Daily Devotion | Leviticus 26:1–13 | 2026 March 30

Title: Daily Devotion | Leviticus 26:1–13 | 2026 March 30

Scripture: Leviticus 26:1–13 (ESV, reference only)

Date: 2026 March 30

Speaker: Rev. John Chen

Transcribed, translated & edited by: Joseph Wang (Yufan)

Dear brothers and sisters, peace to you all. We thank God for His grace that has brought us into a new day to study the daily devotion. Today we are studying Leviticus chapter 26, verses 1 through 13. Let us pray: O God, we thank You, Lord. Thank You for having mercy upon us. You teach us to obey Your statutes and ordinances so that we may receive blessing. Not only that, but You Yourself have also promised in Scripture that You will bless us. What great grace this is that You have given to us. Lord, we ask that You would use these blessings to continually encourage us, so that we may again understand Your lovingkindness toward us. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

Now we come to Leviticus chapter 26. Verses 1 to 2 are God repeating the second commandment and the fourth commandment.

We know that the Ten Commandments are interconnected. From the first commandment to the tenth commandment, they are all linked together. If you violate one, you inevitably violate all of them. This is something we already mentioned earlier when we were discussing the Ten Commandments. You cannot really violate just one of them in isolation. In fact, when you break any one commandment, you have also broken the others. And likewise, it is not really possible to keep only one, because you must keep them all. This is the wholeness of the Ten Commandments. It is a very unique design of God. Within the Ten Commandments, they are interwoven, they interpret one another, and through this, we are able to better understand what it means to fear God. They are both one and yet distinct.

It seems like there are ten different points, but in reality, those ten points are like one single point. This is something very remarkable. Now here, God specifically mentions the second commandment and the fourth commandment. Why these two? The Bible does not explicitly say, so this is my inference. As we often say, the first four commandments concern loving God, and the last six concern loving others. Within the commandments about loving God, the second and the fourth commandments are the ones the Israelites most easily violated.

Now I am not saying that the first and third commandments are not easily violated. Rather, the first and third commandments are more hidden when they are violated. For example, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Someone might say, “I do not have other gods in my heart.” That is difficult to verify, right? And then, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” Someone might say, “I honor God’s name as holy. In everything I do, I exalt His name.” It can appear less obvious. It is not that these sins cannot be judged, but they are easier to conceal.

However, the second and fourth commandments are not like that. They are much more visible. You cannot hide them. If you carve an idol, you have clearly violated the second commandment. If you do not keep the Sabbath, you have clearly violated the fourth commandment.

So here, I think God is reminding the Israelites. And in fact, after they later entered the land of Canaan, these were precisely the sins they most frequently committed. The most common sins were, first, making idols, and second, refusing to keep the Sabbath.

Now where does the temptation of idolatry come from? In the worship practices of the surrounding nations, they all had idols. In their relationship with these idols, it was a transactional relationship, a manipulative relationship. People believed they could control the gods or the idols through certain rituals. So it is very easy for people to fall into idolatry. It feels like, through certain methods or techniques, I can control the god, I can control the idol. And in the process of interacting with these idols, there were also various forms of pleasure and celebration.

So you will find that people are very willing to be with idols. On the one hand, they feel they can control the idol. On the other hand, they gain physical pleasure. And in the end, they also expect to receive blessing—such as rain. Because in the land of Canaan, the idols were often associated with Baal. Baal was considered the god of rain. Since Canaan did not have major rivers, whether or not there was timely rain was extremely important. So they worshiped idols. This was a very strong temptation for them.

And as for keeping the Sabbath, that is also difficult. There are many things we want to do. We have business to attend to, we want leisure, the weather is good, we want to travel. But we rarely think about keeping the Sabbath, about truly listening to God’s Word. These two commandments are very easy to violate outwardly, so God reiterates them here.

Then God goes on to say: if you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, what will I do? How will I bless you?

The first blessing: I will give you rain in its season. As we just mentioned, rain is extremely important in Canaan. Without rain, since there are no rivers, irrigation becomes extremely difficult. Carrying water to irrigate fields is very labor-intensive. So the land of Canaan, as I mentioned before, whether it is truly a land flowing with milk and honey depends on whether you obey God’s law.

If you obey the law, God sends the early rain and the latter rain, and it truly becomes a land flowing with milk and honey. But if you do not obey, when God withholds rain as judgment, then it becomes a very difficult land. So Canaan is a very “spiritual” land in that sense—whether it is good or bad depends on whether you obey God’s law.

With rain, the land yields its produce, and the trees of the field bear fruit. Not only will your own cultivated trees bear fruit, but even the trees of the field will bear fruit. There will be so much fruit that even the wild trees in the field will produce for you to eat. This is indeed the case—when there is sufficient rain, even the trees in the field can bear fruit.

