Back to Business, Serious Business (15:1-41)
What do you do when facing a forty-year detour to your plans? You carry on. God continues to deal with the nation, preparing them to enter the land and helping them see how to live in such a way as to have God present and not be annihilated. We have already seen how tough the balancing act has been, being the people of a holy God, and relating to Him as a sinful nation. Holiness and sin do not mix; sin is normally destroyed in God’s presence. However, the law has been an exercise in seeing how to manage to be in God’s presence without dying. God has shown great love and mercy providing ways for sin covered and cleansed. It is very costly and very hazardous.
Aren’t we glad that the much greater cost of the Son of God has been paid and we no longer have to pay for every little (or great) infraction to be able to approach God!
Still, here in this chapter, we are reminded once again of how perilous it is to take this all lightly. A man is caught ignoring one of the laws—an easy one at that—by working on the Sabbath. The people wonder what the consequence should be, and God declares that punishment is death!
This may sound harsh, and it is. However, this was not a normal time. The wilderness wanderings were a time of serious business. Later, in the land we do not hear much of capital punishment being handed out, and it is not because the people did no sin anymore. The Old Testament is a long story of a serious God being very patient with His people. He continually calls them to repent and forgives again and again. It takes centuries before the curses prescribed in the wilderness are finally delivered. However, in the beginning, and in these forty years of wandering, the consequences are swift and serious. Too bad we never seem to learn!
Aren’t we glad that the much greater cost of the Son of God has been paid and we no longer have to pay for every little (or great) infraction to be able to approach God!
Still, here in this chapter, we are reminded once again of how perilous it is to take this all lightly. A man is caught ignoring one of the laws—an easy one at that—by working on the Sabbath. The people wonder what the consequence should be, and God declares that punishment is death!
This may sound harsh, and it is. However, this was not a normal time. The wilderness wanderings were a time of serious business. Later, in the land we do not hear much of capital punishment being handed out, and it is not because the people did no sin anymore. The Old Testament is a long story of a serious God being very patient with His people. He continually calls them to repent and forgives again and again. It takes centuries before the curses prescribed in the wilderness are finally delivered. However, in the beginning, and in these forty years of wandering, the consequences are swift and serious. Too bad we never seem to learn!
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