THE PROMISES AND THREATS
OF THE COVENANT
Lev 26:1-46
ONE would have expected that this chapter would have been the
last in the book of Leviticus, for it forms a natural and fitting
close to the whole law as hitherto recorded. But whatever may have
been the reason of its present literary form, the fact remains that
while this chapter is, in outward form, the conclusion of the
Levitical law, another chapter follows it in the manner of an
appendix.
Chapter 26 opens with these words (Lev 26:1-2): "Ye shall make you
no idols, neither shall ye rear you up a graven image, or a pillar,
neither shall ye place any figured stone in your land, to bow down
unto it: for I am the Lord your God. Ye shall keep My sabbaths, and
reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord."
These verses, as they stand in the English versions as a preface to
this chapter, at first sight seem but distantly related to what
follows; and the Chaldee paraphrast and others have therefore
appended them to the preceding chapter. But with that they have even
less evident connection. The thought of the editor of this part of
the canon, however, seems to have been that the three commands which
are here repeated might be regarded as presenting a compendious
summary, in its fundamental principles, of the whole law, the
promises and threatenings attached to which immediately follow. And
the more we think upon these commands and what they involve, the
more evident will appear the fitness of their selection from the
whole law to introduce this chapter.
The commands which are here repeated are three: namely,
(1) a detailed prohibition of idolatry in the forms then chiefly
prevalent;
(2) an injunction to observe God’s sabbaths; and
(3) to reverence His sanctuary.
Inasmuch as the various forms of idol worship, which are here
forbidden, all involved the recognition of gods other than Jehovah,
it is plain that Lev 26:1 is in effect inclusive of the first and
second commandments of the decalogue. The injunction to keep God’s
sabbaths, although in principle including all the sabbatic times
previously appointed, evidently refers especially to the weekly
sabbath of the fourth commandment; while the command to reverence
the sanctuary of Jehovah covers in principle the ground of the
third. And thus, in fact, these three injunctions essentially
include the four commands of the decalogue which have to do with
man’s duty to God, and are thus fundamental to all other duties,
both to God and man. Very appropriately, then, are these verses
given here as a brief summary of the law to which the following
promises and threatenings are annexed. And their suitableness to
that which follows is the more clear when we remember that the
weekly sabbath, in particular, is elsewhere {Exo 31:12-17} declared
to be a sign of God’s covenant with Israel, to which these promises
and threats belong; and that the presence of Jehovah’s sanctuary
also, which they are here charged to reverence, was a continual
visible witness among them of the special presence of God in Israel
in pursuance of that covenant.
After this pertinent summation of the most fundamental commands of
the law, the remainder of the chapter contains, first (Lev 26:3-13),
promises of blessing from God, in case they shall obey this law;
secondly (Lev 26:14-39), threats of chastising judgment, in case
they disobey: and, thirdly (Lev 26:40-45), a prediction of their
final repentance, and promise of their gracious restoration
thereupon to the favour of God, and the everlasting endurance of
God’s covenant to preserve them in existence as a nation. The
chapter then closes (Lev 26:46) with the declaration: "These are the
statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between Him and
the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses."
THE PROMISES OF THE
COVENANT
Lev 26:3-13
"If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do
them; then I will give your rains in their season, and the land
shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield
their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and
the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your
bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give
peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you
afraid: and I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land,
neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase
your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five
of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten
thousand: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. And I
will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you;
and I will establish My covenant with you. And ye shall eat old
store long kept, and ye shall bring forth the old because of the
new. And 1 will set My tabernacle among you: and My soul shall not
abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye
shall be My people. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth
out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen and I
have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright."
The promises of the covenant are thus to the effect that if Israel
shall keep the law, God will give them rain and fruitful seasons,
harvests so abundant that the "threshing shall reach unto the
vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time"; internal
security; deliverance from the wild beasts, which are still such a
scourge in many parts of the East; and such power and spirit, that
no enemy shall be able to stand before them, but five of them shall
chase a hundred, and a hundred chase ten thousand. Then (Lev 26:9)
is renewed the promise, given long before to Abraham, of a great
increase in their numbers; and thereupon, very naturally, is
repeated the promise of abundant harvests, so that notwithstanding
they shall be so multiplied, one year’s harvest should not be
consumed before it would have to be removed from the granaries to
make room for the new (Lev 26:10). And then this section ends with
the assurance which secures all other blessings, temporal and
spiritual, that God will abide among them in His tabernacle, and
will be their God, and they shall be His people. And the fulfilment
of all this is guaranteed by the person, the purpose, and the past
dealing of the Promiser; Himself, Jehovah; His purpose, to deliver
them from bondage; and His past mercy, in breaking the bands of
their yoke.
