The Israelites in the Wilderness: Part IV

Numbers 15

Your parents give you rules, don’t they? Maybe they tell you not to touch the expensive organ in the living room, or not to get in your dad’s desk, or not to touch the china figurines. Your teachers have rules, too, such as no running in the halls or no talking without raising your hand. The city has laws, too, such as no dumping garbage in the streets and no speeding.

Did God give us rules, too? Yes, He gave us the Ten Commandments! They tell us not to kill, not to steal, to honor our father and mother, and other things.

The Israelites had the same Ten Commandments as we have, because God was the same God then as He is now. But now listen, something terrible had happened. One of the Israelites had not obeyed God. He had done something God had said not to do. He had broken one of the Ten Commandments.

What had this man done? Had he killed another man? Had he stolen some money?

No, this man had worked on the Sabbath, which is like our Sunday. He had gone outside his tent to pick up sticks. Probably he needed a fire to cook some food, and so he had gone out to gather sticks.

What? you say. Is that all he did? Was that SO terrible? Sure, you say, it was wrong, but really it was only a “little” sin. Don’t we “forget” and do little wrong things like that, too, sometimes?

No, it is wrong to think that way. Any sin is a sin. There are no “little sins.” All sins are awful in the sight of a holy God. And ALL sins must and will be punished.

The Israelites did not know what to do with this man who had gathered sticks, so they asked God. And God said that the man must be stoned.

When the Israelites stoned someone, all the people had to come together and throw stones and rocks at him until he died. And that is what happened to this man, too. Soon he died, as a punishment for breaking one of God’s commandments.

Wasn’t that a terrible way to die? Does God want such a punishment every time His law is disobeyed? No, He does not. He wanted to show the people of Israel the seriousness of sin. Sometimes God does not punish us while we are alive. If He doesn’t, then — if our sins have not been forgiven — He will certainly punish us AFTER we die. God told the children of Israel never to forget His commandments. He told them once, and then again, “I am the Lord your God...I am the Lord your God.” May we also never forget this!

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