I'm in a season of just wanting to cling on to Jesus and never let go. I'm really so thankful for everything God has done for me❤ I've sinned, and I went through painful times - but God always finds me and leads me back to Him. I was reading my Bible one chill night and I was really moved by Leviticus 26:14-46.
I'm so pumped for this blog post and I pray that it will help you in your walk with God☺

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After the Exodus where Moses brought God's people out of slavery in Egypt, God exacted the Ten Commandments and many laws and decrees. He then mentioned the reward for obedience and the punishment for disobedience.

Of course, my reaction when I was reading through the list of punishments and trials which God would put a person through if he/she disobeys was:

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But there's actually so much more to it when I really began reading each line and underlining the parts which stood out to me! It's truly beautiful and I'm going to explain how I think God's punishment for disobedience is actually Him showing His love and mercy.

I'll colour code the verses in this way:

• God's power
• Love, mercy, compassion
• Repentance
• Sin

Punishment for Disobedience 

14 “‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, 15 and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. 17 I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you. 

I highlighted if as love/mercy because it shows that God is saying that there's a possibility of you disobeying Him, or NOT disobeying Him - this means that we have free will to choose if we want to repent or rebel.

18 “‘If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. 19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. 20 Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of your land yield their fruit. 

21 “‘If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve. 22 I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted. 

The 'if's are an invitation from God to change and go back to Him. In the following verses, God is still relentlessly chasing after You into the wilderness in hopes that You will come back to Him. His punishments, though painful, are actually a way for Him to guide you to His heart.

23 “‘If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me, 24 I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over. 25 And I will bring the sword on you to avenge the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given into enemy hands. 26 When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied.

God brings us to troubled waters to cleanse us. As mentioned in Leviticus 26:23, He wants to correct us!

Also, just a little side note: Although this blog post is about God's love and mercy through His punishments, I think it is still important to view His punishments seriously and to fear The Lord. As Moses said to the people after leaving Egypt, “For God has come to test you, so that the fear of Him may be before you, to keep you from sinning.” (from Exodus 20:20)

27 “‘If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, 28 then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. 30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols, and I will abhor you. 31 I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings. 32 I myself will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. 34 Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.

Notice the number of times He says "if", notice how many chances He gives us and how much attention He gives us when we are not walking on the narrow path to life. He is truly like a loving parent - I remember when I was little and my mom used to scold me and say, "If I didn't care about you, I would keep letting you make mistakes. It's so easy to not worry about you and just let you do whatever you want, you know? But I care about you, that's why I scold you - so that you will be better. You think I want to be angry meh? I punish you because I love you."

That memory of my mom really resurfaced when I read this Bible passage.
Punishment for disobedience from God is mercy and love because He's giving us several chances to change, grow, repent and run back to Him - it's a sign that He has not forsaken you even though you've disobeyed or continue to disobey Him!

Also, notice how each punishment becomes more and more severe? Just like how God's plagues became more and more mighty as He was trying to get His people out of Egypt. I think it was just a pretty cool observation - it shows that He is not slowly giving up on you - He is being even more relentless in his pursuit for you! How amazing is our God❤

36 “‘As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them. 37 They will stumble over one another as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies. 38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you. 39 Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their ancestors’ sins they will waste away.

"As for those of you who are left" - so where have the others gone? I'd like to think that God was successful in getting some, hopefully most, to turn back to Him :)

But for the rest of the paragraph, it's pretty scary. It's describing those who truly do not change after God's many attempts to bring you back to Him through his severe punishments. But do not fret, because, in the next passage, God shares how He will forgive and not reject those who do confess their sins and repent:

40 “‘But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, 41 which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. 43 For the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected my laws and abhorred my decrees. 44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the Lord their God. 45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”
46 These are the decrees, the laws and the regulations that the Lord established at Mount Sinai between himself and the Israelites through Moses.

In conclusion, I think the biggest challenge for us humans is learning to change our attitude towards trials from God. God can use evil for good, just like how He let Joseph be sold by his brothers and be thrown into jail - so that Joseph could save many lives (mentioned in Genesis 45:5).
After we've discerned that the punishment is from God, we need to learn to confess, repent and turn back to Him. It's truly so easy to be bitter at punishment - but I hope Leviticus 26:14-46 will remind you that it is God's mercy and Him inviting you to come back into His loving embrace.

Let me end off with this Bible verse:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- 1 John 1:9

I know that I came across this passage at a very appropriate time and I truly feel that this message was spirit-lead :)  All glory to God!
That's all for this post, God Bless❤❤