Leviticus 5:14-19
Offerings with Restitution
14 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 15 “If a person commits a trespass, and sins unintentionally in regard to the holy things of the LORD, then he shall bring to the LORD as his trespass offering a ram without blemish from the flocks, with your valuation in shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary, as a trespass offering. 16 And he shall make restitution for the harm that he has done in regard to the holy thing, and shall add one-fifth to it and give it to the priest. So the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.
17 “If a person sins, and commits any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD, though he does not know it, yet he is guilty and shall bear his iniquity. 18 And he shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish from the flock, with your valuation, as a trespass offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him regarding his ignorance in which he erred and did not know it, and it shall be forgiven him. 19 It is a trespass offering; he has certainly trespassed against the LORD.”
The formerly mentioned trespasses of covering up someone else’s sin, ceremonial uncleanliness due to unintentional contact with something unclean, and thoughtless oaths to later be regretted - these all required a trespass offering at the hand of a mediator, a priest who would offer the sacrifice to cover those sins. Nothing else was required. Now the trespass against the holy things of the LORD is addressed with the added requirement of restitution for the crime against God. The other trespasses against all God’s word has to say were only the guilt needing forgiveness by atonement in the form of an animal sacrifice whose lifeblood would temporarily cover the person’s trespass but not the deeper sin inherent in the person which we now know as the sin nature inherited (Genesis 3:6, 19, Romans 5:12, 14, 18-19, 1 Corinthians 15:22) by Adam as begun by Eve (2 Corinthians 11:3) in the beginning as the root of all our trespasses against God. Restoration still needs to be followed by restitution (Numbers 5:6-7, Luke 19:8) when possible, however. The restitution included adding one fifth of the total to give to the priest, a picture of sorts that we should be not only offering restitution to those we offend, steal from, or defraud, but also offer ourselves to the Lord who is our High Priest offering forgiveness and redemption. Do we then seek to make amends for our trespasses against others as we seek the Lord’s forgiveness (Luke 11:4) with the ones we trespass against and seek restoration of our faithfulness to both?
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