SUMMARY
After a prolonged pronouncement of judgment on the Israelites if they break “these commandments” (26:14), this passage speaks of the possibility of redemption if the people repentRepentance is a central biblical teaching. All people are sinful and God desires that all people repent of their sins. The Hebrew word for repent means to "turn away" from sin. The Greek word for repentance means to "change on'e mind," more specifically, it means... of their sins. This redemption is based on God’s faithfulness to the covenantA covenant is a promise or agreement. In the Bible the promises made between God and God's people are known as covenants; they state or imply a relationship of commitment and obedience. – the covenant with the patriarchsOriginally patriarchs were men who exercised authority over an extended family or tribe. The book of Genesis introduces Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the three patriarchs of the people of Israel., with Israel, and with the land itself.
ANALYSIS
Leviticus 26, the penultimate chapter of this book of laws, lists rewards for the Israelites if they obey the laws, and punishments if they disobey. The punishments culminate in exile from the land. Earlier passages warned the Israelites that the land would “vomit” them out if they defiled it with their sin (18:28; 20:22). Here, similarly, the land will “enjoy (or ‘make up for’) its sabbathSabbath is a weekly day of rest, the seventh day, observed on Saturday in Judaism and on Sunday in Christianity. In the book of Genesis, God rested on the seventh day; in the Gospel accounts Jesus and his disciples are criticized by some for not... years…while you are in the land of your enemies.” The land will thereby “have the rest it did not have on your sabbaths when you were living on it” (26:34-35).
If the people repent, however, says the LORD, “then will I remember my covenant with JacobThe son of Isaac and Rebekah, renamed Israel, became the father of the twelve tribal families.; I will remember also my covenant with IsaacSon born to Abraham and Sarah in fulfillment of God's promise. and also my covenant with AbrahamGod promised that Abraham would become the father of a great nation, receive a land, and bring blessing to all nations., and I will remember the land” (26:42). The order of covenant partners listed here is instructive. God names the last patriarch first, and then goes back in time to Abraham, the patriarch with whom God first made a covenant (Genesis 12, 15, 17). And then, the LORD goes back even further, before Abraham, to the land itself. The LORD will “remember the land (or ‘earth’).” This statement recalls God’s creationCreation, in biblical terms, is the universe as we know or perceive it. Genesis says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the book of Revelation (which speaks of end times) the author declares that God created all things and... of “the heavens and the earth” at the beginning of time (Genesis 1:1) and the covenant God makes after the floodThe flood refers to the catastrophic deluge in Genesis. In the biblical account Noah, his family, and selected beasts survive the flood in an ark; thereafter they received a rainbow in the sky as a sign of God's promise. Many other cultures also have flood... not just with NoahBuilt the ark in which his family and the animals were saved from a flood. but with every living creature “that is on the earth” (Genesis 9:17). The same Hebrew word for “earth” or “land” is used in each passage.
This “remembering” will lead the LORD to maintain covenant loyalty with the Israelites even as they are in exile from the land. In this passage, as in the rest of Leviticus, the land itself plays a central role in the relationship between God and Israel, and God’s “remembering” of the patriarchs and of the land itself will lead to redemption for the people of Israel.
