Leviticus 26:15, commentary and pictures

To break the covenant is to despise the statutes, to abhor or reject the judgments, and to refuse to do all the commandments. The promises and blessings are always upon condition of obedience, and past love and faithfulness and special promises do not excuse continued willful sin. This is especially so for an enlightened people who have received greater light and are accountable for it. The blessings promised to the obedient and faithful cannot be claimed while living in disobedience.

Breaking the covenant brings the threatened curse and the Lord's displeasure and opposition. That curse is terror, consumption and burning ague that consume the eyes, and sorrow of heart. It is seed sown in vain and eaten by enemies, failed crops and wasted strength, crops left for enemies, and labor wasted as enemies consume the harvest. It is defeat before enemies, rule by those who hate them or by foreign rulers, living in fear, and flight when none pursues.

The curse was fulfilled in the Jews in John's day through affliction, subjection to hostile rulers, and suffering for departure from God, iniquity, and doing evil. Even so they still claimed the blessings promised only to the obedient and faithful, without recognizing their guilt or humbling themselves to understand why they suffered. John used the warning to declare that unless they bore fruit in good works they would be hewn down and cast into the fire. The time of this prophecy is nearly accomplished and soon to close when He whose right it is to reign comes to receive the kingdom and sit upon the throne of His Father.

The chapter is a warning and admonition for people living at the end of the world, since the same choice between obedience and disobedience that faced Israel faces God's people now. It calls them to examine the past without self-justification, to repent, and to turn from stubbornness, for rejecting the commands is disobedience that brings punishment and loss of favor. The warning applies to the management of God's work, requiring workers to correct practices that are not according to His direction. It applies to those who withhold their means from God's work, whose blessings for obedience are replaced by curses. God may scatter what they keep through losses such as a reckless heir wasting it, livestock dying, or crops failing, and even without such losses their condition may be more hopeless. The chapter also applies to the duty to cherish brotherly love and support a brother in need, so that refusing that duty violates the commands and brings its threatened judgments.