Leviticus episode 10 - Leviticus 26–27: Blessings, Curses, And A World Made Holy

A love that warns is a love that won’t look away. We sit with Leviticus 26–27 and hear a Father’s voice pressing toward blessing, waving us off the edge with urgency, and promising a world remade. The conversation tracks the arc from reverence and Sabbath to rain in season, from the alarms of disobedience to the hope of renewal, showing how holiness is not a niche concern but the organising centre of real life.

We explore why the blessings are so earthy and why the curses run long, not to intimidate but to rescue. The text becomes a lens for seeing God as holy and near, and a mirror that shows the unvarnished self. Along the way, we follow the thread through Abraham’s tent, Isaiah’s peaceable kingdom, and Revelation’s new creation, where deserts bloom, sorrow quiets, and the whole earth is filled with glory. The law reveals our limits; the gospel names our hope. The Messiah bears the curse and opens communion, not as theory but as a living invitation.

Then comes the surprise: Leviticus 27, a chapter that looks technical at first glance, expands the horizon. Dedications of houses and fields hint that holiness is not trapped behind a curtain; it spills into ledgers, kitchens, and street corners. We talk about what it means for a shop to become a sanctuary, how work can be worship, and why consecration can transform the ordinary without turning it into spectacle. The result is a grounded, hopeful vision: refuse small gods, honour sacred rhythms, and let everyday places become sites of encounter with the living God.

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Transcript

Setting The Scene In Leviticus

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Well, hello. I'm Richard Bughes, representing Book by Book, and here we are in beautiful Sandown Park in Surrey, England. And as we come to this last in our series of studies on the Book of Leviticus, I'm being helped here by Paul Blackham and also by the Reverend Joseph Steinberg, who is from the Church Mission Society in Oxford. And he's been, of course, our international guest for this current series. What we'll do is to come, first of all, to a reading. And it's from Leviticus and chapter 26. I'll read the first few verses if I may. God says, Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God. Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord. 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. These are solemn instructions. And we're thinking really about spirituality, but the kind of spirituality that touches every aspect of life. And I think I'd like to start right away with you, Paul Blackham, if I may, and say, well, ask, could we say that Leviticus 26 is a cry from the heart

Blessings And Curses Explained

SPEAKER_02 2:06

of the living God? It sounds like it.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Yeah, well, because it's about the first section is about these he's promising of blessings if his people are faithful to him. And then a much longer section on the curses and punishments of disobedience. And it's as if I think it's almost like it's the passion of the preacher. The Lord God who gets up early each morning and stretches out his hands to disobedient people. This is him, and he's preaching, and he's saying, Look, I want blessing for you. Follow me. But then the section on the punishments and curses seems much longer. Why is that? Well, I think we've got this little one-year-old Anna, and she's just started toddling around, well, quite fast too, almost running. And then we're always watching out, and then we the we suddenly see, I don't know, she's she's heading over to um pull something down off a shelf or going over towards where the stairs are, and we're immediately full of alarm, and we're like, stop, Anna, quickly, someone get Anna, you know, and there's suddenly this big amount of passion from us because we can see her going towards danger. And I think that's why this chapter's been called that, because the Lord God can see if you do not hold firm to me, and if you go your own way, the way of sin and chaos and selfishness and all those things, there is there are terrible things ahead of you, and it's this passionate care and love makes him cry out and warn and say, Don't go in that direction. There's pain and problems there. So I think when we see this, instead of thinking, oh, it's God being heavy and awkward, it's God, it's the it's the love of a father for his children.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Yes, and he's he's therefore crying out, he's not just saying, Oh, let them all right, they've made their bed, they'd have to sleep on it. Right, no. No, he's warning and saying, please don't go there. Exactly. In those uh first two verses, actually, Joseph, we're given an, I suppose, an overview really of the issues of the chapter, actually. How does that introduction kind of relate to us today?

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Well, in fact, in many ways, this is the heart of the entire book. Because what it's saying is, again, as we started with, God is holy, he is to be revered. And he's warning um the children of Israel because ultimately he knows our hearts that we are unholy. And so he's

Reverence, Holiness, And Our Hearts

SPEAKER_00 4:21

saying, in many ways, reflecting what the Lord Prayer says, you know, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, you know. And so we are to revere the Lord God, we are to understand that he is holy. Yes, he loves us, he wants to be in a relationship with us, but we need to understand who he is intrinsically as a holy God, in many senses within this book, hidden behind a curtain, which is to there to shield us from his glory, because his glory is so holy other that it would destroy us because we are so unholy. We are we are not like God as all like all uh at all, because that's why God says to us, be you holy, even as I am holy, because we're not holy. And so this is a call to say, do not do these things which make you unholy, which make you not only unholy but unclean. But be my people, I am your God, worship me, have reverence for the place where I dwell. And this is very much, of course, a picture of what's in heaven. So we are to understand the Lord's context as holy, um, holy other, and seated on the in the heavenly places.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

