“If you obey me you will be blessed, and if you disobey me you will be cursed.”  That sounds uncomfortably close to works righteousness, doesn’t it?  Is God saying that we can earn our salvation by what we do?

Not if we take a closer look.  At the end of all the promises of blessing, in Leviticus 26:13, God says that He has already saved His people from slavery in Egypt.  And we know God in fact brought the people out of Egypt in spite of their lack of faith in Him, and regardless of their continued rebellion against Him.

In the same way, at the end of all the promises of cursing, in Leviticus 26:44, God insists that the unfaithfulness of His people will not cause Him to break His covenant with them.  And why not?  “I am the Lord their God.”

In short, God is the One Who made a covenant with His people.  God saved them in spite of themselves, and He made them His own.  They were in a covenant relationship with Him whatever they did, and whether they liked it or not.  The only question was what kind of a relationship they would have – would it be a good one or a bad one?

And that’s where the blessings and curses come in.  If they obeyed God, they were promised all sorts of material blessings – peace, prosperity and lots of children.  If they disobeyed, God would send all sorts of curses on them to discipline them (Leviticus 26:18, 23, 28).  And the idea of discipline helps us to understand what’s really going on.  After all, parents don’t disown their children when they misbehave – instead, they discipline them so that they will do what is right. 

Just so, if our obedience doesn’t make us God’s children, our disobedience doesn’t remove us from His covenant family, either.  Like any loving Father, God is determined to do whatever it takes to draw us closer to Him.  So, He only gives us blessings when they’ll cause us to respond to Him with praise and thanksgiving.  But if we are inclined to give credit for those blessings to anyone or anything else, if those blessings would thus draw us farther away from God, why should we expect Him to give us good things?

Leviticus 26:3-20 (ESV)

³ “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, ⁴ 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. ⁵ Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. ⁶ I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. ⁷ You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. ⁸ 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. ⁹ I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. ¹⁰ You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. ¹¹ I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. ¹² And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. ¹³ I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

¹⁴ “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, ¹⁵ if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, ¹⁶ then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. ¹⁷ I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. ¹⁸ And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, ¹⁹ and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. ²⁰ And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.