“If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; I will rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword will not go through your land. You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.” (Leviticus 26:3-8)
The principle behind that particular blessing is remarkable; the ratio of five to one hundred is one routing twenty, but the ratio of one hundred to ten thousand is one routing one hundred. Gideon’s 300 defeated 135,000 Midianites; Jonathan and his armorbearer alone defeated a Philistine army. In 2 Kings 7, God sent the sound of a mighty army to the camp of the Syrians laying siege to the city of Samaria (2 Kings 7:6-7). From that story, you could say that God used four men (lepers!) to defeat a Syrian army of many thousands.
‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.' (vv.14-17)
Here begins the section where God promises to curse a disobedient Israel. To fail to obeyGod and to observeHis commandments is to despiseHis word and to abhorHis word (statutes, judgments). For Israel, it was to break the covenant they made with Yahweh (Exodus 24:1-8). The section on curses is twice as long as the section on blessings. This speaks to human nature, which is more motivated by the fear of threats than by the promises of blessing. God promised to bring a sense of terror over a disobedient Israel. They would be afflicted with wasting disease and fever. Because God would set His face against them, they would be defeated in battle. They would be so confused and afraid that they would flee when no one pursues.
God was determined to reveal Himself to the world through Israel, either by making them so blessed, the world would know only God could have blessed them so; or by making them so cursed, that only God could have cursed them and yet cause them to still survive. The choice was up to Israel.
Make no mistake, the laws of God are absolute. When violated, the consequences are inevitable for both individuals and nations. If we walk in them, we are blessed. If we wonder from them, there are consequences.
The Truth: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.” (Psalm 34:15-17)
