February 9, 2026 - Leviticus 25-27

The Lord said to Israel, “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season . . . And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. . . . “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 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, 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 . . .” (26:4-16).  This instruction is repeated numerous times in the remaining chapters of the books of Moses.  It is often referred to as “The Deuteronomic Formula” because it is found so often in that book.  Simply put, if we obey God we can expect his favor; if we disobey God we can expect his judgment and discipline.  This is not a teaching that we gain God’s favor by our obedience or own good works but it is a reminder, once again, that as God’s people, we are to live according to his commandments.  And, with Israel, we rejoice in God’s good favor.

Hark! hark! the trump of jubilee

proclaims to every nation,

from pole to pole, by land and sea,

glad tidings of salvation:

Still on and on the anthems spread

of alleluia voices;

in concert with the holy dead,

the warrior Church rejoices.   --Edward Henry Bickersteth (1899)