The Power of Promise / People of Promise

Mosaic Covenant – The Way God Dealt with Israel

Leviticus 26

October 9, 2022

 

I. Introduction:

A. Today’s message along with last week’s on the Abrahamic

covenant is enough to give you the core knowledge you need to

understand the basic skeleton of the Old Testament.

1. The four main promises of the covenant God made with

Abraham give shape to the story/stories of the historical section

of the Old Testament and become the foundation for the New

Testament!

a. Review - Four promises are. Land, seed, blessing, and God

would be their God.

2. Today we are going to talk about the Mosaic covenant that God

made with Israel. This covenant establishes the principle upon

which God dealt with Israel, his chosen people, Abraham’s

seed.

a. The Mosaic covenant not only helps us further understand

the history of the Old Testament and why things happened

the way they did, but it also is the foundational structure and

driving message of the prophetic section of the Old

Testament!

B. One more important distinction between these two covenants turn

in your Bibles to Galatians 3:15

1. Read Galatians 3:15-19

2. Simply stated, the law was temporary until Jesus came while the

Abrahamic covenant was an everlasting covenant and nothing

about the law changes or supersedes the Abrahamic covenant.

3. It was put in place alongside the Abrahamic covenant only until

Jesus came!

• Let me give you a couple of …

II. Introductory thoughts on the Mosaic law/ covenant

A. The law is found primarily from Exodus 19 through the end of

Leviticus, and is reviewed in the book of Deuteronomy.

B. These laws covered three primary areas:

1. Civil laws – how to live with one another

2. Moral laws – how to walk with a holy God

3. Ceremonial laws – how to worship a holy God

C. We need to understand right up front that the Mosaic covenant was

not like the Abrahamic covenant where God made unconditional

promises that he would keep independent of Abraham’s

behavior. In the Mosaic covenant God imposed obligations upon

Israel and made conditions that were dependent upon their

behavior.

1. The heart of the principle

a. If you obey me then I will bless you

b. If you disobey me then I will curse you

c. If you repent then I will return you to blessing.

2. Repeat that with me.

• Let’s look closer at this foundational principle! Turn to

III. Leviticus 26.

A. After detailing these civil, moral and ceremonial laws from Exodus

19 to Leviticus 26:2 we come to a great summary that is so key to

understanding the Old Testament.

1. If you obey me, then I will bless you. Read Leviticus 26:3-4.

a. Then he details some of those blessings: land will be fruitful,

peace in the land, eliminate harmful beasts, no war, you will

defeat your enemies, God will dwell among them and he will

be their God.

b. Read v9

2. But if you disobey me, then I will curse you. Read v14-17.

a. Now we need to note God’s grace even in his discipline of

Israel for their disobedience as he starts with lesser

disciplines then increases them as their refusal to repent

continues – good parenting principle. Read v18, 21, 23-24,

27-28.

b. This continues until we get to the ultimate and most harsh

discipline, the expelling of Israel out of their own land,

which God promised to them and scattering them among the

nations. Read 32-33.

c. Now we understand why Israel and Judah were both

deported out of their land and went into captivity in Assyria

and Babylon. A big part of the Old Testament story!

1. God had to be faithful to the covenant that he made with

his people when they disobeyed.

2. This does not make me think of a God as angry and mean

but rather a God that is faithful to “all” of his word, a

God who can be trusted that when he says something he

will do it, whether it is a good thing or a bad thing.

3. Now the third part of this principle shows up in verse 40. If you

repent, then I will return you to blessing.

a. Read v40-46

b. Simply, this principle says when Israel is obeying God then

they will experience the land, the blessing, and God being

their God as promised in the Abrahamic covenant

• So now we understand a lot more of twists involved in the story of

God carrying out his promises with Abraham in the historical books

of the Old Testament. But what about

IV. The prophets

A. Listen to the ministry of the prophets Read 2 Kings 17:13-15, 23

B. The basic structure of all the prophets, both their ministry and their

books in the Old Testament was to

1. Point out their sin of how they were breaking the Mosaic

covenant

2. Call them to repentance

3. Remind them of the promised blessings they would experience

if they repented!

4. If you read the prophets with that in mind, they will be much

easier to understand!

C. The book of Isaiah is a perfect example of this

1. The first 40 chapters Isaiah are pointing out how they have

broken the Mosaic covenant and calling them to repent

2. The last 26 chapters reminds them of the promised blessing they

will receive when they do repent!

