Murdered for Picking up Sticks

BREAKFAST BIBLE STUDY

Numbers 15:32-36 (NABRE)

2/2/25

“Christian nationalism is just fascism cloaked in religious garb” – Grace Pecker

We had a storm last night that knocked some branches from the shelterbelt into the road, so Christian and I had to go out way before sunlight to pull them back into the shelterbelt because we didn’t want anybody to have an accident. When Grace found out what we had been doing, she scrambled through her Bible, looking for some new passage for our Sunday morning breakfast Bible study.

“I guess that means I’m making breakfast,” Christian said as he pulled the eggs and bacon from the fridge.

“You did chores,” I said. “I’ll make breakfast.”

“You did chores, too,” he said. “We’ll tag team breakfast.”

“You stink at eggs and bacon, Cole,” Grace said. “Come read what I just found.”

“It’s not going to be war or sex, is it?” I asked. “I don’t like that. Jesus wouldn’t like that either. I think we should be using the Pecker Family Bible for this. Then we’d have Jesus’ notes, even though you couldn’t translate all of them yet.”

“We agreed to keep that Bible in the safe,” Christian said. “Trying to translate all of Mr. Manning’s notes was starting to drive me a little crazy.”

“I forgot,” I said. “We agreed.”

“It’s a short passage,” Grace said. “Not about war or sex.”

I read aloud so Christian could hear as he cooked. “‘While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was discovered gathering wood on the Sabbath day.’ Hey, you and I just did the same thing this morning, Christian. We picked up lots of sticks…and today is Sunday.”

“Keep reading,” Grace said.

“‘Those who caught him at it brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly. But they put him in custody, for there was no clear decision as to what should be done with him. Then the Lord said to Moses, “This man shall be put to death; let the whole community stone him outside the camp.” So the whole community led him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord had commanded Moses,’ Numbers 15:32-36.”

“What was he doing?” Grace said.

“Just picking up sticks,” I said.

“There didn’t seem to be a law against that,” Grace said.

“They had to honor the Sabbath back then,” I said.

“Aren’t we supposed to honor the Sabbath,” Grace said.

“Yeah, but…we do breakfast Bible study,” I reminded Grace. “We go to church sometimes, too, but you don’t like how they preach about Trump being the chosen one.”

“That, I am certain, is nowhere to be found in the Bible,” Christian said.

“He was just picking up sticks?” I said. “Like to make a fire or something to feed his family. He probably should have done that the night before.”

“Sabbath starts at sundown,” Christian said.

“He should have picked up sticks the day before, then,” I said. “Back then, it was important to keep the Sabbath.”

“Not today?” Grace asked.

“Thanks to Jesus.”

“But we’re supposed to follow the Ten Commandments,” Grace said.

“Yep.”

“In some states, it’s the law that the Ten Commandments get posted in public classrooms,” Grace reminded me, “so they must be pretty important.”

“Which ten of the commandments are they posting?” Christian said. 

“What do you mean?” I asked.  

“Different churches have different Ten Commandments,” Grace said.

“Really?”

“Based on what those churches think is important,” Christian said as he flipped an egg. “Catholics break the commandments down differently than most protestant churches. Catholics like their artwork, which some might call graven images. They venerate saints, which some might call idolatry.”

“The Bible is important,” I said. “The Ten Commandments are important.”

“So, that being said, the man wasn’t keeping the Sabbath, and the Lord commanded his death,” Grace said. “What do you think of that?”

“Um.”

“Does that seem a little excessive?” Grace asked.

“Jesus hadn’t come yet,” I said.

“So…Jesus wouldn’t have approved of the Lord’s command?” Grace said.

“I don’t know.”

“Does it seem right to you about what the people did?” Grace said. “They killed that man for picking up sticks.”

“The Lord commanded it,” I said.

“According to Moses,” Christian said.

“God told Moses,” I said.

“So…aside from the fact that you believe Jesus is God, if someone today told you that God was telling them to do immoral things?” Grace asked.

“Like Kit Wheeler?” I said. “He was crazy. He only thought he heard God.”

“Maybe Moses was crazy,” Christian said.

“So…you agree the man deserved to die?” Grace said.

“Um.”

“What if his family was cold or hungry?” Grace said.

“Um,” I said. “They were in the desert.”

“The desert gets cold at night,” Grace said. “You know that.”

“In some parts of the world, people still get killed by stoning,” Christian said.

“For picking up sticks?” I asked.

“For blasphemy,” Christian said. “For accusations of sexual immorality. Girls have been killed for just going to school. The people doing the killing believe they’re following God’s law.”

“Like the people who killed the man picking up sticks?” I said.

“Quite like that,” Christian said.

“Would this be a good passage to teach in American public schools?” Grace asked.

“Jesus said it was okay for his disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath,” I said.

“So public teachers should teach that instead of the story about the stoning?” Grace asked. “So…the New Testament is okay, but the Old Testament is not.”

“Not these bad passages,” I said.

“What about Jewish kids who only have the Old Testament as their Bible?” Christian said. “Is it fair they have to read from the New Testament?”

“The Bible is for everyone,” I said. “See, but if kids thought that stoning people for picking up sticks was what God really meant and not a copyist error like I think it is, they might even stone me and Christian for picking up sticks like we had to do this morning so that nobody would get hurt out on the road. So…maybe someone should tell teachers not to teach certain passages. That’s what I think.”

“Cole, if I’m a teacher, who gets to decide what I can and can’t teach from the Bible?” Grace asked. “What if I’m a Buddhist? We do have Buddhist teachers in this country.”

“You shouldn’t teach kids to throw rocks at people no matter what you are,” I said.

“So…you want some of the Bible banned?” Christian asked. “Who gets to decide that?”

“This is one of the many problems with forcing public teachers to be preachers,” Grace said. “If parents want religious indoctrination, they can send their kids to private schools.”

“Or home school,” Christian said.

“I don’t like this. Can’t we do one about Jesus? It won’t have any of the stuff about killing people. He preached love.”

“You got it,” Christian said. “A passage about Jesus next week.”

In state legislatures across the country, Christian fundamentalists are passing laws meant to force the teaching of the Christian Bible in public schools. From the posting of textually inaccurate iterations of the Ten Commandments on the walls of classrooms to the incorporation of the “Trump Bible” across multiple pedagogical disciplines, these laws and mandates are sweeping the reddest parts of this nation.

The height of hypocrisy is banning books in the name of “protecting children” while mandating one particular book rife with numerous acts of sexual violence and scenes of graphic violence and genocide.

Book bans are dangerous. The Bible is worth reading and exists online and in public school libraries across the country, but proponents of mandating its formal teaching in public schools need to know what the Bible actually says.

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