In Leviticus chapter twenty-six, verse seventeen, the greatest tragedy of sin, rebellion, and disobedience is that God may set His face against us. The withdrawing of His presence and care, His grace and strength from us. In its place, disobedient people will face exposure to direct judgment, and all the problems and dangers of life, without protection and guidance. The price of rejecting God and His standards is enormous. To be in God’s will, presence, and care are the blessings of life.
After God has set the blessing before the Israelites, which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient, he here sets the curse before them, the evils which would make them miserable if they were disobedient. Two things would bring ruin. A contempt of God’s commandments are they that reject the precept will come at last to renounce the covenant. The last one is contempt for his corrections. If the Israelites do not learn obedience by the things they suffer, God himself shall be against them, and this will be the root and cause of all their misery. And also, the whole creation would be at war with them.
All God’s sore judgments will be against them. The threats here are very particular. They were prophecies, and He that foresaw all their rebellions knew they would prove so. Temporal judgments will be subject to exposure. Those who will not part from their sins by the commands of God shall separate from them by judgment. Those wedded to their lusts will have enough of them. Spiritual judgments are threats that seize the mind and find no acceptance with God. A guilty conscience would be their continual terror. It is righteous with God to leave those to despair of pardon, who presume to sin, and it owing to free grace if we are not left to pine away in the iniquity we were born in and have lived.