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What the Bible Says About Contingencies

Overview

The Bible addresses contingencies across 68 verses, drawn from both the Old and New Testaments. These passages cluster most in Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Jeremiah. Closely related themes include Reward, Backsliders, Disobedience to God and Judgments. Figures whose stories touch this theme include David and Paul.

Key Bible verses about contingencies

Old Testament

Leviticus

Leviticus 26:3

If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

Leviticus 26:4

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.

Leviticus 26:5

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.

Leviticus 26:6

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. rid: Heb. cause to cease

Leviticus 26:7

And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.

Leviticus 26:8

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.

Leviticus 26:9

For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.

Leviticus 26:10

And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.

Leviticus 26:11

And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.

Leviticus 26:12

And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

Leviticus 26:13

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.

Leviticus 26:14

But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;

Leviticus 26:15

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:

Leviticus 26:16

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. over: Heb. upon

Leviticus 26:17

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.

Leviticus 26:18

And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

Leviticus 26:19

And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:

Leviticus 26:20

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.

Leviticus 26:21

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. contrary: or, at all adventures with me

Leviticus 26:22

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.

Leviticus 26:23

And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;

Leviticus 26:24

Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

Leviticus 26:25

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.

Leviticus 26:26

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.

Leviticus 26:27

And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;

Leviticus 26:28

Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 7:12

Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: if: Heb. because

Deuteronomy 7:13

And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

Deuteronomy 7:14

Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

Deuteronomy 7:15

And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

Deuteronomy 7:16

And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

Deuteronomy 7:17

If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

Deuteronomy 7:18

Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

Deuteronomy 7:19

The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.

Deuteronomy 7:20

Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.

Deuteronomy 7:21

Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.

Deuteronomy 7:22

And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. put: Heb. pluck off

Deuteronomy 7:23

But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed. unto: Heb. before thy face

Deuteronomy 7:24

And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.

Deuteronomy 7:25

The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.

Deuteronomy 7:26

Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.

Deuteronomy 11:26

Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;

Deuteronomy 11:27

A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:

Deuteronomy 11:28

And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.

Deuteronomy 30:15

See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;

Deuteronomy 30:16

In 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.

New Testament

People in the Bible and contingencies

Biblical figures whose stories intersect with this theme.

In the Bible dictionary

Studying contingencies for yourself

  • Begin with Genesis 2:16, then read the passages below in canonical order.
  • Compare how Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Jeremiah each treat the theme.
  • Consider the lives of David and Paul and how their stories intersect with it.
  • Widen the study to related themes: Reward, Backsliders, Disobedience to God and Judgments.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Bible say about contingencies?

The Bible addresses contingencies across 68 verses, drawn from both the Old and New Testaments. These passages cluster most in Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Jeremiah. Closely related themes include Reward, Backsliders, Disobedience to God and Judgments. Figures whose stories touch this theme include David and Paul.

How many Bible verses are about contingencies?

The Bible references contingencies in 68 verses (King James Version).

Where does the Bible first mention contingencies?

In canonical order, the first of these passages is Genesis 2:16: “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: thou: Heb. eating thou shalt eat”

Which people in the Bible are associated with contingencies?

David and Paul.

Preach & teach

Outline a sermon or build a study series on contingencies.

Preach a series on Contingencies