God’s dealings with Old-Testament Israel are beneficial to us today by providing examples of God’s faithfulness to His word (1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Romans 15:4). The book of Numbers contains a section of several rebellions against the Lord in chapters 11-16. Between the rebellion of the congregation—who listened to the evil report of the ten spies rather than the faithful report of Joshua and Caleb—in Numbers 14 and the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, Abiram and 250 princes of the congregation in Numbers 16, lies a crucial command about rebellion. “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. 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” (Numbers 15:30-31). God made a difference between a sin committed through ignorance (Numbers 15:24-29), and high-handed sins. Parents understand this principle and discipline their child differently depending on whether the child was just not thinking or deliberately defied their parents’ orders.
Presumptuous sin recognizes God’s law and goes its own way anyway. It places self on the throne and arrogantly looks down on the law of God; it has no fear of the Lord or His judgments. Presumption says man, not God, has the best way to conduct his steps; this is false (Jeremiah 10:23).
Immediately after this commandment regarding presumptuous sin, Moses records an example of such in Numbers 15:32-36. A man was caught picking up sticks on the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32). Sticks were gathered in order to make fires for cooking (cf. 1 Kings 17:10-12). The Lord’s daily provisions from heaven were doubled on the sixth day so that Israel would not have to gather manna on the seventh day; thus, they could keep the Sabbath (Exodus 16:22-30). But this man chose to go out and gather sticks in defiance of the Lord’s command to keep the Sabbath holy (Exodus 20:8-11). When he was brought before Moses and Aaron, he was placed in ward to see what the Lord would have the congregation do with him (Numbers 15:33-34). The Lord gave His judgment to Moses, “The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp” (Numbers 15:35). Israel followed through with this command (Numbers 15:36).
This punishment may seem harsh, but it was not as if the man did not know what God had said. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt and were used to obeying or being punished strictly. For this man to blatantly disrespect the Lord and His plain command was to shake his fist at God. All of Israel learned a lesson. God then instructed them to remember to keep His commandments by makings fringes or tassels on their garments (Numbers 15:37-41). God’s word should be respected. He has magnified His word above His name (Psalm 138:2). While we are no longer under the law of Moses with its Sabbath command (Colossians 2:14-16), we should not refuse the word of Christ (Hebrews 12:24-25). If today we see ourselves becoming apathetic toward God’s commands let us remember to ask ourselves, “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:28-29).
-Mark Day