Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Leviticus 26-27
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 75
Key Verse
Leviticus 26:41 — “And that I also have walked contrary unto 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:”
Devotional Thought
Here at the close of June, when gardens are heavy and the firstfruits are coming in, Leviticus 26-27 lands with unusual weight. These are the closing chapters of the book of the law, and they read almost like a covenant renewal ceremony: blessings for obedience, curses for rebellion, and then a whole chapter on vows and tithes—what a person owes to God once he has promised. The passage asks the reader today a plain question: do you actually believe that God means what He says about how you live? Israel stood at Sinai and heard that if they walked in His statutes, He would give rain in due season, threshing that reached to the vintage, peace in the land, and the astonishing promise, “I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people” (26:12). That is not a distant deity; that is a God who pitches His tabernacle in the middle of the camp.
But the same God warns. The curses of Leviticus 26 unfold in terrible stages—terror, consumption, drought like iron and brass, wild beasts, sword and pestilence, siege so severe that parents eat their own children (26:29). We flinch at that verse, and we should. Yet notice the refrain: “if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me” (26:18, 21, 23, 27). God is not quick to wrath; He disciplines in measured steps, waiting for His people to turn. Even at the bottom, verse 40 holds out the door: if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, He will remember His covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham (26:42). And verse 44 is the anchor: “I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly… for I am the LORD their God.”
Psalm 75 sings the same theology from the other side. “God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another” (75:7). Promotion does not come from the east or the west; it comes from the hand of the LORD. The wicked lift up their horn, but the cup of red wine is in God’s hand, and the dregs will be wrung out. The righteous, meanwhile, will be exalted. So Leviticus and the Psalter agree: God is not indifferent to how we live, and He is not slow to lift up the humble or bring down the proud.
Chapter 27 then turns to vows—what a man promises to God and how it is valued in shekels of the sanctuary. It is unglamorous, almost bookkeeping. But it teaches something tender: if a man was too poor for the standard valuation, the priest valued him “according to his ability” (27:8). God does not demand what a man cannot give. He asks for honesty, for vows kept, for tithes brought in. As June’s abundance fills our tables, the question is whether we will treat our plenty as ours to hoard or His to receive.
Reflection
- In Leviticus 26:40-42, restoration begins with confessing not only our own sin but “the iniquity of our fathers.” What inherited patterns—in your family, your church, or your own habits—might God be asking you to name honestly before Him today?
- Psalm 75 says promotion comes from God alone, who puts down one and sets up another. Where are you quietly grasping for a “horn” of your own—position, recognition, control—that needs to be lowered before Him?
Prayer
Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we thank You that even in Your warnings You are faithful, and that Your covenant is not broken by our failures. We confess the sins we have carried and the sins we have inherited; humble our uncircumcised hearts. Teach us to walk in Your statutes, to keep Your sabbaths, and to reverence Your sanctuary, so that Your tabernacle may be among us and You may be our God. You are the judge who puts down one and lifts up another; we lift no horn of our own. Receive the vows we make and the tithes we bring, not as payment but as grateful worship, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 75:1 — “Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.”