Leviticus 26:40 - Meaning and Application

Here the chapter ends with gracious promises that God’s favor will return when the people repent. He will not let them waste away in their sin, unless they bring that ruin on themselves. This shows the riches of God’s mercy toward a people who had stubbornly resisted his warnings and would not surrender until they were brought to the edge of disaster. Yet there is still hope for those who turn back. As the prophet says, “Turn to your stronghold, you prisoners of hope” (Zechariah 9:12). No matter how bad things are, they can still be mended. There is still hope in Israel.

The repentance that would prepare them for this mercy is described in Leviticus 26:40-41. First comes confession, by which they must give glory to God and take shame to themselves. They must confess their own sins and the sins of their fathers, grieving over the guilt because they feel its pain. In this way they would cut off the family line of wrath. In their confession, they must call sin by its true name, saying that they have walked against God. That is the worst part of sin, and it is what we should grieve over most in repentance.

They must also confess the righteousness of God’s judgment. They must look past the human causes of their trouble and admit that God has walked against them and dealt with them according to their sins. We see this kind of confession in Daniel just before the dawn of their deliverance (Daniel 9), and also in Ezra 9:1-15 and Nehemiah 9:2. Their sorrow must be more than regret. It must be a humble turning of the heart.

The next mark of repentance is that their uncircumcised heart is humbled. An uncircumcised heart is an unbroken, unbelieving heart, one that belongs to a stranger to God rather than to his covenant people. True circumcision is of the heart (Romans 2:29), and without that, outward religion means nothing (Jeremiah 9:26). In repentance, this hard heart is broken and made truly sorry for sin. A humble heart under humbling troubles is ready for deliverance and real comfort.

They must also submit to God’s justice in everything he does. If they accept the punishment of their sin, as Leviticus 26:41 and 26:43 say, then they are accepting that God is right and that they are wrong. They must bear the punishment patiently, knowing they deserve it, and use it well as something God intends for their good. If they take it as a medicine and learn from it, then they are true penitents.

The mercy promised after repentance is also described. First, they will not be completely rejected. Though they have despised God’s judgments, he says, “I will not cast them away” (Leviticus 26:43-44). He speaks like a tender father who cannot bring himself to disinherit a son who has deeply provoked him. “How can I give you up?” is the sense of his heart (Hosea 11:8-9). Until he had established a church for himself among the Gentiles, the Jewish church was not utterly forsaken or cast off.

They will also be remembered. God says, “I will remember the land” with favor, and this rests on his earlier promise, “I will remember my covenant” (Leviticus 26:42), repeated again in Leviticus 26:45. When God remembers his covenant, he acts on the promises he already made, purely because he is faithful. It is not because there is anything in us that earns his favor, but because he keeps his word. That is the church’s plea: “Have regard for the covenant” (Psalm 74:20). He remembers the shape of the covenant itself, which leaves room for repentance and promises pardon to the repentant. He also remembers the Mediator of the covenant, the one promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and later sent in the fullness of time in remembrance of that holy covenant.

The word covenant is repeated three times to show that God never loses sight of it and wants us to keep it in mind too. The ancestors named here are listed in an unusual order, beginning with Jacob and moving backward, to lead the mind step by step to the oldest promise made to the father of the faithful. In the same way, Micah 7:20 speaks of God performing truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham. God will do this for their sake, meaning for their benefit, not because they deserve it. For that reason, they are said to be “beloved for the sake of the fathers” (Romans 11:28).

The lesson is clear. When those who have walked against God in sin return to him in sincere repentance, then though he has walked against them in judgment, he will return to them in special mercy. He does this according to the covenant of redemption and grace. No one is as ready to forgive on repentance as God is, through Christ, who is given as a covenant.

Lastly, these are called the laws the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel (Leviticus 26:46). God keeps fellowship with his church through his law. By giving them his law, he shows both his authority over them and his favor toward them. By obeying it, they show both holy reverence and holy love. In that way, the law functions more like a covenant than a bare command, for God draws people with human cords and gentle bonds.