Daily Devotion | Leviticus 26:40–46 | 2026 April 02

Title: Daily Devotion | Leviticus 26:40–46 | 2026 April 02

Scripture: Leviticus 26:40–46 (ESV, reference only)

Date: 2026 April 02

Speaker: Rev. John Chen

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

All right, dear brothers and sisters, peace be with you. We thank God for His grace that we have come to a new day to study our Daily Devotion. The passage we are studying today is Leviticus chapter 26, verses 40 to 46. Let us pray. God, we thank You. We thank You that You are willing to treat us with such gracious favor and mercy. O Lord, You have set before us how You keep covenant. Let us have hope in suffering, and joy in discipline. Lord, we ask that You would show us grace and have mercy on us, so that we may truly be gained by You. In Christ’s name. Amen.

All right, let us look at this last section, at the end of the passages of curse, namely God’s mercy. The day before yesterday and yesterday, we talked about how, after we sin against God, God will discipline us. Then verse 40 says, “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me.” When God’s people were carried away into Babylon, when they came under repeated blows from God, they came to their senses and said, “I cannot keep loving this world anymore.”

“I cannot keep following my own judgment anymore. I cannot keep listening to the rules of this world anymore. I must return again before God.” Then, before God, they confess their sins, and they acknowledge that everything they have suffered has come from Jehovah, and that God is righteous in dealing with them like this, that there is absolutely no error on God’s side. The ones who were wrong were they themselves. So at that time, when He says, “so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies,” that means if they continued like this, I would strike them step by step and bring them into the land of the enemy. And indeed, the history of Israel fulfilled exactly this point. Later, even in the face of blow after blow, they still would not repent. They killed the prophets who spoke to them. In the end, God carried them away to Babylon. Before that, the ten tribes of Israel had been scattered throughout different parts of the Assyrian Empire. Then as for the only remaining tribe of Judah—

He carried them away to Babylon. That is, He finally brought them into the land of the enemy. Because that land of the enemy—at that time Abraham came out from Ur of the Chaldeans, that is, from the region of Babylon. So He brought them back there. So this, on the surface, looks like a geographical distance, but in reality it is a distance in time. Over those several hundred years, their forefather left Babylon and came to the land of Canaan, but because of their sin, they were carried away back there again. Carried away back there again. Abraham came out of Ur of the Chaldeans around 2000 B.C. Then David arose around 1000 B.C. Then Jesus came at year 0. So you see, in the two thousand years from Abraham to Jesus, among all the things that Israel experienced, they were carried away to Babylon in the six-hundreds B.C. So over more than a thousand years—

from the standpoint of time, this was their sin; from the standpoint of geography, they were carried away back to Babylon. This truly was a national tragedy and a national lament. But for what reason? Because you violated my law, you did not follow my statutes, and you did not fulfill my intention for you. Over more than a thousand years, indeed close to fifteen hundred years, the purpose was to make you return to me. I raised you up. I raised up David for you around the year 1000, right? I made you into such a great nation. But you violated my statutes and did not follow my rules. In the end, the northern kingdom was destroyed by Assyria, and the southern kingdom was destroyed by Babylon. That is history. May God have mercy, that we may truly repent before Him.

Then God goes on to say, “if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity.” That is, they submit, they submit to God, acknowledging, “You are righteous; we are the ones who have sinned against You.” Then what? Verse 42: “then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham.” That is, God again remembers His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God names them in reverse order: first Jacob, then Isaac, and finally Abraham. “And I will remember the land.” When they leave the land, then while it lies desolate without them, it will enjoy its Sabbaths. We talked about that yesterday. Now concerning the years of rest for the land, some people say this refers to the sabbatical years. I think that is also a rather interesting judgment. You do not want to let it rest, and you do not keep the law, so I will make the land keep the law, because the land is mine.

“And they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes.” Because we did not follow God’s statutes and rules, we were punished. Therefore we were taken to the place of the enemy, with no freedom at all. So this is exactly what we have kept talking about over these past two days. First, of course, we acknowledge that these curses fell upon Jesus Christ. But for us, they still remain a warning; they still remain a reminder. Therefore the history of Israel is set before us. Just as Paul says, all these things became examples for us. They all became examples for us.

The Israelites in the Old Testament, the reason they could be in the covenant, was actually also because of the blood of Jesus, right? All right, they are not really different from us. They also, through sacrifices and these things, were already within the covenant of grace. But even the elect within the covenant of grace still must do their utmost to obey the law. If they do not obey, then God’s striking and discipline will come upon us. So we mentioned this yesterday as well: we must think about it. Before such admonition, before such warning, we must repent. Do not treat the majesty of God as though it were nothing. We must properly fear God.

I think that people today are really doing a very poor job with regard to fearing God. We do not respect God’s word. We treat God’s statutes and rules as though they were just passing sounds by the ear. We say, “What’s the big deal about that?” We deal with God’s word so lightly. But that was exactly the attitude the Israelites had toward God’s word. And in the end, they were severely disciplined and struck by God. Now in our life, the temptations of this world, our children’s grades, our children’s future, our work—we see these things as greater than mountains. But toward God’s word, toward God’s promises, toward God’s statutes and rules, we are extremely careless. This truly is a condition that does not glorify God. So may God lead us to repent and to honor God.

