John Calvin Commentary Leviticus 26

ITS REPETITION

If you walk in my statutes. We now have to deal with two remarkable passages in which he expressly addresses the rewards that the servants of God may expect and the punishments that await transgressors. I have indeed already observed that whatever God promises us on the condition of our walking in His commandments would be ineffectual if He were to be rigorous in examining our works. From this it follows that we must renounce all the covenants of the Law if we desire to obtain favor with God. But since, however defective the works of believers may be, they are nevertheless pleasing to God through the intervention of pardon, hence also the efficacy of the promises depends, namely, when the strict condition of the law is moderated. While, therefore, they reach forward and strive, reward is given to their efforts although imperfect, exactly as if they had fully discharged their duty; for, since their deficiencies are put out of sight by faith, God honors with the title of reward what He freely gives them. Consequently, “to walk in the commandments of God” is not precisely equivalent to performing whatever the Law demands; but in this expression is included the indulgence with which God regards His children and pardons their faults. The promise, therefore, is not without fruit as respects believers, while they endeavor to consecrate themselves to God, although they are still far from perfection. This is according to the teaching of the Prophet: I will spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him (Malachi 3:17); meaning that their obedience would not be acceptable to Him because it was deserving, but because He regards it with His fatherly favor. From this it appears how foolish is the pride of those who imagine that they make God their debtor, as if according to His agreement.

The restriction of the recompense mentioned here to this earthly and transitory life is a part of the elementary instruction of the Law. For, just as the spiritual grace of God was represented to the ancient people by shadows and images, so the same principle also applied to both rewards and punishments. Reconciliation with God was represented to them by the blood of cattle; there were various forms of expiation, but all outward and visible, because their substance had not yet appeared in Christ. For the same reason, therefore, because such clear and familiar acquaintance with eternal life and the final resurrection had not yet been attained by the Fathers as now shines forth in the Gospel, God for the most part showed by external proofs that He was favorably disposed to His people or offended with them.

Because nowadays God does not openly take vengeance on sins as in former times, fanatics infer that He has almost changed His nature. Indeed, on this pretext, the Manicheans²⁰⁷ imagined that the God of Israel was different from ours. But this error springs from gross and disgraceful ignorance, for by not distinguishing His different modes of dealing, they do not hesitate impiously to cut God Himself in two.

The earth does not now split open to swallow up the rebellious;²⁰⁸ God does not now thunder from heaven as against Sodom; He does not now send fire upon wicked cities as He did in the Israelitish camp; fiery serpents are not sent forth to inflict deadly bites. In a word, such manifest instances of punishment are not daily presented before our eyes to make God terrible to us. This is because the voice of the Gospel sounds much more clearly in our ears, like the sound of a trumpet, by which we are summoned to the heavenly tribunal of Christ. Let us then learn to tremble at that sentence which banishes all the wicked from the kingdom of God.

So, on the other hand, God does not appear, as in former times, as the rewarder of His people by earthly blessings. This is because we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God; because it is fitting for us to be conformed to our Head, and through many tribulations to enter the kingdom of heaven. Thus, the greater the adversities that oppress us, the more cheerfully we should lift up our heads until Christ gathers us into the fellowship of His glory, and pursue the course of our calling for the hope that is set before us in heaven; in a word,

denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:12–13).

I admit, indeed, the truth of what Paul teaches, that “godliness” even now has “the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come,” (1 Timothy 4:8); and assuredly believers already taste on earth of that blessedness which they will hereafter enjoy in its fullness. God also inflicts His judgments on the ungodly in order to remind us of the last judgment; but still the distinction to which I have referred is obvious, that since God has opened to us the heavenly life in the Gospel, He now calls us directly to it, whereas He led the Fathers to it as it were by steps. For this reason Paul elsewhere teaches that believers are afflicted in this world as

a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that they may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which they also suffer, seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense, etc. (2 Thessalonians 1:5–6).

In short, let us not wonder anymore that the Israelites were only attracted and alarmed by temporal rewards and punishments, than that the land of Canaan was to them a symbol of their eternal inheritance, in which, nevertheless, they confessed themselves strangers and pilgrims; from which the Apostle correctly concludes that they desired a better country (Genesis 47:9; Psalms 39:12; Hebrews 11:16). And thus the wild absurdity of those is refuted who suppose that the Fathers were contented with perishable felicity, as if God merely gorged them in a tavern.²⁰⁹ Still the distinction which I have noted remains, that God manifested Himself more fully as a Father and Judge by temporal blessings and punishments than since the promulgation of the Gospel.

