As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
The land lying desolate rests from cultivation and thereby keeps the sabbath rests it was denied while Israel dwelt upon it. That rest concerns the septennial sabbaths of the land, not the weekly Sabbath of the Lord. Disobedience to God's covenant brought scattering among the enemies, desolation of the land, and seventy years of rest ending with Cyrus's decree by the word of Jehovah spoken by Jeremiah. The seven times describe punishment increased sevenfold in fullness and severity, not a prophetic time period, though those who held it as time reckoned it 2,520 years under the kingdoms of the world. Israel's scattering and the land's desolation strikingly fulfilled the warning, witnessing to the divine origin and inspiration of Scripture. As Palestine lay desolate seventy years for Israel's sins, so the earth will lie desolate and empty of human life one thousand years for the world's sins, keeping the rest refused for God's Sabbath.
Words for Rest
The rest spoken of is a ceasing from cultivation while the land lies desolate. The word translated rest is the Hebrew shabath, also used for Sabbath rest, related to Sabbath and carrying the sense of observing a Sabbath. The desolate land therefore rests from cultivation and thereby keeps sabbath, as described in the fulfillment in 2 Chronicles 36:21 where the desolate land is said to have kept sabbath. That rest during desolation answers for the sabbath rests the land did not receive while the people lived upon it, even while it remained trodden by wandering Arabs and other Gentiles and despite parts of it retaining their original fertility.
This rest concerns the septennial sabbaths of the land, the prescribed sabbatical rests, and not the weekly Sabbath of the Lord. It is counted among the ceremonial sabbaths.
As long as the land lies desolate it enjoys its sabbaths and keeps sabbath, making up for the sabbatical rests Israel had failed to observe while dwelling there. While the land lay desolate during Israel's captivity it received the Sabbath rest Israel had failed to give it while dwelling there. This was fulfilled when Judah was carried away to Babylon and the land of Judah lay desolate for threescore and ten years, keeping sabbath the whole time, by the word of Jehovah spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah.
Cause of Desolation
Disobedience to the covenant and law brought terror, famine, defeat, scattering among the nations, desolation of the land, and being trodden down by Gentiles. Refusal to live in harmony with God's law brings curses rather than blessings, and temple rituals could not secure God's blessing while the people broke His law. The chapter warns in plain terms that failure to keep His commandments would bring these evils upon Israel.
While Israel was scattered among its enemies, the land would lie desolate and rest to make up for the sabbatical rests it had not received while the people dwelt upon it and had disregarded them. Its desolation would make it enjoy the Sabbath rests Israel had denied it while dwelling there. This desolation lasted seventy years as the consequence of that disobedience, the land keeping sabbath the whole time it lay waste. It ended with Cyrus's decree allowing the Jews to return, by the word of Jehovah spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah after Judah was carried away to Babylon.
The warning was fulfilled in the destruction of cities and the people's captivity and scattering among other nations. Judea's desolation after the temple's destruction fulfilled this rest, of which it had been deprived under its wicked kings. The predicted judgments came upon the rebellious Jews in wars culminating in Jerusalem's overthrow by the Roman army, with siege and suffering for turning from God and refusing to keep His commandments, while those who obeyed God's admonition escaped to the mountains. It belongs to the old prophecies of vengeance upon Israel for neglected opportunities, unperformed duties, and the final rejection of Christ, fulfilled in Jerusalem's destruction.
The Babylonian fulfillment came when Nebuzar-adan burned the house of the Lord and Jerusalem, broke down its walls, and carried the people and vessels to Babylon. After the poor remnant left under Gedaliah fled to Egypt, the land was left desolate to enjoy her sabbaths for seventy years. Israel had occupied the land about 840 years and had neglected the Sabbath about 420 of those years, and God kept account of those missed sabbaths whether or not the people did. Even while trodden by wandering Arabs and other Gentiles, the land rested from cultivation, and despite that treading parts of it retained their original fertility.
