At its root, sin is always committed without any regard for God. Just
like this account of the man who went out to collect wood on the Sabbath. He
could not have been ignorant of the Law. Hence, what he had done was a show of
careless disregard for God’s commandment that they “Remember the
Sabbath and to keep it holy.”
Sabbath was a day consecrated to God. It was a day to be kept in honor
of Him. Breaking it would be a show of utter disregard for God and a reproach
to Him. Besides Sabbath was also a day to commemorate the children of Israel’s
emancipation from Egypt. To break the Sabbath was to show ingratitude and a
reproach to God. So the man who went and collected wood had totally no regard
for God and His command. This was outright defiance.
Those
who found the offender brought him to Moses, Aaron, and before the congregation.
They placed him in custody before deciding what to do with him. Then the Lord
spoke and told Moses to have him stoned by the people outside the camp. So he
was brought outside the camp and stoned to death.
To
some, the punishment seems disproportional. Isn’t that a minor sin? Of course
not. No sin is inconsequential to the Lord. There is no lesser or greater sin,
a sin is a sin. And no one has the right to take God for granted. We must never
treat His words lightly. To disobey God is serious no matter how small our sin may
appear. Disobeying God must be discouraged at all costs. Let us not entertain sin.
One other thing this account reminds us is this, Sabbath-keeping is important
in God’s sight. We must learn to make a distinction between Sabbath and the
rest of the other days in a week. It is a day to cease from work, to rest in
God, and to connect with Him. So Remember the Sabbath, to keep it
holy!
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