Daily Lesson for June 25, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Samuel chapter 6 verses 1 through 5:

The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines for seven months. 2Then the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, ‘What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us what we should send with it to its place.’3They said, ‘If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt-offering. Then you will be healed and will be ransomed; will not his hand then turn from you?’4And they said, ‘What is the guilt-offering that we should return to him?’ They answered, ‘Five gold tumours and five gold mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines; for the same plague was upon all of you and upon your lords. 5So you must make images of your tumours and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps he will lighten his hand on you and your gods and your land.’

In the 12 steps of recovery there is an important step called making amends, which requires a wrongdoer to go beyond a simple apology and truly take concrete action to amend for his or her actions which brought harm upon another person or community. Feeling or even saying, “I’m sorry,” is not good enough. Something tangible must be done to amend for the harm brought upon another. 

In today’s Lesson we see amends taking place. The Philistines stole the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites. It plagued them mightily, just as it always plagues us when we take from someone else what is not ours. They decided to return the Ark.  And they did so with amends — with gold offerings, cast in images of the tumors which had afflicted them since they had stolen the Ark, given to the LORD, the God of the Israelites. 

It is not enough to simply be sorry. True repentance requires that we make concrete amends to undo the harm we have done to others. It is a necessary step in recovery for individuals, and also groups, and even nations. And it is a necessary part in the path to restored relationship and even reconciliation with others.