While this chapter from Leviticus was originally written to the Israelites, it expresses a principle that applies to anyone who believes in and seeks to follow YAHWEH, The Only True God, at any time or place. It expresses the idea that there are consequences to our actions or inactions, and that YAHWEH will respond according to what we say and do. IF...THEN, IF you do this, THEN this is what will happen to you.
This theme is found over and over in Scripture. There is a cause and an effect in virtually everything wet think, believe, say, and do. As you read this passage consider carefully where you stand in relation to your own obedience and faithfulness to YAHWEH. The following passage is, in essence, a duplication of Leviticus 26:1-46, with a bit of emphasis added for clarity. Please keep in mind that this was originally written to the nation of Israel, but remember it has many portions that are universally applicable. The basic principles apply to every person who chooses to follow the ways of YAHWEH.
From Leviticus 26:
You shall make for yourself no idols nor a sculpted image, neither set up a monument; neither shall you set up any figure of stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am YAHWEH, your Elohim (God).
You shall keep My sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am YAHWEH.
IF you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them: THEN I will give you rain in due season and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage (the new will overlap the old), and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time (you will not run out): and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
AND I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land; neither shall the sword go through your land. And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
For I will have respect toward you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish My Covenant with you. And you shall eat the old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.
And I will set My Tabernacle (dwelling place) among you: and My soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your Elohim (God), and you shall be My people.
I AM YAHWEH, your Elohim, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt (symbolic of bondage of any kind), that you should not be their bondmen (slaves); and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright (for the Believer, this is deliverance from sin).
But IF you will not listen to Me and will not do all these commandments: and if you shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you will not do all My commandments, but you break My covenant:
(THEN) I will also do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption (wasting away), and the burning ague (fever, inflammation), that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of the heart: and you shall sow your seed in vain, and your enemies shall eat it.
And I will set My face against you; and you shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and you shall flee when no one pursues you!
And IF you will not yet, for all this, listen to Me, THEN I will punish you seven times more (seven times more punishment than you had before) for your sins! And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass: and your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase; neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
And IF you walk contrary unto Me, and will not listen to Me; I will bring seven times more (more than the last seven times) plagues upon you according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number: and your ways shall be desolate.
And IF you will not be reformed by Me through these things, but will walk contrary unto Me; THEN I will also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times (3rd time) for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of My covenant (your disobedience and breaking of the covenant): and when you are gathered in your cities I will send the pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
And when I have broken the staff of your bread (cut off your food supply), ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight (rationing); and you shall eat and not be satisfied!
And IF you will not for all this listen to Me, but walk contrary to Me; THEN I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I (YAHWEH), will chastise you seven times (more - fourth time) for your sins!!
And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat! And I will destroy your high places (local religious and social centers), and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols (This is an act of defilement. An idol is anything that you give more honor to than YAHWEH Himself.), and My soul shall abhor you!
And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors (this is in essence a rejection of your prayers). And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies which dwell therein (in your land) shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.
Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when you dwelt upon it!
And those that are left of you, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall fall as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when no one pursues them. And they shall fall one upon another, as if they were before a sword, when none pursues: and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And you shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
(NOTE: After all this, take special note of the possibility that YAHWEH still offers to those who disobey Him and are unfaithful to Him.)
IF they shall confess their iniquity (sin) and the iniquity 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 to 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 (three times YAHWEH established His Covenant with this people) will I remember: and I will remember the land. The land also shall be left by them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lies desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised My judgments, and because their soul abhorred My statutes.
And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My Covenant with them: FOR I AM YAHWEH, THEIR Elohim!
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 heathen, that I might be their Elohim: I AM YAHWEH!
These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which YAHWEH made between Him and the Children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
Note: These words were originally written to Israel! They still pertain to Israel today! However, the Christian believer is 'grafted in' to the vine of Israel - we are part of them! It is the same YAWEH, with the same principles, who watches over us.
IF we are faithful and obedient THEN Yahweh will bless us! But, IF we are disobedient and unfaithful, IF we reject YAHWEH and choose to do things our own way, THEN we also can expect punishment and trouble on every side because of our sin of rebellion against Him.
These same IF...THEN parameters occur throughout the Word of YAHWEH. As you read His Word, pay close attention to those circumstances in which they are presented. There's an important message associated with this construct.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: Are the many troubles of recent years, and the numerous “natural” calamities a meting out of of our punishment in America for OUR sins? Think about this - in the light of Leviticus 26!