Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20080827.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Leviticus: Fellowship With A Holy God
Part III: Acceptable Living Before A Holy God, Leviticus 11:1-27:34
R. Learning To Heed God's Discipline From Israel's Five Levels Of Discipline, Leviticus 26:1-46
5. Learning To Heed God At The FIFTH Level Of His Discipline
(Leviticus 26:1-13, 27-39, 40-46)
  1. Introduction
    1. God is gracious, but He is also a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29), a God to be respected and heeded.
    2. Thus, after He has often disciplines us for sin, we still habitually fail to heed Him, though He is gracious, He will FLOOD us with enormous discipline until we might repent (as follows):
  2. Learning To Heed God At The FIFTH Level Of His Discipline, Leviticus 26:1-13, 27-39, 40-46.
    1. We before learned that Leviticus 26 is written in a vassal treaty format with a section on blessings for obedience and an extended section on cursing for disobedience, Bible Know. Com., O. T. , p. 211-212.
    2. We thus learned that heeding the Law would bring rain and rich harvests (Lev. 26:3-5; Ibid., p. 212), peace and dominance over foes (Lev. 26:6-10; Ibid.) and the gift of God's presence (Lev. 26:11-13; Ibid.).
    3. Likewise, there would be extended divine discipline for disobedience (Lev. 26:14-39) where God would bring five increasingly painful levels of discipline for continued disobedience , J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, vol. I, p. 444-446. We view the FIFTH level of discipline in Leviticus 26:27-39 as follows:
      1. God warned that if Israel habitually kept failing to heed Him, as the fifth level of discipline, He would cause unimaginable, suffocating horrors to come upon them, horrors like cannibalism while they were under siege (Lev. 26:29), slaughter of their people and the destruction of their cities and sanctuaries (Lev. 26:30-31) coupled with desolation of their homeland (Lev. 26:32) followed by dispersion among the Gentile nations (Lev. 26:33) where the people would pine away in fear and timidity, Lev. 26:36-39.
      2. Samples of this discipline occurred in various times through Israel's history of war and captivity, and is still being fulfilled in modern times to culminate in the coming Great Tribulation.
      3. For example, 2 Kings 6:26-30 relates the tragic story of how Israel's king tore his clothes in grief upon hearing of a dispute between two women who were involved in cannibalism of one of their sons. This event occurred in the era of the prophet Elisha during the reign of wicked Jehoram, Ahab's son.
      4. As another example, Jeremiah wrote of the slaughter of his people at the hands of the Babylonians when God brought that Gentile nation into Jerusalem to punish it for its sins. That description is stated in Lamentations 2:1-10.
      5. The physical and mental suffering Jews have experienced since the days of Christ is well known. McGee notes of this fifth level of discipline that "This is an accurate prophetic portrayal of the Jew since the days of the Babylonian captivity, as he has been scattered among the nations. Wave after wave of anti-Semitism descended upon him to destroy him. This section is a striking picture of the Nazi anti-Semitic movement." (Ibid.)
      6. Since the nation Israel still rejects her Messiah, Jesus Christ, she will suffer the most intense form of this fifth level of discipline in the Tribulation Period under the antichrist (as follows), Rev. 12:12-17:
        1. The coming Great Tribulation Period will be a time of trouble for Israel and the world that will have been unparalleled in human history, cf. Daniel 12:1.
        2. Satan through the man of sin, the antichrist, will seek to annihilate Israel as a nation in an effort to destroy any chance of the Abrahamic Covenant's fulfillment in a final effort to defrock God, and Israel will need to flee into the wilderness where God will protect her, Rev. 12:12-17; Dan. 9:27.
    4. Nevertheless, God promised in Leviticus 26:40-46 to remember His covenant with Abraham to deliver Israel from such woes were she to repent. This deliverance is predicted to occur at the end of the Great Tribulation when Israel repents and is forgiven Her sinful rejection of Christ, Zech. 12:10-13:1; 12:6-9.
Lesson: Since Israel has habitually continued to disobey God, she has suffered and will yet suffer enormous discipline until the nation repents to follow Her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Application: May the history of modern Israel and the Hebrew people warn US believers in Christ to HEED Him, and REPENT to avoid BREATHTAKING discipline from our "Consuming Fire" Lord!