We can't turn all these religious regulations into a tidy
little package. For the Levites living back in the day, this hefty set of rules
would've been much easier to understand. It was the career occupation of this
priestly tribe to understand and teach these laws. And, they didn't just read
about these rituals, they acted them out repeatedly. That kind of perspective
would make these things much less complicated.
The devil is a liar and is the father of lies. God is the
God of truth. Hence, lying is particularly hated by our God. In this chapter
God laid out some distinct clarifications concerning deception. Now, while we
might sin by lying to ourselves or to God, several brands of lying to one's
neighbor are mentioned here. Lying about something that was entrusted to your
care, or about a pledge, or about robbery, or about a lost and found item...
under the OT law, any of those lies that cost one's neighbor some specific
amount required precise arrangements to rectify that wrong. The guilty party
had to restore the principal value along with a 20% interest penalty to the person
who was wronged. On the same day that the amount was returned to the wronged
party a trespass offering (a ram) was to be offered to God with a priest
presiding over the reconciliation.
The good news in all of this was that God promised and
demanded that the criminal was to be forgiven "for any thing of all that he had done in trespassing" (Leviticus
6:7). Anything! A window into God's mercy is seen here in the law. Hallelujah!
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