DAWN
Daily Arts Web Nucleus
Discover the Arts! Each day a different image from the Literary, Performing, or Visual Arts representing a portion of Scripture plus an explanation with links and a discussion forum 2014 February 4
Image 1: Allegory of the Good Government (1338-1340)
Ambrogio Lorenzetti (c. 1290 - 1348)
Gothic and Early Renaissance Style; Sienese School
Influences: Byzantine and Classical Art
Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy
Image Source: Web Gallery of Art
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Image 2: Effects of Bad Government on the Countryside (detail) - (1338-1340)
Ambrogio Lorenzetti (c. 1290 - 1348)
Gothic and Early Renaissance Style; Sienese School
Influences: Byzantine and Classical Art
Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy
Image Source: Web Gallery of Art
Explanation: The two paintings above by Lorenzetti illustrate the effects of good and bad government, which is the underlying theme of the blessing and cursing passages in Leviticus 26. These effects include conquest as an effect of good government (shown by the prisoners on the right side of the first painting), and invasion as an effect of bad government, (second painting, left).
In Leviticus 26 the LORD gives blessings and curses for obedience and disobedience, respectively. The chapter opens with a prohibition against idolatry and a command to keep the LORD's Sabbaths and to reverence his sanctuary. "Very frequently, in this Book of the Law, the Sabbath and the sanctuary are mentioned as antidotes to idolatry" (JFB Commentary). The forms of idolatry mentioned in this chapter ('standing images' and 'images of stone') were particularly prevalent in the land of Canaan, to which the Israelites were headed (1-2).
Blessings are promised for obeying God. These include seasonal rain, good crops, productive fruit trees, and overlapping times of threshing, vintage and sowing. They would have plenty to eat and would dwell in safety. They would have peace and freedom from fear. The LORD would remove evil beasts from their land; and no one would invade. They would defeat their enemies; and a few would defeat many. The LORD would give them special favor. They would have abundance. The LORD would dwell among them and be their God; and he would keep them free as he had intended when he delivered them from Egypt (3-13).
Judgment, however, would come for disobedience. If they despised God's laws and did not hearken to them, God would send terror, consumption, wasting disease, fever, eyes that are consumed, and hearts filled with sorrow. They would plant crops, but their enemies would eat them. Their enemies would kill them and rule over them; and they would flee when no one pursued them. Their efforts would be in vain; and their land and their fruit trees would not yield their increase (14-20). If they still walked contrary to the LORD, he would send seven times more plagues upon them, including wild beasts which would kill their children, destroy their cattle, reduce their numbers, and make their highways desolate (21-22). If they still walked contrary to him, he would again multiply their punishment sevenfold by bringing the sword upon them, together with pestilence and captivity. They would have only a tenth of their normal amount of bread and would go hungry (23-26). If they still walked contrary to God, he would again multiply their punishment sevenfold. They would eat their children. God would destroy their centers of idolatrous worship and would cast their carcasses upon the remnants of their idols; and God would abhor them. Their cities would be destroyed together with their sanctuaries; and God would not regard them. Their land would be desolate -- to the astonishment even of their enemies. They would be scattered among the heathen (27-33). Then the land would enjoy its Sabbaths. The captives would be faint and easily terrified and would flee and fall though no one pursued them. They would be powerless before their enemies, would die in exile, and would pine away (34-39).
Restoration, however, was possible. If they would confess their iniquity and accept their punishment, then the LORD would remember his covenant (40-46).
Leviticus 26
1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.
2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
10 And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.
11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
13 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.
14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
17 And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
23 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;
24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.
25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
36 And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
37 And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
40 If 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;
41 And 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:
42 Then 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.
43 The 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.
44 And 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.
45 But 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.
46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
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copyright 2014, Scott Souza
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