"THE VENGEANCE OF THE
COVENANT"
Lev 26:14-46
"But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these
commandments; and if ye shall reject My statutes, and if your soul
abhor My judgments, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but
break My covenant; I also will do this unto you; I will appoint
terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the
eyes, and make the soul to pine away: and ye shall sow your seed in
vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set My face against
you, and ye shall be smitten before your enemies: they that hate you
shall rule over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. And
if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto me, then I will
chastise you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the
pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your
earth as brass: and your strength shall be spent in vain: for your
land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the
land yield their fruit. And if ye walk contrary unto Me, and will
not hearken unto Me I will bring seven times more plagues upon you
according to your sins. And I will send the beast of the field among
you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle,
and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate. And
if by these things ye will not be reformed unto Me, but will walk
contrary unto Me; then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I
will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins. And I will bring
a sword upon you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant
and ye shall be gathered together within your cities: and I will
send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the
hand of the enemy. When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall
bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again
by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. And if ye will
not for all this hearken unto Me; but walk contrary unto Me; then I
will walk contrary unto you in fury; and I also will chastise you
seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons,
and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will destroy
your high places, and cut down your sun images, and cast your
carcases upon the carcases of your idols; and My soul shall abhor
you. And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your
sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your
sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desolation: and your
enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And you will
I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after
you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a
waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth
desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land
rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall
have rest; even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths when ye
dwelt upon it. And as for them that are left of you I will send a
faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and the
sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one
fleeth from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. And
they shall stumble one upon another, as it were before the sword,
when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your
enemies. And ye shall perish among the nations, and the land of your
enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine
away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the
iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. And they
shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in
their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and also that
because they have walked contrary unto Me, I also walked contrary
unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then
their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the
punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember My covenant with
Jacob; and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with
Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. The land also
shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth
desolate without them; and they shall accept of the punishment of
their iniquity: because, even because they rejected My judgments,
and their soul abhorred My statutes. And yet for all that, when they
be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither
will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant
with them: for I am the Lord their God: but I will for their sakes
remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out
of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be
their God: I am the Lord. These are the statutes and judgments and
laws, which the Lord made between Him and the children of Israel in
mount Sinai by the hand of Moses."
So, if Israel should not obey the commandments of the Lord, but
break that covenant which they had made with Him, when they had said
unto the Lord: {Exo 24:7} "All that the Lord hath spoken will we do,
and be obedient"; then they are threatened, first in a general way
(Lev 26:14-17) with terrible judgments, which shall reverse, and
more than reverse, all the blessings. God will appoint over them
"terror"; disease shall ravage them, consumption and fever; their
enemies shall lay waste the land, defeat them in battle, and rule
over them; and instead of five of them chasing a hundred, they
should flee when none was pursuing (Lev 26:17-18). Then follow four
series of threats, each conditioned by the supposition that through
what they should have already experienced of Jehovah’s judgment they
should not repent; each also introduced by the formula, "I will
chastise (or "smite") you seven times for your sins." In these four
times repeated series of denunciations, thus introduced, we are not
to insist that numerical precision was intended; neither can we,
with some, give to the "seven times" a numerical or temporal
reference. The thought which runs through all these denunciations,
and determines the form which they take, is this: that the judgments
threatened as to follow each new display of hardness and impenitence
on the part of Israel shall be marked by continually increasing
severity; and the phrase "seven times," by the reference to the
sacred number "seven," intimates that the vengeance should be "the
vengeance of the covenant" (Lev 26:25), and also the awful
thoroughness and completeness with which the threatened judgments,
in case of their continued obduracy, would be inflicted.
This interpretation is sustained by the details of each section. The
first series (Lev 26:18-20), in which the threatenings of Lev
26:14-17 are developed, adds to what had been previously threatened,
the withholding of harvest for lack of rain. He who had promised to
send the rains "in their season," if they were obedient, now
declares that if they will not hearken unto Him for the other
chastisements before denounced, He will "make their heaven as iron,
and their earth as brass." The second series threatens in addition
their devastation by wild beasts, which shall rob them of their
children and their cattle; and also, in consequence of these great
judgments, with a great diminution of their numbers. The third
series (Lev 26:23-26) repeats under forms still more intense, the
threats of sword, pestilence, and famine. The staff of bread shall
be broken, and when, stricken with pestilence, they are gathered
together in their cities, one oven shall suffice ten women for their
baking, and bread shall be distributed by rations and in
insufficient quantity (Lev 26:25-26).
It is intimated that with these extraordinary judgments it shall
become increasingly evident that it is Jehovah who is thus dealing
with them for the breach of His covenant. This is suggested (Lev
26:24) by the emphatic use of the personal pronoun in the Hebrew,
only to be rendered in English by a stress of voice; and by the
declaration (Lev 26:25) that the sword which should be brought upon
them should "execute the vengeance of the covenant."
