December 1, 2009 (Leviticus 24-27)

I'm done with Leviticus today...makes me happy! I think what I got from this book is that God requires obedience and He expects us to live differently. He also promises His blessing for obedience, and His chastisement for disobedience; yet His chastisement is done to get our attention so that we will repent, and put ourselves back in the place of blessing.

^{Leviticus 25:18} “If you want to live securely in the land, follow my decrees and obey my regulations. ¹⁹ Then the land will yield large crops, and you will eat your fill and live securely in it.

^{Leviticus 26:3} “If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, ⁴ I will send you the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. ⁵ Your threshing season will overlap with the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will overlap with the season of planting grain. You will eat your fill and live securely in your own land.

^{Leviticus 26:9} “I will look favorably upon you, making you fertile and multiplying your people. And I will fulfill my covenant with you. ¹⁰ You will have such a surplus of crops that you will need to clear out the old grain to make room for the new harvest! ¹¹ I will live among you, and I will not despise you. ¹² I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people. ¹³ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high. ¹⁴ “However, if you do not listen to me or obey all these commands, ¹⁵ and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands, ¹⁶ I will punish you.

In thinking of what God requires of us, I thought of this verse:

^{Micah 6:8} No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,
and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.

And if we say, that's old testament, but that has been put aside with the coming of Christ. Then what is God's will? My search of "God's will" was interesting....

^{Romans 12:2} Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

^{I Thessalonians 4:3} God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.

^{Hebrews 10:10} For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

^{Hebrews 10:36} Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

^{I Peter 2:15} It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you.

And now, for perhaps the toughest:

^{I Thessalonians 5:17} Never stop praying. ¹⁸ Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

If only I could live by that last verse. Will try to keep that in the forefront of my mind today.