The Wood Gatherer (Part III)

The Bible has a large number of passages that just make me squirm. These bitter pills don't make me doubt my faith in God, nor question His goodness or love. But they are difficult to swallow nonetheless. In Part 1 I resolved not to deny or diminish such passages, but instead to dig for meaning and Truth.

Currently I'm struggling with Numbers 15:32-36 where God has the assembly of Israelites stone a Sabbath breaker who was collecting wood. In Part II there is good reason to believe that this man was engaging in active, intentional and defiant rebellion against God. It's clearly not a case of unintentional sin, but a man who held contempt for the Living God.

But even if we ascribe the worst intentions, the most malice, the hardest heart of rebellion to the wood gatherer, we're still faced with the stiff reality that God had this man killed. And, even more, God commanded the assembly of people to do the actual deed. This was no fire from heaven episode, supernatural plague, or hailstones cast from the hand of God. But this man died, bloody blow by blow with stones cast from the hands his tribesmen, brethren, people he travelled with. Were family members present? Close friends? How long did the people who participated keep the image of the dying man's face in their minds? Did they see him in their sleep years later?

This passage joins a Biblical pharmacy of other bitter pills that are tough to swallow:

--Nadab and Abihu (Lev 10)
--Korah and company (Num 16)
--Uzzah (1 Chron 13:9-10)
--Anybody not named "Noah" or immediately related in his time (Gen 6:5-8).

And before we broad-brush the New Testament as being the "nice part of the Bible", let's remember:

--Annanais and Saphira (Acts 5)
--Most any moment within the Great Tribulation (Revelation)
--The guy Paul delivered to Satan for the destruction of his flesh (1 Cor 5:1-5)
--Jesus teaching more about hell, eternal torment, weeping, gnashing of teeth than anybody else in the Bible.

So how do we reconcile the God who is love having wrath? Grace with judgement? Heaven with hell? Jesus the gentle Lamb of God also the coming King who will destroy his enemies with His breath?

The answer might come by thinking about what might have happened if God didn't act as He did. What if God let the sin, rebellion, and contempt go unchecked? What if the wood-gatherer went out on the Sabbath and nothing happened? Probably not much would change. For a time. But sin tends to grow, both within the heart/mind of a person and through his community. One broken law leads to another. One law breaker leads to another.

But, we might say, "Well, so what if one sin leads to another? Nobody got hurt when he gathered his sticks. Maybe even some good came out of it, because he could feed and warm his family." But the Lord instituted the Sabbath out of love and concern for his people. Think of the grace involved in dedicating a day to rest and worship. A life without rest and worship is not without consequence, both to communities and individuals. The argument is even more clear with the other commands related to living in community (lying, adultry, murder). If the Sabbath Breaker has no consequence for his sin, he's more likely to move down the list of offenses. If he goes unchecked. We know this in our lives, that sin unchecked breeds more sin. Not until we repent and the Holy Spirit convicts can we bear fruit for the Lord.

Just look at the Philistines to get a picture of sin left unchecked: immorality that stained the very earth (Lev 18:25), sacrificing their own children to the false god Molech (Lev 18:21) as a few examples.

"Well and good," we might say, "But still, isn't stoning too harsh? What about a slap on the wrist? Or a time out? Or taking away the wood-gatherers Xbox for a week?"

To me, the issue comes down to three main points:

The Wages of Sin
Romans 6:23 seems to hit the nail on the head. Not understanding the wages of sin, is to underestimate the true ugly offense of sin, the cost, the insult to a holy God. The price paid for sin is death, both in spiritual separation from God and in the physical destruction of our bodies. The price paid for sin is ruin and discord in families, marriages, between parent/child, siblings, friends. There is separation and alienation between people in any organization greater than 1 in size. The cross of Jesus is the culmination of the wages of sin. God's own Son dying for our sin. The wood-gatherer's death is not the marvel, but the norm. When a sinner dies, it is a "dog bites man" story. But the true wonder and marvel is when mercy is shown to a sinner and he is forgiven by the blood of Jesus and given new life. This is a "man bites dog" story and really worthy of wonder.

"But why wasn't the wood-gatherer shown mercy? Why wasn't God patient with him?" By understanding the passage in context, it is very likely that this wood-gatherer did experience a life of forbearance, patience with God. He was delivered from Egypt and shown miracles that should've turned any heathen to a believer. Yet he decided rebel. And his time was up. The piper must be paid, but from whose pocket? Mine? Yours? Or do we let Jesus pick up the tab for our sin?