The same remark applies with still more emphasis to the next and
last of these subsections (Lev 26:27-39), the terrific denunciations
of which are introduced by these words, which almost seem to flash
with the fire of God’s avenging wrath: "If ye will walk contrary
unto Me; then I will walk contrary unto you in fury (lit., " I will
walk with you in fury of opposition"); and I also will chastise you
seven times for your sins." All that has been threatened before is
here repeated with every circumstance which could add terror to the
picture. Was famine threatened? it shall be so awful in its severity
that they shall eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters. The
high places which had been the scenes of their licentious worship
should be destroyed, and the "sun images" which they had worshipped,
going after Baal, should be cut down; and, in visible sign of the
Divine wrath and of God’s holy contempt for the impotent idols for
which they had forsaken the Lord, upon the fallen idols should lie
the dead corpses of their worshippers. The sanctuaries (with
special, -though, perhaps, not exclusive, -reference, as the
following words show, to the holy places of Jehovah’s tabernacle or
temple) should become a desolation; the sweet savour of their
sacrifices should be rejected. The holy people should be scattered
into other lands; the land should become so desolate that those of
their enemies who should dwell in it should themselves be astonished
at its transformation. And so. while they should be scattered in
their enemies’ land, the land would "enjoy her sabbaths"; i.e., it
should thus, untilled and desolate, enjoy the rest which Jehovah had
commanded them to give the land each seventh year, which they had
not observed. Meanwhile, the condition of the banished nation in the
lands of their captivity should be most pitiful: minished in number,
those that were left alive should pine away in their iniquities, and
in the iniquity of their fathers; timid and broken spirited, they
should flee before the sound of a broken leaf, and the land of their
enemies should "eat them up."
And herewith ends the second section of this remarkable prophecy.
Promising Israel the highest prosperity in the land of Canaan, if
they will keep the words of this covenant, it threatens them with
successive judgments of sword, famine, and pestilence, of
continually increasing severity, to culminate, if they yet persist
in disobedience, in their expulsion from the land for a prolonged
period; and predicts their continued existence, despite the most
distressing conditions, in the lands of their enemies, while their
own land meanwhile lies desolate and untilled without them.
The fundamental importance and instructiveness of this prophecy is
evident from the fact that all later predictions concerning the
fortunes of Israel are but its more detailed exposition and
application to successive historical conditions. Still more evident
is its profound significance when we recall to mind the fact,
disputed by none, that not only is it an epitome of all later
prophecy of Holy Scripture concerning Israel, but, no less truly, an
epitome of Israel’s history. So strictly true is this that we may
accurately describe the history of that nation, from the days of
Moses until now, as but the translation of this chapter from the
language of prediction into that of history.
The facts which illustrate this statement are so familiar that one
scarcely needs to refer to them. The numerous visitations in the
days of the Judges, when again and again the people were given into
the hands of their enemies for their sins, and so often as then they
repented, were again and again delivered; the heavier judgments of
later days, first in the days of the earlier kings, and afterwards
culminating in the captivity of the ten tribes, following the siege
and capture of Samaria, 721 B.C., and, still later, the terrible
siege and capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, 586 B.C., to the
horrors of which the Lamentations of Jeremiah bear most sorrowful
witness; -what were all these events, with others of lesser
importance, but a historical unfolding of this twenty-sixth chapter
of Leviticus?
And how, since Old Testament days, this prophecy has been
continually illustrated in Israel’s history, is, or should be,
familiar to all. As apostasy has succeeded to apostasy, judgment has
followed upon judgment. To a Nebuchadnezzar succeeded an Antiochus
Epiphanes; and, after the Greco-Syrian judgment, then, following the
supreme national crime of the rejection and crucifixion of their
promised Messiah, came the Roman captivity, the most terrible of
all; a judgment continued even until now in the eighteen hundred
years of Israel’s exile from the land of the covenant, and their
scattering among the nations, -eighteen hundred years of tragic
suffering, such as no other nation has ever known, or, knowing, has
yet survived; sufferings which are still exhibited before the eyes
of all the world today in the bitter experiences of the four
millions of Jews in the Empire of the Czar, and the persecutions of
Anti-Shemitism in other lands.
Existing, rather than living, under such conditions for centuries,
as a natural result, the Jewish people became few in number, as here
predicted; having been reduced from not less than seven or eight
millions in the days of the kingdom, to a minimum, about two hundred
years ago, of not more than three millions. And, strangest of all,
throughout this time the once fertile land has lain desolate, for
the Gentiles have never settled in it in any great number; and in
place of a population of five hundred to the square mile in the days
of Solomon, we find now only a few hundred thousand miserable
people, and the most of the land, for lack of cultivation, in such a
condition that nothing can easily exceed its desolation. And when we
have said all this, and much more that might be said without
exaggeration, we have but simply testified that Lev 26:31-34 of this
chapter have in the fullest possible sense become historical fact.
