“Now therefore why do you test out God, that you should put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?”
Now if God had done this freely for these Gentiles without demanding circumcision, who were they to demand otherwise? What right had they to test out God by putting the yoke of the Law on the necks of new disciples, a yoke which had proved too much even for the Jews? In view of the fact that proselytes were seen in Judaism as having ‘the yoke of the Law' put on them this was significant.
By speaking of ‘the yoke of the law' the Jews were not, of course, intending to indicate something too heavy to bear. To them it was a yoke of guidance as they marched in step with the law, and therefore a blessing from God, although many did within their hearts in fact find it too heavy. It is typical of Peter's forthrightness, which we may be certain was not appreciated by all, that he brought out openly what others felt in their hearts.
‘Why do you test out God?' The idea here may be:
1) To ask them who they thought that they were to put God on trial?
2) To ask them who they were to put God to the test by requiring the Gentiles to walk under the whole yoke of the Law with its many added requirements according to the traditions of the elders, when they were not all necessary. He was saying that to make such demands on them, when Israel themselves had failed to maintain these demands satisfactorily and indeed found them in many cases too heavy a burden, even though they had been brought up to them, was surely testing God beyond reasonable limits. It was forcing God to follow their dictates. It was making God's salvation depend on their ability to keep the Law as interpreted by man, thus challenging God to give them the extra that would enable them to achieve what were unnecessary requirements, and making Him responsible if they failed.
3) It includes the danger of distrusting His guidance and going against His revealed will, with a view to seeing what He would do about it (compare Exodus 17:7; Psa 95:9-11; 1 Corinthians 10:9; Hebrews 3:9).
‘Taking on the yoke' was in fact precisely what Jewish proselytes were described as doing when they ritually bathed themselves and were circumcised.