The Holiness of God
God's hate for sin is the other side of His love for us. Because He is good, then His very nature is to squash evil. Otherwise, He would not be good. The policeman that allows the bank heist to proceed isn't a good cop. Nor the fireman who turns his back on the blazing inferno, consuming the house with his own family. When the Bible says that "God is Holy" it means that he is entirely separate and set apart from sin. There is no co-mingling. For a time God is allowing sin and evil to proceed for the sake of the salvation of the elect. But a time will come where all evil is destroyed, all unrighteous cast out, every tear wiped away, every hurt healed, even death itself will be cast in the lake of fire. And those who die without faith in the one true living God will also perish. They could not tolerate his majestic glory with the stain of sin. When we are washed clean of sin, rebellion, and evil then will be able to bask in His holiness, see His face, dwell in His full glory. But only because Jesus paid the wages of our sin by his death to satisfy the Holy God and Father.


The Name of God
Though I'm still squeamish about the "smite button" on God's remote control, the resolution of the love/wrath questions also lies in the name of God. Exodus 34:5,6,7 captures it perfectly (and is easy to remember because of the 3, 4, 5, 6, 7!). This is the passage that is commonly called the John 3:16 of the Old Testament:

Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

If the Hebrews played football back in the day, a sign with this verse would be held up behind the goal posts.

I believe that we will spend eternity learning the full meaning of His name, the depth of His character, the breadth of His love, the glory of His holiness. I pray for courage to learn about these things now in His scripture, even in a wood-gatherer.

The Wood Gatherer (Part 1)

Some passages in the Bible are bitter pills. Some are bitter pills, dipped in habenero sauce that are difficult to even sniff, let alone swallow. Numbers 15:32-36 is one of those:

While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And the Lord said to Moses, "The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.". And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.

My knee jerk reaction when I read this passage is to forget that I just read the passage. Put my hands over my ears, squeeze my eyes shut and blurt, "Nananananananana!!!!! I can't seeing anything!!!! Nanananananananan!!!!!!!!! Can't hear anything!!!!!!!!!" Or whatever the spiritual equivalent is. I like to think of God as the Good Shepherd. Not the Great Smiter. These passages are not taught in Sunday school. Not preached from the pulpit. Chances are that if they are ever mentioned, it's by some guy who is also holding a sign that says, "God hates figs." Or something.

But after reading this passage today I decided to open my eyes, take my fingers out of my ears and look at God's word closely, even if it makes me pucker.

But having set out down the path there is immediately a fork in the road and I must choose one of three routes:

Deny
Deny the validity of the Bible. Simply write off what what written, because it is such an old book and couldn't have any bearing on my life today. Conclude that the author was a sicko painting an image of a sicko deity (after all a good God wouldn't do such a bad thing). Or be generous and say that this was a mistranslation and the original text and meaning has long been lost. Or maybe the cultural gap is too great to understand the meaning back then. Or I might decide to pick and choose which parts of Scripture I like and feel comfortable with, like selecting melons from a fruit stand. Thump it, smell it, squeeze and if it feels good, toss it in the cart. All of these can be reduced to a denial of the authority and sufficiency of the Bible. But this is not an option for me, so I move on to the next.

Diminish
Reduce the importance of the passage by some trick of Xerox, hit the 25% zoom button and make it shrink in substance. So that somehow I convince myself that God didn't really command the stoning of a guy because he wanted to warm his family by the fire some Saturday, or cook his Hungry Man meal. Or maybe the author stuck a figurative tale in the midst of a historical account. Or perhaps the author was ascribing to God the actions of humans to justify his own personal guilt or shame in the murder of an innocent man. The idea is that if I get uncomfortable with a text, I won't outright deny it, but I'll shrink it down to a smaller size. So it can fit into the small cubbyhole in my small head labeled "Brian's Image of God" (with an acronym that is often not appropriate.)

Yet this option also doesn't sit well with me. So I move on to the last option:


Dig
Pick up a shovel and put in some toil and hard work to dig for the significance of the passage. Ask difficult questions, seek answers from multiple sources, starting with the Bible itself. What does the immediate context of passage indicate? Do verses adjoining before and after shed any light or give new information? Dig into the rest of the book of Numbers to see what the larger context is in the book. Dig into the historical context of the Israelites in the desert. What do the previous days, weeks, months, years and centuries say about God's character/actions as related to this wood gatherer? Dig into other books of the Bible to search for passages that deepen our understanding. Then move out of scripture to external sources: commentaries, sermons, biblical scholars. Dig into original language studies. Dig. And pray for the Spirit's guidance to teach us.

But be prepared, at the bottom of the deep hole we've dug, we'll hear the clank of a buried chest. And inside that is a treasure: the Truth. And the truth of the passage might be what our gut told us at the outset. Or the truth might force us to expand our understanding of the Almighty. But even if we don't fully understand it, we should value what was found, not diminish or deny it.

Next post in Part II, I'll try to do this very thing and dig for the truth about the stoning of a man with sticks in his hands.