In Exodus 35:2-3, there’s a brief mention of what happens to anyone who chooses to kindle a fire in their home on the Sabbath.
They die.
That seems intense, but the argument goes like this: If you’re gathering sticks on the Sabbath, it’s assumed you’re going to do other fire-related activities, such as cooking. This could constitute work, and work is expressly forbidden on the Sabbath.
(Not to mention the fact that simply making a fire in those days, without modern tools, would be labor-intensive by itself.)
There is a lot of disagreement as to whether or not this was a temporary injunction, or whether it was enforced in all situations or just as it pertains to future work. Kindling a fire for warmth, as the argument sometimes goes, could be okay.
Regardless, we get into a real-time application of this principle in Numbers 15:32: A man is found gathering wood on the Sabbath. What do we do?
Apparently, even Moses is slightly unsure as to the application of the law laid out in Exodus 31:14. Is it technically work? Does he die? Should there be grace?
God’s judgment is swift. In order to maintain a respect for the Sabbath, and because he directly violated the command to not work, he should be stoned for his offense. The people obey. They take him outside the camp and execute him.
Taken in context with the preceding verses, this reads like the man disobeyed God directly. It wasn’t an accident; he “defiantly” rejected God’s commandment to gather wood. Which, it appears he did.
Moreover, on the surface, this seems like an open-and-shut case. He broke the Law, so he should die.
But think about the fact that Moses went to God to specifically ask what to do in this situation. Moses only does this four times in Scripture (Num 9:6-13; 27:1-11; Leviticus 24:10-23, and here), and in each situation, God speaks back to Moses.
The mechanics of this specific story aside, I wish God would speak to me like that. I wish that when I came across an event that required “rightly dividing the Word of Truth,” I could just ask God and He would tell me in a dream.
It doesn’t happen like that…but we should still go to Him anyways.
There are all sorts of verses in the New Testament that assure us that God will hear our prayers (1 John 5:14-15) and that He will give us wisdom if we ask (James 1:5). Do we believe that?
The Bible is God’s inspired Word. It is complete (1 Timothy 4:16-17), it makes us perfect (Colossians 1:28), and it gives us all things that we need in this life (2 Peter 1:3). Anything we need to know, we can gain from studying our Bibles.
It never hurts to ask God for help, though. He may not answer us in a dream or a vision, but we should still ask. He will hear us.
In all things though, just like Moses, we should defer to Him. He is our true Guide and has the final say for our life.
