Leviticus 6:1-4 - The
LORD said to Moses: "If anyone sins
and is unfaithful to the LORD by deceiving his neighbor
about something entrusted to him or left in his care or stolen,
or if he cheats him, or if
he finds lost property and lies about it, or if he swears
falsely, or if he commits any such sin that people may do-- when he thus sins and becomes guilty, he must
return what he has stolen or taken by extortion, or what was
entrusted to him, or the lost property he found, or whatever it was he swore falsely about. He
must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and
give it all to the owner on the day he presents his guilt offering.
Moses is in the middle of listening to God tell him about
all the different sacrifices and offerings…when it seems he takes a small
sidebar. It seems that God needed to
deal with a sin that man hadn’t quite considered a sin….or justified so deeply
in their heart as fair...that it had become a problem. So God just took a
moment as he was explaining the sacrifice rituals…to make sure that Moses had
some instructions that covered how to make restitution if caught not returning
what you borrowed …. deception of any kind…or stealing. God made sure to let
him know that finders keepers was not a practice ordained by Jehovah.
Maybe this was a new problem to the newly freed slaves…or
maybe it had been a problem the whole 400 years they were held captive…but
Moses was given these words to make sure people understood that God was very
displeased with attitudes that let selfishness and pride rule the heart. God
needed to let them know that taking anything that was not yours…and not
returning it…was sin. God repeated the command not to steal outright. God made sure the nation he had just made a
covenant with understood that honesty was the best policy and that any need to
twist the truth when it came to owning property was not in his rule book.
Funny thing…today was another one of those days. Computer
problems…2 computers dead in one week…and the new one I finally broke down and
bought yesterday…yes…yesterday….was locked with some password from the store.
So here I am …at 10:00….writing what I wanted to write this morning. All of my delays…were just a part of a bigger
plan for God to help me understand just how prevalent this command is for
me. For I got a phone call from one of
my sons…and the conversation we had… started to remind me of some possible debt
I may never have paid off. Then I
remembered the desk I write on was borrowed by my sister….and on and on my mind
went…thinking of things I have borrowed…things I may have picked up and found
no owner for…and a few times I may have stretched the truth…so I could keep
something I wanted. Guilty…I am…and convicted of a least making a list…and
seeing if God can help me make amends…or try to find some way to repay them.
Problem is…God will need to keep these good thoughts in my
heart…so I can act on them. For my human nature wants to tell my heart not to
worry…I can take care of that later. But
God won’t take the guilt away…until I do my part and allow honesty to transform
me like it did that tax collector Zacchaeus so long ago in Luke 19. I will fall
so deeply in love with Jesus that I will pay back 4 times the amount that I
somehow acquired in my sinful attitude…and then God will honor and bless me…with
something even greater that I thought I had.
Father…this evening I thank you for delays…for the issues of
life that keep us from always doing things exactly the way we did them before. I thank you for the things I thought were a nuisance
to me …and I thank you for using them to teach me yet another life lesson. Help me father to make a list…and check it
off as I contact others and seek ways to make right all the times selfishness….and
greed…and even hypocrisy …have caused me to grow too thick a skin over my heart...and
take things that were not rightly mine. Peel back the layers of my calloused heart…and
tenderize it with your love…and giving grace….so that I can have a hearts that
wants to make restitution for all my wrongs. Amen.
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