Leviticus 26

PROMISES AND THREATENINGS AS SANCTIONS OF THE LAW AND MOTIVES TO HOLINESS.

This chapter is the fitting close of this book of the law, the twenty-seventh chapter being manifestly supplementary. In this chapter will be found outbeamings of Jehovah’s nature more majestic than anywhere else in the Pentateuch, except at the giving of the decalogue on the Mount Sinai. There, his terror was displayed; but here, his “vengeance and compassion join in their divinest forms.” The appeal is to the two greatest motives of the human heart hope and fear. The union of these two great elements, the Law and the Gospel, constitutes the basis of genuine piety. The remarkable character of the revelation made in this chapter, which must have deeply affected Moses, will explain to the Hebraist the peculiarities observable in the style, especially in the threatenings the strain and struggle in the diction, the cumulation of unusual words and modes of expression, several of which never occur again in the Old Testament, while others are only used by the prophets as quotations from this portion of the Pentateuch. “There is a marvellous and grand display of the greatness of God in the fact that he holds out before the people whom he has just delivered from the hands of the heathen and gathered round himself, the prospect of being scattered again among the heathen, and that, even before the land is taken by the Israelites, he predicts its return to desolation. These words could only be spoken by One who has the future really before his mind; who sees through the whole depth of sin, and who can destroy his own work and yet attain his end. But so much the more adorable and marvellous is the grace which, nevertheless, begins its work among such sinners and is certain of victory, notwithstanding all retarding and opposing difficulties.” Auberlin. After a brief reiteration of the law respecting idolatry and sabbath-keeping, (Leviticus 26:1-2,) the sublime sanctions of the law are unfolded in promises and threatenings. Leviticus 26:3-46.

CONCLUDING NOTE.

Kant remarks, that all the consequences arising from the transgression or observance of the divine commands are in Mosaisms limited to the present world. From this fact he infers that Judaism contains no religious belief, since we cannot conceive of a religion without faith in a future life. This is but the repetition of an old Mohammedan objection, that the Pentateuch which we now have could not have God for its author because there is not found in it any thing which pertains to eternal realities, as paradise, gehenna, and the last judgment. Hence the suggestion that this chapter was forged by the Jews. Bishop Warburton’s Reply is unsatisfactory. The substance of it is, that a religion which was not founded on the doctrine of immortality and the promise of eternal life must have been supported by the extraordinary providence of God, since, on the low level of Naturalism, civil government could not be supported without a religion teaching a future state of rewards and punishments. De Wette audaciously calls the Mosaic doctrine of retribution “a national delusion,” which rendered Israel vastly unhappy by engendering a gloomy view of life and destroying the fair harmony of man with the world, in which the Greek appears so nobly. J.D. Michaelis makes a fatal concession to the destructive rationalists and deists when he justifies the omission of the doctrine of future rewards and punishments on the ground that the whole Mosaic law was merely a civil institution. A much better reason for the omission of this doctrine in its fully developed form is, the fact that there is a progressive development of religious truth in the Old Testament as in the New. Israel in the wilderness was not ripe for this advanced doctrine. The notion of God’s holiness and justice must first be planted in the mind before faith in immortality could take root for any salutary purpose. Yet we find hints and germs of this doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments scattered through the Pentateuch in the elevated position assigned to MAN, created the last and standing at the head of creation, wearing the image of God, who is a Spirit, and the object of his special care, to whom he reveals himself and styles himself their God; a relationship which is not cancelled by death, and which Christ teaches us involves the immortality of the soul. Matthew 22:31-32. A hope of immortality, that is full of meaning, involving victory over death, is thus laid in the fellowship of man with God, the everliving. The imperishableness of this fellowship is felt to be sure, because God’s eternity secures the everlasting well-being of his people. “To him who has an eternal value for God an eternal existence is made sure.” Oehler. The translation of Enoch also clearly involves this doctrine in its germinal form, and the doctrine of temporal retribution is a manifest preparation for it. Yet it must be admitted that there is an entire omission of the eternal consequences of unforgiven sin, which the experience of the gospel ministry shows is a powerful motive to repentance. Yet the dispensation of Mosaism is good, as far as it goes, just as each day’s work in the creation was pronounced good, though all was imperfect till the close of the sixth day. Says Hengstenberg: “It may be shown how a consideration of the Egyptian superstition, in which a false doctrine of immortality occupies so conspicuous a place, was first of all a motive to leave this field uncultivated, on which the best doctrine was exposed to be grossly misunderstood, and to be satisfied with laying a foundation for the true faith in immortality. It may be shown, that for the present the whole attention of the people was to be directed to temporal retribution, in order that when this had taken root, the faith in future retribution might spontaneously spring up. But the deficiencies of the Pentateuch in reference to the doctrine of immortality are not of a kind to endanger its character as a record of divine revelation.” The visible and temporal judgments of the Old Testament present impressive historical proof of Jehovah’s moral reign over the nations, which may be the necessary preparation of mankind to appreciate the New Testament revelation of retributions in the unseen and future world. It must be borne in mind that these are not suited to a theocratic government of men in this world. A temporal government must be upheld by temporal sanctions. The theocracy was national and temporal. Moses was well acquainted with the Egyptian doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the future judgment followed by rewards and punishments, yet he did not incorporate them into the law since they belong to the sphere of theology rather than of legislation. It is to be noted that when Mosaism teaches that piety brings happiness and godlessness misery, this does not justify the inference that every misfortune springs from a sin and that every piece of good fortune springs from righteousness. For God sometimes shows patience towards the wicked, and spares them for the sake of the righteous, (Genesis 15:16; Genesis 28:26,) while the righteous are proved and purified by affliction, as in the history of Joseph. Earthly benefits of themselves do not make up life. The idea that a godless man possessing abundant external good things is really to be felicitated, cannot be entertained from the moral standpoint of Mosaism. Only the gracious presence of Jehovah can confer happiness. See Leviticus 26:11, note. “A morality which rests on the basis of faith in the (national) elective grace and providential faithfulness of the covenant of God, and whose doctrine of good culminates in the prominence assigned to fellowship with God, cannot surely be accused of gross sensuous Eudaemonism a false charge against the ethics of the Old Testament.” Oehler.