Comment on death
penalty for “gathering sticks” on the Sabbath Day.
Just to clarify
that I am a "thinking" person, not a blind follower. And I have THOUGHT. I was introduced to the
concept of "blasphemy" when I was probably four. It scared me half to
death and I pulled my mother’s sleeve in church and asked my mother questions
about it. I have thought, and read, TOO MUCH, non-theist literature. This is why I "fled" back to
Christianity and the Judeo-Christian ethos as a refuge after considering
"thoughtfully" the other alternatives.
In the atheist
and agnostic camp there is one very big “stumblingblock” which they claim turns
many people away from faith in God. There is this instance of a man being
stoned for an apparently minor infraction, i.e., the man was stoned in Numbers
Chapter 15 for gathering sticks on the Sabbath Day. I agree, on its face, this seems incredibly
cruel to a so-called "enlightened" modern mind; however, those same
"enlightened" people often declare that a person who rapes does not
get the death penalty in today's justice system. I can understand that kind of
mercy if the criminal was, for example, mentally challenged. I might also understand such mercy if the
rapist had, himself, been tortured to the point of insanity as a child which
might cause him/her to be incapable of knowing right from wrong. However, in today's justice system, most
rapists do not receive the death penalty, even if the crime was heinous. Life in prison seems to be the max even for
heinous acts of rape that did not result in the death of the victim. Hmmm? My how far we have fallen in what we do NOT
punish with death.
The question
arises: How much evil and rebellion can
be tolerated in a community or society without creating anarchy and mayhem?
Stoning to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath? That seems unreasonably
authoritarian and cruel to those of us who cut our teeth on the democratic
ideal. Most modern people do not even understand the concept of sovereignity.
One definition of sovereignity is "supreme power." Most monarchies
and theocracies were supposedly rendered obsolete with the rise of
democracy. Look again. We still have monarchies and theocracies, and
those of us born into a "nominally" democratic society take umbrage
at any stone-age monarchy or theocracy as being a remnant of the now defunct
"Divine Right of Kings." The
irony is that this concept of "sovereignity," which is the basis for
monarchies and theocracies, is foreign to most modern minds. It is ironic because anyone who has been
paying the least bit of attention to history is aware that we are living under
shadow governments that demonstrate "supreme power" on a daily basis,
killing at will, starting wars with impunity, executing victims and their
families clandestinely, and justifying these atrocities as necessary evils to
preserve the "greater good," etc. But a God, a Supreme Being, who
gives the death penalty for DESPISING THE WORD OF THE LORD, now that, the
modern mind would declare to be cruel and capricious. Consider this: The example of this "stick-gatherer"
was placed in the middle of a passage about the danger of committing
"presumptuous" sins . . . sins that are done with full knowledge that
they are wrong and with an attitude of BOLD IMPUDENCE.
KJV Bible Numbers
Chapter 15:
27 And if any
soul sin through IGNORANCE . . .
. . . . the
priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he
sinneth by ignorance before the LORD, to make an atonement for him; and it
shall be forgiven him.
29 Ye shall have
one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among
the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.
30 But the soul
that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger,
the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his
people.
31 Because he
hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul
shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.
32 And while the
children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered
sticks upon the sabbath day.
33 And they that
found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the
congregation.
34 And they put
him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.
35 And the LORD
said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation
shall stone him with stones without the camp.
36 And all the
congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he
died; as the LORD commanded Moses.
While Jesus
forgives ALL manner of sin during THIS dispensation of GRACE, during the
dispensation of LAW, REBELLION, which recent science has indicated could be a
genetic tendency, could NOT be tolerated.
My very American idealism concerning the beauty of democracy instantly
wants to rise up against such a concept of Supreme Authority; however, any
truly learned person knows that democracy can reach an extremity when it
becomes anarchy, then we have to get into the muddy waters of the nature of man
and original sin. I won't go there.
Even Saul of
Tarsus, who later became Saint Paul, was a mass murderer, whoah!!, but he did
it IGNORANTLY.
