Leviticus 26
“If you follow My decrees and are careful to obey My commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep My covenant with you. You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put My dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.” Leviticus 26:3-12
Here God promises that if the Israelites obey His commands, He will bless them abundantly with their crops, give them peace, enable them with power to defeat their enemies, and allow them to increase their numbers. However, again God has a condition of obedience for receiving these blessings. Does He require absolute, perfect obedience? Absolutely not. He does not require anyone to be perfect, as that is impossible. God does instruct us to: “walk in His statutes and keep and do His commandments” (Leviticus 26:3). However, the apostle Paul offers reassurance that even though we are not perfect, we can continue to keep trying as long as we keep our focus on Christ: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).
“I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.” Leviticus 26:4
The Lord says: “I will give you rain in due season.” When is “due season?” It is when God knows we are ready, when everyone else involved is ready, and when it fits into God’s overall plan. God has an individual plan for our lives, but He also has a corporate plan for the entire world. God does not push, shove, demand, manipulate, or force people to do things. Instead, He leads, guides, prompts, and suggests. Then, each individual is responsible to give his or her will over to God for His purpose. Sometimes this takes longer for one person than for another. God’s good plan takes time, and often more time than we anticipate. Seeing the fulfillment of it requires a willingness to wait for the blessing “in due season.” Our wait is easier to endure when we believe God’s timing is perfect. He is never late. Whatever the reason for the delay, Galatians 6:9 encourages us not to “become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Another example is in 1 Peter 5:6: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.” There is a right time for all things in our lives, and there is comfort and safety in God’s perfect timing. Remember to pray for His will and His timing in your life. We also need to “remember to enjoy where we are at while we are on the way to where we are going” (Joyce Meyer). Enjoy today, because right now it’s all we have!