Message #270

[AndyHB]

Martin, look at Exodus 31.  There is an instruction 'not to work' here, but not a exact definition of this.  The passage in Numbers 15 would seem to refer to something that was not required to be done on the Sabbath - after all, the man had had 6 days to collect enough (rather like the people were told not to collect excess manna - but only enough for that day - except on the 6th day, when a double collection would not go bad).  As such, it would appear that the man concerned was intentionally breaking the interpretation that had been laid down by the leaders of the people.  Therefore, God's instruction to have him killed (in a context where there were no means of punishing him in a way that would give a serious message to the people, such as incarceration), would have been typical to the way that nomadic people dealt (and still deal) with transgressions.

As pow-wow points out, we now live under a completely different dispensation anyway, and we need to remember that our living context is also totally different to that of the Jews as they wandered through the desert.