That Doesn’t Seem So Bad

By Bob Myhan

During the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites, God provided manna for their sustenance. He instructed them to gather just enough each morning for that day’s consumption for the family unit. They were not to store any up for the following day. Those who did so found that it bred worms and stank so that they could not eat it. The only exception to this was the day before the weekly Sabbath. On this day, alone, they could gather enough for two days and it would not breed worms and stink but would be edible. In fact, they were not to work at all on the Sabbath, which was the seventh day of the week. It was a day of rest in recognition of the fact that they had little rest while in bondage in Egypt. [This was background information for the following account.]

Now while the children 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 under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him. Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp."

So, as the LORD commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died. Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God." (Num. 15:32-41)

We do not know why the man was gathering sticks on the Sabbath. Perhaps he was only intending to light a fire to keep his family warm but even that, as well as working on the Sabbath, the Lord had specifically forbidden. And working on the Sabbath was already a capital offense. Whoever was guilty was to be put to death. (Ex. 31:14-15)

On two separate occasions, during the wanderings, the Israelites had no drinking water. On the first of these two occasions, God told Moses,

“Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. (Ex. 17:6)

Just as God had promised, water came out of the rock when Moses struck it. On the second such occasion, though, God did not tell Moses to strike a rock. He told him, rather,

“Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals." So Moses took the rod from before the LORD as He commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?" Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them." This was the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with the LORD, and He was hallowed among them. (Num. 20:8-13)

While God had not forbidden Moses to strike the second rock, the act was without authority from God. Because he struck the rock, instead of speaking to it as he was told, Moses was not allowed to lead the Israelites into the promised land. In this act Moses failed to sanctify the Lord in the eyes of the people.

Lastly, poor Uzzah; He meant well. His only crime, as far as we know, was touching the ark of the covenant while it was being transported on the new oxcart. And he only touched it to keep it from falling off the cart when “the oxen stumbled” (1 Chron. 13:9:10). But God had instructed the sons of Kohath that they were to transport the furnishings of the tabernacle on their shoulders. And even the Kohathites were not to “touch the holy things, lest they die” (Num. 4:15). We are not told whether Uzzah knew this, but “ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

“But,” one might insist, “it wasn’t Uzzah’s decision to carry the ark on the oxcart; it was David’s. And he, apparently, only wanted to do something nice for the Lord.” After all, the ark had been taken by the Philistines more than sixty years earlier, when the Israelites—at the behest of Eli’s sons—had taken it into battle without divine authority. David likely just thought it would be nice to bring the ark back with pomp and circumstance.

Even when God had living prophets on the earth, He did not always punish sins in such a tragic way. Nor did He constantly interfere with the day-to-day duties of the prophets, priests and kings. During the sixty plus years that the ark was not in the tabernacle, for example, the Day of Atonement could not be commemorated, because such observation involved sprinkling the blood of the atoning sacrifice on the mercy seat. And there is no indication that God ever said anything about this during that time. The Feast of Tabernacles was not kept from the time of Joshua until the return of Judah from Babylonian captivity (Neh. 8:14-18).

God clearly did not punish Israel for each instance of sin. But we can learn the same lesson from the incident with the oxcart that David learned. Afterward he said,

And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites: for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. He said to them, "You are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, you and your brethren, that you may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel to the place I have prepared for it. For because you did not do it the first time, the Lord our God broke out against us, because we did not consult Him about the proper order." (1 Chron. 15:11-13)

Not even the northern kingdom of Israel was punished immediately for going into idolatry under King Jeroboam. It was not until Elijah “prayed earnestly that it would not rain,” that God withheld the rain (James 5:17), which Moses said He would do if His people went into idolatry. After 850 false prophets were executed for their crimes at Elijah’s command, God allowed it to rain again (1 Kings 17 & 18). And He eventually allowed Israel to be destroyed by the Assyrians. Should we not conclude that God expects to be obeyed by us? And should we not obey Him even in the smallest matters? &

Commentary on Ezekiel 18

By Bob Myhan

Ezekiel 18:1-32 sounds the death knell to the doctrinal error of Total Hereditary Depravity, one of the five tenets of Calvinism. The doctrine is that man is so totally depraved—by heredity—that he could not do good if he would and would not do good if he could. This supposedly made it necessary for Unconditional Election to take place in eternity past. Ezekiel however shows that man IS able to do good.

In verses 1-2, God tells Ezekiel that Israel used a proverb to deny personal responsibility for her sins.

In verse 3, God says He intends to refute the proverb and put an end to its use.

In verse 4, God says, “all souls are mine, the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son.” Each person shall be guilty only of his own sins.

In verses 5-20, we see that each person determines his own spiritual state of life or death. No man shall be punished for the sins of his father or for the sins of his son.

In verses 21-29, we see that a wicked person can turn from his sins and live and that a righteous person can turn from his righteousness and die. He must be speaking of spiritual rather than physical life and death because a physically dead man cannot turn from his sins; it is too late.

Then, in verses 30-32, God encourages and commands Israel to repent, showing that those who need to repent have the ability to do so. Being spiritually dead does not prevent one from repenting. &