Leviticus 26:14-16 English Standard Version

Punishment for Disobedience

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.

Let us not be confused about covenant conditions. Israel had just been set free from slavery in Egypt. God in remembrance of His promise to Abraham showed Himself to be a God that keeps His word. 

At this time God has made a covenant with Israel based on His laws, precepts and degrees. This is a covenant with His people where He had given His word to Abraham. This warning applies to those He has saved. The rest of the world remains under the curse inflicted by the disobedience of Adam.

Israel has the opportunity to walk with God, to obey God and avoid the curse of if.

“If you will not listen and will not do ALL these commandments….”

God in all His wisdom has chosen to save a people that proved over and over again in the chronicles of history that they could not keep all His commandments, precepts and decrees.

He did this to show His forbearance.

Nehemiah 1:9 English Standard Version (ESV) but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.

History shows that they returned to God and He kept taking them back, over and over again.

He did so to make His name known to all the world, every lost soul.

Psalm 19:7-11 English Standard Version

7 The law of the Lord is perfect,[blameless] reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;

9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules[just decrees] of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

Before we jump to the conclusion that forewarned is about bible prophecy, let us examine what the Lord tells us about being warned.

The law can be broken down into physical laws and moral laws.

Physical laws have been studied in one aspect or another since man discovered hot and cold. Physical laws affect life in a predictable manner. Mankind has learned more about the physical world in the last century or so than in all of history. Medicine has learned that cancer can be destroyed. Physics has led us to harness the power of the atom. Boom. Suddenly we discover that there are moral implications in manipulation of physical laws.

Which one of our moral laws are warnings? All of them, but what are those warnings?

The Greek word for decree is dogma. The meaning of dogma is determined by the sanctioning body. In the case of God, a decree is a determination of what is best for everyone based on the knowledge that only God holds. A royal decree only lasts as long as the ruling party remains in power and can enforce that decree.

Now we should talk about the other dogma, religious dogma.

Leviticus 11:7-8 English Standard Version

7 And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. 8 You shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.

Religious dogma might define unclean as sin. They would create an atmosphere in denial of eating pork and playing any sport where the ball is made of pigskin.

Others might see it merely as a health warning.