A New Perspective to the Law
Numbers 15:32–36
"While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.” So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses."
These kinds of verses confront us. God seems too harsh on people. It's another difficult set of verses. The Israelites weren't sure themselves if this constituted a hrave violation, so they had to enquire of God. I think we are appalled simply because we do not understand the gravity of disobedience which is the basic act and the logical outworking of sinfulness. Rebellion is an affront to God's all-encompassing sovereignty as sin is to His holiness. This is original sin, the proclivity to rebel and desire to live apart from God, this is the fall of Lucifer and of Adam, it is both of pride and disobedience. It resides in each of our hearts and that is why we all have fallen short of God's glory (Rom 3:25), and so our Lord had said "there is none good but God" (Mark 10:18). British journalist Malcolm Muggerridge once wrote: "The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact." The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23a), God despises willful disobedience even when shrouded in good intentions such as king Saul's burnt offering at Gilgal: "And Samuel said, Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king (I Sam 15:22–23)." Now, while the Old Covenant was without mercy holding a very high standard for Israel as a community with each individual a part of and an example, the New Covenant holds the Laws in high esteem and yet because of the coming of the Lord of the Sabbath Who said it was created for humanity and not against it (Mark 2:23–27), and moreso because of His life, sacrificial death and resurrection, the legal response no longer applies. In the end, in the case of the man who was gathering sticks, though the text doesn't say one way or the other, it might be reasonable to assume that because the punishment is severe, so was the offense. He surely knew that he was supposed to do all that work the day before so it can well be interpolated that his act of willful disobedience stems from selfish motivations unlike the disciples who were doing God's work and were hungry and some work with the right motivations are permitted in the Jewish sabbath (Matt 12:11). As in John 8:3–11, our Lord was not acting against the Law but introduced a new perspective to the Law. He allowed the stoning of the adulteress but He put a condition where only those without sin can stone her to death. In realizing that they were also sinners, they withdrew from their attempt to stone her. The New Covenant offers mercy and salvation through repentance. Jesus did not come to condemn the sinners but to bring the sinners to repentance and save them (John 3:17). Christ took our punishments on the cross and through his life, death and resurrection, we are saved and "the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23b)", indeed the LORD has set us free!
"While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.” So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses."
These kinds of verses confront us. God seems too harsh on people. It's another difficult set of verses. The Israelites weren't sure themselves if this constituted a hrave violation, so they had to enquire of God. I think we are appalled simply because we do not understand the gravity of disobedience which is the basic act and the logical outworking of sinfulness. Rebellion is an affront to God's all-encompassing sovereignty as sin is to His holiness. This is original sin, the proclivity to rebel and desire to live apart from God, this is the fall of Lucifer and of Adam, it is both of pride and disobedience. It resides in each of our hearts and that is why we all have fallen short of God's glory (Rom 3:25), and so our Lord had said "there is none good but God" (Mark 10:18). British journalist Malcolm Muggerridge once wrote: "The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact." The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23a), God despises willful disobedience even when shrouded in good intentions such as king Saul's burnt offering at Gilgal: "And Samuel said, Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king (I Sam 15:22–23)." Now, while the Old Covenant was without mercy holding a very high standard for Israel as a community with each individual a part of and an example, the New Covenant holds the Laws in high esteem and yet because of the coming of the Lord of the Sabbath Who said it was created for humanity and not against it (Mark 2:23–27), and moreso because of His life, sacrificial death and resurrection, the legal response no longer applies. In the end, in the case of the man who was gathering sticks, though the text doesn't say one way or the other, it might be reasonable to assume that because the punishment is severe, so was the offense. He surely knew that he was supposed to do all that work the day before so it can well be interpolated that his act of willful disobedience stems from selfish motivations unlike the disciples who were doing God's work and were hungry and some work with the right motivations are permitted in the Jewish sabbath (Matt 12:11). As in John 8:3–11, our Lord was not acting against the Law but introduced a new perspective to the Law. He allowed the stoning of the adulteress but He put a condition where only those without sin can stone her to death. In realizing that they were also sinners, they withdrew from their attempt to stone her. The New Covenant offers mercy and salvation through repentance. Jesus did not come to condemn the sinners but to bring the sinners to repentance and save them (John 3:17). Christ took our punishments on the cross and through his life, death and resurrection, we are saved and "the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23b)", indeed the LORD has set us free!
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