The Sacrifices of God Are a Broken Spirit

Narrator: Chris Genthree

Leviticus 26:40‑45 • 2 min. read • grade level: 8

I FIND Lev. 26:40-45⁴⁰If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; ⁴¹And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: ⁴²Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. ⁴³The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. ⁴⁴And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 26:40‑45) most blessed in this day. Mark well the 41St verse-if they be " humbled" and accept it." Note, too, Deut. 30:1-20¹And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, ²And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; ³That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. ⁴If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: ⁵And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. ⁶And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. ⁷And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee. ⁸And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day. ⁹And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers: ¹⁰If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. ¹¹For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. ¹²It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? ¹³Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? ¹⁴But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. ¹⁵See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; ¹⁶In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. ¹⁷But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; ¹⁸I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. ¹⁹I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: ²⁰That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. (Deuteronomy 30:1‑20); and again 1 Sam. 12, especially verses 19-25.

I desire unfeignedly to accept at the Lord's hand my ecclesiastical circumstances, ruined and broken all around as they are, and to go on with Him; accepting things as they are; recognizing all as broken, oneself ruined, but God personally present and caring, as He most surely does, for the honor of His Son, the Lord Jesus, and that His saints should purify themselves from evil-" Cease to do evil, learn to do well "-God everything and man nothing. That was the root of the blessing at -. I thank God you felt God was there.

I have long passed through in soul the burden you refer to; felt it upon me; and yet I have confidence in God about it, if we will leave Him to work; and I remark that " bitter herbs " and " leaven " were at the Paschal. Supper. God can stem any torrent. A Jonathan walking alone (but that was a sore task) proved it. Be alone with God as he was, and He will guide each step, and the road He, also, will mark for you.

As to confession, I can only say for myself that, first, the want of individual spirituality (in its divine and heavenly character), of singleness of eye, and of full purpose of heart, and, secondly, the presence of unjudged flesh and worldliness (shown in mixed motives and intentions, in planning’s, and oft in an energy not of God, as well as in ways and doings), press on my own heart as being among existing obstacles to the Father's working fully and freely for the honor of the Lord Jesus in the present day in England. I take my full share in the blame and shame. But if conscious that the glory of God and the honor of Christ alone must be sought by one who is to be honored of God, may one not seek by humbling oneself " under the mighty hand of God," that He may, by His own Spirit's working, set more honor down here on earth upon the blessed name of the Lord Jesus.

May He work, and so that we may know more practically what is the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ, and that God's testimony in the last of these days, committed to our hands, may be made good by Him, in and through us.

1854. G. V. W.

IT is surely a wonderfully blessed thing to be like the Lord; but I think latterly I have felt the blessing of it to be more in the full capacity to dwell in Himself unhindered, which it will give those, in the fact of being like Himself. J. N. D.

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