Reader wants to know why the Hebrews at Mt. Sinai weren’t “able to keep the law”

READER QUESTION:

I’ve read that the Jews and gentiles in Mt Sinai were not able to keep the law.  I know that is not true. Why would YHWH not ask them to do something that He knows that they could not do, that would be cruel.  Is the reason that they just did not want to because of their stubbornness and disbelief or what?

OUR RESPONSE:

First of all, it was the HEBREWS (which included all 12 tribes; not just the “Jews”) and any pagans who had followed Moshe out of Israel who were in the wilderness and stood at Mt. Sinai.

Secondly, God never called His Torah "law".  TORAH means, "Divine Instructions in Righteousness."  Without Torah, the world would have NO blueprint for moral, holy living. 

Why WOULDN'T a believer  - especially those people He had just liberated from Egyptian bondage - WANT to obey His Divine Instructions?  They KNEW who He was and they SAW, first-hand, the miracles He had performed - including the parting of the sea!  They had witnessed the Ten Plagues and how He had used Moshe to liberate them from Egypt...

He brought them out of Egypt and into the "desert wilderness" to TEACH them to obey and SHOW them what being "holy" entailed.

They whined and complained and rebelled because they had been snatched from their comfy homes and the good foods they were accustomed to in Egypt, and suddenly forced to live in tents and constantly move from place to place. 

It was a whole NEW life for them after 400 years in bondage.  They weren't even the original people who had been taken INTO bondage!  They were new generations who had only HEARD ABOUT YHWH and His Rules from their parents and grandparents, etc.; and suddenly,here they were, after having lost EVERYTHING they had been used to, literally going through all kinds of trials and tribulations. 

THAT'S what they were rebelling against; NOT His Divine Instructions....

YHWH never expected them (or us today) to "keep the law" (as Christians call Torah) perfectly.  Matter of fact, MOST of His Divine Rules didn't (and still don't) even apply to the regular person; they applied to the Levite Priests!

Most of those original 613 commands were for the Priests; some were only for men, and some only for women.  (As just one example, let's be realistic - why would the rules about women living "outside the camp" during menstruation apply to men?)

Today there is no Temple, and so Believers in YHWH and His Divine Messiah, Yeshua, ARE the "priests" and our BODIES are the "temple" which we are to keep holy via OBEDIENCE to those things we still CAN keep. 

WE don't have to keep all the Levitical rules because they are STILL for the Levite Priests - who will be "reinstalled" once the Third Temple is built. 

YES, His people who came out of Egypt did have a lot of rules - but none that they couldn't keep!  And today, thanks to Yeshua's atoning blood, WE have it much easier, because we don't have to kill innocent animals to offer as "sin sacrifices." 

Today, we "offer ourselves" to obedience to the things we CAN keep - such as eating only foods He considered "clean" (read all of Leviticus); and the Seventh Day Sabbath and His seven Festivals/Appointed Times, by DOING them to the best of our ability.

YHWH expected -  and still expects - people to OBEY His Divine Instructions, and to keep learning and growing in order to prepare us  for the "New Heaven and New Earth!"
If you haven't done so, I would ask you to read the Bible - every word - from cover to cover, so you can see for yourself what God expected of His people. 

And, to keep yourself from becoming more confused, please take some time, whenever you can, to read the articles on our website, all of which are designed to thoroughly EXPLAIN YHWH/Yeshua/Torah.