‘If you live by my regulations, observe my commands and obey them; then I will provide the rain you need in its season, the land will yield its produce, and the trees in the field will yield their fruit. Your threshing time will extend until the grape harvest, and your grape harvesting will extend until the time for sowing seed. You will eat as much food as you want and live securely in your land.”-Leviticus 26:3-5
In Leviticus chapter 26, the first blessing YHWH promises to his people is that He will send them rain WHEN THEY NEED IT AT THE PERFECT TIMING.
In our hyper-tech modern age society we might not think much about rain as being a blessing but understand in a purely agrarian society as ancient Israel was, rain was everything.
Without the basics of water to feed crops, it really didn’t matter what else you had.
In verse 5, the Lord promises that the rain will be so abundant that they’ll always have more than enough to satisfy them.
Moving on, the next blessing promised is the one thing that eludes modern Israel today, that the Hebrews will have peace in the land.
Before we begin diving deep into the next series of blessings, there’s something interesting I want you to notice about BOTH the blessings and curses that come from the Lord.
Notice that YHWH says “I will provide the rain…”
The point is that our God is an ACTIVE God who intervenes and takes action to cause blessings to flow.
This is quite different than just allowing blessings to flow which is passive in nature.
God is not some impersonal pantheistic universal force like the eastern religions teach.
He is a personal being who ACTIVELY causes His Will to come about.
This should be greatly reassuring to us.
YHWH WILL cause security to happen.
He WILL bring about peace with our neighbors.
He WILL provide the things we need at the right time and in the perfect amounts.
So stop worrying all the time.
Now I wouldn’t be doing my job if I also didn’t let you know the opposite side of the coin containing the curses is also true.
Towards those who disobey His Torah, He WILL cause calamities to occur and He WILL bring about judgments.
This idea goes against much of what the church implies in their teaching.
The prevalent idea seems to be that once one is saved, one has somehow been inoculated against any divinely directed consequences for sins committed.
It’s like YHWH has somehow been transformed into a loving old grandfather who winks and nods at our transgressions as if observing a cute 3-year old swiping a chocolate chip cookie off of somebody else’s plate.
I’ve got to tell you, that from Genesis to Revelation, that’s NOT what the Scripture says.
If anything, our salvation may bring about more divinely directed consequences for our sin than before being saved.
Because now that we’re part of God’s family, the pressure is on and we are expected to obey YHWH’s Torah.
If you’ve ever questioned why bad things happen to you, or to others, take a good look at your behavior in light of God’s Torah.
Because you may be experiencing heavenly discipline from our Father on High.
Being Saved is about being delivered from the evil in the world. The modern concept of saved (I’m not going to hell) is not supported by the OT or Judaism. The correct concept is washing of our souls or minds so that we walk pleasing to God. The result is being Saved from the consequences of our sin in this life and washed so that we walk less in our corruption. John the Baptist father states it well when speaks about being delivered from our enemies and Evil in this world. Saved is here and now and not pie in the sky. Jesus brought salvation to all who came to him. ie: the blind see, the lame walk, the dead hear, the demons are cast out, the issue of blood is stopped, people are raised from the dead. Deut 28:1-14
If we will fully sin, then we bring evil on ourselves. The devil roams aboat as a roaring. For us he is in a cage till we stick our hand in or worse open the door.