Note the progression God says may happen in his people if they don’t obey the Law: they do not obey, and He brings consequences. They act with hostility toward Him in the suffering of the consequences He brings upon them, and don’t obey then, either. They have blown their second chance, being further driven from Him in their trials.
His goal in sending the difficulties was not to punish, but to turn them back to Him. If they failed to turn, He wouldn’t give up on them, but continue to try to get them to turn. How would God do that? Think about it: how does God get the attention of disobedient people? How many effective means of getting their attention does He have? How easy is it for God get your attention?
Often in the trials brought to us by God in an attempt to turn us around, we see God as mean to bring such trials. Understand that He is not a mean God, but a loving God! He could leave us alone; instead He pursues us. It is a lie of Satan that the trials are an indication of a mean character. How sad it must make God that His loving actions are misinterpreted thus.
God would continue trying to get their attention by sending difficulties, until their land and all they built and valued would be destroyed, and they would be scattered, no longer a nation, for His soul would abhor them. They would “rot.” It’s inconceivable that, given that warning, the people and their leaders would ever let their disobedience go anywhere near that far. However, history records that, crazily, they did. Look at what sin has done to them, and learn, for we are just as capable of taking the same path. The reminder in today’s reading is as compelling an opportunity for our reflection as it should have been for them.
Humbling themselves before Him and confessing their sin would turn around the spiraling catastrophes. Humility and confession. Knowing that sin has a hardening effect on us, why not just plan to stay humble by searching oneself regularly and confessing sin?
God took seriously a person’s vow to dedicate something to Him. He expected them to fulfill their vows; however, He gave them a way out of a vow later regretted. That way out required them to pay 120% of the value. There were some things that could not be redeemed thus: first-born animals (recall that they were set apart as God’s after He had saved the Israelites’ firstborn on the first Passover) and anything that God declared to be “banned” as war booty. The latter is the explanation for that startling requirement in verse 27:29. Can you relate any of these requirements or prohibitions to the work Messiah has done for us?
So we have finished reading another book of the Law, one of the most dreaded and least loved; and I, at least, have gained much from it. I hope you have, too. Once again, if we can gain insights from Leviticus, we need not dread any of the books of the Bible. Congratulate yourself for sticking with the Bible reading thus far and making it through some difficult reading!