THE BLESSING OF OBEDIENCE IS TO LIVE IN PEACE
If you follow My statutes and carefully keep My commandments,
I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce,
and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest,
and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat
and will dwell securely in your land. And I will give peaceH7965 to the land,
and you will lie down with nothing to fear. I will rid the land of dangerous animals,
and no sword will pass through your land. You will pursue your enemies,
and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will pursue a hundred,
and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies
will fall by the sword before you. I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you,
and I will establish My covenant with you.
Leviticus 26:3-9
The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible gives perspective on blessings and curses:
26:3–46 These blessings and curses conclude the treaty between God (as the superior party) and Israel recorded in Exodus – Leviticus (cf. Dt 27 – 28). In the ancient Near East, blessings and curses could be appended to a law collection in order to encourage obedience. (11)
God gave the Israelites an if/then sentence. If they are obedient—“follow My statutes and carefully keep My commandments”—then they will have peace in their land. God specifies what that looks like in the remaining verses. Then God lays out the consequences—curses—of disobedience. We know from reading the rest of the Old Testament and from the study of history that the Israelites failed to be obedient, and God allowed their enemies to take them away to captivity. At the end of Leviticus 26, however, God gives them the hope of being restored to their land and to right relationship with him if they repent—turn around from idol worship and the resulting wickedness—to worship and follow Him alone.
We, too, will have peace with God and the peace of God in our lives as we are obedient to His commands. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, by believing He was the Son of God who died in our place on the cross and was raised to life on the third day and now reigns with the Father in Heaven. However, our inner peace can be disrupted while we reside on planet earth. Many times, that disruption comes from our refusing to walk in the will and ways of our Lord. Just like the Israelites, when we repent—turn from disobedient and destructive ways—and turn back to obeying our Father who loves us more than anyone else can, He will restore our peace. If you are not at peace today, make sure you are at peace with God by surrendering your life to Him. If you know you have that relationship with Him, sincerely pray asking Him to show you anything you need to change in order for the peace of God to reign in your life.
Father, we thank You that inner peace is available to us when we walk according to Your will and ways and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2).