Since we believe that the Bible is the word of God, since we believe that God is God, the unchanging God, we also believe that God still deals with us in the way He dealt with the Israelites, in order to make manifest His righteousness, His faithfulness, His mercy, and His steadfast love. All right, verse 44 says, “Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them.” Right? They abhorred my rules and abhorred my statutes—that is, they abhorred me. But I do not abhor them, and I do not break my covenant with them, because I am Jehovah their God. He does not reject; He does not break covenant. Turning that around means this: we are the ones who reject God. We are the ones who depart from God’s statutes and rules. Regarding obedience to the law, regarding how to live out God’s glory in our life, we simply are not willing to take these matters to heart at all, right?

Our hearts are full of loathing toward God. We want to enjoy our own kind of happiness. These things are deadly matters, deadly matters. We have forgotten our identity as covenant people. We are God’s people. The purpose for which God redeemed us is to make us keep His covenant. Therefore every kind of carelessness toward God, every kind of carelessness toward God’s word, is contempt toward God. Then of course children who despise their Father must be struck. But behind that striking, beginning in verse 44, God’s mercy and God’s lovingkindness are stirred up again: “But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers.” So this is because God is a faithful God.

God is a covenant-making God. God is a covenant-keeping God. In God’s covenant-keeping, our lives are preserved. Therefore, as the nation of Israel, God has never cast them off. God has never forsaken them. Although among them some have already died and some have been struck, these things are all His discipline of them; they are discipline upon them as a group. So here we also need to know that in fact God’s covenant-making is covenant-making with a group, right? Israel is a group, and the church is a group.

Of course, under the revelation and illumination of Scripture, we see even more clearly that we are an elect people. As individuals, we are a covenant people, right? So the purpose of such revelation is not that, as covenant people, we can just think that God will certainly bless us, that He will certainly preserve us. No. The meaning of the covenant is, first of all, that God brings us into this covenant. God will never abolish this covenant. The saints are kept forever. This covenant is—yes, if we are those who are saved, we certainly will never be cast off by God. But in this covenant, God tells us what He has done, and He requires us to respond to Him. If we respond according to what He requires, He will bless us. If we do not respond according to what He requires, God will curse us.

But this still remains covenantal blessing. This is exactly what we have kept emphasizing all along as we have come to this point. And we also thank God: if there were not this concluding section afterward, then when we read those earlier passages, we really would have our legs trembling and our hearts terrified. “If He treats me like that, have I then been rejected?” Thanks be to the Lord. Just as we said on the first day when we entered into these passages of curse, being disciplined is not the most terrible thing; being cast off is the most terrible thing. Discipline still shows that God has mercy on us.

“I will for their sake remember the covenant that I made with them.” Their forefathers are the ones whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, in order that I might be their God. I am Jehovah. So here we once again see a phrase that appears again and again in Leviticus and in the Pentateuch, namely, that He will be our God, and we will be His people. Such a relationship will never change and will never be abolished. This comes from God’s faithfulness and God’s mercy. He must be our God, and He also wants us to be His people. Then what does this mean? It means He will bring us into the covenant. This is a kingdom of God. God loves us, and He is our God. But actually, being our God has two meanings, brothers and sisters, and you must remember this.

The first meaning is that it shows His preservation of us. God will preserve us. He will watch over us. He will lead us on the road of our life. When we meet dangers and difficulties, He will guide us and direct us. But at the same time, on the other hand, His being our God means that when we violate His commandments and violate His statutes and rules, He will use His rod to strike us. He will discipline us so that we may turn back. This is also why God is always loving us. Yet because of our own obedience or disobedience, it seems as though God has two faces toward us: one is the face of blessing, and the other is the face of curse. In fact, whether it is the face of blessing or the face of curse, behind both of them is God’s love.

God loves us. In the sermon we shared this Lord’s Day, we particularly mentioned what God’s love is. Love is a guiding love. It is not that kind of indulgent love. It is not a love centered on our lusts. The way this love is expressed is that He wants to show us mercy and give us grace. Then when we are obedient, this way of love is manifested in the form of reward and in the form of blessing. But when we are stubborn and rebellious, when we completely despise Him, God’s love is manifested in the form of discipline. So I think that after these three times of speaking through chapter 26, everyone should already be very clear about this.

So I hope everyone can remember this point: that He is our God means that He is willing to protect us, and He also will discipline us. And what is the purpose? To guide us into His kingdom. Then, turning it around, what should we, as this people of God, do? We are to obey the law with all our heart and with all our strength. Because from another angle, these passages of curse—what we mentioned yesterday—keep reminding us again and again that all the wars in this world, all the disasters, all the famines, all the plagues, in the end the One who governs them all is God.

