Leviticus

This chapter is about the land. Specifically, the land of Canaan, promised to the children of Israel as an inheritance, by Yahweh. It belongs to Yahweh. Yet even so, God does not consider the land a place to consider home. It must be regarded with reverence and given a Sabbath, but though He Himself will reside with His people on the land, it will not be His or their home. "...for the land is Mine; for you are but sojourners and foreign residents with Me." Le 25:23b. So powerful is this statute that it is a reinforcement of what was already declared in Exodus 31. The words of this chapter, interwoven with a theme of mercy and rest, are the foundation laid for the coming chapter that will declare the wrath of God should His command be ignored. The land is to have a Sabbatical Year (vv1-7). This is different from what the people are granted for their own observance of a weekly Sabbath. The land is the reason for the Year of Jubilee (vv9-22). This occurs after every seventh Sabbath Year (7 x 7 = 49 years, occurring on the 50th year). The theme of mercy continues in the statutes declared for the Redemption of Land and Houses (vv23-34) and Redemption Rights for Poor Brothers/Fellow Israelites (vv35-46). This is even extended to the Kindness that must be extended toward poor Sojourners (vv47-55). This chapter is most certainly the foundation of Paul and Peter's message delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit, when they affirmed our status as Christians, sojourning in a foreign land, awaiting the return to our HOME in heaven.

IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER YAHWEH ESTABLISHED THAT THE LAND HE HAS GIVEN TO THE SONS OF ISRAEL SHALL HAVE A SABBATH TO HIM.
Le 25:1–4 1 Yahweh then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I am giving to you, then the land shall have a sabbath to Yahweh. 3 ‘Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its produce, 4 but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to Yahweh; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
IN THIS CHAPTER, YAHWEH DECLARES HIS RESPONSE FOR DISOBEDIENCE TO THESE COMMANDS.
Le 26:14–17 ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not do all these commandments, 15 if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul loathes My judgments so as not to do all My commandments and so break My covenant, 16 I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up. 17 ‘And I will set My face against you so that you will be defeated before your enemies; and those who hate you will have dominion over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.
BUT IN HIS INFINITE WISDOM, HE KNOWS THAT DISOBEDIENCE WILL STILL FOLLOW, AND HE DECLARES THE RESPONSE FOR CONTINUED DISOBEDIENCE WILL BE A SEVEN-FOLD MULTIPLICATION OF HIS WRATH.
Le 26:18,21,24,28
18 ‘If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will discipline you SEVEN TIMES more for your sins. 21 ‘If then, you walk in hostility against Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you SEVEN TIMES according to your sins. 24 then I will walk in hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you SEVEN TIMES for your sins. 28 then I will walk in wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will discipline you SEVEN TIMES for your sins.
WHEN ISRAEL FAILS TO FOLLOW YAHWEH’S STATUTE FROM LEVITICUS 25:1-4, HE DELIVERS THE JUDGEMENT HE PROMISED IN LEVITICUS 26:14-17. ISRAEL BEGINS TO SERVE THE FIRST PORTION OF THE JUDGEMENT GOD HAD PROCLAIMED AGAINST THEM.
Je 25:11 ‘This whole land will be a waste place and an object of horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
WHILE SERVING THIS EXILE FROM THEIR LAND IN BABYLON, GOD, THROUGH HIS PROPHET EZEKIEL, TELLS ISRAEL EXACTLY HOW LONG THEY WILL BE PUNISHED. HE DECLARES HOW LONG THEY WILL BEAR THE INIQUITY OF THEIR SIN, INCAPABLE OF POSSESSING THE COVENANT INHERITANCE – THE LAND OF CANAAN, THE TRIBAL ALLOTMENT TO THE SONS OF ISRAEL. A YEAR FOR EACH DAY FOR ISRAEL (390), AND YEAR FOR EACH DAY FOR JUDAH (40). 430 YEARS.
Eze 4:4–6 “Now as for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. 5 “Now I have set a number of days for you corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 “And you shall complete these, and you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have set it for you for forty days, a day for each year.
IN THE SUMMER OF 537 BC, THE ISRAELITES RETURNED TO JERUSALEM. THEY WERE IN EXILE FOR 70 YEARS. OF THE 430 YEARS GOD DECLARED THEY WOULD BEAR THEIR INIQUITY; THEY HAD 360 YEARS OF THE JUDGEMENT STILL OWED.
Ezr 5:13 ‘However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this house of God.
THE ISRAELITES UPON THEIR RETURN TO THE LAND, DO NOT RETURN TO THE SHMITA (THE PRACTICE OF GIVING THE LAND ITS SABBATH), THEREBY INVOKING THE 7-FOLD INCREASE OF THE EXILE JUDGEMENT. THE 360 YEARS OF EXILE REMAINING, ARE NOW 2,520 YEARS.
Le 26:33–35 ‘You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste. 34 ‘Then the land will make up for its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, and you will be in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and make up for its sabbaths. 35 ‘All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it.
ALL OF THESE JUDGEMENTS WERE COUNTED ACCORDING TO THE LAW OF MOSES AND THE CALENDARS OF THE JEWS. THE JEWISH CALENDAR HAS MONTHS OF EXACTLY 30 DAYS, MARKING YEARS OF EXACTLY 360 DAYS. 2,520 YEARS TIMES 360 DAYS IS 907,200 DAYS. ON 14 MAY 1948, GOD RELENTED FROM HIS EXILE OF ISRAEL’S FROM THE LAND, AS THE JEWISH PEOPLE ONCE AGAIN FORMED A NATION ON THE LAND PROMISED TO THEM BY GOD. 907,200 DAYS BEFORE THIS, WAS 21 JULY 537 BC. THAT IS THE CLOSEST RECORD WE CAN NOW MARK TO THE DAY CYRUS DECREED THE JEWS REBUILD THE TEMPLE.
Le 26:42–45 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. 43 ‘For the land will be forsaken by them and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making up for their iniquity because they rejected My judgments and their soul loathed My statutes. 44 ‘Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so loathe them as to bring an end to them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God. 45 ‘But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am Yahweh.’”