And and that's the fun that was the fundamental problem, wasn't it? The beginning of the world. Yeah. It's when humanity took their eyes off the Lord God and listened to another voice, the voice of the devil, of course, back in Genesis 3, wasn't it? That's when the disaster came and the chaos and the world was ruined. The fundamental issue is always the Lord God and Him alone and reverence. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding, as the Book of Proverbs sayers tell us. Same thing here, isn't it? Reverence him and do not divert your heart and mind to any other object of worship.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

And then as you look on at uh chapter 26, I mean, there are these various uh physical blessings that are promised.

Future Blessings And New Creation

SPEAKER_02 6:03

I mean, when will we experience those?

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Well, I it was so helpful when Joseph was explaining how they were entering into a promised land, and of course, and but that pic that was only a picture of the the the the great inheritance that is lies in the future for us. You know, um that so a Abraham, although he lived in the promised land, he lived in a tent looking because he was looking forward to, as you put it, the city of God of the future. Same here. But then you think I always think of things like Isaiah 11, verses 6 to 9, where the I the prophet is given that sight of that incredible future that we'll have when when Jesus returns and renews the whole creation. And he talks about how the animal you know, the lion will lie down with the lamb. So you think what an incredible transformation is coming, gonna come on the whole natural world that a lion and a lamb could share the same accommodation because I think now the lamb will be fairly nervous. Um and then you the other prophets they speak about that on that day the like the deserts will be regenerated and become places of fertility and running water.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Oh Paul, if I had all the money in the world, I would like to irrigate the Sahara.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Irrigate the Sahara. Can you imagine what a project that will be? And yet Jesus will accomplish it. The prophets tell us he will. And then, of course, Revelation 21, what a fabulous chapter that is, where we're told all the problems in the world will be taken away and the whole world will become this fabulous place where it's all exactly as God wants it to be. So then the people of God could experience a limited sense of these blessings in that promised land, but only as a picture of the true, complete physical redemption that's coming when Jesus returns.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Yes, and then when we talk about the land, and we're in the land, we're in the land now of salvation. Yeah. Which is a tremendous, tremendous blessing. Blessings, but also cursing.

Echoes Of Eden And The Law’s Purpose

SPEAKER_02 8:04

I mean, there's curses here. Uh, do we find an echo of perhaps, well, I suppose you could say Genesis chapter three, about the fall, time of the fall.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, I mean, the Lord warned um Adam and Eve, didn't he, as to what would happen if they disobeyed him, that they would surely die. And uh, of course, in many ways that was prophetic, wasn't it? Because it's immediately we have the problem, and and and death comes into the world. And when I read this passage, in many ways, I again see this, of course, I have the privilege of hindsight, very much in a prophetic way. Because again, when you have a true understanding of the law, you realize that the law, and Paul says this again in Romans 4, the law wasn't given to save. Israel couldn't actually keep the law. It was God's standard to demonstrate his holiness. So, in fact, I mean, Israel was doomed from the beginning to have to suffer these curses in the same way that Adam and Eve are symbolic of all of humanity. I think Israel is also symbolic of the that we all suffer underneath the reign of disease, decay, and death. And in that sense, you know, it's it's wonderful to see the gospel coming, you know, as Paul says, to the Jews first and then going back out into the world. So you sort of have a picture of implosion, and then of course, then in a good way, explosion of good news. But it's a very scary picture. But I do believe that if the law was given to any group, any group of or people, any nation, uh, the same thing would have happened. And of course, it's God's heart cry, as Paul's already said, as a warning, this will surely happen to you. But again, there's also uh an understanding that the children of Israel were to be the standard by which the rest of the world was to come to know God, to be judged either clean or unclean or even holy. And uh, when they failed, their God had a higher expectation for them. And so there was these curses that would come upon. And in fact, if you when you read these, it's like reading a history of the Jewish people. And you know, even within many Jewish uh rabbis explain the Holocaust in in the light of this passage, because the curses are so horrible, and and one can only say, Thank God for the Messiah, because He's the one who's taken this curses onto Himself, uh, and so now we go free. We no longer suffer these curses. But in fact, they're symbolically there for all of us, because none of us live according to the law, none of us are holy as God is holy. All as the prophet Isaiah said, all have fallen short of the glory of God.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Oh, Joseph, it's wonderful to hear you as somebody from Jewish background talking in those terms, and of course, of the Messiah. It's wonderful. Uh you know, we're boiling up towards the end of uh Leviticus here. And uh you would sometimes expect when you come to the end of a great book to find a great purple passage, you know, tremendous pronouncements. It's a little bit mundane. I mean, look at verse chapter 27, verse 14.

