Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
So...I have kind of been pondering the next post for a bit and, well, it's just time to start typing and see how it develops.
See, the two remaining times 'heart' is mentioned in Leviticus are both in chapter 26...a chapter describing first the blessings that will come to the people if they walk in obedience to God's decrees, which constitutes verses 3 - 13.
Verses 14 and 15, however, change the tone, basically saying...if you don't listen and you reject the laws and decrees and violate the covenant, then this is what's going to happen...
And the description of the 'what's going to happen' goes from verse 16 all the way through verse 39.
There's an interesting bit of math in there....in verse 18, God says 'I will punish you seven times over'. In verse 21, he says if they don't repent, then he will punish them another seven times over...and another seven times in verse 24, and another seven times in verse 28. The language seems to indicate... 7 times, multiplied by 7 times, multiplied by 7 times, multiplied by 7 times. That's 7 raised to the 4th power...or punishment ultimately multiplied 4501 times.
It was going to get very, very bad, ultimately ending up with the land laid to waste and the people scattered and pursued and hauled off to servitude and captivity.
In verse 36 we read,
" 'As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lads of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one pursues them.' "
Talk about PTSD. That is a miserable level of fear, my friends. To run in panic from...nothing. Because the heart is plagued with fear from all the awful things that have happened...the judgment that has fallen.
We may see an echo of that when we get to Revelation.
But the judgment is not the end for the wayward nation. The rest of the chapter holds out the hope of God's mercy and HIS commitment to the covenant.
Verses 40 - 42 included for full context here:
' " But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers -- their treachery against me and their hostility toward me, which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies -- then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land."'
The phrase 'pay for their sin' is interesting; that's a concept that doesn't come up often, but I kinda suspect the payment is due the land; the forgotten sabbaths are mentioned in the chapter, and the term of the exile is set at the completion of the overdue sabbath years (verses 34-35 and 43). The Law stated that the Israelites were to let the land lie fallow every seventh year...and one of the first indications that they were not fully obeying the Law is that they did not give the land the sabbath. This is actually an important thing in caring for productive soil; it has to have a break from cultivation in order to rejuvenate. Without those fallow seasons, the land will become depleted and lose its fertility. God wasn't just testing them on how much they trusted him...he was giving them instructions for stewarding the resource he was giving them.
Of course, all this did come to pass in the course of history; and the 70 years of Babylonian captivity was indeed tied to the sabbath of the land. (2 Chron. 26:31)
For the restoration, two things were required: that they pay for their sins, and that their 'uncircumcised hearts' would be humbled. When those things come about, then, God says, he will remember the covenant (verse 45).
A pastor friend of mine described circumcision as 'the removal of excess flesh that hinders reproduction'. I might add, that flesh is a barrier to intimacy. Physical circumcision is one thing, but a circumcised heart (a concept we will also encounter in the New Testament) is something else altogether.
It's interesting that the folks who have the uncircumcised hearts are also the ones whose hearts are so incredibly fearful.
I think I will be watching to see if that connection develops further as we progress. Watch for that connection between a fearful heart and an uncircumcised heart.
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