> Numbers 15:32-4 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.

This verse is the source of two objections:

It is objected that the use of "were" indicates a past tense time, proving that this was written after Israel left the wilderness. The word "wilderness" here, however, is midbar, meaning "desert" or "pasture". This could therefore have been written on the verge of Canaan, outside that geographical area.

It is objected that Exodus 31:15 already indicated that anyone working on the sabbath should be put to death, so that there was no reason to wonder about what ought to be done with the man.

On the contrary, Moses had to be called to determine a) whether what the man did constituted "work", and b) how he was to be killed, neither of which was specified in Exodus. The objection confuses law with the administration of the law.

Moreover, even when a law is clear, and an offense is obvious, we still bring people to trial before a judge. Christians view such strict Old Testament laws as pedagogical, fulfilled by Christ's shift toward spiritual discipline and mercy.