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Let's look at the alleged contradiction from a chronological perspective now:
The alleged contradiction (with it's inserted moral conclusions in that do not reference any moral code) is:



1. God created the world and Instituted a Sabbath day of rest and sanctification Gen.22,3

2. God through Moses gave laws regarding the observance of the Sabbath to uphold the creation institution.
a. The Sabbath was one of the Ten Commandments -- a mandatory day of rest and spiritual focus for every living thing in the nation: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter,
your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is
in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Ex 20:8–11).

The whole congregation was gathered together and the law and the death penalty were stated: Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them,
“These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do.Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD.
Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. (Ex 35:1–2).


No fires were to be kindled in the home: You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.” (Ex 35:3). This obviously means that you would not be
gathering sticks for a fire.

No cooking was allowed from evening to evening--the family had to prepare their food the day before, for everyone to be able to remember God's goodness and to enjoy the
creative fruits of the week before (as God did on the original Sabbath): On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the
congregation came and told Moses, 23 he said to them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD; bake what you
will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’ ” 24 So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not
stink, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the
seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.” (Ex 16:22–26).

No food gathering was allowed and no one was supposed to be outside their dwelling (for work): The LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you
bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day. (Ex 16:29–30).

3. The Sabbath observance is given as the central sign of the covenant relationship between God and Israel.
And the LORD said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you. (Ex 31:12–13; cf Ezek 20.12: Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them. )

5. To violate this central mandate was a capital offense (stated over and over and over): You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. (Ex 31:14–16).


6. So the man who gathers sticks knows about the laws of the Sabbath and the death penalty related to breaking it. He deliberately broke it a way to flaunt each of the precepts regarding the Sabbath: a.) he went out when he was to remain inside, b.) he gathered sticks for a fire which he was not to make c.) he intended to cook a meal d.) he was showing blatant disregard for what everyone knew and practiced and what he knew was important to their faith and practice. d.) ultimately he was rejecting God and God's people and the established sign of their relationship.

Essentially it was an act of "Yea I know about all the laws and death penalty but I am going to do it any way cause you don't scare me none, so whatchya gonna do about it if I go ahead and break every Sabbath law."

7. Some Israelites had already broken the Sabbath institution before it became a law by going out to try to find manna on the Sabbath day. God had told them they would only get manna 6 days and their going out was not only disobedience but it wasn't trusting the fact that there would be no food to gather on Sabbath day. He reproved the people and punished no one. The people went back to the Sabbath observance. (Ex. 16:21-30.) The laws of the Sabbath were then enacted as noted above.

8. Additionally there was an overarching principle that if anyone did anything for the sole purpose of showing deliberate rejection and profanation of the laws of God they were to be put to death. This was treated as a mutinous and traitorous act.
But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 31 Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.” (Numbers 15:30-31)

9. The congregation discovered the man and brought him to the Lord asking how he should be put to death. The community agreed that this man deserved death and they wanted to know from God how to do it. Stoning was chosen because it would be a corporate punishment and corporate example. (Numbers 15).

10. In looking back at all this history of Israel the Psalmist writes in Psalm 145 the following:

One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible (or awesome) acts: and I will declare thy greatness.

The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works

So the Psalmist in recalling the goodness and mercy of God in the past is also including all His works and all His terrible/awesome acts. He is writing after the kingdom is established and prosperous and is looking back at their history. Rather than seeing the punishment of the man on the sabbath as a contradiction to God's mercy He saw it as a demonstration of God's mercy in giving them laws and order which helped to keep them a stable and God-fearing society and purging them from mutinous traitors.

To say that there is contradiction here is completely untenable because the author deliberately included this act in His praise of God's mercy and care for them--when He said his tender mercies are over all his works. In a situation like this God's mercy is extended to the corporate group by purging the high handed sinner who simply would find another opportunity to do it again and probably influence others the same. This should not be a hard to understand as a principle.