God also blesses their harvest: threshing shall last to the time of grape harvest, and grape harvest shall last to the time of sowing, and you shall eat your bread to the full. Now I have not been a farmer, so I do not know all the exact timings, but roughly speaking, threshing is in the summer, and grape harvest is in the autumn. So threshing continues from summer into autumn. And grape harvest continues until sowing time, which is probably in the spring. That means from autumn through winter into spring, you are still harvesting grapes. And you will eat your fill.

So the blessing God promises Israel here is abundance of produce—the increase of the land, and being fully satisfied with food. For people in an agricultural society, this is the greatest blessing. It is like what we say in Chinese culture: a bountiful harvest of grain. This is their hope. Whether there is such abundance depends on whether they obey God’s law.

But this is only the blessing related to the produce of the land. There is another blessing: you shall dwell securely in your land.

This is also a great blessing. You will not be disturbed by enemies. God says He will give peace in the land; you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. He will remove harmful beasts, and the sword shall not go through your land.

The first blessing is agricultural abundance. The second blessing is security—you will not be attacked, not even by wild animals. “The sword shall not go through your land” means there will be no war. You will live peacefully in the land.

This, again, is one of the greatest needs in an agricultural society. The first is food—being able to eat and be clothed. The second is safety. God is very considerate of human needs.

In Canaan, Israel was not a large nation. Compared to the surrounding empires, they were extremely small. They could not even defeat the Philistines. So if other nations attacked them, they would be in great trouble.

And you must understand, Canaan was a land bridge connecting Asia and Africa. It was extremely important strategically—a place contested by many powers. At that time, the centers of civilization were in North Africa and in Western Asia, in regions like Persia, Babylon, and Assyria. As the land bridge connecting these civilizations, Canaan was a critical stronghold.

So later, when we study the historical books, you will clearly see how difficult their situation was. When they did not obey God’s law, they struggled to decide which great power to rely on—whether to rely on Egypt or Assyria. That was their predicament.

But God says: if you listen to Me, you will not have to experience such warfare. I will keep war away from you.

If, however, you do encounter war, what then? Verse 7 says that when enemies come against you, you will pursue them, and they shall fall before your sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before your sword. That is, if anyone comes to attack you, I will grant you victory easily. Five people can defeat a hundred; a hundred people can defeat ten thousand. You will overcome enemies a hundred times your size. You only need a few people, and they will be struck down. This is the blessing God says He will give you.

So this is the third blessing: when enemies come, you will defeat them.

The fourth blessing is that you will be fruitful and multiply. God says He will make you fruitful and multiply in that land. This was also a tremendous blessing in ancient civilization, and it is the blessing originally given in the Garden of Eden—be fruitful and multiply. Therefore, having children is a blessing from God. If a people decline in population and refuse to bear children, that is a sign of God’s judgment upon that people. I hope we can be sensitive to this point. Being willing to have children is a blessing from God.

Then God says, “I will confirm My covenant with you.” So here we see these four blessings, and also the confirmation of the covenant.

Then in verse 10, God says: “You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new.” That means you will have so much food that you will not need to worry at all. You will have such abundance that before you finish eating the old grain, new grain already comes in. What do you do then? You start eating the new, and the old may even remain there unused, perhaps even spoiling because there is so much. There will be no famine.

Then God says, “I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.” That is, God promises that He will dwell among them in the tabernacle they have set up, and He will not depart from them.

“And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be My people.” Brothers and sisters, remember this verse. This is one of the most important themes in the Pentateuch. “I will be your God, and you shall be My people.” And not only in the Pentateuch—even in Revelation, this statement appears again.

So what is our relationship with God? He is our God, and we are His people. Therefore, of course we should obey His statutes and ordinances, because we belong to Him. And do not think that we are somehow at a loss here—look at how many blessings there are when we obey His law. There are so many blessings.

Then in verse 13, God emphasizes again: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves.” In order to encourage Israel to obey His law, God truly takes great care. Why? Because He gives them so many blessings and says, “If you obey, I will bless you like this.” And then He reminds them: “Remember how I brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.”

So God encourages them to obey His law in two ways. First, you were once slaves, but now I have given you freedom, so you should obey. Second, if you obey, you will receive many blessings. These four blessings are set before you. So you should obey My law.

At this point, the content of the passage has been explained. But I know this passage creates great difficulty for believers today. Where is the difficulty? It lies in how we understand God’s blessings. There are generally two attitudes.