Seven Times Dispute
Leviticus 26 holds the prophecy of the seven prophetic times, which are 2,520 years, with a beginning and an ending that can be shown by evidences. Those seven times are the chastisement predicted by Moses, the revealed appointed time covering the length of the indignation and revealing its end, which is the appointed time Gabriel meant when telling Daniel that at the time appointed the end of the indignation shall be. The seven times are reckoned as seven periods of 360 years, or 2,520 years, spent under the kingdoms of the world in literal and mystical Babylon as Moses' prophecy of seven times of punishment and bondage for God's people. That period is dated from 677 B.C., associated with Manasseh's captivity and Israel's loss of nationhood, and is calculated to end in A.D. 1843, when the people's punishment ends.
Those who held the prophetic-time reading also taught that Israel's removal from its land by Assyria in 723 B.C. began a 2,520-year period of captivity and being trodden down by Gentiles ending in 1798, with Leviticus 26 identified as one of the prophecies fulfilled when God gave Israel over to captivity. They taught that the Lord's great curse or indignation upon rebellious Israel lasted 2,520 years and ceased at the end of the 1,290 days. That 2,520-year indignation is the same appointed time Gabriel meant when telling Daniel that at the time appointed the end of the indignation shall be.
The expression seven times describes the fullness and severity of punishment increased sevenfold, not a period of time. Its Hebrew and Greek forms are adverbs, unlike the nouns used for periods of time in prophetic passages, so Leviticus 26 gives no prophetic time period. The threatened punishment is a greater degree of punishment for continued disobedience, not a prophetic period of 2,520 years. Therefore the chapter does not set a date for the Lord's coming.
Fulfillment Proves Scripture
Leviticus 26 is literal prophecy concerning the future history of the Hebrews, stated in simple plain language so clearly that only those unwilling to understand can fail to understand it. It foretells the promised land, the coming and death of Christ, the tribulation of the Jews, and the glorious consummation in Christ's eternal triumph, and these predictions were literally fulfilled. The desolate land resting and receiving the sabbath rests it had not kept while the people dwelt upon it belongs to that prophecy of what would befall Israel in exile for rebellion against God.
The long history of Jewish dispersion, scattering among the nations, sufferings, and desolation of the land strikingly fulfilled that fearful prophetic warning. That fulfillment stands as a witness to the truth of the Bible. The history of their faithfulness and prosperity and of their disobedience and calamities answers to the multiplied predictions given from Moses to New Testament times concerning prosperity for faithfulness and calamity for disobedience.
That fulfilled future history furnishes evidence of the divine origin of Scripture and of the divine stamp upon the Scripture canon, proving the inspiration of the Bible. The curse and oath written in the law of Moses threatened great evil upon Israel for sin and iniquity and wickedness and rebellion by departing from God's precepts and judgments, not hearkening to His servants the prophets, and not obeying His voice to walk in His laws. That threatened evil was watched over and confirmed and poured out in great calamity upon Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel near and far off through all the countries where they were driven, leaving confusion of face and captivity. Jerusalem's desolation and the people's captivity, with the land resting through its desolation for the sabbaths Israel had failed to observe, fulfilled the long-delayed warning of calamity and proves the Lord righteous in all His works which He does.
Covenant and Sabbath Duty
Leviticus 26 is a chapter of solemn warnings of calamities to come upon Israel if they rejected God. Its covenant blessings were conditional on obedience, and when the people failed to meet those conditions the promised blessings were forfeited. Disobedience to the covenant would bring terror, famine, defeat, scattering among other nations, and desolation of the land, with the land lying waste because Israel failed to observe its sabbaths. That suffering proves that temple rituals could not secure divine blessing while the people broke the law.
Transgressing the fourth commandment, including the Sabbath commandment, is sin. The desolation in which the land would enjoy its neglected Sabbath rests during captivity came because of Sabbath transgression. Sabbath observance is a sign of loyalty to Jehovah as Creator and Sanctifier, and a Sabbath reformation could have spared Israel even at the last moment. The Lord’s standard of Sabbath keeping and reverence calls for examining how life conforms to it.
