The curses for disobedience are divided into five spiraling waves of judgment that intensify with each passage until the nation is destroyed.
- Leviticus 26:14-17 – general curses including sickness, famine, defeat
- Leviticus 26:1-20 - drought and crop failure
- Leviticus 26:21-22 – wild animals (see 2 Kings 17:25-26; Ezekiel 5:17; 14:15; 14:21)
- Leviticus 26:23-26 – war, plague, famine
- Leviticus 26:27-39 – military invasion in homeland, cannibalism, destruction, deportation from Israel
Yet, since Israel has the Abrahamic Covenant they will be brought back after a period of discipline. Israel will be restored in order that the Abrahamic Covenant can be fulfilled. The promise of restoration is given in Leviticus 26:40-46.
(The following is an excerpt from Galyn Wiemers' book "Hope for America's Last Generation," p75-76) We can see from these verses that as nations move into the first generation of rebellion toward God, he sends out a warning, such as the plague seen here. The purpose is to remind men of their humble condition before an all-powerful God. During this time, many people will cry out to God and start to make better choices. Others will become hopeless, and, consumed in their self-pity, they will curse God.
Nations that, on a whole, repent and change their ways will recover. But if a nation continues in sin and that depravity is picked up by the second generation, God will step up his warnings out of love for mankind. If men were allowed to live as they please, the world would be a miserable place of sin. This is why God put laws into place. He gave us free will from the very beginning when he told Adam, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden." He also warned Adam that eating from one tree in particular would kill him. God wants us to follow our desires, which is why he gave us free will. But we must bring our desires subject to his limits. God has standards already set in place, and because he is love, he will try to stop us in every way he can from acting against his word.
If the first generation does not repent, the second generation will experience a great famine. This should again cause them to realize how weak they are, (they can't do something as simple as gathering food). They will be given forty more years to reconsider the path they're on and decide whether or not to change course.
The third generation will face a dramatic increase in crime. God says this crime will rob them of their children and possessions and create deserted streets. Anarchy will begin to set in. The very corruptness of the culture has become a punishment in itself.
The fourth generation will experience some type of military attack on their land, giving them a taste of what is coming if their disobedience continues into the next generation. This fourth generation will deal with mounting discipline as they draw closer and closer to the end of God's patience.
At the end of the fourth generation, God will remove the disobedient nation from his plan. After 160 years of loving discipline, the nation will finally experience the wrath of God. Since the people of that nation rebelled, living in an unnatural state of immorality, so their punishment will be unnatural. Portrayals of the fifth cycle of judgment are some of the most hideous descriptions in history. You can see the details of the fifth cycle in the scripture list below. In a few chapters, we will look at some historical examples of the fifth cycle—examples that would be beyond belief, were not for the fact that God told us to expect it in Leviticus and historians recorded the events when they occurred.
Consider this a warning, a loving appeal to our nation that we not go any further. All God asks is that we return to what is right and good. We must change now, before it's too late.
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“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”
― G.K. Chesterton
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