Reflections

Something terribly missing from our justice system these days is the concept of “restitution”.  God instituted a system of restitution in order to allow for sins to not only be forgiven by God, but so society can deal with the affects to sin. 

Ex 22:1 "If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.

Also, by reconciling our past, we are able to deal with the root causes of our sin.  The bible doesn’t just say to “stop stealing”, but teaches us to deal with the root reasons why a person steals.

Eph 4:28 (NIV) He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

We learn that the root sins of a thief are laziness and selfishness. Too lazy to work for what the thief wants, and too selfish to care that what they steal belongs to somebody else.  So in order to deal with our past stealing, we need to deal with both the laziness by “working with our own hands” and with the selfishness by “ sharing with those in need".