{"id":5754,"date":"2014-08-31T01:38:58","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T08:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5754"},"modified":"2014-08-31T01:38:58","modified_gmt":"2014-08-31T08:38:58","slug":"payback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/08\/31\/payback\/","title":{"rendered":"Payback"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf someone steals an ox or a lamb and slaughters or sells it, the thief must pay five cattle in place of the ox and four sheep in place of the lamb. If the thief is caught while breaking in and is hit hard and dies, there is no bloodguilt. But if it happens after daybreak, there is bloodguilt.<\/p>\n

\u201cA thief must make full restitution for what is stolen. The thief who is unable to pay is to be sold for his thieving. If caught red-handed with the stolen goods, and the ox or donkey or lamb is still alive, the thief pays double.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone grazes livestock in a field or vineyard but lets them loose so they graze in someone else\u2019s field, restitution must be made from the best of the owner\u2019s field or vineyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf fire breaks out and spreads to the brush so that the sheaves of grain or the standing grain or even the whole field is burned up, whoever started the fire must pay for the damages. (Exodus 22:1-6)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Payback hurts. Better not to owe it. When Nathan the prophet first confronted David for his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, he told him a story about a man stealing a pet sheep from his neighbor and slaughtering it. David reacted angrily and pronounced that the man must pay back \u201cfour sheep\u201d for the one stolen.<\/p>\n

The only place God gave the penalty for a stolen sheep was here, in this single passage. Clearly David knew the Bible well\u2014though it did not necessarily prevent him from sinning. Christians have the law written on their hearts and usually know the Bible pretty well. And yet we are daily guilty of any number of sins.<\/p>\n

God made restitution the method for dealing with any sort of theft, whether intentional or accidental, as in the \u201ctheft\u201d caused by letting one\u2019s animals get loose to steal grain from someone else\u2019s field, or allowing a fire get away and burn up the property of a neighbor. The principal envisioned was the practical outworking of the golden rule, to do to others as you\u2019d have them do to you: if someone caused a loss, you\u2019d wish that they\u2019d restore it to you. The law, in all its varied detail, merely serves as a commentary explaining in specific circumstances how to love your neighbor as yourself.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf someone steals an ox or a lamb and slaughters or sells it, the thief must pay five cattle in place of the ox and four sheep in place of the lamb. If the thief is caught while breaking in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5754"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5754"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5756,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5754\/revisions\/5756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}