Elijah John wrote:
Why do Evangelicals and Jehovah's Witnesses claim the Bible is perfect when it contains verses like this?
Numbers 15:32-36, ESV: "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."
QUESTION: how do you justify God commanding we kill someone simply for working on a particular day?
If someone doesn't want to respect the law of the land where they live, they are free to leave but living within a nation's territories implies you will comply with the laws of that country or face the consequences. While people have certain God given rights, the right to pick up sticks whenever they like is rarely, if ever sighted as one of them. Given how easy the law to refrain from working on a sabbath was, justification should be demanded from the criminal as to why he broke the law, not the other way round.
Demanding the "right" to work yourself (or your employee or animals) into the ground.
The right "
to work seven days a week without a break" would be a perverse issue to attempt to promote, even today. That would be paramount to demanding the right to work yourself into the ground like a slave. No one needed at the time, to work seven days a week and no one would starve or die because they took a day off - especially in an agricultural community where their income was dependent for the most part on the seasons. Looking at things practically, one could argue that giving workers a day OFF is a very compassionate provision, so if anyone should have a problem with the arrangement, it should be those being denied that right to a day off rather than the other way round.
QUESTION Why was there such a severe penalty for breaking the Sabbath law
As has been stated this law wasn't "
cruel" or "
unreasonable" because working 7/7 is not a human right, on the contrary modern laws reflect this principle of giving workers time of and make it illegal in many countries to make employees work without time off. That the crime carried the death penalty was reflective of the fact that the legal system was based on spiritual principles, principles which not only protected hired workers but more importantly protected the religious system which was essential for the nations survival.
Unlike other nations, the Israelites as a nation had formally agreed to theocratic rule ('theocratic' literally mean "rule by God") and to the terms as outlined in the law which included the respect of the Sabbath as one of its 10 main commandments. Anyone born in that nation automatically came under the obligation to obey national law. As has been mentioned, there were no closed borders, so if anyone didn't like those laws they were free to pack up their donkey and sandals and move to a nation were one could pick up sticks any day of the week.
Those that stayed needed to understand that God cannot have dealings with that which he views as unclean, so if He (God) was to continue to protect them (keep them all alive) against surrounding nations, they had to reflect his righteous standards, obey his laws continue to focus on pure worship. The Sabbath was central to this end. It meant one day a week was set aside by every Jewish family to be devoted to worship and learning God's laws. It enabled them to realize that they were dependent on their Creator. If they failed to do this, they would lose faith and eventually God's favor, and without His protection they would inevitably as a small nation, be conquered by surrounding nations leading to the enslavement and death of millions. So respect for the Sabbath was essentially a matter of the life or death of the nation.
Of course anyone has the right to openly defy a law they see it as unjust if they are willing to die for their cause, presumably in the hope that their lives will create a mass rebellion against it. Arguably only the stupidest and most misguided of people would would choose this particular law as their cause.
CONCLUSION: The Sabbath law was ahead of its time in that it protected every laborer from being worked into the ground as well as gave consideration to animal welfare. More importantly it enabled the nation never to lose sight of the principles that were keeping them alive. Someone that broke that law then was willfully undermining the principles upon which the nation itself was based. Naturally such a treasonous act carried a severe penalty.
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