Numbers 15
ECFNumbers 15:20
Ambrose of Milan: The holy movements of our senses, which are according to virtues, themselves are the firstfruits of a spiritual ark: therefore they are likened to a rural ark, in which the corn is winnowed. For just as wheat and barley are separated from the chaff when threshed in this rural area and, as they are repeatedly winnowed, the chaff and other impurities of the harvest are scattered by the gentle breath of the air in different directions, but those which are more solid fall back into the same place after the dust is shaken out, so the fruits of our thoughts, which are solid and excellent, present a pure and sincere nourishment of virtue, as it is written: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” — On Cain and Abel
Numbers 15:32
Basil of Caesarea: I find, in taking up the Holy Scripture, that in the Old and New Testament stubbornness toward God is clearly condemned not in consideration of the number or heinousness of transgressions but in terms of a single violation of any precept whatsoever, and, further, that the judgment of God covers all forms of disobedience. In the Old Testament, I read of the frightful end of Achar and the account of the man who gathered wood on the sabbath day. Neither of these men was guilty of any other offense against God, nor had they wronged others in any way, small or great. But the one, merely for his first gathering of wood, paid the inescapable penalty and did not have an opportunity to make amends. By the command of God, he was forthwith stoned by all his people. — PREFACE ON THE JUDGMENT OF GOD 15.32-36
John Cassian: We have in fact noticed that even for less serious faults some people have suffered the very sentence of death by which those who we said were the authors of sacrilegious prevarication were also punished. This happened in the case of the man who had been collecting wood on the sabbath, as well as in that of Ananias and Sapphira, who by their misguided faithlessness kept back a little bit of their property. It is not that these sins were equally grave but that when these persons had been found committing a new offense, they had to furnish a kind of example to others of the penalty and terror of sinfulness. Thus, from then on, whoever was tempted to do the same thing would know that at the future judgment he would receive the same condemnation as the others, even if in this life his punishment was deferred. — CONFERENCE 6.11.11
John Chrysostom: 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. — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF Matthew 39.3
John Chrysostom: The law, if it arrests a murderer, puts him to death. The gospel, if it arrests a murderer, enlightens and gives him life. And why do I cite a murderer? The law laid hold on one that gathered sticks on a sabbath day and stoned him. This is the stark import of “the letter kills.” — HOMILIES ON 2 CORINTHIANS 6.2
Salvian the Presbyter: When a man of the Israelite community gathered wood on the sabbath, he was killed, and this by the judgment and order of God, a judge most loving and merciful and who doubtless preferred to spare rather than kill him if the reason for severity had not overcome the reason for mercy. One man who was more unmindful perished, lest many be undone afterwards through lack of caution. — THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 6.10.55
Numbers 15:38
Richard Challoner: Fringes: The Pharisees enlarged these fringes through hypocrisy, Matt. 23. 5, to appear more zealous than other men for the law of God.