Day 47 - God's Blessing

Daily Reading:  Leviticus 24-27

If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit.  Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.  Leviticus 26:3-5

26  Footnote:

This chapter presents the two paths of obedience and disobedience that God set before the people (See also Deuteronomy 28).  The people of the Old Testament were warned over and over against worshiping idols.  We wonder how they could deceive themselves with these objects of wood and stone.  Yet God could well give us the same warning, for we are prone to put idols before him.  Idolatry is making anything more important than God, and our lives are full of that temptation.  Money, looks, success, reputation, security -- these are today's idols.  As you look at these false gods that promise everything you want but nothing you need, does idolatry seem so far removed from your experience?

26:33-35  Footnote:

In 2 Kings 17 and 25 the warning pronounced in these verses came true.  The people persistently disobeyed, and eventually they were conquered and carried off to the lands of Assyria and Babylonia.  The nation was  held in captivity for 70 years, making up for all of the years that the Israelites did not observe the law of the sabbath year (2 Chronicles 36:21).

26:40-45  Footnote:

These verses show what God meant when he said he is slow to anger (Exodus 34:6).  Even if the Israelites chose to disobey and were scattered among their enemies, God would still give them the opportunity to repent and return to him.  His purpose was not to destroy them, but to help them grow.  Our day-to-day experiences and hardships are sometimes overwhelming; unless we can see that God's purpose is to bring about continual growth in us, we may despair. 

The hope we need is well expressed in Jeremiah 29:11, 12: 

" 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.' " 

To retain hope while we suffer shows we understand God's merciful ways of relating to his people.

Keep reading -- 318 days left!

All footnotes taken from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV.