LEVITICUS 64


     We will begin this lesson in Leviticus 26:29 "And ye shall eat
the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat."

     This would be an unusual thing for a Hebrew to do, because they
thought of having children as one of the great blessings. Cannibalism
would show the total degradation of their society. In the lesson just
before this one, we find that God brought plagues upon His own people
to try to get them to repent and follow His statutes. Sin has a way of
getting worse and worse with every sin. The person gets callused to
sin and ceases to feel guilty of sin.

     Leviticus 26:30 "And 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."

     High places were the favorite places for the worship of false
gods. The sun god was just one example of these false god worship
practices. In many cases, they practiced human sacrifice. If they will
not stop this type of false worship themselves, God will intervene and
destroy these places Himself. He will, also, destroy the people
involved in this type of worship. The root word that was translated
abhor is gaal and means to detest. This means then that, if they will
not change, God will detest them.

     Leviticus 26:31 "And I will make your cities waste, and bring
your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of
your sweet odours."

     Even if they do continue to worship the true God along with their
evil practices, God will not accept their sweet smelling savour
offering to Him. Even their cities shall be destroyed by God. Sodom
and Gomorrah was a good example of such a city being destroyed of God.

     Leviticus 26:32 "And I will bring the land into desolation: and
your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it."
Leviticus 26:33 "And 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."

     This very thing happened to the Jews when God scattered them all
over the world. The Jews are beginning, now, to go back to their
homeland. That was prophesied, also, in the Word.

     Leviticus 26:34 "Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long
as it lieth desolate, and ye [be] in your enemies' land; [even] then
shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths."

     We have studied in the lessons prior to this one, how important
it was to God for the land to rest. One of the excuses that the people
used for not celebrating the sabbaths of the land was because they did
not know where to begin. I would say that is a flimsy excuse. God will
rest the land and have His sabbaths, even if He has to do it with the
land being desolate.

     Leviticus 26:35 "As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest;
because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it."

     For each 50 years that they did not practice sabbath and jubile,
God would let it lie desolate 8 years.

     Leviticus 26:36 "And upon them that are left [alive] 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."

     In most of the countries where the Israelite has fled to, they
have been oppressed. They have been shunned and looked down on by
many. In world war 2, about one 6th of the Jews alive were killed by
orders from Hitler. Surely, verse 36 above is describing just such a
holocaust.

     Leviticus 26:37 "And 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." Leviticus 26:38 "And ye shall perish among
the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up."
Leviticus 26:39 "And they that are left of you shall pine away in
their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of
their fathers shall they pine away with them."

     All of this came about, because they did not follow God's
statutes and commands. They were an idolatrous nation. God had warned
them, but they did not heed the warning. I am concerned about God's
people today. Many are following more and more the ways of the world,
and forgetting God. God never changes. His ways are beyond our finding
out. The people of the U.S. and the world must repent and come back to
true worship of God, or we, too, will face the wrath of God. We know
that with these Hebrews they did die in a foreign land by the millions
in Germany and other parts of the world.  People of God, we better
wake up.  Read the Bible every day and find out what the will of God
for your life is. After you have found out what His will is, do His
will.  With God you can repent, and he will hear.  Time is running
out, repent today and turn back to God.

     Leviticus 26:40 "If 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;"
Leviticus 26:41 "And [that] 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:"  Leviticus 26:42 "Then 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."

     God wants to forgive and restore His people to right standing
with Him. He sent His precious Son Jesus Christ to save them and us.
Notice in the verse above, that He mentions Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
This, in itself, shows that as long as they were following in His
ways, the covenant was in effect. We Christians are part of the
Abrahamic covenant with God. We are heirs with him of the covenant.
Galatians 3:29 "And if ye [be] Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed,
and heirs according to the promise."  Our covenant relationship is
made perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ.

     Leviticus 26:43 "The 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."  Leviticus 26:44 "And 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 [am] the LORD their God."

     God does not have to explain to you and me why He forgives them
and restores them. He is God. Jeremiah 31:34 "And they shall teach no
more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the
greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more."   We see similar Scriptures in
Hebrews.  Hebrews 8:10 "For this [is] the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put
my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be
to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:"  Hebrews 8:11 "And
they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his
brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least
to the greatest."  Hebrews 8:12 "For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more."

     Leviticus 26:45 "But 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 [am] the LORD."

     This is a beautiful example of the grace of God toward His
people. The last few verses have been speaking prophetically of the
grace through Jesus Christ that fulfills the law for the people. This
grace is for physical Israel {Hebrews} and spiritual Israel {all
believers in Christ}. Praise God! What we could not do in our
weakness, Jesus did for us on the cross.  All He ever wanted to be,
was their God.

     Leviticus 26:46 "These [are] the statutes and judgments and laws,
which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount
Sinai by the hand of Moses."

     This is a summation to let them and us know, where these laws
came from, who was ordained to bring them, and where they were given.



                             Questions 64

1.  Why would it be such an unusual thing for a Hebrew to practice
    cannibalism?
2.  Why would God destroy their high places?
3.  What does the word abhor mean?
4.  What was one of the terrible practices of worship they did in the
    high places?
5.  What would God do to their cities?
6.  Where did God say He would scatter them to?
7.  When would the land enjoy its sabbath of rest?
8.  For each 50 years that they had not practiced sabbath, how many
    years would it lie desolate?
9.  In what war was nearly 1/6 of all the Jews killed?
10. What ruler ordered their death?
11. Why did all of these terrible things happen to these Hebrews?
12. Find out what the _____ __ ___ is in your life.
13. What must these Israelites do to get back into good standing with
    God?
14. What covenant will God remember and forgive them?
15. Where do we find the Scripture that says we Christians are part of
    the covenant that God made with Abraham?
16. What does Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 34 say that God will do for
    them?
17. What two places will God put His laws for them?
18. He will be to them a ___.
19. They will be to Him a _______.
20. Their sins and iniquities will I remember __ _____.
21. Who did God give these laws and statutes to?
22. Where were these laws and statutes given?