They must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day they present their guilt offering.
Leviticus 6:5 (NIV)

I miss Calvin and Hobbes. The comic strip about a young boy and his stuffed (yet very real) tiger has always been one of my favorites. One of the recurring themes in the world of Calvin and Hobbes was Calvinball, a game of ever-changing rules based on Calvin’s whims and whatever gives him an edge in winning the game. It’s sort of like our grandson Milo, who loves to have Papa get him past the difficult part of the video game level and then abruptly steals the controller out of my hands. It’s abundantly clear who is making the rules regarding how this works.

I thought of that as I meditated on the chapter this morning. God, having established the five major offerings He wants His people to bring to the altar, now provides some specifics for each one and how they are to be handled by the priests.

It’s hard for me fathom, but the Hebrew people had no formal code of law or order at the time Leviticus was given. Life together was one big game of Calvinball. People could make up their own rules at their own whim based on whatever benefitted them the most. I take for granted that I have never known a world without a formal structure of social law and order. I can’t imagine living without it.

This is one of the things I find most helpful in reading through the book of Leviticus. On a macro level, God is eliminating life as one big game of Calvinball and establishing an ordered system of living life together in community: God, me, and others. What does God establish first and foremost? Voluntary offerings of gratitude, blessing, and devotion (burnt, grain, and fellowship). After that comes the mandatory offerings for sin and guilt based on the sinner realizing his or her responsibility and acting on it. Nowhere in what I’ve read so far in Leviticus do I find a condemning God breathing hell-fire and damnation nor an absent God living in another spiritual reality with little concern for humanity. Rather, I find God initiating and establishing a system by which He and humanity can live together in harmony.

The underlying theme of the five main offerings is my human responsibility to be considerate of God and others, and to take the responsibility for my own actions and make things right. In today’s chapter, God even ups the ante in situations in which I am responsible for stealing, breaking, or losing someone else’s stuff. God through Moses establishes that before the Hebrew perpetrator brings his or her guilt offering to God, first he or she must make restitution in replacing the stolen, broken, or lost item and add twenty-percent of its value in interest. I couldn’t help but hear the echo of Jesus’ own teaching in my soul:

“This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.” Matthew 5:23-24 (MSG)

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about human’s ability to play Calvinball even with our established system of laws and regulations. How can I twist the letter of the law or bend the meaning of that regulation for my own selfish purposes? By the time Jesus arrived on the scene, that’s what His people had done with the laws of Moses that we’re reading about in Leviticus. Jesus was not changing the rules, He was teaching me to get back to the heart of it:

“Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working.” Matthew 5:17-18 (NIV)

The heart of what I’ve read so far is about acknowledging both God and others in my life, and doing right by them in relationship. Loving God as He has loved, saved, and provided for me. Being responsible, treating others as I’d want to be treated, and making things right (with others and with God) when I make mistakes.

Seems like a pretty good system to me.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.