Numbers 15:32-36--A Sabbathbreaker Executed

Numbers 15:32-36
English Standard Version
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A Sabbathbreaker Executed
32 While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. 33 And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. 34 They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. 35 And the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” 36 And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.

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Immediately after the revelation comes a test.  The people have been told multiple times already what the law is regarding the Sabbath and that it is a high-handed sin to intentionally break the Sabbath, and that it's a big deal even to unintentionally break the Sabbath.  Also remember that each time the Law was given it was said that there was to be one law for everyone including men, women, children, animals, slaves, servants, foreigners and sojourners (if I missed a category suffice it to say for "everyone."

A man was found doing the common work of gathering sticks on the Sabbath--a day which was set aside to rest and worship the LORD--no common work was to be done that day so that it would not just be another "ordinary" day to the people.


Exodus 20:8-11
English Standard Version
​8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

The man found doing work on the Sabbath was brought to Moses and Aaron and was placed before all the congregation.  It seems they know that this man's sin was intentional because God does make make provision for people who accidently break the Sabbath because they are a long way from home and lose track of the days--which didn't happen here because this man is living in the camp with all the Israelites and would hear the call to worship coming from the Tabernacle.  He just chose not to heed the call and most likely figured he'd do his gathering when everyone else was at services so that he'd have no one else to compete with.  Each of you knows in your own heart if you have ever had this kind of thought process.  Let's try to focus in on this story and the rebellion that was happening here as "rebellion" is the main theme of this large section of Numbers and is one of the main themes of Numbers in general.  We may talk a bit towards the end about if this passage is prescriptive or simply descriptive for us today.

The passage says that they only took the man into custody because it had not been made clear what should be done to him.  Yet, I think the LORD made it very clear in Exodus 32:12-18 what the punishment was for breaking the Sabbath, and that predated this event because Exodus 31 is the end of Moses receiving the Law on Mount Sinai.  This is the very last thing that God said to Moses before coming off of the mountain.


Exodus 31:12-18
English Standard Version

The Sabbath​
12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

18 And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

So then, why does the passage today say that the Lord had not yet told them what to do?  While this could be the people thumbing their nose at God and His Law, I doubt it, because Moses and Aaron and all the elders were also in doubt.  I think this has to do with the nature of this command in that it is very broad and not well defined what it is or isn't because it is meant to be an issue of "being" and not so much an issue of "doing."  I think the question here is two-fold:
1) Does this man's sin rise to the level of doing "work" on the Sabbath so as to break the fourth commandment (and the subsequent places where this commandment is repeated and explained in more detail)?
2) Was this sin accidental or intentional?  God just told them the punishment for any high-handed sin of rebellion but to treat every accidental sin differently.  Would God offer grace in a situation where the man simply "forgot" what day it was?

​God speaks and says the same thing that He had already said (He's said it a few times actually), "The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.”  The execution was not just to be witnessed publicly, but the entire congregation was to participate in it.  It was to grieve all of them that one of their own had to die this way, and it was to be a lesson to all of them, both young and old, just how serious of an issue this was and that the punishment for this sin of open rebellion against God and His Law and the identity that He had given His people (for God said that it was by their observance of all the Sabbaths, but especially of the seventh day that they would be known to be the people of God and that this was part of their identity and was given highest priority for everyone to keep the holy Sabbath days.  Exodus 31:17 is just one of the places where the people are told that this is the sign of them being God's covenant people.

This passage ends with the people listening to and obeying the Lord as He had instructed Moses.  The Sabbath-breaker was executed outside the camp by stoning, and all the congregation participated in taking him outside the camp and in the public execution of this man.  Notice that the man did not die without a trial, but once God rendered His verdict that it was expected for the punishment to be executed immediately and for everyone to be in agreement with it.

​Okay, so the big question for us today is how this applies to us today who are not Jewish or even if we are Jewish have been redeemed and set free from the slavery of sin and our bondage to the Law where we were constantly in fear of death for being intentional Law-breakers?  Paul has a lot to say about the Law and grace and what part they play in the Christian's life in the epistles of Romans and Galatians.  I'll try to sum up what the apostles told the early Church in the Jerusalem Council as I think it is fitting here when they were asked if Gentiles needed to become Jewish and servants of the Law to become Christians.


Acts 15:19-21
English Standard Version19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. 21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
That doesn't mean that there aren't other things that are important to God, but for the sake of the gospel and reaching those who are Jewish, we should respect and honor these things that are part of the identity of the Jews so that they don't have to feel like they have to stop being Jews to become Christians.  I think it's fair to say that the Sabbath day also falls in this category and it's probably not listed among the items listed by the Jerusalem Council because at that time the Jewish and Gentile believers were still worshiping together as a single congregation in the synagogues on the Sabbath Day.  We'll see some clarification later from Paul about people who say that the day of the week on which they worship should not be important, but Paul always seems to make the point in all of his epistles that even if you understand something like that to be true and you have a "weaker brother" who does not understand it or for some reason still desires to cling to that which he is comfortable with or he finds special meaning in celebrating on that day, then you are not to try to force him to change or cause him to stumble (see Romans 14 which talks about both Christian liberties and then immediately talks about not causing your brother to stumble--they are one thought to Paul).

