Sticks & Stones

Reading:   Numbers 15

Today, like the instance of blasphemy (see A Literal Stoning), we find another example of extreme punishment for a paltry disobedience.  It is hard to accept, in terms of "a punishment equal to the crime" but again, the people had no history other than slavery and a harsh action was the only recourse for teaching obedience.

NUMBERS 15:32-36

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. 

There had to be weeping and wailing and I'd image it wasn't easy for the people to carry out such a brutal punishment, especially in cases like this, but the crime, as written, was an offense against God and could not be dealt with lightly. Still, I'm not sure that the sentence of death was teaching anything but bitterness and, in some of the people, an intense desire to rebel.  

Need to know, I guess, and I do not need to know at this time...


~Kipling