Leviticus 26 · a question people ask
Does this mean every hardship is a punishment for sin?
Leviticus 26 is spoken to Israel as a people. In Hebrew, every "you" in it is plural, and the chapter calls itself the laws "which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses" (26:46). It does tie these warnings to Israel's sins: "I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins" (26:24). It doesn't say that every hardship in a person's life is a punishment. Jesus spoke to this. Of people who died when a tower fell he asked, "do you think that they were worse offenders than all the men who dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way" (Luke 13:4-5). Of a man born blind: "This man didn’t sin, nor did his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him" (John 9:3). And he said the Father "sends rain on the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:45).
The verses
“These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.”
“then I will also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins.”
“Now there were some present at the same time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the men who dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.””
“His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “This man didn’t sin, nor did his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him.”