MatthewGS wrote:My post presents a modern day example of what could happen if someone were to take this passage as being the authoritative Word of God, and subsequently acted upon it. My hypothetical character kills the hypermarket employees (including the one who asks him if he needs any help) precisely because they're working on the Sabbath, and he believes God has instructed him to murder them. One employee asks him if he wants any help simply because that's what people who work in shops tend to do when someone looks suspicious! I wasn't making a point about being punished for offering to help people who work on the Sabbath.
So your hypothetical character violates God's law concerning committing murder to enforce the law concerning the Sabbath? Who gave your hypothetical person the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner?
Leviticus 19:15-18
15'You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. 16'You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the LORD.
17'You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. 18'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.
NAS
By taking the law into his own hands your hypothetical person has ignored all that God said in His law.