Whether your land can produce its yield, what your life will be like, your body, your work—in fact, every single thing is in God’s hand. God wants to use all these methods to shape us and to mold us, so that we may be full of the likeness of Jesus Christ. We absolutely must be clear about this. If we have read this passage, and even if it is the earlier passages of blessing, if we do not have this concept that God is reigning and that God is providentially governing all things, then it is actually very hard for us to enter into God’s intention. For example, if I go out and I seem to run into some good thing, and everything goes smoothly, the Chinese say, “My luck is good today. I am blessed today.” That kind of idea is something God is not pleased with.

Why? Because this is God’s way of expressing His blessing to you, right? Of course, if you encounter certain things when God is disciplining us, then we must also receive them from God’s hand. Because whether it is blessing or discipline, all of it is given to us by God. Only when, through these instrumental things—whether weather, bosses, or work—only when through these instrumental things we see the God behind the instruments, then our interaction with God begins to become healthy. For example, we have a stable job, right? Thanks be to the Lord. But frankly speaking, whether that job is stable or not is still decided by God. If God makes it stable, then it is stable. If God makes it unstable, then even if it looks stable to you, it is still not stable, right? Or to put it another way, God gives us a job so that we may thank Him, right? You cannot, you cannot fail to thank Him.

So between our work and God, we absolutely must see the God behind that work. So this kind of perspective is something that, I think, brothers and sisters really need to practice every day: lifting up the eyes of faith to see God, and then after seeing God, seeing once again the covenant that God has made with us. Then within the covenant we must obey God’s law with all our heart and with all our strength, and then we receive God’s blessing. And when discipline comes, we immediately turn back, knowing that He is a loving God, that He is willing for us to repent. In this way, we begin to establish with this God a very beautiful relationship of interaction.

So this is what I want to remind everyone: do not live in this world as though God does not exist. This is something that is very, very regrettable among many Christians—that we confine God inside the church. God seems to exist only when we are in church, perhaps only for that short moment during the sermon, and then God seems to disappear. That is not the case. God is present in every aspect of our life. He governs every aspect of our life. He is interacting with us in every aspect.

And our wisdom lies precisely in this: that within all the information and circumstances of life, we are able to see this God who is interacting with us, and then to respond to His statutes and rules. So when we study Leviticus—and in fact, it is not only Leviticus, but all the books of Scripture repeatedly speak about God’s statutes and rules—this matter is spoken not only to the people of the Old Testament, but also to the people of the New Testament. So we must have this awareness. Do not think that the Old Testament people did not have the redemption of Christ. They also had the redemption of Christ. Let us not get this wrong.

They also, through sacrifices and these things, were within the covenant of grace. The Old Testament and the New Testament are not two covenants. It is not that when we read these passages, we think, “This is how the Israelites were. They received blessings and curses. That has nothing to do with me, because I have Jesus Christ.” That is not the case. They also had Jesus Christ. They also were blessed and cursed in Jesus Christ. You must carefully go and look at the confessions. The confessions speak about this very clearly.

So I think that for us, we must really, in our present situation, take these passages—even though they are written in the Old Testament—and still apply them to ourselves. Do not have that kind of misunderstanding. We really must do this. So understanding the confessions, understanding these theological truths, is very important. Doctrine is very important. Doctrine tells us that the Old Testament and the New Testament are one covenant. It is just that in the Old Testament, it was through sacrifices and the tabernacle as types and shadows, whereas in the New Testament, Christ has already come. But the essence is the same.

Therefore these blessings and these curses still apply to us. So may God have mercy on us, that we may carefully obey these statutes and rules of God. Verse 46 says, “These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel at Mount Sinai through Moses.” When the Israelites made a covenant with God at Mount Sinai, Moses served as a mediator. We mentioned this before. Moses is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. He delivered God’s word. He was that prophet. At the same time, he also proclaimed blessings and curses. He also, in a sense, established something like the role of a high priest, becoming a mediator between man and God.

Of course, Moses’ mediation was not perfect. The book of Hebrews especially points this out: Moses was faithful as a servant in God’s house, but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the Son over God’s house. So there is a difference. This difference in typology does not mean that there is any difference in efficacy. The efficacy is the same. It is just that in Jesus Christ we receive it more clearly. It does not mean that the content has changed. This is something we mentioned before when we explained the confessions. I hope that through this brief explanation, your memory is stirred up again.

So here we have finished looking at Leviticus chapter 26. What I want to remind everyone is that these blessings and curses are spoken to the people of the Old Testament, and they are also spoken to the people of the New Testament. When the Old Testament people read them, they also read them through Christ. Today we also read them through Christ. When we obey the law, God indeed blesses us. When we disobey the law, God indeed disciplines us. And behind all of this, we see the God who shows grace to us—He has never cast us off, and He has never forsaken us.

Even His discipline of us is out of His guiding love. The purpose is that we may live a more godly life. So I think this is a reminder for every Christian: we are living in a world created by God. If we ignore the existence of God, is that not vanity? The people of the world ignore the existence of God, and therefore they receive the curses that they deserve. But as God’s children, He will be our God, and we will be His people. Within such a covenant, if we expect that we can treat church life casually, or that we are unwilling to listen to God’s preaching, this is sin against God.

So may God show grace, may God have mercy, and lead us, under such warnings of curse and discipline, to repent, and to live a godly life. All right, our sharing for today ends here. Thank you, everyone.