For it was written (Lev 26:32-34):
"I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell
therein shall be astonished at it. And you will I scatter among the
nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land
shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then shall
the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be
in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her
sabbaths."
These facts make this chapter to he an apologetic of prime
importance. It is this, because we have here evidence of
foreknowledge, and therefore of the supernatural inspiration of the
Holy Spirit of God in the prophecy here recorded. The facts cannot
be adequately explained, either on the supposition of fortunate
guessing or of accidental coincidence. It was not indeed impossible
to forecast on natural grounds that Israel would become corrupt, or
that, if so, they should experience disaster in consequence of their
moral depravation. For God has not one law for Israel and another
for other nations. Nor does the argument rest on the details of
these threatened judgments, as consisting in the sword, famine, and
pestilence; for other nations have experienced these calamities,
though, indeed, few in equal measure with Israel; and of these one
has a natural dependence on another.
But setting aside these elements of the prophecy, as of less
apologetic significance, two particulars yet remain in which this
predicted experience has been unique, and antecedently to the event
in so high degree improbable, that we can reasonably think here
neither of shrewd human forecast nor of chance agreement of
prediction and fulfilment. The one is the predicted survival of
exiled Israel as a nation in the land of their enemies, their
indestructibility throughout centuries of unequalled suffering; the
other, the extraordinary fact that their land, so rich and fertile,
which was at that time and for centuries afterwards one of the
principal highways of the world’s commerce and travel, the coveted
possession of many nations from a remote antiquity, should during
the whole period of Israel’s banishment remain comparatively
unoccupied and untilled.
As regards the former particular, we may search history in vain for
a similar phenomenon. Here is a people who, at their best, as
compared with many other nations, such as the Egyptians,
Babylonians, and Romans, were few in number and in material
resources; who now have been scattered from their land for
centuries, crushed and oppressed always, in a degree and for a
length of time never experienced by any other people; yet never
merging in the nations with whom they were mingled, or losing in the
least their peculiar racial characteristics and distinct national
identity. This, although now for a long time matter of history, was
yet, a priori, so improbable that all history records no other
instance of the kind; and yet all this had to be if those words of
Lev 26:44 were to prove true: "When they be in the land of their
enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to
destroy them utterly." With abundant reason has Professor Christlieb
referred to this fact as an unanswerable apologetic, thus:
"We point to the people of Israel as a perennial historical miracle.
The continued existence of this nation up to the present day, the
preservation of its national peculiarities throughout thousands of
years, in spite of all dispersion and oppression, remains so
unparalleled a phenomenon, that without the special providential
preparation of God, and His constant interference and protection, it
would be impossible for us to explain it. For where else is there a
people over which such judgments have passed, and yet not ended in
destruction?"
No less remarkable and significant is the long-continued
depopulation of the land of Israel. For it was and is by nature a
richly fertile land; and at the time of this prediction-whether it
be assigned to an earlier or later period - it was upon one of the
chief commercial and military routes of theworld, and its possession
has thus been an object of ambition to all the dominant nations of
history. Surely, one would have expected that if Israel should be
cast out of such a land, it would at once and always be occupied by
others who should cultivate its proverbially productive soil. But it
was not to be so, for it had been otherwise written. And yet it
seems as if it had scarcely been possible that through all these
later centuries of the history of Christendom, the land could have
thus lain desolate, except for the so momentous discovery in 1497 of
the Cape route to India, by which event - which no one could in so
remote days have well anticipated-the tide of commerce with the East
was turned away from Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. to the Atlantic
and the Indian Oceans; so that the land of Israel was left, like a
city made to stand solitary in a desert by the shifting of the
channel of a river; and its predicted desolation thus went on to
receive its most complete, consummate, and now long-realised
fulfilment.
So, then, stands the case. It is truly difficult to understand how
one can fairly escape the inference from these facts, namely, that
they imply in this chapter such a prescience of the future as is not
possible to man, and therefore demonstrate that the Spirit of God
must, in the deepest and truest sense, have been the author of these
predictions of the future of the chosen people and their land.