The first attitude, often found in traditional Chinese house churches, is that there are no earthly blessings at all. They believe all earthly blessings have been replaced by spiritual blessings. So what do they do in this world? They accept poverty, suffering, hardship—they even see enduring suffering and deprivation as the norm. This is their theological framework. They completely reject the idea of earthly blessing.

The second attitude is the opposite: people pursue God’s blessings and even teach believers to obey God’s law in order to obtain those blessings. This is the thinking of prosperity theology. In fact, many who pursue blessings do not even emphasize obedience to God’s law—they simply say, “As long as you come to this church, you will be blessed.”

These two extremes create confusion for Christians. So how should we properly understand blessing?

First, blessing certainly refers to heavenly blessing. This is without question. Consider that the Lord Jesus suffered on earth, and the apostles were martyred. The saints throughout history endured great suffering in their faith. So it is absolutely correct to understand blessing in terms of spiritual, heavenly blessing. I firmly believe that in heaven, all these blessings are real, and we will enjoy eternal fellowship with God.

All the earthly blessings described here are types, symbols, and representations of what we will fully enjoy in heaven. These blessings are real. The Lord Jesus Himself has received such blessing—He sits at the right hand of the Father and reigns over all things. So from a spiritual perspective, in eternal life, we will certainly enjoy these blessings. That is the first point.

Second, someone may ask: can we experience blessing on earth? I tell you, many times, we indeed can. When you obey God’s law, when you truly love the Lord, when you give, when you receive God’s church and His servants, when you preach His Word and faithfully obey, there are indeed times when you experience earthly blessing. This is real.

Do not think this is something imaginary. One day you may find that somehow your household has enough—perhaps even more than enough. You may even have experiences where provision comes in unexpected ways. I am giving an example, but such experiences can truly happen. This is very real. On earth, we can indeed experience such blessings.

This is not something only taught by prosperity theology. No. First, many brothers and sisters can testify to this. Second, God truly has mercy on us in this way. When we are willing to seek Him and offer ourselves for His sake, God is not stingy with His blessings.

Why? Because God wants to show you that He is the Lord of all. Why can God say He will protect them from the sword? Why can He say that five can chase a hundred, and a hundred can chase ten thousand? God is telling them that all battles are under His control. Whoever fights, whoever wins—it is determined by Him, not by you.

In the same way, rain is under His control. God is telling Israel: whether it rains or not is determined by Me, not by Baal. You should not worship idols. It is I who govern the environment. And likewise, through earthly blessings, God tells us that our clients, our business, our work—everything—is under His sovereignty.

Through these blessings, God tells you: your children finding jobs, relationships, your health, your work—all these things are under His rule. That is why God gives blessing.

Third—and this is very important—you must not make obtaining blessing your goal. You cannot be like prosperity theology, saying, “I must get something from God.” When you do that, God is not pleased. Whether He gives or not is up to Him. Whether He grants it or not is up to Him.

If we receive earthly blessings, we give thanks. If we do not receive them, we still give thanks. You cannot use this as a condition or as a motivation to pursue God. If He gives, we thank Him; if He does not, we still thank Him. This third point is very important.

So on the one hand, we must reject the “poverty-only theology.” It is not correct. There are indeed many blessings—this is real. When you truly fear God, you will often find that life does become better. Why? Because God is a God who blesses. He delights to show mercy to us. Is this difficult for Him? Not at all. If you, as His child, fear Him, He is willing to bless.

I have given this example before: we do not deserve these rewards. It is not that we earn them by our good behavior. Rather, God gives them as encouragement. It is like giving a child a piece of candy. A child sweeps the floor, and then you take him to eat McDonald’s. Eating McDonald’s is not something he deserves—he should sweep the floor anyway. But to encourage him, you reward him. God delights to interact with us in this way, through gracious rewards. This is part of His nature.

But again, you must not make this your goal. Once you make it your goal, it becomes like idolatry—as if you can manipulate God: “If I obey, then You must give me rain.” That is not the case. These blessings are encouragement, not something God is obligated to give.

We are sinners. We do not deserve any of this. According to the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 16, section 6, God does reward believers. Although believers are accepted in Christ, their good works are also accepted in Him—not because they are perfect or without fault, but because God, looking upon them in His Son, is pleased to accept and reward those sincere works, even though they are mixed with many weaknesses and imperfections.

So here we see that these blessings are not something we deserve, but something God is pleased to give as an expression of His acceptance of us in Christ. Therefore, it is very important that we establish a correct understanding of how to view God’s blessings.

Alright, we will stop here for today. I encourage everyone to carefully reflect on these passages about blessing, so that your life may be nourished and built up, and that you may once again experience the wonderful love of God toward us. Thank you.