Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any of all the sins of man to work unfaithfulness against Jehovah, and that soul is guilty,
God lives in the middle of Israel's camp, so a wrong done to a neighbour there is never a private matter. This verse calls such a wrong unfaithfulness to the Lord Himself, and what follows shows what He asks of the guilty person.
The instruction comes in a book about a people on the move, and the whole chapter is shaped by who is travelling with them.
Chapter 5 presents three things. They have to do with the purity of the camp, seen as the dwelling place of God. They also have to do with our journey through the wilderness, which is the great subject of the Book of Numbers. It is a journey that tests everything, and on it the presence of God, ungrieved among us, is our only security, guidance and strength.
The verse calls the offence a breach of faith with the Lord, even though the injury falls on a neighbour. Commentators see kindness in that, not only severity — God takes the side of the one who was harmed.
What grace on the Lord's part, to count wrongs against a neighbour as wrongs against Himself as well, and to call for repayment along with a guilt offering of the same kind!
Since the Lord is the party wronged, neither time nor a death can close the case.
The guilty man could never point to a death as cancelling the claim for repayment or the need to confess. The Lord did not pass away, and the priesthood did not die out. So he still had to own the Lord's claims, and he still had to pay back what he owed… Time would not make the offence less serious, for it was a trespass against the Eternal One.
The law asks the guilty person to own the wrong out loud, and then to hand something back. Writers point out that the two belong together and that neither works alone.
A second source of defilement meets us in verses 5-10. It deals with wrongdoing against the Lord and against one's neighbour. The answer to it was confession, and repayment with a fifth part added. This rule has a very clear voice for us today. Confession came first, but by itself it was not enough.
The same demand reaches past Israel to us.
It was not enough for a Jew who had wronged his brother to go and say, "I am sorry." He had to give back what he had wrongly taken and add a fifth to it… If we have wronged anyone, it is not enough to confess our sin to God and to our brother. We must make restitution. We are called to give practical proof that we have judged ourselves over the wrong we did.
Does full forgiveness make this old rule obsolete? One writer says it does the opposite: it makes confession more urgent.
The grace of God has brought in forgiveness without limit. That grace would be a disaster if it did not press for confession. Can you imagine anything more dreadful than a real weakening of the sense of sin in people who have been brought near to God?… Whatever has that effect is the deepest wrong to Him, and the greatest loss to us.
The danger shows itself in a casual way of treating our own failures.
We fear there is a light, careless, easy-going way of speaking about sin and failure, and it must grieve the Spirit of God deeply. We rest content with confession from the lips alone, without any deep, heartfelt sense of how evil sin is in God's sight. We never judge the sin at its root. And because we treat sin so lightly, the heart grows hard and the conscience loses its tenderness.
The offender in this chapter pays back with his own hands. But what about the debt a sinner owes God?
If robbing a fellow man is condemned like this, how can the sin of robbing God be answered? How can people who are already sinners repay Him? It is impossible… But we read in the Psalms of One who said, "then I restored that which I took not away" (Psalm 69:4)… There is not one breach that could be charged against us which He, in His wonderful grace and mercy, has not repaired.
That line of Psalm 69:4 comes from an older translation.
- Dwelling. God lives in the middle of His travelling people. His ungrieved presence is their only security, guidance and strength.
- Breach. God counts a wrong against a neighbour as unfaithfulness to Himself. That is grace: He makes the injured person's cause His own.
- Confession. Owning the sin comes first. Time and changed circumstances never let the claim lapse.
- Restitution. Sorry was never enough. Paying back the loss plus a fifth proved that the offender had judged himself.
- Restoration. No sinner can repay what he stole from God. But One restored what He never took away, and repaired every breach charged to us.
then they shall confess their sin which they have done; and he shall recompense his trespass according to the principal thereof, and shall add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed.
Numbers 5:7 stands in a set of rules for keeping Israel's camp clean, because God Himself lived in the middle of it. A wrong against another person counts here as a wrong against God, and only confession, full repayment and a fifth more settle it.
