Torah reading Bechukotai (בחקתי): Leviticus 26–27

The recent discovery of a 3,400-year-old hammered lead tablet on the Bible’s Curse Mountain, which imprecates via the name of God, shows that the covenant curses recorded in Torah reading בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bechukotai (“in My statutes,” Leviticus 26:3–27:34), weren’t the later inventions that critics claim. More startling is what the mountains of blessing and cursing imply about sin and judgment. As this study reveals, both the blessings of obedience and curses of disobedience in Leviticus 26 mirror suzerain-vassal treaties of the ancient world. This suggests an alarming truth — that left to ourselves under the power of sin, facing God’s perfect…

“It’s good to be king!” Except when invaders are about to conquer your kingdom because of your predecessors forgot Who put the crown on their heads and Who gave them the Land they ruled. The closing chapters of the Bible book of Vayiqra (Leviticus) foretell of Israel’s dystopian future, but it didn’t have to be that way. The companion passage to the Torah reading בְּהַר Behar / בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bechukotai (“on the mountain” / “in My statutes,” Leviticus 25–27), shows a moment just before that horror arrived when a king tried to reverse centuries of oppression in the Promised Land, Heaven’s…

We’ve all had days when we are so physically or mentally exhausted that we long to go home and relax, or better yet, nap. The LORD gave our forefathers in faith memorials and reminders in time to nudge us to seek Him Who can truly bring us rest from guilt, fear, loneliness, etc. That’s the lesson in the combined Torah readings בְּהַר  Behar (“on mount” Sinai) and בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bechukotai (“in My statutes”) that wraps up the book of Leviticus.

The Book of Leviticus may seem like a lot of dos and don’ts for a Tabernacle service that hasn’t existed for two millennia. But what’s revealed at the end, in Torah reading בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bechukotai/Bekhuqotai (“in My statutes,” Leviticus 26–27), is that it is the gospel of hope, promises from Heaven of the new covenant, that our past can be removed, setting us up for a bright future ahead of us.

We often think that the walk of Torah only concerns itself with one’s relationship with God and one’s relationship with others. This is not true. An observant reading of the Torah shows us that God also concerns Himself with how we treat the land that sustains us. That’s a key lesson of the dual Torah reading of בְּהַר Behar (“on mount” [Sinai]) and בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bechukotai (“in My statutes”), which covers the last three chapters of Leviticus. God promised the land of Israel as a special inheritance to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and they were expected to respond by…

When we’ve finally had enough of the “house of bondage” that’s kept us doing doughnuts in the parking lot of life, the Creator of Heaven and Earth shows us the way out. Just as Pesakh (Passover) and Shavuot (Pentecost) are annual reminders of that journey to freedom and how we get to know the One Who delivered us, adopted us and gives us new meaning, so too, the Heavenly pattern of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) helps orient us toward our ever-present Source of help in our midst. The Torah reading בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bekhuqotai/Bechukotai(“in My statutes,” Lev. 26:3–27:45) takes us to the end…

There is no freedom in a society without a baseline of laws that help people balance their rights and responsibilities to themselves and to their neighbor. There’s also no freedom in a place where people do not consider each other as brothers and sisters. At Mt. Sinai, God made all those who left Egypt kinsman under the law. At Pentecost, Yeshua made all those who believe in Him heirs of Abraham and the freedom and responsibility that comes with being sons and daughters of God.

At the end of the book of Vayiqra (Leviticus) in dual Torah reading בהר Behar/בחקותי Bechukotai, we look back at the journey through the parable of the Tabernacle. At the end of the book of Shemot (Exodus), the LORD moved into the newly created Tabernacle, and everyone had to get out. “And He called out” (Vayiqra) from the Tabernacle at the beginning of Leviticus for the people of Israel to draw near to Him. Vayiqra teaches how God is helping us move closer to Him and to each other.

As Leviticus ends with the Torah reading בחקותי Bechokotai (“in My statutes,” Leviticus 26-27), we should remember the point of this book seen at its beginning: The LORD wants Israel in His presence, but each must be transformed to make that journey. That’s the lesson of the Tabernacle, offerings, priesthood, appointed times and years, distinguishing between clean and unclean, etc. As promised in the New Covenant prophecy (Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 36:25–26), the LORD will give us a “new heart,” written upon with His laws and empowered by His Spirit.

It is only God Who can restore life from death, not only the death of a person but the death of a nation. God warns Israel and He will destroy their nation if they walk in idolatry but he will also restore their nation if they will humble themselves and accept their guilt.

The topic of these two chapters is God’s anger: the just anger that comes when His people do not follow the way He has laid out for them. God reveals the blessings He will give them if they obey Him and give their hearts to Him and the curses that will come upon them they disobey Him by running towards other gods.