Chapters 25-27: The Great Proclamation of Liberty, Part 2

IV.  Chapter 26: Covenant Blessings or Curse

        If chapter 19 defined righteousness and justice, chapter 26 expands and completes that definition by describing the results of either faithfulness or infidelity to the covenant.  These are probably the chapters with which we are most familiar, which is all well and good ... except that apart from the rest of the book in which they are situated, they come to mean little more than a list of do's and don'ts and some utopian vision for life on earth - utopian, apparently, because we can never manage the do's as well as the don'ts.  Stripped of the structures they are anchored within and supporting, chapters 19 and 26 might as well be interpreted as, "If you behave you'll be rewarded; if not, well..."

        But a covenant relationship with the living God is not a simple matter of cause and effect.  We cannot earn our way into the promised land.  We cannot bribe God.  What we can do is choose to live our lives within the boundaries YHWH has drawn, knowing that in them is life and outside of them is death - and the death of our bodies is not the worst kind of death.  We should know by now that we are not a covenant people by our own choosing, but because we are chosen - quite apart from anything we've done to deserve it (Deut 9.4-6).  If there are two words I wish I could wipe from our minds as we explore this chapter, it would be "reward" and "punishment."  Maybe we could replace them with words like "flourish," "thrive," "mature," or "dwindle," "diminish," "destruct."  Did you know that it is the same Hebrew root for either "curse" or "become small, of no account, diminished"?  How's that for both a paradigm shift and a reminder of the last narrative we explored, "Cursing for Cursing"?

       
So let's take a look at these blessings and curses.

        First, verses 1-2 immediately bring to mind chapter 19 with the reminder that YHWH alone is God, and guarding the Sabbath is a principle way that we acknowledge that.  Along with that is included this curious phrase: "my Holy-Shrine you are to hold-in-awe, I am YHWH!"  Except it's not really that curious, since the whole book has been about exploring every nook and cranny of the tabernacle, explaining what is to be done in and at the tabernacle, and teaching us how to maintain and purify the tabernacle.  And it's not really that curious since we are as far in and as close up as we can possibly get to the Holiest place on earth, the place that YHWH has declared home. Actually, it's not curious at all since this tabernacle, this dwelling, is supposed to mirror the goodness of creation and God's design for the entire created order.  You asked how the community of faith is supposed to host the dangerous presence of a holy God?  This is how.  This is hospitality through holiness.

        Second, fidelity to the covenant creates space for:

• The abundant fertility and provision of the land (4-5), 
• the blessing of living peacefully within the land, without fear of dangerous animals or invading enemies (6-8),
• and the very presence of YHWH - "I will place my Dwelling in your midst, and I will not repel you.  I will walk about in your midst, I will be for you as a God, and you yourselves will be for me as a people" (9-13).  

Finally, failure to walk within the covenant boundaries is more like massive "systems failure" than punishment for bad behavior.  Or like throwing a wrench in the gears.  Or like John's boat that shut down last week because the intake was fully of jellyfish.  Recalling the warning from chapters 18 and 20 that all of this is so that "the land not vomit you out" (18.24-29, 20.23), the language here is that of physical revulsion - "If you are grossed out by my laws and regulations (26.15), the land will be grossed out by you (27.32-35)!"

        Not surprisingly then, the first of these diminishings is physical infirmity (16-17), and then the turning of covenant partners - if the people of the covenant turn away, then so also will:

• The land - instead of rain in due season producing crop upon crop, "your land will not give-forth its yield" (18-20), 
• Animals - the wild beasts will turn against covenant people and animals alike (18-20),
• and most horrifying of all, the presence of YHWH becomes no longer a blessing but a curse - gone is the protection from war and strife (25), hunger and famine (26), dehumanizing treatment of one another (29), idolatry (30-31), desolation and loss of the land (32-33), exile (34-39), and fear and oppression (36-39).

BUT.

NEVERTHELESS.  

HOWEVER...

all is not lost.  There may yet be hope.  

Even though we have broken-faith (40), walking in opposition and causing God to walk in opposition to us (if you turn up-stream the channel is already going against you); even though we have hardened our hearts and acted as though we did not carry the mark of the covenant in our very bodies (41) - even then, there is still room for another turn.  Repentance requires only the confession of our twisted path (40), and the humbling of our haughty hearts.  YHWH will remember.  He will remember the covenant.  He will remember the promise "to be for them a God" (45).  

BUT. 

NEVERTHELESS.

HOWEVER...

what about the other covenant partners that our turning has affected?

Remembrance and forgiveness don't instantly erase the twisted paths we've cut across the face of the earth.  The land must still be given rest to recuperate from the sickness we've imposed upon it, and this is the meaning of exile.

V.  Exile: "Then the land will find acceptance"
        I've always struggled with the idea of exile.  In and out, back and forth, the people never seem to get the message even though they're booted out time after time, at great cost and with unimaginable suffering.  How is that constructive?  How does that help accomplish YHWH's redemptive purposes?
        But redemptive purposes - for who?   It never dawned on me that maybe it's not just about the people.  Maybe we are not the only ones to whom YHWH has extended the protection of covenant, are not the sum total of God's green earth, are not the axis on which the world turns.  Imagine that.
        Leviticus is clear that even though God will respond to the people's repentance by remembering and honoring his covenant, the land must still "find acceptance" regarding its Sabbaths, "since it did not enjoy-cessation during its Sabbaths when you were settled on it" (35).  The land will have to be left behind, "attaining-acceptance through its Sabbaths by being-desolate-of them" (43).  And here is the most curious thing of all - it is precisely because God will remember his covenant that the people must be exiled from the land.  Listen to what it says:

I will bear-in-mind my Jacob covenant,and yes, my Isaac covenant, 
and yes, my Abraham covenant I will bear-in-mind 
and the land I will bear-in-mind...  

Do you see what has happened?  How do we usually hear this covenant formula?  "God will take account of you ... he will bring you up to the land about which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob" (Gen 50.24); "God called-to-mind his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob" (Ex 2.24); "If they should see ... the soil about which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob" (Num 32.11); "This is the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob" (Deut 34.4).  Instead of tracing the covenant forward through time - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - Leviticus traces it backwards.  And note what is always mentioned before Abraham - the land.  This backward movement as an act of remembrance is almost as if to say, "Yes, I will remember you and the covenant that I made with you and with your fathers, but I will remember it all - the covenant with you, with Jacob, with Isaac, with Abraham, and with the land - for before you were, the land was."  Adam - man.  Adamah - fertile soil.  "And YHWH, God, formed the human, of dust from the soil, he blew into his nostrils the breath of life and the human became a living being" (Gen 2.7).

Is it possible to remember adam and yet forget adamah?