“Rest”itution
You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Psalm 119:4
I have been blessed with a husband who makes me think. I do not worry about falling into gossip with him because he does not think about people – he thinks about principles and concepts and ideas. Sometimes he is way beyond me, like on economics. I just really don’t get it and he really does.
This past weekend we were at a conference that brought up some issues for me that I had not spent much time thinking about but my husband had so we talked about them on the way home (while looking at gorgeous Fall foliage and mountain scenes along the Blue Ridge parkway). The main one was restitution.
There were principles on restitution that I have read about in Exodus and Deuteronomy but had not seriously considered as relevant for today because I had not studied them. But, as I look at them I can see how wise God is.
We incarcerate people who have taken things from others. Jail time is often given to those who have destroyed property that was valuable , leaving their victim to restore what was lost. The Bible gives guidelines for restoring animals that die or things that are stolen from someone who has borrowed them or started a fire that they did not control (see Exodus 22).
In each of these cases God calls for restitution – not incarceration. Incarceration is not beneficial to the victims of crimes. The concept of “paying their debt to society” is unbiblical. If they steal from you or me they owe us, not “society”. Their sin is against God, not the society or government.
In Numbers 5:6-7 God said to Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel, When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the LORD, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong.”
The place we incarcerate we have called a penitentiary. At the root of this word is “penitent”. The original point of incarceration in a penitentiary was to get people to repent of their criminal behavior. Having worked many years ago in the criminal justice system for a number of years I would have to say that I rarely saw that happen.
God’s law is often discussed, even among Christians, as something the Old Testament believers had to live by that is no longer relevant. When I look closely at it I have to admit that I am embarrassed that I ever thought that way. Restitution is punishment that suits the crime. There is great freedom for everyone when God’s law is obeyed.
Today, a young man or woman may serve time for a petty theft or robbery or burglary, arson, failure to pay child support, or destruction of property. While they “serve time” no restitution can be earned, no less paid to the one who has been victimized. Biblically, if you could not make restitution then you were to work off the debt by being a slave to the victim.
I am aware that many people who commit crimes are people in desperate situations who may be in need of help for emotional issues. Our nation’s tendency has been to turn the criminal into the victim. Is prison what they need or is repentance and restitution what will allow them God-given rest from the burden of what they have done in the past?
The principle of paying restitution is a “win – win” situation for the perpetrator and the victim. God’s way is always the most beneficial for all.