And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
All Commentaries on Numbers 15:32 Go To Numbers 15
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Why was he punished just for gathering sticks? Because if the laws were obstinately despised even at the beginning, of course they would scarcely be observed afterwards. For indeed the sabbath did at the first confer many and great benefits. It made them gentle toward those of their household and humane. It taught them God’s providence and the creation, as Ezekiel says; it trained them by degrees to abstain from wickedness and disposed them to regard the things of the Spirit.