The threatened punishment is a greater degree of punishment for continued disobedience, showing God’s continuing disfavor toward the people while they persist in sin. It gives no separate future restoration or blessing apart from the gospel, for Jews and Gentiles alike are judged or blessed on the same condition of accepting Christ. When Israel was carried into captivity, the desolate land received the Sabbath rest the people had failed to observe while living on it, and that judgment was meant as a lesson, not to be permanent.
Earth's Millennium Sabbath
As Palestine lay desolate seventy years because of Israel's sins, so the earth will lie desolate one thousand years because of the world's sins, keeping the rest that men refused to keep for God's Sabbath. The land was to rest while it lay desolate because it had not received its sabbath rests while Israel dwelt upon it, enjoying the Sabbaths it had been denied. That desolation of the earth during the thousand years makes up for the sabbaths it was robbed of through six thousand years under the curse, as Judea once lay desolate and as Palestine illustrated in its seventy years of captivity.
The earth will keep the Sabbath refused by man by lying desolate and empty of human life for 1,000 years. At Christ's second coming the righteous are raised and taken to heaven and the wicked are all destroyed by His presence, leaving the earth void and chaotic. During that thousand years the desolate earth enjoys its Sabbath while Satan and his angels are confined upon it with no one to deceive.
The seven days of the week and the seven tones of the diatonic scale represent seven thousand-year periods from creation to the end of the thousand years of Revelation 20. The seventh period is the Sabbath rest in which the earth lies desolate while keeping Sabbath. At the close of that desolate Sabbath the wicked are utterly destroyed in the lake of fire, the New Jerusalem descended from heaven becomes the capital of the new earth, the saints dwell therein, and time and death end in the absolutely perfect eternal state for the entire universe. So the land's rest in its desolation points to the earth's future rest after fire removes every trace of sin and sorrow.
The land lying desolate rests from cultivation and thereby keeps the sabbath rests it was denied while Israel dwelt upon it. That rest concerns the septennial sabbaths of the land, not the weekly Sabbath of the Lord. Disobedience to God's covenant brought scattering among the enemies, desolation of the land, and seventy years of rest ending with Cyrus's decree by the word of Jehovah spoken by Jeremiah. The seven times describe punishment increased sevenfold in fullness and severity, not a prophetic time period, though those who held it as time reckoned it 2,520 years under the kingdoms of the world. Israel's scattering and the land's desolation strikingly fulfilled the warning, witnessing to the divine origin and inspiration of Scripture. As Palestine lay desolate seventy years for Israel's sins, so the earth will lie desolate and empty of human life one thousand years for the world's sins, keeping the rest refused for God's Sabbath.
Words for Rest
The rest spoken of is a ceasing from cultivation while the land lies desolate. The word translated rest is the Hebrew shabath, also used for Sabbath rest, related to Sabbath and carrying the sense of observing a Sabbath. The desolate land therefore rests from cultivation and thereby keeps sabbath, as described in the fulfillment in 2 Chronicles 36:21 where the desolate land is said to have kept sabbath. That rest during desolation answers for the sabbath rests the land did not receive while the people lived upon it, even while it remained trodden by wandering Arabs and other Gentiles and despite parts of it retaining their original fertility.
This rest concerns the septennial sabbaths of the land, the prescribed sabbatical rests, and not the weekly Sabbath of the Lord. It is counted among the ceremonial sabbaths.
As long as the land lies desolate it enjoys its sabbaths and keeps sabbath, making up for the sabbatical rests Israel had failed to observe while dwelling there. While the land lay desolate during Israel's captivity it received the Sabbath rest Israel had failed to give it while dwelling there. This was fulfilled when Judah was carried away to Babylon and the land of Judah lay desolate for threescore and ten years, keeping sabbath the whole time, by the word of Jehovah spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah.