Then I will give you rain in due season. He might in one word have promised a great abundance of food; but, so that His grace may be more illustrious, the instruments He employs for its supply are mentioned. He might give us bread as He formerly rained down manna from heaven. But, in order that the signs of His paternal solicitude may be constantly before us, after the seed is sown, the earth requires rain from heaven. In this way, the order of the seasons is so regulated that every day may renew the memory of God’s bounty.

For this reason, rain is mentioned, along with the increase of the fruits of the earth. The continued succession of threshing, the vintage, and sowing-time indicates a very abundant supply of grain and wine. For if the harvest is small, there will not be much work to occupy the farmer; and if the vintage is light, this will also lead to an unsatisfactory period of leisure. But when God declares that from harvest to sowing-time they shall have constant employment, He leads them to expect a fruitful year, as immediately follows: “you shall eat your bread to the full.”

And since no prosperity can be gratifying without peace, He says that they shall be quiet and free from all disturbance. This must be carefully observed: so unpalatable are all God’s blessings without the seasoning of tranquility, that nothing is more wretched than restlessness. The sum is that for the true servants of God, not only is food laid up with Him, but also its peaceful and pleasant enjoyment, since it is in His power and within His will to drive far from them all annoyances.

Still, these two things do not seem altogether consistent: that there shall be none to make them afraid, and yet that they shall subdue their enemies, so that ²¹⁰ ten shall suffice to chase a hundred. For of what use would their military strength be if there were no enemies to trouble them? But if we may take the latter statement disjunctively, there will be no absurdity—namely, if it should happen that war is brought against them, they should fight successfully. Still, the easiest solution to this difficulty is that it soon afterwards became necessary for them to contend with a great multitude of enemies in order to obtain possession of the land.

We gather from the Prophets’ application of this particular blessing of a secure and tranquil life to the kingdom of Christ that the promises, which by the nature of the Law were ineffective, are still useful for believers. For when God has reconciled them to Himself, He also liberally bestows upon them what they have not deserved; and yet their obedience, such as it is, is also rewarded.

For I will have respect to you.²¹¹ God is said to “turn Himself” to the people whom He undertakes to cherish and preserve, just as when He forsakes those who have alienated themselves from Him, He is said to be turned away from them.

Hence, the common exhortation in the Prophets, Be you turned to me, and I will be turned to you; by which God reminds us that He has not promised in vain what we read here.

Therefore, the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous to confirm His covenant toward them by watching for their safety. Hence, too, we are also taught that when we depart from God, His covenant is made void by our own fault, with which Jeremiah reproaches the Israelites (Jeremiah 31:32).

Therefore, in order that God’s covenant should remain firm and effectual, it is not only necessary that the Law should be engraved on our hearts, but also that He should add another grace and not remember our iniquities.

When He says, You shall eat old store, He again magnifies their abundance. For, whereas scarcity compels us to make immediate use of the new fruits, so it is a great sign of abundance to bring forth old wheat from the granary and old wine from the cellar.

The continuation of His bounty is represented in the end of the verse, where He says that there will be no place for the new fruits unless they empty their storehouses; because²¹² it might happen that, after a year of scarcity, all their storehouses would be empty, and there would be no new grain to take the place of the old.

And I will set my tabernacle among you. He alludes, indeed, to the visible sanctuary in which He was worshipped. Still, He would show them that it would be effectually manifested that He had not chosen His home among them in vain, since He would exert His power by sure proofs to aid and preserve them.

In a word, He signifies that the sanctuary would not be an empty sign of His presence, but that the reality would correspond with the sign. This He further confirms in the next verse, where He says that He would “walk among” them.

For they had not yet arrived at their place of rest and therefore needed Him as their Leader, so that their journey might be prosperous.

Although He does not explicitly say that they would be spiritually blessed, still there is no doubt that He lifts their thoughts above the world when He promises that He would be their God. For this expression, I will be your God, contains, as Christ interprets it, the hope of eternal immortality, because He is the fountain of life, and not the God of the dead (Matthew 22:32).

The true and solid blessedness, then, is now promised, which was typically represented. For this reason David, although he greatly magnifies the earthly blessings of God, yet, by the conclusion which he adds, demonstrates that he did not stop short with them:

God’s mercy (he says) shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord, to length of days²¹³ (Psalms 23:6).

And elsewhere, when he had said that they are happy to whom God abundantly supplies all things (that are needed,²¹⁴) he then adds, as if in explanation:

Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord (Psalms 144:15).

Finally, He reminds them that He had been their Deliverer, so that they may confidently gather from the past that the flow of His grace would be continuous, if only they themselves run the course to which He had called them.