Exodus: Of Laws and LoveSample

Righting Wrongs

By Pastor Dan Hickling

“If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. . . . He should make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the theft is certainly found alive in his hand, whether it is an ox or donkey or sheep, he shall restore double. If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed, and lets loose his animal, and it feeds in another man’s field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard. If fire breaks out and catches in thorns, so that stacked grain, standing grain, or the field is consumed, he who kindled the fire shall surely make restitution. If a man delivers to his neighbor money or articles to keep, and it is stolen out of the man’s house, if the thief is found, he shall pay double.”—Exodus 22:1–7 (NKJV)

As the Lord continues to establish the laws that would govern Israel, He comes to a specific set of scenarios involving someone doing something wrong towards someone else. A man steals another man’s animal and slaughters it for himself or sells it for a profit, a man lets his herd feed off of another man’s field, a man carelessly allows his fire to spread into his neighbor’s field, destroying his crops, a thief breaks into someone’s house and steals something of value - these are all actions we can agree are wrong.

What should happen in such cases? God wants these wrongs to be right by requiring the guilty to make restitution. Notice the cost of restitution: If you stole an ox, you need to give back five. If you stole a sheep, you need to give back four. If you can’t pay up, you must sell yourself into a life of servitude. If your animal grazes in another’s field, you need to surrender the best fruits of your field or vineyard, and a thief will pay double the money he steals from another.

Do you see a pattern? The cost of restitution is always a lot more than the original wrong. Why would God raise the stakes so high? For one thing, it was to prevent wrongdoing. If people knew the price of their crimes beforehand was so incredibly high, they were less likely to follow through on committing them.

Beyond this, the Lord is also communicating an important spiritual principle: Doing the wrong thing always takes more from us than it gives. We never benefit by choosing wrong. You might say, “I know plenty of people who are better off because they stole, defrauded, cheated, or did things dishonestly. How are they worse off for it?”

That’s a valid question in the short term. Life isn’t governed by the short term. The reality is we’re all locked into a long-term existence. No matter how prosperous we seem today, God’s righteous judgment and wrath will come. Sooner or later, it will catch up with us. The only difference is that some can hold it off longer than others. There’s no avoiding or escaping it; the wrongdoer will make restitution, and it always requires more than we reckoned.

So, what’s the point? For starters, don’t do what’s wrong! Understand this principle and decide the cost isn’t worth it. Secondly, if there are wrongs in your past that require restitution, get ahead of things by proactively making them right with whomever you may have wronged. Lastly, if there are wrongs you can’t make right, go before God and confess them under the covering of His mercy and grace. He can and will set right all our wrongs when we confess them by virtue of what Christ did on the cross for us.

“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 (NKJV)

Pause: What does the restitution price reveal to us about the nature of sin?

Practice: Think about when you experienced the cost of doing wrong was much higher than you anticipated. What did you learn from this?

Pray: Lord, open my eyes to the cost of doing wrong before doing it. Give me a growing desire to live righteously as I become more and more like You. Amen.