Honouring and remembering the Lord

Text Numbers 15:32-41 Time 08/07/12 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church

We have now looked at most of Numbers 15 but we still have verses 32-41 to look at where we find two things that in different ways are not easy to look at and see what relevance they have to our lives today.

In the first section (32-36) a man is found deliberately desecrating the Sabbath by collecting firewood. The people are unsure what should be done to him at first but God directs that the man should be stoned to death, which is what happened.

The other section (37-41) is a ceremonial instruction about wearing tassels on the corners of their clothing. You will often see Jews with tassels hanging out. Often when I see them I think to myself Jesus must have worn them too. The idea is to remind them of God's laws.

The passages themselves are fairly straightforward. The question for us, of course, is what to do about them. Should we be putting Sabbath breakers to death or perhaps something less severe? Should we be wearing tassels on the corners of our clothing?

As we have often said before, this is the Old Testament law for God's people and now Jesus has come and brought in the new covenant in his blood then many things have changed. It would be foolish then to jump to conclusions about why God wants us to know these passages. Rather, we need to consider carefully what is said and how it applies today.

So let's look at the two sections and ask both what happened and what that has to teach us.

1. The ancient Sabbath and honouring the Lord

The context of verses 32-36 is important. In verses 30 and 31 we read these words, following on from what is said about dealing with inadvertent or unintended sins, But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or foreigner, blasphemes the LORD and must be cut off from the people of Israel. Because they have despised the LORD's word and broken his commands, they must surely be cut off; their guilt remains on them. What we read in verses 32-36 appears to be an example of this law being put into practice. What happens is that

While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him.

It is a Saturday then, the day of the Jewish Sabbath, the day when there was no manna, a double supply having fallen the day before. Nevertheless one man decides to go out and search for firewood. He cannot have not realised it was the Sabbath. This must have been deliberate. In Exodus 35:2, 3 God specifically says

For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death. Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.

As for what to do to a deliberate Sabbath breaker the law was again quite clear. In Exodus 31:14-17 God says

Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death. The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

The only doubt was over exactly how this should be done. Perhaps this was the first time such a thing had happened and so there was some hesitancy. In verses 35 and 36 it is made quite clear what must be done.

Then the LORD said to Moses, The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp. So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses.

The incident shocks us a little as in modern terms it sounds a little harsh. A man gets up one Sunday morning and decides to go to Sainsbury's or Tesco and buy a box of matches or some firelighters. He is arrested by the police and hanged the next day.

However, that is not really a perfect match. For a start, it is not as though a Sabbath in the desert was much like any other day or as though the man had to jostle with many others looking for firewood that day. He also knew that death was decreed for Sabbath breaking. Further, as we have seen, there was no forgiveness for deliberate sins under the old covenant and stoning was expected.

Then there is the fact that the Sabbath was a gift to Israel and one of the things that was meant to set them apart from other peoples as God's chosen.

Therefore, in modern terms it is not simply a man getting up one Sunday morning and deciding to go to Sainsbury's or Tesco to buy matches or firelighters but using those matches to burn a portrait of the queen and making hate speeches against her, against the country and its leaders and calling for people to rise up against the current regime. Even then the new covenant would not necessarily call for his death.

Further, there is no real detail in the New Testament about exactly how to keep the Sabbath. Buying matches is probably wrong unless one is doing it out of necessity or in connection with some act of piety or charity, when it certainly would not be wrong.

So the thing to learn here is to be thankful for the New Testament Sabbath, the Lord's Day, the day over which he continues to preside. Rather than wasting the day on things that are either wrong or questionable, be determined to give the day over as far as possible to honouring God and worshipping him. This is one way to really honour God and to grow in grace. One reason that we have two services on the Lord's Day is to help us keep the whole day to the Lord.

2. Ancient tassels and remembering the Lord

In verses 37-41 we read how the LORD spoke to Moses and told him to

speak to the Israelites and say to them: Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD your God.

Having spoken of breaking commands inadvertently or on purpose God now speaks of how to remind oneself not to do such things. This was one fairly simple way the Israelites were able to honour the Lord. It meant that they had a constant, conscious reminder of God's commands before them. Every time they saw the tassels it would remind them of God's commands and the need to obey them. Like the single blue cord, they were to be different to others and serve the Lord, the God of heaven above, where the blue sky is seen. Wearing such clothing made them different in itself, of course. (The Jews later declared that even the blind were to wear tassels for the sake of others). The Pharisees, of course, later made the whole thing a source of sin as they made the tassels on their garments long.

Now under the new covenant in Christ although we are under an obligation to set one day in seven apart to God we are not under any obligation to wear tassels on our clothes. This is because in Christ the ceremonial and civil law has been fulfilled and it is only the moral law that continues to stand. This does not mean that we ignore the law about tassels entirely. The general point still stands and we need to find ways of reminding ourselves to keep God's commands. For most Christians that is going to be the daily reading of the Bible and prayer and similar Christian disciplines. Sometimes we can use certain items such as ornaments or pictures in the same way or songs that we sing or listen to. Whatever happens we must not forget God's commands or the need to obey them. We dare not fall into idolatry of any sort.

In John 14:26 Jesus speaks of the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, who will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. That verse applies firstly to the disciples and the commitment of Scripture to writing but it has a secondary meaning – it is a promise that the Spirit himself will help us to remember the commands of God. This does not mean that we need to make no effort but that our weak efforts will be aided by the Spirit himself.

The Lord's table of course, in which we are commanded by Jesus to remember him acts as a reminder specifically of the Lord's death and also proclaims (like tassels) his death to all. If we remember the Lord and his commands we can be sure he will always remember us.

Our God is a gracious God he offers us all kinds of helps to walk with him – the Lord's day, the memory of his Word. Let's make full use of all he has provided and serve him.