Despite the apparent disconnect between the previous chapter's penalty for the transgressions of Yahweh's statutes and the transition here to the restitution made for vows, the sequence is neither random nor a Masoretic editorial error. Most previous commentary on Lev 26 has failed to make the connection between Yahweh's prophetic statute therein ("if, instead, you reject My statutes," Le 26:15a) and the consequence Israel paid for their negligence of the law concerning the Promised Land (‘If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will discipline you seven times more for your sins." Le 26:18). Yahweh declared and enforced that the land belonged to Him. By closing the commandments in this manner ("These are the commandments which Yahweh commanded Moses for the sons of Israel at Mount Sinai." v34), Yahweh is ensuring the sons of Israel understand that ALL things consecrated as holy belong to Him. This applies to persons (vv2-8), animals (vv9-13), homes (vv14-15), and fields (vv16-24). It is to have the same standard for valuation (v25). That which already belongs to Yahweh may not be set apart for Him as if it did not already belong to Him (vv26-27). And if someone/thing is devoted (condemned or "put under the ban") to Yahweh (vv28-29), there is no redemption available. The act of devoting something or someone to Yahweh was rare in Israel except in cases of war when the Israelites would devote their enemies to Yahweh. Sacrifices, whether clean or unclean (v27), are most holy to Yahweh (v28). This principle reinforces our understanding of God using evil for good, just as Joseph understood and declared to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good,” Joseph said to his brothers, “in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” The conclusion of the chapter brings the land (v30) fully back into our understanding of the principle of holiness, as all things are God's, and we are expected to demonstrate our understanding of this in our tithes to Him (vv30-33).