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 we 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 11:31-36; 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 Hasting, notes:  "Every biblical commandment was surrounded  by an 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 men, 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, 24-26) Even before Jesus was on earth, though, religious teachings in Israel were misrepresenting what Jehovah really requires. 

Next time: What Jehovah is Really Asking

From the Watchtower magazine, 1999