Bechukotai “In My Laws”
Leviticus 26:3-27:34
We are at the end of the book of Leviticus. But, before we can jump into the book of Numbers, there are some good nuggets in the last part of Leviticus and some strong blessings and curses that God gives to His people.
First, He wants to reward those that follow His ways. God has a set of rules (chores) that He instructs His people to follow. Reminds me of growing up, my mom gave my brother, sister and I a “chore list”. If we completed our chores we were rewarded, but if we didn’t get the chores done, there were consequences and no reward.
God promises rain for the fields to grow and flourish, yielding lots of fruit for the people. God promises abundance in all things. He even promised to remove not only animals from the land that could harm His people, but any enemies of His people would fall by the sword. A constant turn over of food and provisions resulted in never a worry about famine from anyone. He even shares that He will walk among them and reminded them He was The One that brought them out of the land of Egypt where they had been slaves.
Sounds like a pretty good life..right! Do you feel that God blesses you in ways when you follow His commandments today? I certainly do! I have seen things come back ten-fold when following His commands.
When Tim and I were called into full time ministry, it was leading a church that followed and honored the Sabbath (Saturday) for services. This was total new territory for both of us. Although, back in early 2020, The Lord put it on Tim’s heart about worshipping on the Sabbath. I remember, I said, “ummm, what do we do, our church has church on Sunday”? And then I said, “I think the Catholic Church has a Saturday service”. God was beginning to prepare us both for full time ministry that He would eventually call us into, years later. I believe wholeheartedly that He blesses us, because we are following His design in regards to the Sabbath. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do believe that we can worship our Heavenly Father any day of the week; however, I do believe there is a special blessing when we follow His perfect plan for that. And, He mentions blessings and curses right here in Leviticus when we follow His plan. Things look a little different for us today, we are not mainly an agricultural society among other things, but I do believe that His commandments still apply to us today.
Now, what does God tell His people when they do not listen to Him? He tells them that, He will send sickness and disease on them. They will work tirelessly in their fields, and their crops will not produce much fruit. The people that don’t like you, nor you them, will be the ones that will rule over you. God tells them that He will strike them seven-fold for their sins. Provisions will be split between many and famine will be evermore, eating much will not satisfy the soul. They would always be hungry for more and never full. The land will not flourish the way God wanted it to or His people.
In other words, these people will continue to strive for more, work tirelessly, give all they have to the fields and land, they will never have abundance, they will be struck with worry about sickness. They will constantly be worried about who is in charge of them, who will come in and take what little they have away.
This way of life surely doesn’t sound like any life I would want to live. And to think, they have a choice. This reminds me of how we have a choice today. A choice to dedicate our lives to Jesus and except all that He has done for us and will do for us! I promise you, when you are obedient to the ways of Jesus, the worries and anxiety will go away. He promises us many blessings when we follow Him today. We have probably all met people that when they open their mouths and begin to give a glimpse of what their lives are like…the problems, the hate, the bitterness, the jealousy, etc, etc, it doesn’t take long for us to see the rotten fruit of not having Jesus in their lives and not being obedient to God will bring on curses.
We here at TBM, recognize the need to understand and study spiritual warfare. We must understand, that sometimes things are out of our control, because they happened way before our time on earth. Sometimes, “we get more than our daddy’s eyes past on to us”. Things that our granddaddy’s, granddaddy did wasn’t anything we had control over, but we do have control over seeking truth from the Holy Spirit and asking Him to reveal the sin, transgression and iniquities in our lives current and past. By doing that, we can repent and have those things that may be holding us back from fulfilling our destiny destroyed. Not in my (our) power, but in the Mighty Name of Jesus!
We end this book, with things that are given to God by a vow. This was not a command, but was a freely promised and given gift to God. Many Christians, will dedicate (vow) their baby to the Lord. The parents are vowing that they will raise their child in the ways of God. To grow a relationship with God and be raised in a home that follows God’s plan and design for families.
Furthermore, the chapter goes into specifics on assigning a valuation to people consecrated by a vow. It goes into the ages of people. An older male would be more valuable than a toddler and so on a so forth. Also, clean and unclean animals where a valuation could be made.
Being transparent, the Holy Spirit didn’t give me an unction to dig into these few chapters, but I encourage you to read them for yourselves, maybe some good nuggets and light will be revealed to you. We also read where houses and land consecrated to the Lord are given a value.
Lastly, we see scripture about payment of tithes. If you have ever wondered where the “10%” comes from, it comes from here. The word “tithe” is related to the number 10 and refers to a tenth. Now, this is not a new concept, because we see Abram giving a tenth to God back in Genesis 14:20. What is interesting is in the NT, it doesn’t command or emphasize tithing. It more or less presents it as a duty for God’s people. Now, there are many scriptures that clearly are describing tithing & giving. Whether it be time or money, when we give God 10%, the 90% can be sanctified. Remember, it is all God’s to begin with. He only asks for 10% and we get to keep the 90%. It took Tim and I many years to get this right. Many years ago, when I would set up our budget, I had all of our bills listed out and then at the very bottom, I had “tithe”. We spun our wheels for many years…we have always been blessed with jobs that paid well, but we could never get ahead. Then God put (2) business owners (that are truly like family) in our path and through them, God showed us what giving truly looked like. I will promise you this, you can’t out-give God! What you give to Him always comes back to you. I challenge you, set aside 10% of your paycheck, sow into our ministry or whatever God lays on your heart and I promise it will come back. Tired of being on the hamster wheel of financial craziness, give God what He requires. And don’t forget, God wants us to give our time as well! Serving in your church, your community, a shelter, spending time in His word, can all be great places to give your time!
God has opened the door for us to study, learn and grow in spiritual warfare. We have studied “Biblical Foundations of Freedom” which is all about repentance and forgiveness. Tim and I have both personally experienced breakthrough in many areas through the teachings in this book. We have also seen many others experience breakthrough in healings of all sorts. We are currently doing a study Wednesday’s on “Courts of Heaven” by Robert Henderson. Learning and studying both of these, are wonderful tools that are used to defeat the lies of the enemy and help us in seeking our true destinies and what God has called us too.
Blessings & Shalom ~ Deena
