What Jehovah Is Really Asking

Through the prophet Isaiah, Jehovah said:  "I have had enough of whole burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed animals; and in the blood of young bulls and male lambs and he-goats I have taken  I have taken no delight." (Isaiah 1:10, 11) Why was God displeased with offerings that he himself had called for in the Law?  (Leviticus 1:1-4:35) Because the people treated him disrespectfully. Therefore, they were admonished:   "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the badness of your dealings from in front of my eyes; cease to do bad. Learn to do good; search for justice; set right the oppressor; render judgment for the fatherless boy; plead the cause of the widow." (Isaiah 1:16, 17) Does this not help  us to appreciate what Jehovah wants from his servants?

Jesus showed what God really wants. He did so when he was asked the question, "Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied:  "You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.'  This is the greatest and first commandment. The second, like it, is this, 'You must love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets."  (Matthew 22:36-40; Leviticus 19:18; Deuteronomy 6:4-6)  The prophet Moses made the same point when he asked:  "What is Jehovah your God asking of you but to fear Jehovah your God, so as to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve Jehovah you God with all your heart and all your soul; to keep the commandments of Jehovah and his statutes?" -Deuteronomy 10:12, 13; 15:7, 8.  

Despite their wrongdoing, the Israelites wanted to appear holy.  Though the Law required fasting only on the annual Atonement Day, they began to fast often.  (Leviticus 16:30, 31)  But Jehovah rebuked them, saying: "Is not this the fast that I choose?  To loosen the fetters of wickedness, to release the bands of the yoke bar, and to send away the crushed ones free, and that you people should tear in two every yoke bar?  Is it not the dividing of your bread out to the hungry one, and that you should bring the afflicted , homeless people into your house?  That, in case you should see someone naked, you must cover him, and that you should not hide yourself from your own flesh?" -Isaiah 58:3, 7. 

Those self-righteous Israelites  had a problem similar to that of the religious hypocrites to whom Jesus said:  "You give the tenth of the mint and the dill and the cumin, but you have disregarded the weightier matters of the Law, namely, justice and mercy and faithfulness.  These things it was binding to do, yet not to disregard  the other things."  (Matthew 23:23; Leviticus 27:30) Do not Jesus' words help us to appreciate what Jehovah really wants  from us? 

To clarify what Jehovah does and does not require of us, God's prophet Micah asked;  "With what shall I confront Jehovah?  What what shall I bow myself to God on high? Shall I confront him with the whole burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  Will  Jehovah be pleased  with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of torrents of oil?  Shall I give my firstborn son for my revolt, the fruitage of my belly for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O earthling man, what is good.  And what is Jehovah asking back from you but to exercise justice and to love kindness and to be modest in walking with your God?" -Micah 6:6-8. 

So, then, what did Jehovah particularly require of those who lived under the Law?   Of course, they were to love Jehovah God. Furthermore, the apostle Paul said;  "The entire Law stands fulfilled in one saying, namely:  "You must love your neighbor as yourself.' " (Galatians 5:14) Similarly, Paul told Christians in Rome:  "He that loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. . . .Love is the law's fulfillment." -Romans 13:8-10. 

Next time: It Is Not Too Much

From the Watchtower magazine, 1999