By this point in Leviticus, there’s a good chance your eyes have glazed over and you’re just skimming the portions about sacrifices and sins with the meekest of attention spans. Or maybe that’s just me.
But if you’re able to stay with it and look deeper into these verses, you may have noticed a slight word change in Leviticus 5. Instead of talking about outright sins and sacrifices to atone for those sins, Moses uses the word “restitution.” What does that word mean?
Simply put, a restitution is a reimbursement for “losses incurred due to the offender’s crime.” If you walk into an antique shop and break a music box, you’ll most likely have to pay the value of the item and possibly a little more to make up for the accident itself. You’ve paid more than the value, but that little extra is the restitution. It’s the price you pay for the oversight above the value of the item.
Now, let’s put it in a religious context. Let’s say that you’ve forgotten to make your scheduled tithe towards God. Now, you’ve not only violated the principle of the Old Testament tithe, but you’ve probably cost the Temple some along the way since they depend on that tithe to keep up operations.
How do you fix it? By adding 20% on top of it, according to Leviticus 5:16. The ram without defect is the sacrifice for the sin, but the original payment plus one-fifth is the restitution. In doing so, you’re righting that which was wrong.
The restitution here in Leviticus 5:16-17 specifically deals with crimes against the sanctuary of God, but other passages details “sins of mankind” (Numbers 5:6). In 2 Samuel 12, when David hears the story of the man who killed his neighbor’s little ewe lamb (a story that was really about himself), David ordered the man to pay back “four-fold.”
Restitution isn’t just about fixing what was broken, it’s about showing actual sorrow for what happened. I can’t just say that I’m sorry, I have to show it too. And giving 20% on top of repayment is the best way for me to make that known.
