"....this remarkable case were evidently designed to be illustrated by it. It is manifest, therefore, that this was an instance of presumptuous sin, in which the transgressor intended despite to the Spirit of grace and to the statutes of the Most High. 
---This case cannot therefore be quoted as evidence of extraordinary strictness on the part of the Hebrews in observing the Sabbath;
---for we have direct evidence that they did greatly pollute it during the whole forty years of their sojourn in the wilderness.
---It stands therefore as an instance of transgression in which the sinner intended to show his contempt for the Law-giver, and in this consisted his peculiar guilt.
Hengstenberg, a distinguished German Anti-Sabbatarian, thus candidly treats this text: "A man who had gathered wood on the Sabbath is brought forth at the command of the Lord, and stoned by the whole congregation before the camp.
Calvin says rightly, `The guilty man did not fall through error, but through gross contempt of the law, so that he treated it as a light matter to overthrow and destroy all that is holy.'
It is evident from the manner of its introduction that the account is not given with any reference to its chronological position; it reads, `And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day.' It stands simply as an example of the presumptuous breach of the law, of which the preceding verses speak. He was one who despised the word of the Lord and broke his commandments [verse 31]; one who with a high hand sinned and reproached the Lord. Verse 30." - The Lord's Day, pp. 31, 32."
J.N. Andrews