The observance of the seventh-day Sabbath of the creation week was obligatory in the wilderness as in the Holy Land (Ex. 16:27-30), with death as the penalty for profanation (Ex. 31:14, 15; 35:2). In the wilderness, with its warm climate, fires were unnecessary for health, and were not to be lighted on the Sabbath (see on Ex. 16:23; 35:3). This man’s act was clearly presumptuous, thereforean illustration of the type of sin spoken of in Num. 15:30.