Cause of Desolation
Disobedience to the covenant and law brought terror, famine, defeat, scattering among the nations, desolation of the land, and being trodden down by Gentiles. Refusal to live in harmony with God's law brings curses rather than blessings, and temple rituals could not secure God's blessing while the people broke His law. The chapter warns in plain terms that failure to keep His commandments would bring these evils upon Israel.
While Israel was scattered among its enemies, the land would lie desolate and rest to make up for the sabbatical rests it had not received while the people dwelt upon it and had disregarded them. Its desolation would make it enjoy the Sabbath rests Israel had denied it while dwelling there. This desolation lasted seventy years as the consequence of that disobedience, the land keeping sabbath the whole time it lay waste. It ended with Cyrus's decree allowing the Jews to return, by the word of Jehovah spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah after Judah was carried away to Babylon.
The warning was fulfilled in the destruction of cities and the people's captivity and scattering among other nations. Judea's desolation after the temple's destruction fulfilled this rest, of which it had been deprived under its wicked kings. The predicted judgments came upon the rebellious Jews in wars culminating in Jerusalem's overthrow by the Roman army, with siege and suffering for turning from God and refusing to keep His commandments, while those who obeyed God's admonition escaped to the mountains. It belongs to the old prophecies of vengeance upon Israel for neglected opportunities, unperformed duties, and the final rejection of Christ, fulfilled in Jerusalem's destruction.
The Babylonian fulfillment came when Nebuzar-adan burned the house of the Lord and Jerusalem, broke down its walls, and carried the people and vessels to Babylon. After the poor remnant left under Gedaliah fled to Egypt, the land was left desolate to enjoy her sabbaths for seventy years. Israel had occupied the land about 840 years and had neglected the Sabbath about 420 of those years, and God kept account of those missed sabbaths whether or not the people did. Even while trodden by wandering Arabs and other Gentiles, the land rested from cultivation, and despite that treading parts of it retained their original fertility.
Seven Times Dispute
Leviticus 26 holds the prophecy of the seven prophetic times, which are 2,520 years, with a beginning and an ending that can be shown by evidences. Those seven times are the chastisement predicted by Moses, the revealed appointed time covering the length of the indignation and revealing its end, which is the appointed time Gabriel meant when telling Daniel that at the time appointed the end of the indignation shall be. The seven times are reckoned as seven periods of 360 years, or 2,520 years, spent under the kingdoms of the world in literal and mystical Babylon as Moses' prophecy of seven times of punishment and bondage for God's people. That period is dated from 677 B.C., associated with Manasseh's captivity and Israel's loss of nationhood, and is calculated to end in A.D. 1843, when the people's punishment ends.
Those who held the prophetic-time reading also taught that Israel's removal from its land by Assyria in 723 B.C. began a 2,520-year period of captivity and being trodden down by Gentiles ending in 1798, with Leviticus 26 identified as one of the prophecies fulfilled when God gave Israel over to captivity. They taught that the Lord's great curse or indignation upon rebellious Israel lasted 2,520 years and ceased at the end of the 1,290 days. That 2,520-year indignation is the same appointed time Gabriel meant when telling Daniel that at the time appointed the end of the indignation shall be.
The expression seven times describes the fullness and severity of punishment increased sevenfold, not a period of time. Its Hebrew and Greek forms are adverbs, unlike the nouns used for periods of time in prophetic passages, so Leviticus 26 gives no prophetic time period. The threatened punishment is a greater degree of punishment for continued disobedience, not a prophetic period of 2,520 years. Therefore the chapter does not set a date for the Lord's coming.
Fulfillment Proves Scripture
Leviticus 26 is literal prophecy concerning the future history of the Hebrews, stated in simple plain language so clearly that only those unwilling to understand can fail to understand it. It foretells the promised land, the coming and death of Christ, the tribulation of the Jews, and the glorious consummation in Christ's eternal triumph, and these predictions were literally fulfilled. The desolate land resting and receiving the sabbath rests it had not kept while the people dwelt upon it belongs to that prophecy of what would befall Israel in exile for rebellion against God.