The wrong is not private. It happens in a place where God has taken up residence, and He notices.
God took knowledge of the wrong done there against a brother. If this is always true, it is even more true of the wrong done to Him, who has not been ashamed to call us His brothers. Sometimes the trespass could not be repaid to the person wronged, or to his relative. Then it was owed to God, through the priest, on top of the sin offering. In God's camp no one could do wrong without making amends for it.
Grace does not make confession optional. Forgiveness that left sin unconfessed would do harm.
Anyone who did wrong in the camp (verses 5-10) had to confess it and make restitution, and, following the law of the trespass offering, add the fifth part to it. God would not tolerate unconfessed sin in the camp where He lived… "The grace of God, which has brought in unlimited forgiveness, would be a disaster if it did not require confession. Can anything be more dreadful, morally, than a real weakening of the sense of sin in those brought near to God?"
The verse puts confession first and repayment straight after. The second is what proves the first was real.
God looked for confession and restitution whenever anyone had committed a trespass. The restitution proved that the confession was sincere. It was not enough for a Jew, who had trespassed against his brother, to go and say, "I am sorry." He had to restore the thing in which he had trespassed and add a fifth to it… So if we have trespassed against anyone, it is not enough to confess our sin to God and to our brother. We must make restitution. We are called to give practical proof that we have judged ourselves over the thing in which we trespassed.
The repayment goes to the person harmed. A sacrifice goes to God. Neither one cancels the other.
The injured party got back what the offender had wrongfully taken, plus a fifth of its value — a fine the law of his God laid on the offender. But restitution to the injured party was not all. The appointed victim also had to die to make atonement for the guilty person, so that God could forgive him. His neighbour's forgiveness was one thing. God's forgiveness was another, and the offender was to be content with nothing less.
Exact repayment would return things to where they stood before the wrong. God asks for more than that.
Even this was not enough. The offender still had to add the fifth part more. God would have a surplus of good come out of evil, not just a return to where things were before. That would not be worthy of Him. How could He have allowed sin at all, only to show His power in defeating it and no more? Such a victory would be little better than defeat.
The same writer traces that extra fraction forward into the gospel, where both sides of the wrong are more than repaired.
The person who offered the offering did more than could have been required if the trespass had not been committed, and the injured person was now a gainer to that extent… God and man are both considered as suffering through sin, and are both now gainers through the work of Christ; and this is the "much more" of the apostle in the fifth of Romans, and this is the "fifth part more" of the book of Leviticus.
Here the guilty man pays his own compensation. Against God, no sinner can.
If robbing a fellow man is condemned like this, how can the sin of robbing God ever be dealt with? How can those who are already sinners make restitution to Him? It is impossible… But we read in the Psalms of One who said, "What I did not steal must I now restore?" (Psalm 69:4). He was the trespass offering as well as the sin and burnt offerings. He has therefore made full and complete restitution… There is not one wrong that could be charged to us which He, in His wonderful grace and mercy, has not repaired.
The older translation this writer used reads that line as a statement: "Then I restored that which I took not away."
The rule reaches into ordinary Christian life, and into words as much as actions.
There is, we fear, today much defilement, even among the true saints of God, springing from trespass, in speech as well as in act, all of which grieves the Holy Spirit and greatly hinders spiritual blessing. Often a time of revival among God's people has come first, and then a time of awakening and conversion among sinners. Conviction of trespasses against their Lord and their fellow Christians seized them, and confession and restitution followed, as far as they were able.
- Confess — the wrong must be named, not hushed; unconfessed sin cannot stay in the camp where God lives.
- Restore — the repayment tests the apology; what leaves your hand proves you have judged yourself.
- Add — the extra fifth means the injured party ends up better off than before the wrong was done.
- Godward — the neighbour's forgiveness settles one account; only the sacrifice settles the other.
- Christ — no sinner can repay the debt to God, so One who never took anything away repaid it and repaired every wrong charged to us.