“But if they shall confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also they have walked contrary to Me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; Then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.” Lev. 26:40-42.

We could have entitled this, “The Prayer of Confession Regarding Blessings and Cursings” but we tried to keep it simple. In Lev. 26:1-13 we see that obedience results in continued blessings from God. God said, “You shall keep My Sabbaths, reverence My sanctuary, walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments.” Then I will give you, rain in its season, produce and fruit, you shall eat bread to the full and dwell in your land safely. God would give peace in their land, so they could lie down in peace, and no one would make them afraid. He would rid evil beasts out of the land and the sword of the enemy. In fact they would chase their enemies out of their land. He would walk among them and be their God and they would be His people and establish His covenant with them and set His tabernacle in their midst. It almost sounds like a fairy tale, almost to good to be true; Just keep My Sabbaths; Reverence My sanctuary; Walk in My statutes; Keep My commandments, four things, not to difficult. There were only ‘Ten Commandments’ but they had to add to them so they had ‘613’ well that isn’t so bad. Then they decided to make up 39 main categories (abbot – fathers) with 39 sub-categories (toledot – children) under them and that added up to 1,521. Then you add the Torah, the Tenach, the Talmud, Tradition, the Oral Law, and your Bubbe and you are in for a real ride, so hang on.

However, God said in v.14-16a, “BUT, if you will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments; And if you shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors Mine ordinances, so that you will not do all Mine commandments, BUT that you break My covenant; I will also do this unto you:” The LORD begins a series of six cursings or chastisements against His people that keep getting worse from terror, consumption, burning fever, famine, sorrow of heart, loss of God’s presence, destruction and death, foreign powers ruling them and that is only the first chastisement. Each one after this is increased seven fold; He will make their heaven like iron and the earth like bronze and their land and their trees won’t yield anything. Plagues will destroy their people and wild beasts will destroy their children. God will send pestilence, ten women will bake bread in one oven and they still go hungry and eat the flesh of their children. He will finally scatter them among the nations and the land will lay waste and finally enjoy her Sabbaths and those in foreign lands shall pine away and faint for fear from a shaken leaf v. 36 and they will have no power to stand before their enemies and they will be slaughtered and the nations will do nothing to help them. v. 37-39. WOW!

If we obey God will bless, I Sam. 15:22-23, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou has rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected thee…” Somber words! But disobedience results in Cursings, plagues, disease, fevers, terror, famine, enemies, just to mention a few and it just kept getting worse until there was nothing and no one left!

“BUT! if they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers… I will remember My covenant…and I will remember the land.” v.40 & 42. Praise God, for the ‘Buts’ in the Bible! Rom. 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, ‘But’ the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 5:8 says, “But, God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God saw the wickedness of mankind and that it was great on the earth and it grieved God in His heart that He had made man. “But, Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” Gen. 6:8 and mankind got another chance. Sometimes the word is not used in a positive way as we saw in v.14, like Lot’s wife in Gen. 19:26, “But his wife looked back from behind him, and became a pillar of salt.” In Greek you have three words for ‘But’ you have (de – a moreover but), (gar – a regular but), and (alla – a big but). The word in Rom. 6:23 is (alla) a big ‘BUT!’ “For the wages of sin is death, ‘BUT’ the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Here in Lev. 26:40 we have one of those blessed ‘Buts!’ “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers…” Then v.42b, “…I will remember the land.” ‘Praise God!’ If we will confess our sins, our iniquity, if we will humble our hearts, v.41b, if we will accept our guilt v.41b, if we will confess our unfaithfulness and that we have been walking contrary to God and His ways, He will remember His promises and our land also. I realize these promises are to Israel and the Jewish people, but He is my God and this is my Book and if I want to claim one of His promises I am going to claim it! If I want to pray II Chron. 7:14 and claim it for America, don’t knock on my door and tell me I can’t, “If My people who are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” I guess some people still don’t believe II Cor. 1:20, “For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him, Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”

I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” But confession is saying the same thing about sin that God says, and He says He hates sin! It put His Son on the cross on Calvary to die for you and for me. We are talking about confession here not admission, there is a big difference between them, don’t sugar coat this. Confession isn’t easy, it always involves repentance, remorse, restitution, and change. I liked how Dawson McAllister used to put it, “No Jesus, No Change!” “No Change, No Jesus!” Don’t tell me you got saved and there has been no change in your life, habits, manners, purpose, direction, goals, vision, mouth, you are either a liar or Jesus is a farce and I’ll vote for you being the liar.

However, there is one more ‘But’ in this passage, ‘Praise God!’ It is in v.45, “But, I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.” He won’t forsake us if we will confess and forsake our sins, Prov. 28:13, “He that covers his sins shall not prosper, But whosoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.” Oh my friend how we need to praise God for the ‘Buts’ in the Bible and how we need to pray for more buts in our lives. There are almost 4,000 buts in His Word and it would be worth your while to take a concordance and a Bible and sit down and look up many of them, it would enrich your life more than you realize. “Lord, Thank You, for the buts in Your Word, and for those in Your providential dealing with mankind. It has made my life all the more richer. In ha Shem Yeshua, Amen!” Well we’re done with Leviticus, now on to, “Portraits of Prayer in Numbers” till then, I guess we will see you, “…Between The Lines…”

“The Prayer for Buts” – ‘Lev. 26:40’ 1/31/13