Starting with the man gathering sticks in the sabbath it is natural today to wonder why he was put to death. Why not banished from among the people? I don’t think the Lord would make such a harsh example just for gathering since sticks. I suspect that his disobedience was blatant – an act of defiance or rebellion that perhaps the things Moses was saying were not from God or that he had no intention of worshipping the Lord.
The other punishments of death to those who openly opposed Moses and Aaron – those who thought they should have the priesthood too – makes more sense. In that case the Lord killing those people to show His power among them and to demonstrate how serious He was about the distinct lines of authority He had outlined was more understandable.
The act of making the rod with Aaron’s name on it makes me wonder if there will be a time in this dispensation – with people calling wrongly for an expansion of who holds priesthood office – when the Lord will demonstrate that those who contend for women holding priesthood offices will see signs that the Lord intends those offices for the men and that women who seek to act in those offices do not receive of His blessing.
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