So then Paul seems to specifically say in Romans 14 that this question of if one day is more esteemed than another (I think referring to Sabbaths and the Sabbath day in particular) and some people continuing to do it in order to honor the Lord is not something that should incur judgment either way.  Each should be convinced in his or her own mind and the Spirit of God should teach us and we should love one another in such a way where we are willing to give up our preference in this area thinking of others more highly than we think of ourselves.

As you know by reading my blogs, the idea of the Sabbath day is important to me, not because I'm Jewish but because I too want to show the world that I too believe that in six days the Lord God created heaven and earth and the seas and tall that is in them and that on the seventh day He rested.  I think that's a precept that predates the Mosaic Law and is something that we see in the New Testament that God expects even the Gentiles to understand.  However, I am not dogmatic about how others observe that commandment or whether they observe it at all--that is between them and God.  For me, Jesus' Resurrection does not change the day or the meaning of the Sabbath, though Jesus made clear to us that the Law was never to prevent us from doing good on the Sabbath.  The priests work on the Sabbath as they are doing the work to serve God and share the gospel with others and Jesus also healed on the Sabbath on multiple occasions to show the Pharisees that they had a misunderstanding of what God had intended this Law to be--the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  God intended this day to be a day for us to rest from our work and to enjoy Him.  If you do that on Sunday instead of on Saturday like most Christians around the world do, that's okay.  If you do that on the traditional Sabbath like Messianic Jews and other Sabbatarians do, that's okay too (note there are some people who worship on the seventh day because they say they have received additional revelation from God telling them to do so, and that is problematic still, so please don't hear me saying that I'm trying to normalize that).

I don't think God makes our worship on the Sabbath day an identity issue for Christians like He did for the Jews, and I believe the teaching is there that we are only to find our identity in Christ and be part of one Vine, but that doesn't mean that we need to become Jewish before we become Christian.  We should not be required to take on the yoke of the Law that the Jews could never keep--Jesus came to fully obey and fulfill the Law because we could not.  That does not mean that hate, abhor, or intentionally break the Law because somehow we understand that the Law is a reflection of who God is and the work that He has been doing and loving God means loving His Law, and we are told that we love Him we will keep His commandments.

So where does that leave us?  The Spirit through the Word of God will show you which laws you are intended to obey, but I think it's clear that the answer is not to throw out the Old Testament and the Law completely--it simply serves a new and different purpose and there are still ways in which it helps to identify us as belonging to God.  We are expected to act in such a way that will show the world that we are in the world, but not of the world, and we are not to act in a way that would make the Jews think that they must become Gentiles before coming to Jesus or to make the Gentiles think they must become Jews before coming to Jesus.  Both of those are forbidden.  We should only find our identity and unity in Christ.  We should be willing to accept various interpretations of this particular commandment among believers and not try to change their minds, but instead have grace in dealing with each as it is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict and convince each one of us and our love will speak much more loudly and clearly than our judgment.

With that in mind, we no longer execute people for breaking the Sabbath as Christians though we may still kick people out of our congregations for failure to uphold and keep the Sabbath in the way that the elders and the congregation has agreed to.  If your church has bylaws, a statement of faith, or a church covenant or something similar that you bound yourself to when you became a member or that you implicitly agree to as a regular attendee (remember there should be no different law for the servant, alien or sojourner among you is a big theme of God's Law) then you are responsible to come under that authority and accept church discipline if you break covenant.  I would not judge churches who excommunicate members for those who forsake the assembling of ourselves together as that is not just an Old Testament commandment, but also a New Testament commandment.

Should you cook a meal on your Sabbath day based off of the Law?  Should you watch TV or go the movies?  How about going for a walk or a drive in the car?  What about mowing the grass or doing housework?  What about travelling?  Are you required to go to church services when you are away from home?  These and others are good questions that I believe the Bible teaches us we should look for answers to both individually and corporately as we lean on the Bible and the Holy Spirit for understanding and direction.  As we do understand we should be quick to listen and to obey and that means to obey completely.

Final thought here is that this passage once ahead has something to do with the big theme of rebellion going on here and that this man was rebelling against God, His Law, and the identity that God had given to His people.  His rebellion in this place at this time was a threat to God's people becoming what God intended them to be in a way that we probably don't fully understand today, but I trust that God knew what He was doing when He commanded His people to keep the Sabbath which is a word that means to actively guard and protect it, not simply meaning "don't break it.")  We'll see others continuing to rebel for a while, sometimes with God directly judging them and burning them up or making the ground swallow them up, and other times asking the congregation to participate in their execution like this time.  We are not to try to judge God or the people of this time who were obedient to God.  We must be careful as we read a text like this to consider "What is the same?" and "What is different?" when we try to make application to ourselves.  Otherwise, we would make the mistake of the Judaizers and try to make people keep a Law that they themselves could not keep in order to be part of God's covenant community.