And it is of the very first importance, with reference to the
controversies of our day regarding this question, that we note the
fact that the argument is of such a nature that it is not in the
least dependent upon the date that any may have assigned to the
origin of this chapter. Even though we should, with Graf and
Wellhausen, attribute its composition to exilian or postexilian
times, it would still remain true that the chapter contained
unmistakable predictions regarding the nation and the land;
predictions which, if fulfilled, no doubt, in a degree, in the days
of the Babylonian exile and the return, were yet to receive a
fulfilment far more minute, exhaustive, and impressive, in centuries
which then were still in a far distant future. But if this be
granted, it is plain that these facts impose a limitation upon the
conclusions of criticism. That only is true science which takes into
view all the facts with respect to any phenomenon for which one
seeks to account; and in this case the facts which are to be
explained by any theory, are not merely peculiarities of style and
vocabulary, etc., but also this phenomenon of a demonstrably
predictive element in the chapter; a phenomenon which requires for
its explanation the assumption of a supernatural inspiration as one
of the factors in its authorship. But if this is so, how can we
reconcile with such a Divine inspiration any theory which makes the
last statement of the chapter, that "these are the statutes which
the Lord made in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses," to be untrue,
and the preceding "laws" to be thus, in plain language, a forgery of
exilian or post-exilian times?
THE LAW OF THE TITHE
Lev 26:30-33
"And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land
or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the
Lord. And if a man will redeem aught of his tithe, he shall add unto
it the fifth part thereof. And all the tithe of the herd or the
flock, whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy
unto the Lord. He shall not search whether it be good or bad,
neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it
and that for which it is changed shall be holy; it shall not be
redeemed."
Last of all these exclusions from the vow is mentioned the tithe.
"Whether of the seed of the land, or of the herd, or of the flock,"
it is declared to be "holy unto the Lord; it is the Lord’s." That
because of this it cannot be given to the Lord by a special vow,
although not formally stated, is self-evident. No man can give away
what belongs to another, or give God what He has already. In Num
18:21 it is said that this tenth should be given "unto the children
of Levi for the service of the tent of meeting."
Most extraordinary is the contention of Wellhausen and others, that
since in Deuteronomy no tithe is mentioned other than of the product
of the land, therefore, because of the mention here also of a tithe
of the herd and the flock, we must infer that we have here a late
interpolation into the "priest code," marking a time when now the
exactions of the priestly caste had been extended to the utmost
limit. This is not the place to go into the question of the relation
of the law of Deuteronomy to that which we have here; but we should
rather, with Dillmann, from the same premisses argue the exact
opposite, namely, that we have here the very earliest form of the
tithe law. For that an ordinance so extending the rights of the
priestly class should have been "smuggled" into the Sinaitic laws
after the days of Nehemiah, as Wellhausen, Reuss, and Kuenen
suppose, is simply "unthinkable"; while, on the other hand, when we
find already in Gen 28:22 Jacob promising unto the Lord the tenth of
all that He should give him, at a time when he was living the life
of a nomad herdsman, it is inconceivable that he should have meant
"all, excepting the increase of the flocks and herds," which were
his chief possession.
The truth is that the dedication of a tithe, in various forms, as an
acknowledgment of dependence upon and reverence to God, is one of
the most widely-spread and best-attested practices of the most
remote antiquity. We read of it among the Romans, the Greeks, the
ancient Pelasgians, the Carthaginians, and the Phoenicians; and in
the Pentateuch, in full accord with all this, we find not only
Jacob, as in the passage cited, but, at a yet earlier time, Abraham,
more than four hundred years before Moses, giving tithes to
Melchizedek. The law, in the exact form in which we have it here, is
therefore in perfect harmony with all that we know of the customs
both of the Hebrews and surrounding peoples, from a time even much
earlier than that of the Exodus.
Very naturally the reference to the tithe, as thus from of old
belonging to the Lord, and therefore incapable of being vowed, gives
occasion to other regulations respecting it. Like unclean animals,
houses, and lands which had been vowed, so also the tithe, or any
part of it, might be redeemed by the individual for his own use,
upon payment of the usual mulct of one-fifth additional to its
assessed value. So also it is further ordered, with special regard
to the tithe of the herd and the flock, "that whatsoever passeth
under the rod," i.e., whatever is counted, as the manner was, by
being made to pass into or out of the fold under the herdsman’s
staff, "the tenth" - that is, every tenth animal as in its turn it
comes-"shall be holy to the Lord." The owner was not to search
whether the animal thus selected was good or bad, nor change it, so
as to give the Lord a poorer animal, and keep a better one for
himself; and if he broke this law, then, as in the case of the
unclean beast vowed, as the penalty he was to forfeit to the
sanctuary both the original and its attempted substitute, and also
lose the right of redemption.
