Leviticus 26 and the New Testament

Many readers of the Bible assume that God’s promises to the patriarchs to give them Canaan—the “promised land”—were unconditional, and that the Israelites who inherited the land had no obligations to meet. This assumption often comes from reading the early announcements of the promise (Gen 12:1; 15:7, 18–21) and God’s ceremonial enactment of the covenant (Gen 15:1–17) apart from subsequent passages. However, these later passages directly link Israel’s possession of the land with their obedience to God’s commands (see Gen 17:1–2; 22:17). After the covenant at Sinai, these conditions become even more prominent (Deut 4:26–28, 40; 5:30–33; 6:16–19; 7:12; 8:1). In addition to possession of the land, God also promised the patriarchs numerical growth as well as providential care and protection of the Israelite nation (see Gen 12:1–3; 15:4–6, 1314)—blessings already realized by the time of the exodus from Egypt. Consequently, the Sinai covenant shifts its focus away from the Abrahamic blessings of growth and protection toward prosperity in and possession of the land of Canaan.

A significant question that arises from these covenant promises is whether the Bible still foresees a future for the nation of Israel after Israel’s exile from the land between 722–586 bc. While Israel returned from exile as promised (Jer 25:11–12; 29:10; Dan 9:2) it did not regain national independence until 1948. Many Christians see the modern refounding of the state of Israel as the fulfillment of prophecy, while others do not. Those who hold to the former view presume that God’s covenant promise to give Israel the land of Canaan is still in effect. Those who hold to the latter presume that Israel forfeited the right to the land by disobeying the law, and that God transferred and expanded His covenant promises to the New Testament Church (as a global entity, not restricted to Canaan; Matt 28:19–20; Acts 1:8; Gal 3:7–9, 23–29). Many Jews who otherwise believe in God’s promises in Scripture also do not see 1948 as the fulfillment of prophecy, but for a different reason: a state of Israel should not exist apart from the presence of the Messiah.

Leviticus 26 provides the longest treatment in the ot of the relationship between the covenant with the patriarchs, which included the promise of the land, and the later covenant at Sinai. This chapter, excerpted below, is thus helpful for understanding the perspective of Christians who do not believe God’s covenant promises include a future for national Israel (Lev 26:3–6, 14–17, 30–33).

If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid.…

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. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.

And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

These passages outline the precise circumstances of Israel’s exile from the promised land. Foreign armies invaded the land, destroyed the nation and took the people captive. In other words, God did to Israel what He said he would. But Leviticus 26 does more than forecast the exile; it also recognizes the possibility of covenant renewal (Lev 26:40–45).

But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.

While the passage above at least speaks to the return of Israel from Babylon in 539 bc—the return facilitated by the Persian king Cyrus (see Ezra; Nehemiah)—Israel again fell under foreign dominion after returning to the land. Alexander the Great and the general who inherited his empire ruled over Canaan after the Persians. While the Jews won independence for a short time in 142–37 bc, Rome invaded and reinstituted foreign domination. Islamic hegemony followed, and Israel was not independent again until 1948.

Even upon returning to the promised land and experiencing periods of independence (including today), the nation of Israel has not been able to regain control of the entirety of the promised land. Consequently, many Christians believe that the promises of the Abrahamic covenant are still in effect and that Israel will eventually inherit the promised land. Others believe that God’s promises only involved bringing Israel out of exile and back to the land; while God fulfilled His promise, everlasting sovereignty was not part of its fulfillment. Thus, although they were free and in their land, God’s promises in the Abrahamic covenant led to a broader fulfillment: to a global people of God without ties to the land of Israel. Paul explicitly states that the Church inherited the Abrahamic covenant (Gal 3:23–29), suggesting that the creation of the Church was part of the irrevocable gift and calling of God (Rom 11:29) through which Israel would be saved (Rom 11:26).

Ultimately, the question centers on whether God’s covenant renewal (which also includes the Gentiles) means Israel will be saved through their Messiah, or whether national Israel will one day inherit the entire land of promise again.

Michael S. Heiser