Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions!
One-sentence summary: The Lord paints a vivid picture of what will happen to the Israelites if they obey and what will happen if they disobey, and He gives laws regarding consecrating people, animals, and possessions to Him.
The Lord tells Israel not to make idols for themselves. They must keep His Sabbaths and reverence His sanctuary. If they keep His commandments, He will give them rain in its season, and the trees will bear fruit and the land, produce. They will have more than enough and dwell in the land safely and have peace. They will "lie down, and none will make [them] afraid." There will be no evil beasts or war, for they will easily defeat their enemies, though they be outnumbered. The Lord will give them favor, make them fruitful, multiply them, and confirm His covenant with them. He will live with them and "walk among them and be their God and [they] shall be [His] people." The Lord says He has delivered them and made them to walk upright. However...
If they do not obey but despise God's commandments and judgments, God will appoint terror over them, disease which causes sorrow of heart, and they will "sow their seed in vain" because their enemies will eat it. God will set His face against them, and they will be defeated by their enemies. Those who hate them will reign over them, and they will "flee though no one pursues [them]." If they still refuse to obey, God will punish them seven times more for their sins. He will break their pride, making the "heavens like iron and the earth like bronze," and they will work with toil in vain because the land will not produce produce for them. And yet if they still do not obey, it will be seven times worse, and the Lord will send wild beasts that will kill their children and destroy their livestock and make them few in number. And if they still do not repent, God will be against them and punish them seven times worse and bring a sword against them that will "execute the vengeance of the covenant." He will send pestilence, and they will be delivered into their enemies' hands. They will "eat and not be satisfied." After all this, if they still disobey, He will "walk against them in fury" and chastise them seven more times for their sins. It will be so bad that they will have to eat their children's flesh. God will destroy their high places and cast their carcasses on their idols, and His soul will hate them. Their cities will be laid waste, and their sanctuaries, and God will ignore their offerings. Their enemies will be astonished at how desolate their land is. God will scatter them among the nations. The land will rest and enjoy Sabbath when they are in their enemies' land and enjoy all the rest that the Israelites did not give it (through years of disobedience.) There is more...(!)
Those who are left in the land of their enemies will be fearful. They will stumble as if at war "though no one pursues [them]" and have no power to stand before their enemies. They will "perish among the nations," and their enemies' land will "eat them up." They will "waste away in their iniquities and [their] fathers' iniquities." If they confess their iniquities and their fathers' iniquities and their faithlessness and acknowledge God's judgment, the He will remember His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He will not utterly destroy them, which would break His covenant. The Lord tells Moses all this on Mt. Sinai.
The Lord also gives Moses laws for consecrating certain people to the Lord through a vow.. A man can dedicate his house or field to the Lord also, and He gives laws for that. (Some have misinterpreted this portion to mean that the Lord is requiring human sacrifices, but that is erroneous.)
And that concludes Leviticus!
Thoughts/Discussion Questions:
God takes vows very seriously. There is a mystery, I think, in consecrating one's child or another person to the Lord. What do you think about this? (The reverse is also true, when people or objects have been "consecrated" to the enemy.)
We do no often think of this side of God. We don't like to think about how He sent plagues as judgments, but there it is. The Bible says that God is love. So at times, love hates. I also think this is a mystery. Can God love and hate someone at the same time?