Was Jehovah's Law Burdensome?

Though the Law was "holy and righteous and good,"  many considered  it burdensome.  (Romans 7:12) Because the Law was perfect, the Israelites could not meet its high standard.  (Psalm 19:7) That is why the apostle Peter called it "a yoke that neither our forefathers nor were capable of bearing."  (Acts 15:10)  Of course, the Law itself was not burdensome, and obeying it benefited the people.

Under the Law, for example, a thief was not imprisoned but had to work to pay double or more to cover what he had stolen.  The victim thus suffered no loss, nor was a burden imposed upon hardworking people to support a prison system.  (Exodus 22:1, 3, 4, 7) Unsafe foods were prohibited.  Pork, if not cooked well, can carry trichinosis, and rabbit can carry tularemia. (Leviticus 11:4-12)  Similarly, the Law was a protection by forbidding the handling of carcasses.  If a person touched a corpse, he was required  to wash himself as well as his garments.  (Leviticus 112:31-36; Numbers 19: 11-22)  Excrement was to be buried,protecting the people against the spread of germs, the existence of which was discovered by scientists only in recent centuries. - Deuteronomy 23:13.

The Law did not ask too much of the people.  But the same cannot be said of men who assumed the role of interpreters of the Law.  Regarding the rules they imposed, A Dictionary of the Bible, edited by James Hastings, notes:  "Every biblical commandment was surrounded by a network of petty regulations. . . .An attempt was thus made to bring every conceivable case within the scope of the Law, and with merciless logic to regulate the whole of human conduct by strict  rule of thumb. . .The voice of conscience was stifled; the living power of the Divine word was neutralized and smothered beneath a mass of external rules."

Jesus Christ denounced religious leaders who imposed a mass of rules saying:  "They bind up heavy loads and put them upon the shoulders of me, but they themselves are not willing to budge them with their finger."  (Matthew 23:2, 4)  He  pointed out that their burdensome man-made rules and traditions, including elaborate cleansings, made "the word of God invalid."  (Mark 7:1-13; Matthew 23:13, 24-26) Even before Jesus was on earth, though, religious teachers in Israel were misrepresenting what Jehovah really requires. 

Next time: What Jehovah Is Really Asking

The Watchtower, 1999