Leviticus 26 · a question people ask
How can a loving God warn his people like this?
The chapter says what the warnings are for. After the first stages: "If by these things you won’t be turned back to me" (26:23). Each new stage begins with an "if": "If you in spite of these things will not listen to me" (26:18), "If you walk contrary to me" (26:21), "If by these things you won’t be turned back to me" (26:23), "If you in spite of this won’t listen to me" (26:27). The warnings are also not the last word: "Yet for all that… I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them" (26:44), "But I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors" (26:45). Hebrews speaks of God's discipline: "whom the Lord loves, he disciplines" (Hebrews 12:6), "All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:11). Hebrews doesn't quote Leviticus 26.
The verses
““‘If you in spite of these things will not listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.”
““‘If by these things you won’t be turned back to me, but will walk contrary to me,”
“Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly and to break my covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. But I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.’””
“for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.””