse

46 serves as a coda, bringing the
covenant to a close, all of Gods
commandments spoken at Mt. Sinai,
Exodus 20: 1 through Levi&cus 26: 46.
35
1. Gods covenant with Israel spans Exodus 20 through

Levi&cus 26, a covenant that mirrors standard 6-part
covenants commonplace between ancient Near
Eastern sovereigns and vassals. How does Gods
covenant dier from those?
2. Covenants typically end with blessings and curses. In
Levi&cus 26 the curses outweigh the blessings. Why?
3. Do the Israelites keep Gods covenant or break it?
4. We have seen throughout Levi&cus the principle of lex
talionis, an eye-for-an-eye jus&ce. How is Levi&cus
26 an example of that?
5. Given that the Israelites break Gods covenant with
them over and over again, does God nally give up on
the Israelites and cast them o?
36
Copyright 2015 by William C. Creasy

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37

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