Then the Exalted said: {and a lesson for those who fear Allah} (Al-Baqarah 66). Meaning: for the believers; and that is because the outward aspects of these laws are all visible examples indicating inward meanings, and that He, the Exalted, has made their Inward a light by which the believers are illuminated, just as He made their Outward a fire upon the disbelievers to punish them with it.

And if it is said: Why did the Children of Israel stone the man whom they found gathering wood on the Sabbath day—and that was by the command of the Lord and Moses—with stones until he died?

Why did the Children of Israel stone the man they found gathering wood....

We say: Indeed, that is to emphasize the obligation of establishing dissimulation (Taqiyya) among the People of the Outward (Ahl al-Zahir) and not neglecting it among its people; just as the Lord Christ's rejection of it was to emphasize the obligation of rejecting belief and religious practice through it in private retreats, and that is so we may learn by their sciences and be disciplined by their manners.