Sabbath Stick Gatherer Brought Before Mosesby KandD
15:32Numbers 15:32
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
In the wilderness a man went openly before the congregation and gathered sticks of wood to make a fire, which was unnecessary work done in defiance of the commandment. The Sabbath was made for man, for his benefit. Knowingly doing work on the seventh day breaks the holy commandment forbidding labor on that day.
Such deliberate sin done with a high hand, not in ignorance, is a great crime and exceedingly sinful in the sight of Heaven, and it brings the awful visitation of God upon old and young alike. For it the offender was cut off from the people, taken without the camp, and stoned to death as one not deemed worthy to live, proving God is very particular about observance of His holy law. The death required under the Mosaic law measures how great that crime is and proves how exceedingly sinful such sin is to God.
That temporal death was not the whole punishment, for God will not take a transgressor of His law to heaven to eternal life, but the offender faces temporal and eternal doom and must suffer the second death as the full and final penalty. The penalty of stoning to death was then exacted for such defiance but is now abolished and not required, yet everyone will still have to answer for every disregard of God's law. The sin is never so exceedingly sinful as now while God is purifying unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works, yet because the death penalty is gone it is now lightly esteemed, indulged beyond measure, and thought a small offense. It still disgraces God's cause, brings His wrath upon the camp, and should bar the offender from the fellowship and privileges of the church. The case lays a solemn duty to study how to keep the Sabbath and to teach others its sacredness.
In the wilderness a man went openly before the congregation and gathered sticks of wood to make a fire, which was unnecessary work done in defiance of the commandment. The Sabbath was made for man, for his benefit. Knowingly doing work on the seventh day breaks the holy commandment forbidding labor on that day.
Such deliberate sin done with a high hand, not in ignorance, is a great crime and exceedingly sinful in the sight of Heaven, and it brings the awful visitation of God upon old and young alike. For it the offender was cut off from the people, taken without the camp, and stoned to death as one not deemed worthy to live, proving God is very particular about observance of His holy law. The death required under the Mosaic law measures how great that crime is and proves how exceedingly sinful such sin is to God.
That temporal death was not the whole punishment, for God will not take a transgressor of His law to heaven to eternal life, but the offender faces temporal and eternal doom and must suffer the second death as the full and final penalty. The penalty of stoning to death was then exacted for such defiance but is now abolished and not required, yet everyone will still have to answer for every disregard of God's law. The sin is never so exceedingly sinful as now while God is purifying unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works, yet because the death penalty is gone it is now lightly esteemed, indulged beyond measure, and thought a small offense. It still disgraces God's cause, brings His wrath upon the camp, and should bar the offender from the fellowship and privileges of the church. The case lays a solemn duty to study how to keep the Sabbath and to teach others its sacredness.