Wednesday February, 3 2021 Devotional

"If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit." - Leviticus‬ ‭26:3-4‬ "But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments..." - Leviticus‬ ‭26:14‬ The Lord lays it all out in this chapter, the blessings that come to a nation that heeds His Word and His commandments, and the terrible things that will befall a nation that turns its back on His Word and refuses to obey His instructions for living. The list that follows is pretty impressive. Crop failures, economic collapse, rampant disease, confusion and defeat for the military, the inability to stand and fight the enemy are all part of the first wave, as God seeks to turn the people back to Himself. The list continues, describing layer upon layer of disaster, each worse than the one before it and each one preceded by “and if you still won’t listen and still refuse to repent, then this and this will happen...” The history of Israel and Judah then serves as a living example for us, all through the Old Testament Scriptures: first of God’s blessing poured out upon a faithful people and later as an illustration of what it looks like when God’s blessing and protection are removed because the people have rejected God’s Word. It has been said that those who refuse to learn the lessons of History are condemned to repeat them. May God in His mercy deliver our nation from repeating the lessons taught in this chapter and illustrated for us over and over again throughout World History. Lord God, we who know You live in Your Kingdom of grace and peace, even as the world around us turns its back on You once again. Speak through your servants, bring about the revival of repentance and faith for which we pray, and protect Your own faithful people wherever they are found, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Pastor Dan Giles