A very practical question emerges just here, as to the continued
obligation of this law of the tithe. Although we hear nothing of the
tithe in the first Christian centuries, it began to be advocated in
the fourth century by Jerome, Augustine, and others, and, as is well
known, the system of ecclesiastical tithing soon became established
as the law of the Church. Although the system by no means
disappeared with the Reformation, but passed from the Roman into the
Reformed Churches, yet the modern spirit has become more and more
adverse to the mediaeval system, till, with the progressive
hostility in society to all connection of the Church and the State,
and in the Church the development of a sometimes exaggerated
voluntaryism, tithing as a system seems likely to disappear
altogether, as it has already from the most of Christendom.
But in consequence of this, and the total severance of the Church
from the State, in the United States and the Dominion of Canada, the
necessity of securing adequate provision for the maintenance and
extension of the Church, is more and more directing the attention of
those concerned in the practical economics of the Church, to this
venerable institution of the tithe as the solution of many
difficulties. Among such there are many who, while quite opposed to
any enforcement of a law of tithing for the benefit of the Church by
the civil power, nevertheless earnestly maintain that the law of the
tithe, as we have it here, is of permanent obligation and binding on
the conscience of every Christian. What is the truth in the matter?
in particular, what is the teaching of the New Testament?
In attempting to settle for ourselves this question, it is to be
observed, in order to clear thinking on this subject, that in the
law of the tithe as here declared there are two elements-the one
moral, the other legal, -which should be carefully distinguished.
First and fundamental is the principle that it is our duty to set
apart to God a certain fixed proportion of our income. The other
and-technically speaking-positive element in the law is that which
declares that the proportion to be given to the Lord is precisely
one tenth. Now, of these two, the first principle is distinctly
recognised and reaffirmed in the New Testament as of continued
validity in this dispensation; while, on the other hand, as to the
precise proportion of our income to be thus set apart for the Lord,
the New Testament writers are everywhere silent.
As regards the first principle, the Apostle Paul, writing to the
Corinthians, orders that "on the first day of the week"-the day of
the primitive Christian worship-"everyone shall lay by him in store,
as God hath prospered him." He adds that he had given the same
command also to the Churches of Galatia. {1Co 16:1-2} This most
clearly gives apostolic sanction to the fundamental principle of the
tithe, namely, that a definite portion of our income should be set
apart for God. While, on the other hand, neither in this connection,
where a mention of the law of the tithe might naturally have been
expected, if it had been still binding as to the letter, nor in any
other place does either the Apostle Paul or any other New Testament
writer intimate that the Levitical law, requiring the precise
proportion of a tenth, was still in force; -a fact which is the more
noteworthy that so much is said of the duty of Christian
benevolence.
To this general statement with regard to the testimony of the New
Testament on this subject, the words of our Lord to the Pharisees,
{Mat 23:23} regarding their tithing of "mint and anise and cummin"-"these
ye ought to have done"-cannot be taken as an exception, or as
proving that the law is binding for this dispensation; for the
simple reason that the present dispensation had not at that time yet
begun, and those to whom He spoke were still under the Levitical
law, the authority of which He there reaffirms. From these facts we
conclude that the law of these verses, in so far as it requires the
setting apart to God of a certain definite proportion of our income,
is doubtless of continued and lasting obligation; but that, in so
far as it requires from all alike the exact proportion of one tenth,
it is binding on the conscience no longer.
Nor is it difficult to see why the New Testament should not lay down
this or any other precise proportion of giving to income, as a
universal law. It is only according to the characteristic usage of
the New Testament law to leave to the individual conscience very
much regarding the details of worship and conduct, which under the
Levitical law was regulated by specific rules; which the Apostle
Paul explains {Gal 4:1-5} by reference to the fact that the earlier
method was intended for and adapted to a lower and more immature
stage of religious development; even as a child, during his
minority, is kept under guardians and stewards, from whose
authority, when he comes of age, he is free.
But, still further, it seems to be often forgotten by those who
argue for the present and permanent obligation of this law, that it
was here for the first time formally appointed by God as a binding
law, in connection with a certain divinely instituted system of
theocratic government, which, if carried out, would, as we have
seen, effectively prevent excessive accumulations of wealth in the
hands of individuals, and thus secure for the Israelites, in a
degree the world has never seen, an equal distribution of property.
In such a system it is evident that it would be possible to exact a
certain fixed and definite proportion of income for sacred purposes,
with the certainty that the requirement would work with perfect
justice and fairness to all. But with us, social and economic
conditions are so very different, wealth is so very unequally
distributed, that no such law as that of the tithe could be made to
work otherwise than unequally and unfairly. To the very poor it must
often be a heavy burden; to the very rich, a proportion so small as
to be a practical exemption. While, for the former, the law, if
insisted on, would sometimes require a poor man to take bread out of
the mouth of wife and children, it would still leave the millionaire
with thousands to spend on needless luxuries. The latter might often
more easily give nine tenths of his income than the former could
give one twentieth.