KJV Bible NT I Timothy Chapter 1:
12 And I thank
Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry;
13 Who was before
a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, BECAUSE I
DID IT IGNORANTLY IN UNBELIEF.
18 This charge I
commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on
thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
19 Holding faith,
and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made
shipwreck:
20 Of whom is
Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn
not to blaspheme.
The man in the
Old Testament was not stoned just for "picking up sticks." He was stoned for sinning
"presumptuously," with an attitude of total disregard for Law in
general. He did not do this IGNORANTLY, but did it in a manner that showed that
he "DESPISED the word of the LORD . . . " To DESPISE the word of the Lord is a
seriously bad attitude when that Lord has shown you miracle after miracle after
miracle to prove His love and to preserve your very existence, with the Hebrews,
as a race, and with all of us, as a species.
Merriam-Webster says of the word
"despise" . . . .
Full Definition
of DESPISE transitive verb
1
: to look down on with contempt or
aversion
2
: to regard as negligible, worthless, or
distasteful
As I stated
previously, we do not know the man's life story. He may have done horrendous
things in private seen only by God, with no human witnesses. If so, God could not allow this kind of
rebellious DNA to exist. And no, this scientific theory that personality traits
are "inherited" has not been "proven." However, it COULD be that people actually
INHERIT a tendency to be lawless, and lawlessness can lead to violence, murder,
and mayhem. No, I am NOT a Nazi!! But just perchance there was a genetic tendency,
or just a tendency produced by his own faulty human reasoning, to think that
LAW did not apply to him. Perhaps there was a dangerous tendency, from whatever
source, in this man, to disregard Law in general, even necessary Law to
preserve civilization. If others were allowed to imitate his example, the
entire community wandering through the wilderness, already in constant peril,
could have come unwound and caused the destruction of the entire Hebrew race.
On a more
mystical level, for those who think mystically, perhaps this disregard for Law
showed that the rebellious person was the very "seed of Satan" which
would continue to reproduce and, perhaps, destroy the community and society of
the Hebrews. I am NOT declaring here that I believe in the Serpent Seed
Doctrine either. I'm just saying, maybe he WAS a "bad seed" that
would have later become a serial killer in the camp if he had lived. Maybe he
had committed previous sins in secret, which God saw. Maybe the "stick
gatherer" had raped his sister, and there were no witnesses except God
who, in His justice, had every intention of punishing this sin that was done in
private, unseen by the congregation. The scripture does not tell the life story
of the man stoned for picking up sticks on the Sabbath. Perhaps God planned to
punish some unspeakable act or acts of wickedness which he had done secretly
from the very beginning, but God had shown mercy up to this point of open
rebellion. Yes, I'm using my imagination
here. I get to do that . . . because God gave me a mind that can imagine,
or consider possibilities that are not apparent.
Even if the
atheist for whom I wrote this essay is right and it was a made up story by the
early Hebrews to establish a Sabbath, I ask that atheist to please
explain: How would mankind learn to obey
"justified" Law if there was no Lawgiver, and there were no
consequences for law-breakers?
I say in the fear
of God, even I might stand condemned based on my own analysis presented here,
for I HAVE done sins impudently, boldly, rebelliously, right in the face of a
merciful God. I do not know the ultimate
fate of my soul, but I still believe that God is holy, just, merciful, and
compassionate. The offering of Jesus
Christ as the Lamb of God on Calvary PROVES that God is full of
loving-kindness. God came down, Himself,
and was born as a god/man called The Son of God, to PROVE to mankind that He
loves us and wants us to attain Salvation.
KJV Holy Bible
Ephesians Chapter 2:
"8 For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God . . ."
I HOPE I can be
saved.
I Thessalonians 5
9 For God hath
not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 Who died for
us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
11 Wherefore
comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
Like the
old-timers used to preach: The question is not, "Do you accept
God?" The question is, "Does God accept you?" . . . or me?
