Originally Posted by DBT

Presuming that the gatherer of sticks intended to take his bundle back to camp for his fire, he wasn't doing it in secret. He would have been seen returning to camp
with his load, he would know that his neighbors would see....yet he went out and did what he did....why? Perhaps because gathering sticks wasn't considered breaking
the Sabbath until the point where it was put to the test?


With the Israelites being regular offenders of breaking the Sabbath, its not unreasonable to think that others had been working on sabbaths prior,

scriipture says they didn't know what punishment to dish out to him for working on the sabbath, so they consulted the Lord.
but why?.....surely with so many offenders breaking the sabbath, they already knew what was the appropriate penalty?

which makes me think they may have been allowing many Sabbath blasphemers to skip appropriate punishment leading up to that incident.
[ie;] if stoning was the regular punishment for blasphemers, they would not need to consult the Lord, .. it would just be a par for the course
process to stone him....yet they were in two minds.

according to the Talmud (Sanhedrin 41a), it says that he was first warned by witnesses for his blasphemous actions , but he continued
collecting wood.....Thus had he stopped at the first warning , would they have shown leniency and not arrested him?


Originally Posted by TF49

Gathering wood on the Sabbath, openly and in direct and flagrant disobedience to a clear command of God.
Stick your finger up at God and expect Him to just let it go?
Nope, it doesn’t work that way.


Firstly, The matter /outcome is not entirely dependent on God.
had they decided themselves not to stone the offender, what was God going to do about it ?...come down and do the stoning Himself?

Even after consulting the Lord, the offenders fate ultimately rested in the hands of his fellow Israelites.

-Bulletproof and Waterproof don't mean Idiotproof.