It is thus no surprising thing that the inspired men who laid the
foundations of the New Testament Church did not reaffirm the law of
the tithe as to the letter. And yet, on the other hand, let us not
forget that the law of the tithe, as regards the moral element of
the law, is still in force. It forbids the Christian to leave, as so
often, the amount he will give for the Lord’s work, to impulse and
caprice. Statedly and conscientiously he is to "lay by him in store
as the Lord hath prospered him." If any ask how much should the
proportion be, one might say that by fair inference the tenth might
safely be taken as an average minimum of giving, counting rich and
poor together. But the New Testament {2Co 8:7; 2Co 8:9} answers
after a different and most characteristic manner: "See that ye
abound in this grace For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye
through His poverty might become rich." Let there be but regular and
systematic giving to the Lord’s work, under the law of a fixed
proportion of gifts to income, and under the holy inspiration of
this sacred remembrance of the grace of our Lord, and then the
Lord’s treasury will never be empty, nor the Lord be robbed of His
tithe.
And so hereupon the book of Leviticus closes with the formal
declaration- referring, no doubt, strictly speaking, to the
regulations of this lastchapter-that "these are the commandments,
which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount
Sinai." The words as explicitly assert Mosaic origin and authority
for these last laws of the book, as the opening words asserted the
same for the law of the offerings with which it begins. The
significance of these repeated declarations respecting the origin
and authority of the laws contained in this book has been repeatedly
pointed out, and nothing further need be added here.
To sum up all:-what the Lord, in this book of Leviticus, has said,
was not for Israel alone. The supreme lesson of this law is for men
now, for the Church of the New Testament as well. For the individual
and for the nation, HOLINESS, consisting in full consecration of
body and soul to the Lord, and separation from all that defileth, is
the Divine ideal, to the attainment of which Jew and Gentile alike
are called. And the only way of its attainment is through the
atoning Sacrifice, and the mediation of the High Priest appointed of
God; and the only evidence of its attainment is a joyful obedience,
hearty and unreserved, to all the commandments of God. For us all it
stands written: "YE SHALL BE HOLY; FOR I, JEHOVAH, YOUR GOD, AM
HOLY."
THE PROMISED RESTORATION
Lev 26:40-45
"And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their
fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and
also that because they have walked contrary unto Me, I also walked
contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies:
if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept
of the punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember My
covenant with Jacob; and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My
covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths,
while she lieth desolate without them; and they shall accept of the
punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they rejected My
judgments, and their soul abhorred My statutes. And yet for all
that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject
them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly. and to
break My covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God: but I will
for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I
brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations,
that I might be their God: I am the Lord."
This closing section of this extraordinary chapter yet remains to be
considered. It is the most remarkable of all, whether from a
historical or a religious point of view. It declares that even under
so extreme visitations of Divine wrath, and howsoever long Israel’s
stubborn rebellion and impenitence should continue, yet the nation
should never become extinct and pass away. Very impressive are the
words (Lev 26:43-45) which emphasise this prediction: "The land also
shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth
desolate without them; and they shall accept of the punishment of
their iniquity: because, even because they rejected My judgments,
and their soul abhorred My statutes. And yet for all that, when they
be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither
will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant
with them: for I am the Lord their God: but I will for their sakes
remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out
of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be
their God: I am the Lord."
As to what is included in this promise of everlasting covenant
mercy, we are told explicitly (Lev 26:40) that as the final result
of these repeated and long-continued judgments, the children of
Israel "shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their
fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed" against the Lord.
Also they will acknowledge (Lev 26:41) that all these calamities
have been sent upon them by the Lord; that it is because they have
walked contrary unto Him that He has also walked contrary unto them,
and brought them into the land of their enemies. And then follows
the great promise (Lev 26:41-42): "If then their uncircumcised heart
be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their
iniquity; then will I remember My covenant with Jacob; and also My
covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I
remember; and I will remember the land."
These words are very full and explicit. That they have had already a
partial and inadequate fulfilment in the restoration from Babylon,
and the spiritual quickening by which it was accompanied, is not to
be denied. But one only needs to refer to the covenants to which
reference is made, and especially the covenant with Abraham, as
recorded in the book of Genesis, to see that by no possibility can
that Babylonian reatoration be said to have exhausted this prophecy.