D. We see these basic principles worked out in the history of Israel.

1. Cycle in judges (disobeyed - discipline - repentance -

deliverance)

2. Solomon broke the covenant, which resulted in the divided

kingdom. Northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern kingdom

(Judah) 1Kings 11:1-13

3. The northern kingdom (Israel) broke the covenant by setting up

idol worship. 1 Kings 12:25-33

4. The northern kingdom (Israel) falls and is taken into captivity

just as the covenant says. 2 Kings 17, 18:11-12

5. Jeremiah warns Judah of judgement for breaking the covenant

and calls for repentance. Jeremiah 25:3-11

6. The southern kingdom (Judah) falls and is taken into captivity

just as the covenant says. 2 Kings 24:17-25, 12

7. After recognizing God’s timetable, Daniel turns to God in

repentance based on the covenant.

8. Ezra 1 and the return to their land out of captivity is the direct

result of Daniel 9 and the repentance he did in behalf of the

nation.

9. Rebuilding of the walls was based on the repentance and

blessing of the covenant. As acknowledged by Nehemiah in his

prayer. Nehemiah 1:4-11

• As you saw today, the story of God fulfilling his covenant promises

to Abraham is interwoven with the principle by which God

covenanted with Israel in the Mosaic covenant. what I want to close

with are …

V. Applications for us today

A. There are two important truths we must keep in mind today.

1. As we learned in Galatians 3, earlier the Mosaic covenant was

only on the table for Israel until the seed, the Christ, the

Messiah, Jesus came!

2. We also learn in 1Timothy 1:8-9 that the law is still useful today

if we use it lawfully.

a. Read 1 Timothy 1:8-9

b. Paul also said in Romans 3:20 that through the law comes

the knowledge of sin something he reaffirms in detail in

Romans 7.

c. So the good and lawful use of the law is to point out sin to

the unbeliever so they will turn to Jesus to be delivered from

the penalty and power of sin!

B. But my bigger concern today is that many Christians still live as if

we are under the principle of the law – if you obey then God will

bless you and if you disobey then God will curse you.

1. Maybe it is not the Mosaic Law, but they turn the New

Testament commands into laws and apply the principle of

obedience resulting in blessing and disobedience resulting in a

curse.

2. Here is the difference between the two:

a. In the Old Testament God supernaturally intervened with

blessings /good things when they obeyed and supernaturally

intervened with curses/trouble when they disobeyed.

b. In New Testament times obedience brings its own blessings

because you are living in conformity with God‘s wisdom

how to live and disobedience brings its own trouble because

sin has personal and relational poison in its DNA.

1. It’s not a matter of God doing it to you but a matter of

you doing it to yourself by ignoring what is best for you!

3. When it comes to blessings

a. In the Old Testament blessings were conditional upon their

obedience

b. In the New Testament, we have already been blessed with

every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

c. So today we obey for two reasons:

1. Not in order to get blessed but out of love because we are

already blessed

2. We also obey because God’s way is the wisest and best

way to live.

4. When it comes to difficulties or trouble in our lives in the New

Testament there are two reasons for it.

a. To ignore God’s wisdom is to do it to your own hurt! We

drink the poison laced Kool-Aid called sin

b. But sometimes even our trouble and difficulties are designed

by God to bring us ultimately to the place of blessing and

good in our life.

1. Often the blessing has to do with God working in us a

greater and deeper Christ like character or to restrain us

from going a direction we should not go.

c. So when it comes to trouble in our lives we need to discern if

it is sin, thus trouble of our own making or God giving us a

gift of blessing dressed in wrapping paper of trouble!

5. So this is how most of us stumble in this area – we look at our

outward circumstances or even the inward disposition of our

hearts and if they are good, we say it is because God is blessing

us and if they are bad, we say it is because God is not blessing

us.

a. They have more money, nicer and more things, better

circumstances, better health, better looks, better results,

bigger ministry, more opportunities etc., so we interpret that

as God is blessing them more than he is blessing me.

b. As a matter of fact, we wonder if God is blessing us at all –

maybe he is not pleased with me, maybe I am doing

something wrong!

C. We cannot measure God’s goodness and blessing to us by our

circumstances or feeling but by the cross of Christ, all the spiritual

blessings we already have in Christ Jesus, and God’s call and

purposes for my life as different from someone else’s!

1. We need to measure our lives by our gratitude to God for Jesus

and the blessings that come with him and our faith in his good

purposes he is working in our lives!