By Pastor Dave Farmer
Just as God disciplines us as sons for personal sin, so He disciplines nations for rejection of His laws. The five stages are progressive and the discipline at each stage grows more intense.
Summary and Overview
1. The five cycles of discipline follow after a section on wonderful grace provisions that faithful Israel will enjoy. Keeping the commandments and obeying the Mosaic Law will provide the nation with security and unparalleled prosperity. These grace blessings will call attention to Israel, and she will be admired and respected by all the nations of the world. [Deuteronomy 28:1, 10] Moses said to people as they were about to enter the Promised Land that their blessing from God would be so great that the entire world would come to know the God of Israel.
2. However, what if Israel becomes unfaithful to God? She will be disciplined instead of blessed. This is described in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. Our study will use Leviticus 26 as the basis for the Doctrine of the Five Cycles of Discipline.
3. Leviticus chapter 26 is a very important chapter for it states the very special relationship that God had with Israel. The chapter breaks down into three sections: First, The Prosperity Clause 1 - 13; secondly, The Adversity Clause 14-39; and lastly, a Restoration Clause 40-46.
4. Each stage of discipline gets progressively harder when there is no repentance. The punishment is corrective, to bring us to repentance, to restore the blessing of God.
The following is a description of the five cycles of discipline.
The First Cycle
[14] 'But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments,
[15] if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances [the spiritual and doctrinal heritage of Israel] so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant [mosaic covenant],
[16] I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away [physical and mental health declines; also, you will sow your seed uselessly [economic decline], for your enemies will eat it up.
[17] 'I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.
Summary: There is a decline in the general health of the people and associated with this is an economic decline. If the workforce of a nation is too sick to work as epidemics suddenly strike, there will be an impact on the economy. The biblical pictures are clear. Sowing is equivalent to business in an agricultural economy. Sowing seed into the ground is like investing money. There is no return on the investments. Sounds a lot like today! The first cycle indicates an economic downturn. In verse 17 we see some foreign policy consequences. Our enemies win over us because we are filled with fear. When we take our eyes off the Lord; our walk of faith stops. This creates a vacuum whereby faith is replaced by fear and worry. Fear begins to take hold of us. Fear begins to rule over us. We start making decisions based upon fear rather than the facts of faith.
The Second Cycle
[18] 'If also after these things [after the first cycle has caused you to recognize God is disciplining you] you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
[19] 'I will also break down your pride of power [an arrogance has developed, they think they are a great nation]; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze [no rain will effect the economy].
[20] 'Your strength will be spent uselessly [you work hard at your job, but you can't seem to get ahead], for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.
If Israel does not heed the first warning, then the economic problems grow worst in the subsequent stages. They continue. In the first cycle, there is an economic decline, and rather than turning to the Lord in repentance, they ignore the warning. Individuals in the nation who do not understand they are being disciplined by God interpret the pressure from economic loss as bad luck or Murphy's law in effect, “If anything can go wrong, it will.” Possibly they say to themselves, “I will work harder or maybe get a second job.” These sentiments will not help because this is divine discipline.
The Third Cycle
[21] 'If then, you act with hostility against Me and are unwilling [rejection of the Lord] to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins.
[22] 'I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that your roads lie deserted.
The picture here is what is happing in Mexico today: civil unrest, violence, and the breakdown of law and order. The wild animals today are too many to enumerate: Drug addition robs you of your life, criminals rob you of your property and safety; the welfare system robs you of your will. The wild animals are a picture of anything that destroys life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. Social problems begin to mount up.
The Fourth Cycle
[23] 'And if by these things you are not turned to Me [God is gracious and these things are to correct us], but act with hostility against Me,
[24] then I will act with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike [warning discipline is over, now things get intense] you seven times for your sins.
[25] 'I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities [military invasion], I will send pestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands.
[26] 'When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts, so that you will eat and not be satisfied.
This cycle of discipline introduces the serious consequences of rejecting the Lord. There will be a military attack on the nation. The nation is at war. This creates a desperate situation where there are shortages of food; the normal amount is reduced by one-tenth.
The Fifth Cycle
[27] 'Yet if in spite of this [terrible fourth cycle] you do not obey Me [continued disobedience to God], but act with hostility against Me,
[28] then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins.
[29] 'Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat [In the fourth cycle you something to eat, it's not much, but to be so hungry that you become cannibalistic is unimaginable].
[30] 'I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you. [When idols saturate the land it is a sign that Israel has turned from God]
[31] 'I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas.
[32] 'I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it.
[33] 'You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.
The fifth cycle leads to the destruction of the nation, their loss of freedom, and their dispersion throughout the world. As gracious and magnificent the blessings from God are [Leviticus 26: 1-13], these cycles of discipline are frightening and regrettable because they are self-induced. God provides a clear warning before He disciplines us and there is always an obvious path to recovery.
God selected Israel to be a nation that would represent Him. He sovereignty decided that in a world of nations there would be one nation, a priest nation that all could look at and say, "There is one true and living God, and it is Israel's God." Their relationship with God was to be a way of reaching the unbelieving world to draw them to salvation.