The long history of Jewish dispersion, scattering among the nations, sufferings, and desolation of the land strikingly fulfilled that fearful prophetic warning. That fulfillment stands as a witness to the truth of the Bible. The history of their faithfulness and prosperity and of their disobedience and calamities answers to the multiplied predictions given from Moses to New Testament times concerning prosperity for faithfulness and calamity for disobedience.
That fulfilled future history furnishes evidence of the divine origin of Scripture and of the divine stamp upon the Scripture canon, proving the inspiration of the Bible. The curse and oath written in the law of Moses threatened great evil upon Israel for sin and iniquity and wickedness and rebellion by departing from God's precepts and judgments, not hearkening to His servants the prophets, and not obeying His voice to walk in His laws. That threatened evil was watched over and confirmed and poured out in great calamity upon Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel near and far off through all the countries where they were driven, leaving confusion of face and captivity. Jerusalem's desolation and the people's captivity, with the land resting through its desolation for the sabbaths Israel had failed to observe, fulfilled the long-delayed warning of calamity and proves the Lord righteous in all His works which He does.
Covenant and Sabbath Duty
Leviticus 26 is a chapter of solemn warnings of calamities to come upon Israel if they rejected God. Its covenant blessings were conditional on obedience, and when the people failed to meet those conditions the promised blessings were forfeited. Disobedience to the covenant would bring terror, famine, defeat, scattering among other nations, and desolation of the land, with the land lying waste because Israel failed to observe its sabbaths. That suffering proves that temple rituals could not secure divine blessing while the people broke the law.
Transgressing the fourth commandment, including the Sabbath commandment, is sin. The desolation in which the land would enjoy its neglected Sabbath rests during captivity came because of Sabbath transgression. Sabbath observance is a sign of loyalty to Jehovah as Creator and Sanctifier, and a Sabbath reformation could have spared Israel even at the last moment. The Lord’s standard of Sabbath keeping and reverence calls for examining how life conforms to it.
The threatened punishment is a greater degree of punishment for continued disobedience, showing God’s continuing disfavor toward the people while they persist in sin. It gives no separate future restoration or blessing apart from the gospel, for Jews and Gentiles alike are judged or blessed on the same condition of accepting Christ. When Israel was carried into captivity, the desolate land received the Sabbath rest the people had failed to observe while living on it, and that judgment was meant as a lesson, not to be permanent.
Earth's Millennium Sabbath
As Palestine lay desolate seventy years because of Israel's sins, so the earth will lie desolate one thousand years because of the world's sins, keeping the rest that men refused to keep for God's Sabbath. The land was to rest while it lay desolate because it had not received its sabbath rests while Israel dwelt upon it, enjoying the Sabbaths it had been denied. That desolation of the earth during the thousand years makes up for the sabbaths it was robbed of through six thousand years under the curse, as Judea once lay desolate and as Palestine illustrated in its seventy years of captivity.
The earth will keep the Sabbath refused by man by lying desolate and empty of human life for 1,000 years. At Christ's second coming the righteous are raised and taken to heaven and the wicked are all destroyed by His presence, leaving the earth void and chaotic. During that thousand years the desolate earth enjoys its Sabbath while Satan and his angels are confined upon it with no one to deceive.
The seven days of the week and the seven tones of the diatonic scale represent seven thousand-year periods from creation to the end of the thousand years of Revelation 20. The seventh period is the Sabbath rest in which the earth lies desolate while keeping Sabbath. At the close of that desolate Sabbath the wicked are utterly destroyed in the lake of fire, the New Jerusalem descended from heaven becomes the capital of the new earth, the saints dwell therein, and time and death end in the absolutely perfect eternal state for the entire universe. So the land's rest in its desolation points to the earth's future rest after fire removes every trace of sin and sorrow.