Curses, History, And The Messiah’s Rescue

SPEAKER_02 10:53

If a man dedicates his house as something holy to the Lord, the priest will judge his quality, if the man who dedicates his house redeems it, he must add a fifth to its value. You know, a little bit mundane, I think. Well, you could say that at least. What's the real vision of this chapter? Paul Blackham.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, okay. No, I to be honest, I think in some ways this is the test of whether you've really understood the book of Leviticus or not, because in fact I think it's the best last chapter of any book in the Bible. Because at first you might think, oh, it seems like strangely technical legislation about if someone dedicates their personal possessions as holy to the Lord, how can how can they handle that? What's the what's the procedure? Now, if you've been thinking uh and understanding Leviticus, and when, as Joseph was explaining, that it's all about holy, the Lord is holy, his priests are holy, his dwelling place is holy, the people generally, the people of God generally are classified as clean but not holy, and then there's unclean out, you know, in the this N chat, it has this incredible vision where the the people generally who are who are clean and but not holy, they can actually dedicate their houses and possessions as holy. And you suddenly think, wow, so there's a vision of holiness, not just being something confined in the tabernacle and just to the priest, but it's almost something that's exploding out. And all the people of God are being holy, and all the possessions are being holy. I always feel that you're almost left with a vision of the holiness of God spreading out to his people, to all people, to the whole world, which is why Isaiah 11 uh verse 9 says that one day the glory of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. And you think, wow, so this holiness that at first in Leviticus is just confined into this little building, and the Lord calls out from in a little building, and that's the sort of little uh island of holiness. When we get to the final chapter, it's expanding, it's invading the world, this holiness.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

And as it's done, of course, with your father's fruit and veg shop at Tarleton and just by Preston. Yeah. Well, the fruit and veg shop is actually it's really a place where people can find God there.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

They do all the time.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

And now your sister Christine and her husband looking after it. Fruit and veg, you walk in. I walked in there, and she Bibles there as well as the cabbages and all the rest of it. It's fantastic and it's wonderful. So that's a holy place too.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

It is, it really is. And people encounter the living God in as they're buying their cabbages.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

We've just got us about a minute left, Joseph. What's the great message then of Leviticus as we close off? I mean, why should this or could this be one of our favorite books in the Bible?

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Well, I think we've just said one thing. First of all, we see the implosion of sin and the way it devastates the world and how contagious it is and how it pollutes everything,

Why Leviticus 27 Matters

SPEAKER_00 13:46

but then we see the explosion of God's glory and how it will transform the world. And the Lord will reign and overcome all these things. But again, to go back to the very first study, this book is so important because it's like a lens. It's a lens that we look through to see God and understand that He is holy and holy other, and that He is to be revered and honored, but it's also a mirror that we look into to understand our own sinful state, so that we would cry out for mercy. And yet God provides within the pictures of the sacrifices and the priests that there is a remedy for our sinful situation. There is a way to have God's anger appeased, there is a way to be redeemed, there is a way to be decontaminated, there is a way to come into fellowship and worship the Lord and to be in communion with him, and that is the Lord Jesus. He is the Lamb of God who was slain before the foundations of the world. He is the great high priest who has sat down at the right hand of the Father and mediates on our behalf by his very presence. Why? Because Leviticus shows us we have a hope. There is a man in heaven, the Lord Jesus who ascended there, and he will return, he will reign, the new kingdom will come, and we will be a part of it. And praise God, because that is the Christian hope.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Oh, this is wonderful. So Genesis, a ruined people, Exodus, a redeemed people, Leviticus, a holy people, Numbers, a pilgrim people, Deuteronomy, a covenant people. And here we've been looking at this great book to do with holiness and the lens as you talked about. We've been looking at ourselves and we've been looking at the Messiah all the way through. We'll have a prayer now as we close off. Great God of all the universe, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for this book. We thank you for the lens of which Joseph Steinberg, your servant, has been speaking. We thank you for his presence with us on this program during these last ten studies. We ask for your blessing upon him, and upon the whole work of the Church Mission Society, upon his general director, and upon the missionaries and the agents and the gospel partners in different parts of the world. And we pray that we too may be a part of what you are doing in our so needy world today. All of these things we pray

Holiness In Everyday Places

SPEAKER_02 16:05

for your name's sake. Amen. Hey, there'll be another series soon, and uh we'll look forward to sharing with you in it as soon as possible. God bless you.