[
Replying to post 1 by Jagella]
Peace to you.
I do not know how anyone answers this question so absolutely, considering all the variables involved. Different time, different place, different needs for the survival of an entire community, possible errors in the text from the erring pen of the scribes, a definite lack of details from two sentences in a manuscript describing an event that took place three thousand-ish years ago. Although I might point out that the OP suggests that the reader keep in mind that this man might have been gathering sticks to keep his family warm... when this cautionary tale actually comes directly after the warning about a person
defiantly breaking the law.
Then there are questions about me: Would I have been the same person at that time? How might events have shaped me differently? Would I have known then what/who I know now?
(Some also seem to forget that Israel vowed to obey Moses. Israel was too afraid to hear God, they wanted Moses to talk to God, then tell them what God wanted, and they would obey whatever Moses, the servant of God, said. So Israel was obligated by their own word. That was
their choice.)
I don't particularly like these kinds of questions for those reasons. If you want to know what I would (hope to) do in a situation like that, then ask me a question that is going to pertain to me in the here and now (or at least in my future).
That being said:
IF (big if) the story happened as written, then we are missing extenuating circumstances (obviously we are missing the whole story, considering it is just a few sentences). We can know this because of the example Christ (the image of God) gave us. We can also know that it is unlikely that the man was gathering sticks on the Sabbath to take care of the needs of his family, because of the truth that Christ teaches, that doing something necessary (to help or save another person) is
lawful:
He said:
He replied, “If one of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is LAWFUL to do good on the Sabbath.� Matthew 12:11
But the synagogue leader was indignant that [Jesus] had healed on the Sabbath. “There are six days for work,� he told the crowd. “So come and be healed on those days and not on the Sabbath.�
“You hypocrites!� the Lord replied,
“Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to water? Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, be released from her bondage on the Sabbath day?�
And of course we also have Christ saving the life of the woman caught in adultery.
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone". He even forgave the woman her sins. In fact, this is quite the parallel story is it not? The Sabbath stick gatherer was brought to Moses to see what should be done with him, and the woman who committed adultery was brought to Christ to see what should be done with her. Moses may have done what was necessary at the time (extenuating circumstances); but Christ is the One who did - and who shows us - what God
truly desires.
Christ is the One who reveals God to us as God truly is. We already know that Moses had to give some laws due to the hard-heartedness of the people, and of course we also know that the lying pen of the scribes had mishandled the law (Jeremiah 8:8).
**
Oh, and there is at least one thing I could have done
regardless of the circumstances (or of the time or place or conditions):
I could have asked for mercy for the man. God desires mercy, after all, and not sacrifice (Hosea 6:6). If I had the courage and the love to do this, then I would have done so respectfully, as Abraham asked God about Sodom and Gomorrah. But asking mercy for the man is something I could have done, even 3000-ish years ago.
Peace again to you,
your servant and a slave of Christ,
tammy