Since those earlier days Israel has again forsaken the Lord, and
committed the greatest of all their national sins in the rejection
and crucifixion of the promised Messiah; and therefore, again,
according to the threat of the earlier part of this chapter, they
have been cast out of their land and scattered among the nations,
and the land, again, for centuries has been left a desolation. But
for all this, God’s covenant with Israel has not lapsed, nor, as we
are here formally assured, can it ever lapse. To imagine, with some,
that because of the new dispensation of grace to the Gentiles which
has come in, therefore the promises of this covenant have become
void, is a mistake which is fatal to all right understanding of the
prophetic word. As for the spiritual blessing of true repentance and
a national turning unto God, Zechariah, after the Babylonian
captivity, represents the prediction as yet to have a larger and far
more blessed fulfilment, in a day which, beyond all controversy, has
never yet risen on the world. For it is written: {Zec 12:8-14, Zec
13:1} "In that day I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication;
and they shall look unto Me whom they have pierced: and they shall
mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in
bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn;
all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives
apart. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of
David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for
uncleanness." And that this great promise, which implies by its very
terms the previous "piercing" of the Messiah, is still valid for the
nation in the new dispensation, is expressly testified by the
Apostle Paul, who formally teaches, with regard to Israel, that "God
did not cast off His people which He foreknew"; that "the gifts and
calling of God are without repentance"; and that therefore the days
are surely coming when "all Israel shall be saved". {Rom 11:2; Rom
11:29; Rom 11:26}
And while nothing is said in this chapter of Leviticus as to the
relation of this future repentance of Israel to the establishment of
the kingdom of God, we only speak according to the express teaching
both of the later prophets and of the apostles, when we add that we
are not to think of this covenant of God concerning Israel as of
little consequence to our faith and hope as Christians. For we are
plainly taught, with regard to the present exclusion and impenitence
of Israel, {Rom 11:15} that "the receiving of them" again shall be
as "life from the dead"; which, again, is only what long before had
been declared in the Old Testament; {Psa 102:13-16} that when God
shall arise and have mercy upon Zion, and the set time to have pity
upon her shall come, the nations shall fear the name of the Lord,
and all the kings of the earth His glory.
And while we may grant that the matter is in itself of less moment,
it is yet of importance to observe that the very covenant which
promises spiritual mercy to the people, as explicitly assures us (ver.
42) that, when Israel confesses its sin, God "will remember the
land" as well as the people. All that has been said for the present
and unchangeable validity of the former part of this promise, is of
necessity true for this latter part also. To affirm the former, and
on that ground maintain the faith and expectation of the future
repentance of Israel, and yet deny the latter part of this promise,
which is no less verbally explicit, regarding the land of Israel, is
an inconsistency of interpretation which is as astonishing as it is
common. For the restoration of the scattered nation to their land is
repeatedly promised, as here, in connection with, and yet in clear
distinction from, their conversion, by both the pre- and post-exilian
prophets. And if, for reasons not hard to discover, the promise
concerning the land is not in so many words repeated in the New
Testament. its future fulfilment is yet, to say the least,
distinctly assumed in the prediction of Christ, {Luk 21:24} that
Israel, because of their rejection of Him, should be "led captive
into all the nations, and Jerusalem be trodden down of the
Gentiles,"-not forever, but only-"until the times of the Gentiles be
fulfilled." Surely these words of our Lord imply that, whenever
these "times of the Gentiles" shall have run their course, their
present domination over the Holy City and the Holy Land shall end.
Nor is such a restoration of Israel to their land, with all that it
implies, inconsistent, as some have urged, with the spirit and
principles of the Gospel. Many a Gentile nation is greatly favoured
of the Lord, and, as one mark of that favour, is permitted to abide
in peace and prosperity in their own land. Why should it be any more
alien to the spirit of the Gospel that penitent Israel should be
blessed in like manner, and, upon their turning unto the Lord, also,
like many other nations, be permitted to dwell in peace and safety
in that land which lies almost empty and desolate for them until
this day? And if it be urged that, admitting this interpretation, we
shall also be obliged to admit that Israel is in the future to be
exalted to a position of preeminence among the nations, which,
again, is inconsistent, it is said, with the principles of the
Gospel dispensation, we must again deny this last assertion, and for
a similar reason. If not inconsistent with the Gospel that the
British nation, for example, should today hold a position of
exceptional eminence and world wide influence among the nations, how
can it be inconsistent with the Gospel that Israel, when repentant
before God, should be in like manner exalted of Him to national
eminence and glory?
While in itself this question may be of little consequence, yet in
another aspect it is of no small moment that we steadfastly affirm
the permanent validity of this part of the promise of the covenant
with Israel as given in this chapter. For it is not too much to say
that the logic and the exegesis which make the promise to have
become void with regard to Israel’s land, if accepted, would equally
justify one in affirming the abrogation of the promise of Israel’s
final repentance, if the exigencies of any eschatological theory
should seem to require it. Either both parts of this promise in Lev
26:42 are still valid, or neither is now valid; and if either is
still in force, the other is in force also. These two, the promise
concerning the people, and the promise concerning the land, stand or
fall together.
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