EXPLORE THE TEXT

Fellowship (Leviticus 26:9-13)

Application Point:

God sent Jesus so that we might break free of sin’s chains and live in relationship with Him.

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9 “I will turn to you, make you fruitful and multiply you,
and confirm my covenant with you.
10 You will eat the old grain of the previous year and will clear out the old to make room for the new.
11 I will place my residence among you, and I will not reject you.
12 I will walk among you and 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 that you would no longer be their slaves.
I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to live in freedom.”

Praying Scripture

Leviticus 26:12

Spend time praying Scripture using Leviticus 26:12.
Read the verse, then respond to these questions:

Example: Thank God for walking among His people and for being faithful and dependable in every circumstance.
Ask Him to help you feel His presence and to trust Him in every situation you face.

Examine:

verses 9-13 (PSG, pp. 123-125)

9) I will turn to you:

safety from divine wrath.
When the Israelites strayed from Him and experienced His discipline,
He would turn to them, moving toward them with deliverance if they repented.
He would confirm their covenant relationship and blessings.

9) Make you fruitful:

(p> As noted, the Hebrew shalom, meant more than the absence of conflict and fear.
It also suggested human flourishing in every regard.
More than anything, it indicated intimacy with God.
The concept is highlighted in God’s promise to make you fruitful and multiply you.

11-12) Place my residence among you:

The Hebrew for residence (mishkan) is the word often rendered “tabernacle.”
Although the tabernacle was built and filled with God’s glorious presence at the end of Exodus,
these last three chapters of Leviticus recount God’s revelation to Moses before that on Mount Sinai (Lev. 25:1; 26:46; 27:34).
God’s promise of His presence also includes His promise to never reject His people and to walk among them in covenant intimacy.
The only other place we find God walking among His creatures is in Genesis 3:8
when He came looking for Adam and Eve in the garden.


the verses in this passage are not so much about the Mosaic tabernacle in the wilderness
as a preview of a greater intimacy between God and His people.

13) I broke the bars of your yoke:

God’s promise of peace in verse 6
was echoed in His messianic promise of “a covenant of peace”
and of security in the land (Ezek. 34:25).
This comes after God announced that He would replace Israel’s false shepherds and tend the flock Himself (34:11-16).

As the first exodus was a work of God’s sovereign will, loving mercy, and divine purposes, so the new covenant in Christ’s blood is built on God’s “grace upon grace” (John 1:16; see Rom. 5:17).

Share:

Share that these blessings relate to prosperity and God’s presence.
talk about why those two things might have been important to the Israelites in the promised land.

Ask: