Reparation, or restitution, as the word appears in the Bible, would appear to have meant vastly more to Moses than it did to the Israelites. The Israelites regarded the laws of material restitution commanded by Moses largely as punitive measures, designed to repress unjust practices and to appease the wrath of a manlike Deity. Moses, however, because of his own experiences in attaining a more spiritual concept of God, knew that such restrictive laws were a necessary initial step in the process of reformation of the Hebrew people. Just as their materialized concept of God, with its attendant evil,—the belief in the reality of matter,—kept the Israelites in a semicivilized state, contrariwise, the promulgation and enforcement of laws of material restitution imposed a self-restraint that aided in holding them to the line of mental and moral advancement, wherein improved concepts of God and of His perfect spiritual creation were progressively realized; and, in consequence, better forms of government were achieved. Also, such laws protected human rights and property, in large measure, during the transitional period leading up to individual discernment, acceptance, and practice of the spiritual truth underlying them. The initiation, therefore, by Moses of these fundamental statutes had a twofold vital purpose.
Christ Jesus understood the underlying truth and the sacred purpose of all the laws and ordinances set forth in the Old Testament. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled," he assured his disciples in his wonderful Sermon on the Mount. In his discourse, Jesus pointed out the inadequacy, in itself, of material restitution, whether exacted as a legal penalty or as a religious sin-offering, to fulfill the requirements of divine justice and truly reform men's lives. And then, with incisive simplicity, he stated the divine method of fulfilling the Hebrew law of restitution: "Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."
"First be reconciled to thy brother"! Momentous words! Jesus thus demanded spiritually scientific reparation. He demanded a change of thought,—repentance. He demanded of the gift-bearer the restitution or replacement in his consciousness of kind and loving thoughts, where evil thoughts had seemed to be. Fear, hatred, revenge,—all thoughts that could cause a sinister material visualization of his brother,—were to be cast out. Since his own erring thoughts had caused the seeming wrong done to his brother, where could reconciliation actually take place save within his own consciousness? And how could he begin truly to make amends except by first changing his own thinking from evil to good?
